By Siddhartha Mukherjee
So, it was one of the days during my Ladakh bike ride tour a few days back. I was sitting in a tea stall on the outskirts of Leh with my co-riders. We met a group of local Kashmiri youths (average age would be 25 years) in that same stall. For some reason, it seemed, they wanted to get into a conversation with us. We didn’t mind it given the long back breaking journey we had just prior. However, the conversation that followed with our supposed friends from the paradise on earth broke our hearts.
Amongst many, one of the statements made by them was – “In some time to come, ‘Indians’ will need a passport to come our place…”
It got me thinking. First, let us not blame them. With the current state of affairs at the ground level there, their minds are vulnerable to unhealthy influences and negative public relations campaigns from vested corners. The question is why are the media relations initiatives of central and/or local not being able to do the job of educating and informing the local people about not just Kashmir being an integral part of India but more importantly, why it should remain to be so.
The reasons could be a combination of the following:
1. Is our media push full of news or views? Larger proportions of views filled with facts, right information and perspective is the need of the hour.
2. Â Is the frequency of the News & Views mix high enough? Is someone within the authorities taking care of this in the PR media plan?
3. Is the state’s local literacy level hindering the consumption of news that is getting published.
4. Are newspapers readily and regularly getting circulated?
5. While print news consumption with respect to literacy rates is understandable, what about TV? Penetration of TV sets in the state is relatively lower as compared to others. Is this why communication push through national and local TV News Channels not turning out to be effective across the width and depth of Kashmir’s landscape?
From the public relations point of view, I do not think the existing media relations is effective enough. Moreover, even after review and redeployment, perception management through media coverage alone should not be the only solution. Here, it has to be complemented with one on one or face to face interactions. Our representatives have to initiate face to face, regular dialogues and modulate views through facts, figures and right perspectives. Going by the perceptions of those Kashmiri youths and their perceptions about India, not including themselves as ‘Indians’, it seems very clear that vested dark corners are doing quite effective PR through more of regular, direct one-on-one or face-to-face dialogues.
On another thought, probably, our Indian PR body or association can help our Indian authorities review their existing PR or communications approach and modify it. It will go a long way in helping the Central and the State Government manage perceptions at the grassroot level.
Public Relations, if used well, can help the valley remain a Paradise on Earth!