KL Desk
SRINAGAR
A veteran Journalist, Kanwar Sandhu who has worked with famous reputed media organisations has alleged the Jammu and Kashmir governor NN Vohra of allegedly misusing ‘The Tribune’ newspaper for his own ends.
‘The Tribune’ is a Chandigarh-based newspaper especially circulated in Punjab, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir.
Kanwar Sandhu, has worked in ‘The Tribune’ for at least two years as its Executive editor.
He has levelled serious allegations on the trustees of ‘The Tribune’ including Vohra who too is among them.
In a series of YouTube videos posted over the last two weeks, Kanwar Sandhu, one of Punjab’s most respected journalists, has laid out what he sees as an abuse of the paper’s position.
Sandhu’s videos, with titles like “how trustees have hijacked Tribune Founder’s will,” allege that the paper has become the personal propaganda tool for trustees, is unnecessarily endearing itself to the new government at the centre and is failing to follow through on the mandate set by its founder.
“During the last couple of years, the paper has been hijacked by some people ‒ some editors, some editors-in-chief and some trustees,” said Sandhu.
His chief allegation is that one trustee in particular, NN Vohra, currently governor of Jammu and Kashmir, has allegedly been “using and misusing” the paper to his own ends, and that others in the organisation have turned a blind eye to this.
“More stories have appeared in the paper about the governor than about the prime minister of India,” Sandhu said. “When I raised this and other issues with the editor-in-chief, I was told that the J&K Governor is different from other governors. Where is this listed? Does the constitution say that? We were all told in the Tribune that the Tribune has a strategic interest in J&K. Did the founder’s will say that?… The trustees refused to meet me on this.”
“The J&K edition is being run as a personal fiefdom of the J&K governor,” Sandhu has been quoted by Scroll.in. “This is the newspaper that I started my career with. When I joined the newspaper after so many years, I thought maybe I could contribute to it. But I soon realised that some of the trustees were running it for their own personal benefit.”
