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| Radio, TV guys finish first with PDP | | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Jan 10: Famous broadcaster Nayeema Ahmad Mehjoor, who joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in presence of the organisation's patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and president Mehbooba Mufti, is one among a crowd of the retiring and retired officials of the All India Radio and Doordarshan aspiring to contribute to the mainstream politics in the strife-ravaged Kashmir valley. If highly placed sources in the party are to be believed, she could be contesting the next Assembly elections from Amirakadal constituency against the National Conference provincial president and the former Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani.
Author of an Urdu novel 'Dehshat Zadi', Ms Mehjoor has been a known critic of the Indian security forces' alleged human rights abuse in Kashmir. Despite being from the Government of India-controlled All India Radio, Ms Mehjoor remained highly critical of New Delhi's Kashmir policy, particularly during her over decades-long association with the BBC Urdu Service. Her husband Abdal Mehjoor simultaneously served as a Producer with the BBC's Hindi Service. With a Masters from the University of Kashmir in Urdu language and literature, Ms Mehjoor is also known for his association with the progeny of Kashmir's most famous and most popular poet of the last 100 years, Ghulam Ahmad Mehjoor. Her husband is the legendary poet Mehjoor's grandson.
However, most of the valley's 50-plus people know Ms Mehjoor for her character of the daughter in Radio Kashmir's most popular family soap 'Zoonadab' which was broadcast live everyday in the morning for over 15 years in 1970s and early 1980s. People in Srinagar still call her as 'Nana Koor'. Bashir Arif, now heading Srinagar Station of Radio Kashmir, played as her brother. Legendary broadcasters and radio actors, Somnath Sadhu and Maryam Begum, who were in the stellar roles of Aga saab and Aga Baai, Arif's and Mehjoor's parents, are no more. Notwithstanding Mehjoor's known hatred for Pakistan and the tribesmen from that country who invaded Kashmir in 1947, recorded in a lengthy chapter of his anthology 'Kuliyat-e-Mehjoor' , Ms Mehjoor grew popular in Pakistan for her political ideology that shaped her long broadcasting career at the Bush House. At a time when the Hurriyat has fragmented into smithereens, her tryst with a mainstream party like the PDP or Peoples Conference was a foregone conclusion in the Valley.
Prior to Ms Mehjoor, PDP has also attracted Srinagar Doordarshan Kendra's retired Director Shehzadi Simon, Radio Kashmir's ace announcer and famous presenter of Sheherbeen Basharat Bukhari, journalist-turned-politician and once Radio Kashmir's Duty Officer Nizamuddin Bhat and famous activist-columnist Naeem Akhtar.
Other mainstream parties have had their share too, in the radio and Television talent.
Retired Director of Srinagar Doordarshan Salam-ud-din Bajad has recently joined Sajjad Gani Lone's J&K Peoples Conference and is also expected to be that party's contestant in the next Lok Sabha election in North Kashmir against PDP's Naeem Akhtar and National Conference's Sharifuddin Shariq. Bajad hails from an area close to LoC in northern Kashmir.
Radio Kashmir's former Producer of Sheherbeen, a daily current affairs programme introduced by late Ashraf Sahil in 1990s, which had a significant contribution from the Mehjoor couple, Ghulam Nabi Rattanpuri joined NC after years of informal association with that party in 2008. He lost Assembly elections from his home constituency of Pulwama but got elected as NC's member in Rajya Sabha. However, in the last four years, his strained relationship with Chief Minister and the party President Omar Abdullah, has reduced his prospects of continuation with the ruling political outfit. Chief Minister has recently picked up Rattanpuri's bête noire Amit Kumar as SSP of the State's most important Srinagar district. Rattanpuri has filed a privilege motion in Rajya Sabha against the young IPS officer for "shabby treatment" to the Member of Parliament.
After Ms Mehjoor's admission into PDP, speculations have gained ground of some more retired and retiring DD and AIR officials' joining the mainstream political parties. They include Ch Ghulam Hussain Zia, Bashir Budgami, Rafeeq Masoodi etcetera. |
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