6th April, 2011
I got news of this alarming programme that Red FM – FM 93.5 – was airing this morning, from Varsha, Amritika and Smita of Gurgaon and Delhi. On ‘Delhi’s dangerous stray dogs’ ! Asking people to share their experience. Suggest ‘solutions’. And the solutions, of course, were in the range of ‘eliminate’ them, and banish them into ‘shelters’ or where-ever. And, how can people feed them ??? And, they bite !!!
I spoke with General Kharb.
Then some of us tried to call in too, and give the other point of view, but the ‘dog’ programme seemed to be over for the day. They didnt take our calls.
Varsha, Amritika, Smita all sent me data regarding Red FM – the management, the RJs, etc. I called up their General Manager, Rohit Lal, and gave him some background about community dogs, how to control their numbers, the law, court orders, etc. Also told him that the programme was uninformed, and unimaginative.
He got the programme head for Red FM, called Pallavi Gupta, to call me. I repeated it all for her benefit too. Also ‘recommended strongly’ that the programme go off the air. She seemed very persistent, and it seemed like her idea that all community dogs should be in shelters. She also confirmed to me that they had planned that the programme would go on the air every morning, for at least 3 more days !
I requested Varsha, Amritika, Smita, and Amit to call them / write to them / get other people to call and write to them – voice our collective protest.
I told Mrs. Gandhi too.
Was then in court, or would have sought support from some more of the amazing people of Gurgaon and Delhi and Noida.
What followed was fantastic. Every body called, wrote, and sent text messages to them. Altered their Facebook Status to ‘Boycott Red FM’. People like Amit, Amritika, Elisabeth and some more of the Genuine Animal Lovers group, Madhu, all wrote amazing letters to them. And Mrs. Gandhi called up the CEO, Rana Barua.
Some time back, when more and more people were calling them, Mr. Rohit Lal, their General Manager, apologized to them, and confirmed that the programme has been taken off the air.
Now some of us are strategically going to tune in tomorrow morning, to check if the programme has actually been taken off the air.
Hats off to all the people who managed this together.
Anjali Sharma
Hiranmay Karlekar