Inside track — Myth and reality

Information and Broadcasting Minister Jaipal Reddy is patting himself on the back for going down in the history books as the man who brough...

Information and Broadcasting Minister Jaipal Reddy is patting himself on the back for going down in the history books as the man who brought autonomy to Doordarshan. In theory, the Prasar Bharati Act may have liberated television from government control, but the ground reality is very different.

For instance, on Saturday before last, the Jain Commission’s findings against the DMK and V.P. Singh were to be carried as the main story in the DD evening news bulletin. But, following a telephone call from the minister’s office, the commission’s findings were blacked out. Even commissioned programmes were instructed to play down references to the Jain Commission.

While the contents of the Commission’s report were taboo for DD, from the next day, statements from political leaders criticising its findings were telecast at length. An interview of DMK leader and Industries Minister Murasoli Maran was shown for five minutes on all news programmes. Maran blamed the growth of the LTTE on the Rajiv Gandhi government, alleging that Sivarasan was trained by the Indian Government in Dehradun.

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It is not just the Jain Commission which received blatantly partisan treatment. DD officials routinely take the plea that they are merely following "guidelines", to censor anything they choose, particularly if it goes against the government. Last Monday morning on the First Edition show, there were some 20 blips indicating large-scale editing of remarks on the media made by guest anchor Mohan Guruswamy. An irate Guruswamy, an old friend of Reddy, telephoned the minister to protest.

Renuka’s peace missions

Ever since I.K. Gujral cancelled his trip to Malaysia for the G-15 meeting because of press criticism about his globe-trotting, Gujral’s ministers have become more circumspect about foreign travel. Only Health Minister Renuka Chowdhury does not feel the impact of the unofficial order since her boss, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, has conveyed to the Prime Minister that she should be encouraged to travel. Naidu wants to keep Chowdhury out of Andhra Pradesh since she has a penchant for creating scenes and her presence upsets influential TDP MP film star Jayapradha. In the last month alone, Renuka made four trips outside India — to Slovakia, Switzerland, the Philippines and Thailand. After Parliament opens next week, she is scheduled for yet another jaunt abroad.

Spare time to prime time

TV viewers were taken aback last week when they saw the PM enthusiastically taking part in TVi’s game show titled Zero Hour. The channel’s boss, Mala Singh, and former MP Ajay Singh were co-anchors for a quiz game and debate for two competing teams of well-known political personalities. Jayanti Natarajan and Sanjay Dalmia were on Gujral’s team while P. Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, P.C. Chacko and B.L. Sharma (Prem) were on the opposing side. The questions were rather elementary. Gujral, who has an artist brother, had no difficulty identifying an Amrita Sher-Gil painting, while Prem correctly named who composed Sare Jehan Se Accha’.

The participants in this programme scored better than in an earlierZero Hour show where none of the guests could tell how long it took to play the national anthem. Ram Vilas Paswan, to cover up his lapse, got up to sing Jana Gana Mana tunelessly to prove that he at least knew the words.

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What is intriguing is how the PM could spare time for such tomfoolery. It seems the programme was shot in early 1995 when most of the guest politicians were going through a lean period in their careers and were considered — in colloquial English — "spares".

Clueless in Gujarat

IF the BJP could not repeat UP in Gujarat, it was because the wrong man was in charge. In UP, Kalyan Singh carried out his game-plan to split the Congress in secrecy and even BJP leaders got to know only after the deed was done. In Gujarat, the BJP has been shouting its intention from the rooftops. The BJP’s choice to mastermind defections, M. Venkiah Naidu, was unequal to the task. Naidu is not just temperamentally unsuitable, but being from the south he is clueless on who’s who in Gujarat. The BJP’s ace fixer, Pramod Mahajan, has been kept out of the State and so has been the BJP’s one-time Gujarat strongman Narendra Modi, who was in Chandigarh on the day of the vote of confidence.

Incidentally, Shankersinh Vaghela selected as his successor the faceless, small-time businessman Dilip Parikh largely because he felt he posed the least threat to him. Besides, Parikh’s wife Pritiben bombarded Vaghela, whom she addresses as bapuji’, with telephone calls, pleading her husband’s case.

Anticipatory bail

UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh has manipulated a far larger number of defections than are required by the BJP for a bare majority because he apprehends that the next move of the Central Government will be to form a separate State of Uttarakhand. A resolution to this effect has already been passed by the UP Assembly and since 19 BJP MLAs are from Uttarkhand, it would sizeably reduce the party’s strength in the House.