M A I N   N E W S

Official shifted for Pt 5353 controversy
by Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 14 — More than a month after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) sought the removal of the Additional Principal Information Officer (Defence) for the faux pas committed on the Point 5353 controversy in the Kargil region of Jammu and Kashmir, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has replaced him.

Sources in the government affirmed today that the I&B Ministry last week finally issued orders for the transfer of Additional PIO (Defence), Mr P.S. Bhatnagar, to All India Radio (AIR). He is to be replaced by Dr P.K. Bandhopadhyay, who is presently the Additional Director-General in AIR.

Despite efforts by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to somehow stall the removal of Mr Bhatnagar, the I&B Ministry issued orders to move him as the Additional DG (AIR), apparently due to persistent pressure from the Defence Ministry.

Not only had the Principal Information Officer (PIO), Mrs N.J. Krishna, met the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes and other senior Defence Ministry officials, including the Defence Secretary, to explain how the mistake was committed, but the officer involved had himself also sought a reprieve by personally seeking the intervention of some political leaders known to be close to the Defence Minister.

The PIO had also apparently tried to explain that there was a shortage of senior officers in the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and a replacement would be difficult, specially with the Republic Day celebrations round the corner. Besides, some of the senior officials in the PIB were also not wanting to take up this assignment, which is considered sensitive.

However, the Defence Ministry officials were adamant that the official should be shifted out. They had insisted that the temporary reprieve to the official was only till the Republic Day celebrations were over. A change of the MoD’s official spokesman at that juncture would have created avoidable complications for his successor. The MoD, therefore, provided some breathing space to all concerned before having its way in shunting out Mr Bhatnagar.

Mrs Krishna confirmed that the orders for the transfer of Mr Bhatnagar to AIR had been issued. However, repeated attempts to contact Mr Bhatnagar proved futile as he was not available in his office in South Block, housing the MoD.

Mr Bhatnagar had been asked to proceed on leave pending further orders from the PIB immediately after the news reports came out where in the Defence Minister had been quoted as saying that he himself had stood on the controversial Point 5353 and got himself photographed. “This should end the unfortunate controversy about the peak once and for all,” the press note issued by the office of Additional PIO (Defence) said while quoting the Defence Minister.

This apparently got the Defence Minister angry and the ministry immediately sought the removal of the senior official.

The Defence Ministry then sent a communication to the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ms Sushma Swaraj, under whom the PIB functions, where it said that the ministry was relieving Mr Bhatnagar of his responsibilities as the Additional PIO (Defence). A copy of it was also apparently sent to Mrs Krishna and Mr Bhatnagar.

The reaction from the Defence Ministry, seeking the removal of the Additional PIO came specially as the official is said to have accompanied Mr Fernandes during his visit and ‘was not aware’ of what the minister had said.