Militancy may have declined but the Pakistani infiltration machinery is working overtime — this time in the form of state and satellite television channels. But Pakistan may be losing this information tug-of-war in Kashmir.For, apart from a section of the population that is attracted to the religious programmes on some of these Pakistani channels, most Kashmiris prefer to watch what the rest of India loves watching — reality shows, weepy soaps and news networks. Pakistani channels have a distinct presence of their own and are a part, albeit peripheral, of the Valley’s uneasy political narrative. For example, even though there has never been any government directive for their closure, the shutdown of Pakistani networks even by a technical fault stirs serious opposition. And it’s not just PTV. Kashmiris watch an assortment of Pakistani satellite channels: ARY, Geo TV, Aaj, QTV, Dawn News, Musik. But if the channels are a window to Pakistan, Kashmiris see a rather complicated picture. For one, the news channels have not been a good advertisement for the country. The images of turbulence and violence have upset the Kashmiri viewer’s idealised view of the country as an El Dorado, whose forbidden allure has traditionally fuelled the secessionist movement in the state. The Lal Masjid siege, declaration of emergency followed by violent protests, suicide bombings and Benazir Bhutto’s assassination have profiled a Pakistan that Kashmiris have still to come to terms with. Political analyst Professor Gul Muhammad Wani agrees that the channels have broken many a myth about Pakistan. “It has changed the traditional Kashmiri notion of Pakistan being god’s own country. It has brought them in touch with reality,” says Wani, who is the only person in his house who watches PTV. “The new Kashmiri opinion about Pakistan will not be based on ignorance or the popular imagination.” The channels, says Wani, have also swamped Kashmir with the workaday discourse of Pakistan’s socio-political life. “We have moved beyond PTV. With other channels, Kashmiris, for the first time, have a chance to tune into other submerged layers of Pakistan’s discourse. So you have a heterogeneous society hemmed in by its own anxieties and disaffection with the establishment and the institutions. You have a country debating the 1971 debacle and the threats to integrity due to political and religious violence. And then we find that Kashmir is not necessarily always at the centre of things in the country — unlike what we always assumed,” says Wani. The unhindered broadcast of Pakistani channels is also seen as an “unwitting confidence building measure” between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, in tune with the new “borders are irrelevant” theme of Indo-Pak dialogue. “In a situation where opening of crossing points on the LoC has proved a non-starter, TV channels have reduced the mental distance and bridged the huge sense of divide,” says the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. In 2005, the Mirwaiz travelled to Pakistan through the re-opened Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, so far the biggest Kashmir-centric CBM between India and Pakistan. Now, how far this cross-border broadcast will influence and modify the perception of Pakistan remains to be seen. “We may be in for some overhaul in our collective approach towards Kashmir’s troubled political legacy. We are also in for a sort of competition of narratives,” says Wani, adding that globalisation has added its own dimensions to the problem by bringing in a vastly large context. In this changed framework, the new media glasnost has, for once, helped bring forth the real Pakistan, shorn of its religious aura and political postures. express@expressindia.com
