They may or may not reach an agreement on Kashmir, but there will always remain one outstanding difference between Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf: television. Although not precisely camera coy, Vajpayee betrays discomfiture on air, like there’s a pebble in his sandals. His TV interviews are few (very few), he has not held a live TV press conference (a la Rajiv Gandhi) and he speaks to the microphone out of sheer political necessity. Give him a public rally any day.At a public rally, Musharraf behaves as if Vajpayee slipped said pebble into his military boots and its grown into a boulder, weighing him down. He’s heavy on his feet, laden in speech. On TV, he’s in command, a General leading his soldiers into war. You saw that during Breakfast at Agra, you saw it clearly, Thursday, when he had to defend the military’s possible involvement in A Q Khan’s nuclear marketing. He was earnest, but dismissive, curt but expansive. Everything about him said: who me? Know anything about our nuclear export business? Na,na.Sonia Gandhi was equally self-righteous as the ‘‘proud’’ widow of a wronged man. In the darkness, illumined by TV lights, she positively relished the opportunity to mock her tormentors over Bofors: ‘‘For 17 years.,’’ she began each sentence as though reciting a speech she’d memorised, long ago, for this very occasion.Mrs Gandhi likes TV even less than she does. Pramod Mahajan. The last time she gave an interview. well, when was it? Before the last general elections? Had the Delhi High Court delivered its judgement sooner, she might have granted Rajdeep Sardesai his prized exclusive interview earlier (NDTV 24X7).Ever since Walk The Talk went on air, every TV journalist who has feet wants to talk them into walking. Mrs Gandhi did not put Sardesai through his paces, she just stood him up. Standing beneath the benevolent portrait of Chacha Nehru, she spoke at length and with considerable sentimentality of Rajiv Gandhi: ‘‘He loved his mother — and his country. He would not hold any grudges. Even those who were against him. he had place in his heart for them.’’ You couldn’t help but feel she’d have been far more comfortable expressing such tender statements from a deep armchair.On Kashmir Solidarity Day (Thursday), PTV’s statements on India were rather more restrained than usual. Usually, PTV broadcasts vitriolic portions of speeches by PoK leaders and celebrates the alarming number of Kashmiri bhai ‘‘martyred’’ by Indian security forces. While it telecast rallies and spoke of Kashmiri ‘‘sacrifices’’, references to India were few and less unflattering than before. Instead, Musharraf dedicated AKTV — Azad Kashmir TV — to Kashmiris. Doordarshan beware.Doordarshan broadcast, live, the discussion on the Interim Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha. It performed a vital public service by revealing an empty House but for poor Mr P H Pandian, who was in the Chair and forced to listen to the handful of speakers. Why did DD bother? DD News anchors should be bothered by their awful pronunciation. Ten days ago, we caught one young girl repeatedly saying, ‘‘eggs-are-mine’’ like a pregnant hen. Turned out she was trying to say ‘‘examine’’. And, Suraiyaji, became ‘‘Soo-Rai(to rhyme with lie)-Ya’’, for the 8 pm anchor like he was practising for a British call centre.Star Movies should mind its language too. What do you think the character in the film Jhankar Beats (Sunday) meant when the subtitle said: ‘‘My mind is totally procured’’? Had he been bought? Or was he simply ‘‘preoccupied’’? ‘‘I have serious problem,’’ with ‘‘some maintenance problems there is’’ in Star’s subtitling department who spell ‘‘hi’’ as ‘‘hye’’ because they believe it should be spelt like ‘‘bye’’. And what the ‘‘dicker’’ (?) do they mean by having subtitles when the characters were speaking in English?The American media owe the Jacksons a huge vote of thanks. First, Michael exposes his flank to charges of child molestation and the media lives off it for months. Now, Janet has become their bosom pal. Hasn’t the last week seen too much coverage(!) and enjoyment of a teenie weenie naked mammary? By the way, am told several Indian news channels showed the offending bit of flesh. Should we say, ‘‘hi-hi’ or hai, hai? Star?
