The countdown to DD World Service

At the moment their hearts are in Kargil. After all, most of the officers and men under the leadership of Col. G.S. Batabyal of the Fourt...

At the moment their hearts are in Kargil. After all, most of the officers and men under the leadership of Col. G.S. Batabyal of the Fourth Gorkha Rifles on UN duty in Southern Lebanon have in the past served in Kashmir. But all they get on their TV screens is inexhaustible footage of NATO airstrikes on Serbia, Kosovo and the endless streams of refugees pouring into Albania and Macedonia.

Let us consider the picture at the other end. The Indian Army in Kashmir is not even aware that their own colleagues are doing the country proud in a distant land doing extraordinary duty, sandwiched between the Hizbullah and the Israeli army. Imagine our troops in Kashmir ever watching on their TV screens Indian soldiers maintaining a picket at the highest point on Mount Hermon! I was escorted to his very difficult post by Lt. Col. Dinesh Sharma, the second in command of Indbatt Indian battalion with the UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

Of course, I have made a TV film which you will soon see, butis there any hope in the foreseeable future of this kind of coverage becoming part of our routine fare on our TV bulletins?

There are formidable mechanisms in place to transmit to us whatever is high priority with, say, the CNN or the BBC. But there is no channel in place to transmit either to our viewers or to the rest of the world stories of concern to us. The agenda for that which shall be beamed on our TV screens by way of international affairs will, in the present framework, be set in Atlanta or London.

I am not for a moment arguing that we have a channel dedicated to whatever we are doing, either in India or elsewhere. Yes, we would like our own perspective on international affairs to be amplified. For example, our own international TV network 8212; DD World Service, for instance 8212; would have given us a credible channel to beam and clarify all that is happening in Kargil. Banning PTV is not the answer. Having our own credible international network is.

What we have been persuaded to regard as theglobal communications explosion is, in fact, a one-sided system of quot;theirquot; images being beamed at us. The selection of that which is of importance to us will be made by quot;themquot;. I doubt if our policymakers are even aware of the extent to which we have been opiated, drugged into becoming passive recipients of the information dole.

Do you know that every single TV image of NATO airstrikes and their consequences that you have watched on your screens, as part of your own national bulletins, has been provided either by foreign TV networks or by the concerned embassies. Not a single picture has actually been shot by any of our networks.

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After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the indication of the new world order manifested itself in the shape of the Gulf War. That war ended in March 1991; in April 1991 the BBC World Service T-V was born to be in the vanguard of this world order. The pattern for what we have witnessed during the NATO action in Kosovo was set then. There were two briefings 8212; one by the Britishfor British journalists and the other for the Americans. There were occasions when even French journalists were not allowed into these briefings.

When some of us sought visas to cover the war, we were told that the action was on Saudi soil and that we needed Saudi visas. When we turned to the Saudis, we were informed that the Americans were prosecuting the war and only they could facilitate access to any information regarding the Gulf War. Some of us, therefore, found ourselves in Baghdad when Desert Storm started.

After Desert Storm, peacekeeping operations in Somalia, Angola, Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda became major TV stories in which either Indian troops or Indian police played a significant role. Did the foreign TV networks in the vanguard of the new world order take any notice of the Indian participation? NO.

Remember the saturation coverage of American troops landing by floodlight on the beaches outside the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu 8212; the bodies of 18 American soldiers being dragged through thestreets, that hunt for Farah Aideed in the urban jungle of Mogadishu, helicopter gunships and all.

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Ironically, at about the same time I had meandered into Mogadishu from Nairobi, interviewed Aideed and his archrival Ali Mehdi, and the American ambassador to Somalia, who was full of praise for the outstanding work done by the Indian brigade under Brig. Mono Bhagat. It can be said without any exaggeration 8212; in fact, I have the American ambassador and the chief of the UN Force saying as much on video 8211; that the Indian brigade had been quot;the most effectivequot; force in Somalia.

In Angola, our troops under Brig. Saxena, our police force in Haiti and Bosnia, likewise did outstanding service in Bosnia our officers are still training the local police force. But not a word from the great quot;independentquot; western networks about the Indian contribution.

I am afraid we shall have to do it ourselves. The Prime Minister knows that launching a TV world service will have the support of all parties. Let us get on with itnow, without any delay.