The British public broadcaster, the BBC on Thursday announced that it will expand short wave radio news coverage in Kashmir in a bid to sidestep the restrictions placed in the valley by the Indian administration.
“Given the shutdown of digital services and phone lines in the region, its right for us to try and increase the provision of news on our short wave radio services,” BBC World Service Director Jamie Angus said in a statement. This announcement by the BBC comes at a time when the British broadcaster is under fire for its skewed and controversial reporting on sensitive issues.
Earlier in an ‘exclusive video’ released by the BBC it had claimed the Indian security forces had fired on protesters. However ground situation was totally contrary to what BBC had projected. As a matter of fact, verified official reports had clearly dismissed any incident of firing and also refuted the claims of large scale protests in the region.
The BBC witnessed tear gas being used to disperse the largest protest since a lockdown was imposed in Indian-administered Kashmir – a protest the Indian government said didn’t happen
[Tap to expand] https://t.co/lPudV9uez3 pic.twitter.com/aUhwWRkqme
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 10, 2019
The video released by BBC is a compilation of smaller clips seemingly in different climatic conditions and possibly even different geographical regions, moreover in the video several protesters can also be seen waving flags of terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad. These types of protests by radicals and terror organizations are routine in the regions of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, referred to by Pakistan as Azad Kashmir.
SP Pani , IGP Kashmir had also refuted these media reports and conclusively laid out the ground realities and said, “This is to clarify some international media reports regarding firing incidents in the valley, they are wrong, no such incident has taken place. Valley has remained largely peaceful over last 1 week”
#WATCH SP Pani, IGP Kashmir denies media reports of police firing in Kashmir says,"This is to clarify some international media reports regarding firing incidents in the valley,they are wrong, no such incident has taken place. Valley has remained largely peaceful over last 1 week" pic.twitter.com/aF0SSMoIG2
— ANI (@ANI) August 10, 2019
If @BBCNews considers #ZakirMusa fanboys representative of Kashmir, then it clearly has no idea what’s going in this part of the world. Shame on BBC for running al-Qaida propaganda in Indian Kashmir. PM @narendramodi @DrSJaishankar must take it up with @BorisJohnson Johnson govt. https://t.co/wFv1McJych
— Aarti Tikoo (@AartiTikoo) August 10, 2019
Now this announcement by the BBC surely reeks of ulterior agendas against maintaining peace and security in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. Nonetheless BBC’s anti-India agenda has not been hidden, and for long BBC has indulged in denigrating tactics against India.
Earlier a documentary made by a BBC filmmaker Leslee Udwin, titled “India’s Daughter.” came under fire. Critics claimed that the documentary instead of highlighting and spreading awareness about crimes against women was only a meek attempt to shame Indians and reinforce the inferiority imperialistic mindset.
Moreover, BBC was also called for propagating a fake video of child labour from Bangalore. However, after extensive complaints and pressure, BBC had shamelessly admitted that the child labour footage was not genuine.
Foreign anti-India media establishment in India has been infamous at aiding nefarious foreign propaganda to undermine peace and prosperity in the region. While these skewed attempts continue to hurt India’s interests both internal and geo-political, authorities should surely take on these attempts to keep a check on such activities where ulterior motives over power ethics and sensitivity.
Moreover with AIR already functioning in the region, hindrance by foreign propaganda organizations like the BBC is surely shameful and unnecessary; while UK faces a major radical fundamental islamist concern, BBC will be surely making a real impact if it tries to spread the awareness about this issue among the people of UK rather than meddling with peace and security of India.
