Big Brother gets a new assignment

The cell has been asked to watch out for any liquor and tobacco commercials on private satellite channels.

So far, they have not stumbled upon anything objectionable, they say, but have started working on the brief furnished by Ministry officials.

Sitting in studios (there are 35 in all) meant only for one person, tracking is made easy by the presence of the 43-odd antennae and five television dish antennae, spread over a sprawling 100 acres.

The staff is required to submit a daily report to the PMO, Home Ministry, Defence, and the I&B Ministry. At the end of each week, they furnish a comprehensive report to the ministries concerned.

The Cell began in 1939 as a branch of the Military Intelligence in the Army Headquarters in Delhi to keep a check on enemy broadcasts and news from German and Italian organisations. The material collected was passed on to the counter-propaganda directorate and then “refuted” by All India Radio.

After Independence, it was this cell once again that went on an overdrive, when its staff found “anti-Indian broadcasts” by the BBC in 1971 — its correspondent was asked to leave India, according to records maintained by the cell.

Times have changed since then and the staff today, usually working in eight-hour shifts, tunes into programmes from Pakistan (priority area), Bangaladesh, Nepal, besides other radio networks. China, Russia and Sri Lanka used to be priority areas once. Officials admit it is difficult getting trained people for the jobs. “We try to get students from Jawaharlal Nehru University on an adhoc basis time to time,” say officials.

They will have no trouble following Sushma’s orders.

The Cable and Networks Regulation Act (amended) has banned satellite broadcasters from showing liquor and tobacco commercials. While broadcsters have pledged support to the ban, some of them continue to air them. With the Minister prescribing tough measures for defaulters, the going may be tough.

And Swaraj has assured that this is only the begining. She will focus her sights on surrogate advertising and so will the officials at the cell.

Already, B4U has been singled out for airing liquor commericials despite an official ban, and some say, it is because of the cell’s monitoring success. TB6, the steamy Russian channel immensely popular with cable operators, was stopped, once again because of the cell’s efforts in tracking down signals. If the staff and the Minister have their way, ZEE’s Alpha channels might not be able to swing to Zingaroo Beer.

The officials admit that the problem areas are domestic channels and not foreign channels, as is made out to be. “The BBC and the CNN hardly air liquor and tobacco commercials and we watch them only for news,” officials say.

As for the diatribe against India on radio, it continues, officials say as they continue to monitor news from around the world, even as their ears strain to catch the subtle propaganda beamed from across the border.