The BJP’s Kashmir unit on Saturday urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to intervene in the issue of a factional feud between two groups for the management of Kashmir Press Club (KPC).
In a statement, the party’s media in-charge and youth leader Manzoor Bhat also termed the politicizing of the issue by some political parties a matter of grave concern.
“It is unfortunate that our so-called political parties are adding fuel to fire by issuing misleading statements rather than finding a solution to the issue of journalists,” he said.
Bhat said there has been an issue between the two bodies of journalists at KPC and there are allegations and counter-allegations between the two groups.
“To verify the same, an independent body should probe the issue and get it resolved,” he said.
He appealed to the lieutenant governor’s administration to take cognizance of the issue and find out the reality.
“BJP is not in support of politicizing the issue of the fourth pillar of democracy that has more responsibilities and gets issues resolved on priority basis,” he said.
The Kashmir Press Club (KPC) was witness to unfamiliar activities on Saturday when a few journalists accompanied by policemen reached there and claimed to be its “new management”, a move that came hours after the Jammu and Kashmir administration had put on hold its registration.
The policemen claimed to be Personal Security Officers of one of the journalists who released a statement to the media stating that “some journalist forums” had chosen them to be new office-bearers.
The claims of the interim body were countered soon by a statement issued by around nine journalist bodies in Kashmir who denounced the forcible takeover of the KPC office with “open support from the administration” and termed it “a wrong and dangerous precedent”. PTI SSB SMN SMN