Cable war takes a queer turn

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD, JUNE 9. The involvement of the brother of a Minister and some other bigwigs connected with the ruling BJP has given a queer turn to the cable television war in Ahmedabad and some other parts of Gujarat.

The Deputy Labour and Employment Minister, Mr. Purshottam Solanki, had even threatened to resign from the Keshubhai Patel Cabinet if his brother, a Mumbai-based cable TV operator, Bharat Solanki, if the police did not drop the charges against him and release him immediately. He was persuaded by the BJP State unit general secretary, Mr. Gordhan Jhadafiya, against taking such extreme steps even though the police refused to comply in the case.

The Minister of State for Home, Mr. Haren Pandya, insisted that the ``law will take its own course'' and Bharat Solanki would not be released just because he was a Minister's brother. Bharat and four others arrested with him were produced before a court and remanded to judicial custody. ``It is a court matter now and the Government will not interfere,'' Mr. Pandya said.

The Court did not grant the remand demanded by the police, giving an indication that the police had failed to build up a strong case against them. The session court is also likely to grant a bail to the accused tomorrow if it disapproves the charge of attempt to murder levelled against Bharat and four others.

The charges against Bharat and four others included attempt to murder, rioting and even a case of the alleged violation of the Prohibition Act as Bharat and some others were claimed to be arrested in a ``totally drunken condition''.

Bharat and his associates in the Incablenet reportedly barged into the office of the Skynet cable TV in Paldi area in the city in the afternoon and allegedly ransacked the office and at a gunpoint asked one of the operators, Samir Shah, to dismantle the setup and join with their cable network.

Some others present in the Skynet office informed the Ellisbridge police. A police contingent reached the office and arrested Bharat and four others on the spot while three others managed to give the slip. The police later said the revolver was taken away by one of the three absconders.

On hearing the news of his brother's arrest, Mr. Purshottam Solanki, along with some 150 BJP workers rushed to the police station and launched a dharna in front of it demanding his immediate release. He also talked to the Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, and Mr. Pandya on his mobile phone threatening to resign if his brother was not released immediately. His demand that the concerned police officer should come out to talk to him was turned down by the police on the ground that he had come to the police station not as a Minister but as the brother of an accused.

The intervention by Mr. Jhadafiya saved the situation and after tempers flayed for sometime Mr. Solanki agree to see reasons and left the spot without securing the release of his brother. Mr. Solanki, alleged to be kingpin of the Mumbai underworld at one time, who was also implicated by the Srikrishna Commission in the sensational Mumbai riots and serial blasts, are in total control of the cable TV network in his home town of Bhavnagar in the Saurashtra region.

Only recently, a cable TV operator was murdered at Barvala in Dhandhuka taluka in Ahmedabad district. There were also a number of minor incidents of clashes between the cable TV operator groups in Ahmedabad and some other parts of the state over the network rights. The newly-launched Gujarati cable channel, Tara, by the Broadcast Worldwide, has so far failed to take off because of the rivalry between the network channel operators.

The brother of a Chief Minister's relative and brother of another Minister are also believed to be involved in the cable network war.

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