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| Who played sabotage to CEC's Jammu press conference? | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 3: Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath today experienced how the officers working under Chief Electoral Officer Umang Narula and Director of Information Tassaduq Jeelani could sabotage a high Central dignitary's press conference in Jammu.
According to well-connected sources in the State Government, CEC desired to hold a thorough informal interaction with all the important mediapersons based in Jammu and Kashmir after his meeting with the State government officials and bureaucrats over the arrangements being made for smooth conduct of the Lok Sabha elections. A private hotel, not far away from Press Club, was fixed as the press conference's venue.
As if to ensure that nobody asks the CEC questions about brazen violations of the Model Code of Conduct and misuse of official machinery during the campaigning, offices of the CEO and Directorate of Information were seen hand-in-glove in keeping the presspersons away from Mr Sampath's press conference. Not even 10% of the accredited journalists were called or invited by other means. The officials of the Government of India's Press Information Bureau (PIB) did nothing but to reserve for themselves seats in the basement of the hotel. All through the process they remained as mute spectators.
While most of the senior accredited journalists representing even the national and international media organizations were kept in the dark with regard to Mr Sampath's visit and interaction with the Press, it was ensured that nothing reaches them by email and other means. On the other hand, very junior representatives of some unknown channels and newspapers were selectively permitted to enter on the basis of their acquaintances and personal relationship with some officials of the Information Department.
Still, few of the established journalists were audacious enough to turn up at the venue, not to oblige the host with their presence but to bring it to his notice how callous and irresponsible were the heads of the Election Department and Information Department in organizing, rather sabotaging the CEC's press conference. Sensing trouble, the officials of the two departments turned them back tersely, pleading that their names had not been "cleared by the Election Commission of India". Thereupon, they protested loudly and the Director of Information was forced to come out and take them in.
As the officers of the two departments kept passing the buck to each other, the senior accredited journalists raked up the issue and explained to Mr Sampath how his press conference was being sabotaged by the government officers and how the senior most accredited journalists were being kept in dark, denied entry to the venue, harassed and humiliated. Before the CEC could respond, an official dropped in his ear that the number of the invitees had been kept thin "for security reasons"
Thereupon one of the senior journalists, who represents one of the country's largest circulated newspapers, told the CEC in detail that those kept away from the press conference included senior journalists who were protected persons and were by no means a threat to his security. He asked Mr Sampath to make it clear once for all if the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir were open for reporting like in the past or the same had been declared "out of bounds" for independent press. "Kindly be clear so that we would come to report or sit home. It's not a matter of personal relation and obligation", he asserted.
Facing an embarrassing situation created by the officials of the two departments, Mr Sampath assured the journalists that it was the "last humiliation" to them. He asserted that presspersons were "partners" to the Election Commission of India in holding and ensuring all the Assembly and Parliamentary elections fairly and transparently and nobody would be allowed to create a barrier between them and the Commission. "This will not happen in future. This is my assurance to you all", Mr Sampath announced.
Meanwhile, a senior government official has asked Director Information to identify the officials of his departments who had either carelessly dropped or deleted the names of some senior accredited journalists from the list that had been prepared and provided to the office of Chief Electoral Officer. It has been pointed out that particularly the journalists operating simultaneously from the twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu had been dropped or deleted from the list. |
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