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'How can we tolerate such high-handedness?'
Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, Amrut Mahotsav, Tika Utsav, Raksha Mantri...
Whether you understand the meaning of all these words or not, this is the new reality in India.
But one fine morning, when Ananthapuri FM became Vividh Bharati Malayalam, and the Malayalam programmes were replaced by Hindi programmes created in Delhi, there was an uproar in Kerala.
The first to point this out by writing an article in the Kerala Kaumudi newspaper on February 9 was K Jayakumar, former chief secretary of Kerala and founding vice-chancellor of the Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University.
After Jayakumar's article, many Malayalees started raising their voices. On March 4, a group of literary and cultural personalities including award-winning film-maker Shaji N Karun and Binoy Viswam, MP, protested outside the All India Radio's Thiruvananthapuram centre.
"I know our protest will have no impact. Did public opinion have any effect on this government?", K Jayakumar asks Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
The first of a two-part interview:
The changes that happened at Ananthapuri FM have infuriated many Malayalees including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who said it was the Centre's way of destroying the linguistic and cultural plurality of India.
As a person who first wrote on the issue, do you feel so?
I am the first person to have spoken about it. I will not answer directly your question on the CM's comments. I would like to put it in a different way.
Why are we objecting to this change? What exactly is offending us?
Malayalees, by temperament, are not against Hindi. Unlike some other states, we are very comfortable with Hindi.
Even when Ananthapuri FM was kicking, every day at 1 in the afternoon and 9 at night, they used to switch to Hindi, and we had no problem listening to Hindi.
The issue right now is not that the Hindi content has increased. Our objection is not about imposing Hindi on us.
FM radio itself is a new phenomenon. All India Radio's FM channel is appropriately named Ananthpuri FM because it is from the capital.
We also have Kochi FM, Kozhikode FM, etc.
All these FM channels have developed local contents with local flavour. So, they also had local advertisements, local news, etc.
Though not juicy or jazzy like other private FMs, Akashvani discovered an idiom which was appealing to all generations and found a niche for themselves.
It was earning revenue from advertisements too, maybe as good as the other private FM radios.
In such a situation, with no provocation and no reason, one fine day, when I tuned in, I couldn't find Ananthapuri FM.
Instead, it was Akashvani, Vividh Bharati Malayalam. With the name change, the Thiruvananthapuram flavour was gone, the Kochi flavour was gone...
I found it as I will do this, you take it attitude, a kind of one upmanship.
Of Prasar Bharati or the central government?
Absolute high-handedness of Prasar Bharati. Absolute indifference to the views and taste of the listeners.
So, what is objectionable is this high-handedness. Absolute disregard for listeners.
In the afternoon when you have your lunch, you want to listen to some songs, but now they have a programme on how to tackle stones in the urinary bladder!! We see totally inappropriate timing and no quality in the programmes.
The end result is, nobody listens to it now, and there are no ads too.
Why do you find it surprising as we see this total disregard for listeners in the way Doordarshan and AIR have been creating their programmes?
It may be so. Still, there is some kind of consultation and democracy in the local programmes though the main content is decided by Delhi.
For example, Trivandrum Doordarshan has a right to plan local content.
But in this case, there is absolutely no consultation with listeners or the local people.
I will give you an example. The main station had a programme called Literary Guru in which they call literary personalities and talk to them for an hour.
Look at the name for a Malayalam programme. I commented that the name of the programme had a bad combination of words.
He said, 'We have no authority to change it, Sir. We are instructed from Bangalore that we have to adhere to the same name'.
My question to them is, what right do they have to invade into the creative space?
I also have been an officer for several years, but I have always given space to those working under me.
You have no right to stifle the creative spark in the officers.
That's why today they just switch on the Vividh Bharati relay and keep quiet.
Another issue is, the name of the channel was Ananthapuri FM, which is the name of the capital of Kerala.
What right do these people have to remove the name Ananthapuri? Are they not ridiculing the people of Thiruvananthapuram by changing Ananthapuri FM to Vividh Bharati Malayalam?
How can we tolerate such high-handedness? What can we do except boycott the channel? That's what we are doing now. This is the only way we can protest.
I used to be a regular listener of the channel every day, and also on Sunday afternoons.
I felt disappointed and deceived when they changed everything without even informing the listeners.
Though after my article, many people have started protesting, there is no reaction from Bangalore or Delhi.
Do you think public opinion matters to these policymakers?
I don't think so. I also know that our protesting will have no impact. Did public opinion have any effect on this government so far?
I know it is a losing battle like most of the battles people had with this government. It has been a one way traffic!
Then, don't you think what the chief minister said is true; that this attitude destroys the linguistic and cultural plurality?
Absolutely. You cannot fault the inference. A public medium like radio has a lot of cultural significance.
When it has to follow centralised decision making, it shows their attitude, that we don't care about your plurality; we say and you obey.
The CM's interpretation is a correct interpretation. I cannot blame him if he has interpreted it that way. Any normal person will arrive at such an interpretation.
I didn't openly say that. After all, I am a trained bureaucrat! I say whatever I want to, but I choose not to provoke!
Many people infer this as a way of imposing Hindi on south Indians...
People cannot be faulted if they come to such inferences.
Basically, people in authority should avoid such acts which are likely to lead to such inference.
We have no problem listening to Hindi, but if they force us to listen to the language from this time to that time, we will not.
On our own volition, we will listen to Hindi songs, but nobody has the right to force it on us.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com