DD’s mission — Putin is equal to Clinton

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 3: Who said the Cold War is over? Given the way Doordarshan is struggling to treat Vladimir Putin the way it did Bill C...

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NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 3: Who said the Cold War is over? Given the way Doordarshan is struggling to treat Vladimir Putin the way it did Bill Clinton, it seems the ghosts of the past are visiting the corridors of Mandi House.

Following a directive from former Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, officials at DD and All India Radio are working overtime to ensure that Putin is given the same coverage that Clinton got, second to second. And if that means juggling around with regular programmes on the fixed point chart, so be it. That’s why newscaster Nalin Kohli’s programme about Putin’s arrival was repeated twice on DD’s News channel last night.

At a meeting held last week, the minister directed DD and AIR to be on guard and give Putin the same treatment as his US counterpart got. Despite this directive, DD/AIR crew will not be able to capture live Putin’s “private thoughts” as he visits Mahatma Gandhi’s samadhi with his wife Lyudmila Putina. Citing technical reasons, DD officials said they could not show live Putin’s address in Hall No 6 of Vigyan Bhavan either. A DD crew was present to capture Clinton and Chelsea’s visit to Gandhiji’ samadhi in March.

As for rescheduling programmes, officials clarified it was nothing new. “When heads of state come visiting, DD’s regular programmes are often rescheduled — at times, producers are informed about the changes at the last minute,” officials said. So, for instance, DD Metro’s regular programmes TV Brand and Dhamal No 1 (telecast time 1.15pm and 2pm) went off on Tuesday to make slot for the Russian President’s programmes. With officials undecided on the President’s schedule in the evening, many children’s programmes were being kept on hold. “We are showing the President’s engagements on the slot reserved for Parliament coverage,” a senior official said.