There's some very unseemly tension brewing between defence journalists in Bangalore and Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL). It all began with some apparent intrigue/bungling by the folks at HAL, resulting in only a small group of reporters being invited for the Hawk deal signing event. It apparently took complaints to the Defence Ministry by a handful of the uninvited, and last minute intervention at the MoD-level to bring things back on track.
As it stands, Bangalore-based defence journalists say they feel ignored already, and that HAL's new media policy of intrigue has only fuelled their anger. Former HAL spokesperson Anantha Krishnan M has more on his
blog and has decided to start a campaign against what he calls HAL's "iron curtain policy on the media". In October-November last year, I'd posted
extensively on HAL's inexplicable decision to
shut down its press division, making it the only defence public sector firm without a formal spokesperson. Considering some of the stuff being said out there, things could get pretty ugly soon. Watch this space.