Aakash Channel awaits its comeuppance
By a correspondent in Raipur
THE SKY (Aakash) has virtually fallen on Ajit Jogi. The till recently high soaring Jogi who received a number of setbacks in his political career can also count the Aakash Channel, the sole cable network in the State as one of the major reasons for his downfall.
Aakash Channel, widely perceived to be controlled by the Jogi clan, was probably the most controversial channel in the country, if its track record, especially in the cash-on-camera episode involving the former union minister, Dilip Singh Judeo was any yardstick. The documents recovered during raids in the scam have indicated the involvement of former chief minister, Jogi’s son Amit, even the investigation agency, CBI, was examining some videotapes and compact discs seized from his residence.
Close on the heels of this earth-shaking controversy, the channel again figured in the Jogi tape episode in which the bribe money of Rs 45 lakhs to induce tribal BJP leaders and MLAs to defect, was allegedly funded by Aakash Channel. This was evident by the currency notes date markings, which was traced to the channel by CBI sleuths investigating the episode. The last nail in the channel coffin was when its CEO Rohit Prasad, a close friend of Amit, was arrested by the Delhi police, a couple of days back, for possessing illegal wild life skins, revolvers and over a hundred bottles of costly imported Scotch whisky seized from Prasad’s palatial house in Delhi.
Startling facts are now surfacing on how Aakash Channel, right from its inception, was brazenly used to serve the vested interests of Ajit Jogi and company. According to insiders, the hands behind the channel did not hesitate to bribe, slander, terrorise or intimidate Jogi rivals with the huge amount of money power as well as by misuse of the channel network to cow down all opponents who went against their interests. This aspect was made glaring by its current affairs channel - ‘Abhi Abhi’ which was blatantly used to project Jogi and his cahoots and at the same time it would eclipse the achievements of the opposition parties. It was a one-way channel with just Ajit Jogi in focus.
Even before all this started the channel had the notorious tendency of blanking out all news from national channels that showed Jogi in a negative light and at the same time highlighting all negative news about Jogi opponents. All this finally reached boiling point when the major opposition parties led by the BJP seething with anger, made it a major election issue in the recently concluded Assembly elections. Even the people behind Aakash Channel were aware and apprehensive that if Jogi fails to form the government in the State, it would be their funeral.
This was evident when even as the poll results pouring on December 4 afternoon in showed a major BJP victory, the panicky channel staff had started winding up, fearing a strong retribution by rivals. They had even hurriedly packed off costly cameras and other electronic equipments to unknown destinations.
Earlier, the channel was owned by Shiv Sena leader Dhananjay Parihar. The present owners gained control of the channel by virtually hounding Parihar by allegedly framing a murder charge on him with the help of friendly police. As Parihar’s control over the cable operators weakened, Aakash became the unquestioned king of cable operations as well as the local advertisement market in all over the state. The channel had come under attack from the Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, just two days before the Assembly elections. The Union Law Minister alleged that the channel’s owners were behind the Judeo episode because the person who booked the five-star hotel in the union capital for bribing Judeo was Rajat Prasad, the then CEO of the channel.
According to Jaitley, the actual owner of Aakash was Amit as, in e-mail to a friend, he had talked about the bifurcation of the management of the two channels. Meanwhile, a cable war is on in the state. The Aakash owners had given a five-year lease for the channel to a hotelier. But the ruling BJP leaders are pressurising the hotel owner to hand over the business to their men. Several vested interest parties are keen to take over the `lucrative’ business. Notable among them, is a brother of an influential BJP minister. If the brother of the minister succeeds in taking over the channel, it would be a major issue for the principal opposition party, the Congress, which, led by Jogi, once pampered it !