Believing in the basic principles of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist of Germany during Adolf Hitler’s tenure, Pakistan has proved even him a dwarf in the art of low degree malicious and mischievous propaganda . It is this propaganda laced with hate and religious fanaticism, that Pakistan has misled and exploited many Kashmiri youth for spreading violence and mayhem to suit its nefarious ends. This propaganda , that country is making through many modes and ways but chiefly through its TV Channels. How to counter that propaganda has been on the priority of the Government for decades itself but so far an effective mechanism could not be evolved excepting some rebuttal sometimes, that too, based on facts and figures but all in a way, a modern civilized developed country could possibly do. The Union Government, however, has now come out with a concrete proposal, that of distributing 30000 Set Top Boxes (STBs) of Doordarshan under the Free Dish Scheme among the people living in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Strengthening and expanding Doordarshan’s television coverage in the border areas of the country with strong TV signalling system has been on the cards for long and now it is a matter of some satisfaction that the Union Home Ministry as also Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in tandem, are taking steps towards this end with intent to effectively counter propaganda mill or the malicious and perverted anti India programmes telecast through TV channels of Pakistan which are visibly and clearly received on TV signalling in border areas of this country. Large numbers of TV transmitters of varying power are, now functioning in the border areas on account of special schemes for expansion and improvements in the services of the Doordarshan.
What about those areas which are not covered by terrestrial transmissions and where home transmissions are heckled or weakened by the Pakistani network, must be resolved to make the idea meaningful and effective. We have learnt that the Central Government has decided to provide multi channel TV coverage through Doordarshan’s Free to Air DTH service. DD Free Dish Signals have added advantage in that the signals can be received anywhere in the country including border areas with the help of small size dish receiver units called Set Top Boxes.
To obfuscate the problem of price affordability, the Government has decided not to levy any charges whatsoever from the beneficiaries in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the same has been communicated to the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. We, however, feel that only by telecasting cultural, social and entertaining programmes through Doordarshan with a view to keep the border audience away from watching otherwise easily available signalling system from across the border, there should be programmes , debates and other stories telecast from Doordarshan to effectively counter the malicious and mischievous propaganda from hostile Pakistan. In fact, it has been an avowed policy of that country against India ever since its birth in August 1947 .
We wish these Set Top Boxes to be distributed smoothly and without any hassles among the border dwellers so that they can view all channels of Doordarshan including DD Kashir and DD Jammu. Most of the channels, we understand, are free of cost and the same needs to be widely made aware among the beneficiaries of the STBs. District Administrations have got to play an important role in the sensitive matter under reference.
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