879 days on, senior citizens keep the fight alive for now-shut Doordarshan Kendra in Hisar

On Sunday morning, nearly half a dozen retired government employees, including an elderly couple, a person with mobility impairment and a farmer, gathered outside the building of Hisar Doordarshan (DD) Kendra to resume their sit-in against the relocation of the public broadcaster’s operations to Chandigarh nearly two years ago. None of the protesters, who are residents of Hisar, are DD employees. But have been camping outside the now-shut government building for a few hours every day for the past couple of years (Sunday marked the 879th day of their protest) to prevent it from being sold to a private entity at throwaway prices.

“This land, the building, and the equipment inside must be worth several hundred crores of rupees. We fear that the government may sell all these to a corporate house for a throwaway price, causing a loss to the exchequer,” said Inder Singh Malik, a retired Haryana Electricity Board employee, spearheading the protest under the banner of ‘Doordarshan Haryana Bachao Jan Sangharsh Samiti’.

Mr. Malik adds that DD Hisar Kendra held a special place for the residents as a repository of Haryana’s culture and traditions. So, the shutdown felt like a personal loss to them.

The operations of DD Hisar Kendra were shifted to Chandigarh on the orders of the Director, Headquarters (Engg.), Prasar Bharati, dated December 29, 2022.

The news of the closure of the Hisar centre, which was inaugurated on November 1, 2002, came as a surprise to its employees and the area residents, especially because Prasar Bharati, which owns DD, reportedly had plans to turn it into a round the clock channel from June 1, 2020, along with the centres in Shimla, Imphal, Panaji, and Agartala.

The “abrupt” closure of the centre in Hisar led to large-scale protests. Its employees, artists and residents started a protest in January 2023 seeking the revocation of the order. “A little over six months into the protest, people began to leave. While the permanent employees at the centre were transferred, the local artists and contractual staff could not continue the protest for long, as they were in need of work,” said Mr. Malik.

Moreover, he added, the residents were frustrated by the lack of response from the government. “The number of protesters further dwindled with time, leaving only us, retired employees,” he added.

Two former Chief Ministers, the late Chaudhary Om Prakash Chautala and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, have visited the protest site to express support to the demonstrators, whose memorandums to Chief Minister Nayab Saini and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are yet to elicit any response.

Former Industrial Training Institute (Women) superintendent Santosh Dhanda, the lone woman protester, said she had presented several programmes from the Kendra regarding the fashion designing course, for which she had received “an overwhelming response”.

Her husband, Karambir Dhanda, a retired supervisor from the Public Works Department, said the shifting of the operations was a blow to the promotion of local Haryanvi culture. “A lot of artists presented programmes at the centre and showcased local culture. It is not possible for them to go to Chandigarh, which is far from here. Moreover, Chandigarh has an influence of Punjabi culture. How will our future generations learn about our culture? The professors at the local Haryana Agriculture University also presented programmes on helping farmers,” said Mr. Dhanda.

The protesters made a point of assembling outside the building from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily. However, the protest hours were reduced to two hours every day a week ago after Mr. Malik underwent cataract surgery.

“Fighting for a public cause is the only driving force for us. The occasional reports in the local media keep our hopes afloat that the government might hear us someday. For us, it was never about winning or losing, but raising our voice against what we think is wrong,” said Mr. Malik as another day of protest came to an end.