Cong, BJP put best face forward for TV

NEW DELHI, MAY 13: Revolting as their behind-the-scenes mannerisms may be, leaders of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party B...

NEW DELHI, MAY 13: Revolting as their behind-the-scenes mannerisms may be, leaders of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP are taking utmost care to put their best faces forward on camera.

Sample this: Congress speakers are being told not to wave their hands about too much as they speak, not eat paan before they go on camera, make sure they know their opponents and are briefed on the party line on the issue to be discussed.

The BJP8217;s media managers have already complained to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and party president Kushabhau Thakre about the television-unfriendly faces of J P Mathur and K L Sharma. Meanwhile, the 13-member campaign committee under Lal Krishna Advani has already decided, informally, on a list of telegenic faces for the camera.

While the dates for Election 8217;99 are yet to be announced, the key players are busy chalking out their strategies for television. Though Kamal Nath, Chhindwara MP who is in charge of screening requests for TV programmes, saysthe elections are not 8220;going to be a beauty contest8221;, it doesn8217;t hurt to communicate through TV.

So, if Star News invites K L Sharma from the BJP, Kamal Nath makes sure he turns up in jeans and T-shirt to make the contrast between Grey India and Younger India sharper.

So even as the BJP rehabilitates Sushma Swaraj to speak for it on Star News and BBC, the Congress is relying on Manmohan Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, Kamal Nath, Ambika Soni, Kapil Sibal and Mani Shanker Aiyar. But even this list isn8217;t that easy. Singh, for instance, won8217;t speak across the table with Pramod Mahajan because the latter is so aggressive and few in the Congress would like to be on the same panel as Arun Jaitley, because he has little 8220;official status8221;.

The BJP8217;s informal list for television includes several members of the campaign committee: Mahajan, K N Govindacharya, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Jaitley and Jnana Krishnamurthy. Rajya Sabha memberArun Shourie will also be fielded on TV in the run-up to the elections.

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Even as that happens, the Congress says it is keeping a close watch on the misuse of the electronic and print media by the BJP. Kamal Nath says those in the Congress establishment who are accomplices to the blatant misuse of DD should be willing to face the consequences of their actions. 8220;This is not merely a caretaker but a defeated government,8221; he said, adding that the Congress, when it came to power, would also subject to investigation a newspaper that was behaving as a party organ of the BJP.

And as the BJP carries on with its campaign against Sonia Gandhi8217;s foreign origins, the Congress threatens to unveil the Prime Minister8217;s role in the freedom movement.