With all communication lines snapped, the humble radio came to Kashmir's rescue

At a time when the entire Valley is under a lockdown with mobile phone services and internet services unavailable in Jammu and Kashmir, radio broadcasts by Radio Kashmir which is owned by public Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, of which AIR and Doordarshan are also broadcast arms helped people stay abreast with developments vis-à-vis the state’s transformation to a union territory and modification of Article 370.

Jammu and Kashmir: With the Bharatiya Janta Party-led central government clamping down on Kashmir by snapping all lines of communication after it decided to modify Article 370 that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the residents of the Valley were bereft of information.

But, a rather humble and almost abandoned mode of communication came to the rescue of Kashmiris.

The radio broadcasts by Radio Kashmir and All India Radio helped people stay updated with the situation on the ground and get in touch with their relatives residing within or outside the Valley.

"When we woke up on August 5, and as we turned on the Television, there was no cable network, channels were banned, except from Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV. We had to get hold of our old radio set, which was otherwise lying in a corner of the house, to get some information," said a Kashmiri youth.

Drawing parallels between a digitised India and a communication blackout in Kashmir, the youth said, "What pains us, even more, is that while on one hand country is being pitched as 'Digital India', Kashmir is being deprived of this basic facility."

Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India in order to ensure the Government's services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity or by making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology.

Narrating the ordeal of fellow Kashmiris, another local youth from the Valley said, "Everything has come to a standstill since August 5. Only a few TV channels are working. So far as newspapers are concerned, apart from a handful of newspapers which are somehow managing to publish their papers, most of the papers have not been published since then. Radio and newspapers are the only forms of communication left for us now, to give and receive information."

"Internet is not working at all, " added the youth.

Radio Kashmir in Srinagar and Jammu has unbroken reach across both the divisions through Medium Wave and FM. Started as a counter to the propaganda emanating over the airwaves from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Radio Kashmir has started dial-in programmes where Kashmiris outside the state call in to share their experiences of living away from the region.

The broadcast of important speeches and announcements, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on the reorganisation of the state, have been translated and aired in local languages Kashmiri, Gojri, Dogri and Boti for wider dissemination.

Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, of which AIR and Doordarshan are broadcast arms, has also amped up the service to counter fake or incorrect news from the ground
Acknowledging the important role played by radio in Kashmir during a lockdown, the British broadcaster BBC also announced the expansion of shortwave radio news coverage in Kashmir to ease the impact of a communications blackout imposed by the Centre.

Short wave transmissions travel thousands of miles (kilometres) and are able to bounce over mountains that dominate the region.

The communication blackout in Kashmir entered its 17th consecutive day on August 21.