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| Oops! Mehbooba Mufti forgets her attacks on ET | | Auron Ko Nasihath | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 5: Even as former J&K chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party president, Mehbooba Mufti has been condemning the action against a media house, she seems to have forgotten her assault on the daily Early Times.
When Mehbooba Mufti was heading the erstwhile J&K State, some upright journalists were targeted and the ET management harassed, the nationalist daily, the Early Times remained her favourite punching bag. Her government left no stone unturned to muzzle the voice of professional journalism in Jammu.
As Mehbooba’s pressure tactics to muzzle Early Times, the roaring voice of Jammu, remained unsuccessful, she finally used the Information Department to launch an economic offensive against the newspaper.
As the Information Department was headed by the chief minister herself, she used the then Director Information Muneer-Ul-Islam to punish the Early Times for exposing the mess in her government.
In brazen violation of norms and loot of government resources, the Early Times was deprived of its due share of advertisements.
Even though the Early Times is among the widely circulated dailies and is known for its professional integrity, Muneer, who was working like a puppet of the dynasts, Aren’t Babus behaving like political workers deadwood?
Having no legal or logical argument to deny the Early Times its legitimate share of government advertisements, the then Director Information Muneer Ul Islam was behaving like no less than a PDP worker acting on the guidelines of his political masters.
The point is very simple. Will officials who behave like political workers be treated like deadwood in accordance with the new guidelines of forcibly retiring such officials at the age of 48 or 22 years of service, which ever comes early?
The Early Times was put in an undeclared blacklist and only a few centimeter advertisements were received from the government.
With no norms in place for the distribution of advertisements, Mehbooba and Muneer resorted to apparent bander baanth of the government resources, at least in the Information Department, where the money meant for the entire media fraternity was used seemingly for the “benefit and interests of PDP.”
To professional queries which the Early Times would pose for less flow of advertisements to the newspaper, Muneer would behave more like a PDP worker rather than an officer heading a vital department.
But then, like always, the Early Times didn’t succumb under pressure and continued to highlight the issues of public importance.
Out of power, Mehbooba opposes every action of the government because as the chief minister she failed to deliver justice.
The Early Times tried to approach her and the then Director Information, Muneer-ul-Islam, but they were not available for comments.
But then how can Mehbooba forget her past unless she suffers from amnesia which looks selective? Hope she responds, at least in a tweet. |
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