Elections live: Polls apart

Prannoy Roy advised us not to watch Maharashtra election specials until 9-9.30 am so why did all the news channels bestir themselves and ...

Prannoy Roy advised us not to watch Maharashtra election specials until 9-9.30 am so why did all the news channels bestir themselves and us at 6.30-7.30 am?. Yet, until approximately 11 am the verdict hung in the balance. Not just that: it tilted scales as it went from channel to channel: even at 12.20 pm we had 138 for Congress/ NCP; 120 BJP/ Shiv Sena on Aaj Tak and NDTV, 143-113 on DD News and 135-122 on Zee News; at 12.40 pm, it had changed to 141-118 on NDTV while at 9.55 am Aaj Tak had a tally of 141-112 and Sahara gave BJP/ Shiv Sena the lead. The figures somersaulted with each round of counting and, it appeared as though different channels were reporting the count of different rounds and/ or different seats 8212; otherwise how could they have had different totals?

The channel that wavered the least was DD News: it steadfastly and to begin with you thought loyally showed the Congress/NCP comfortably ahead 8212; and got it almost right.

You8217;d have been well-advised to follow Roy8217;s advice. Before the counting began, there were soundbytes from politicians who said they had slept well or correspondents who looked as though they hadn8217;t slept well. Since neither was any the wiser about the results, they said nothing worth listening to in the early morning.

As for the exit polls, the overall margin of error was lower than during the general elections; Star News and Aaj Tak polls were more generous to the Congress/ NCP 140, Zee News and NDTV to the BJP/ Shiv Sena.

DD News needs to do something about its sound effects. Every second moment the voices mysteriously go off air and people are left performing silent mouth exercises. It happens everyday, so there is a technical virus here that needs remedial attention. Quick.

Saurav Ganguly looked over his left shoulder, then right as though searching for an escape route. No wonder he tries to run himself out! On this occasion, however, it wasn8217;t his fault 8212; Aaj Tak8217;s 8216;captain speak8217; format is to blame: by the time the boy in Kolkata asked his question, the reporter in Kolkata repeated it to the anchor in Chennai and the anchor in Chennai conveyed it to Ganguly, at least two minutes had lapsed and Gangs was fidgety.

Zee News could be renamed Panchayati Platform: since its Gudiya-Arif-Taufiq experiment, it believes it has hit upon a reality show that rivals real news. On Thursday, we travelled to Haryana where Sonia had been declared a sister to her husband 8212; one-and-a-half years after their wedding 8212; and listened in on the panchayat proceedings for close to two hours. These sounded blameless and boring, largely because we don8217;t understand Haryanvi and they don8217;t speak anything else. If this is going to be the future of television news, channels don8217;t need anchors or reporters, they need simultaneous translators.

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Star News had a Red Alert that was equally ingenious and rather more tasteless. It set out to expose Bollywood actresses who act as call girls in their spare time. Ethically, it had a bad smell and as sting operations go, it had no bite. An intrepid Star correspondent, masquerading as a 8216;client8217; pays Rs 2.4 lakh to a woman with a mosaic face. We saw them have a drink, several drinks, order more drinks but the excerpts in the news had about as many lateral positions as a skyscraper.

In the popular Kyunki Saas8230;, Star Plus Ansh Virani rapes his wife, Nandini in one episode and in the next he is roundly scolded by his mother. Well-meaning, but does it discourage men from rape? See, Ansh is such a lout already that the act is in character 8212; few men are likely to identify with him, fewer emulate him. Women might empathise/ sympathise with Nandini but how does that help? So why dramatise it so dramatically?

By the way, even as she is being assaulted, there8217;s a commercial break and lo and behold, Nandini is smiling joyously at Dettol Soap! The other joke is Fair 038; Lovely sponsoring the Fourth Umpires: Srikkanth, Wassan and Sharma. Trying to tell them something?