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The gong's gone for the first round of polling. If you are a privileged but unfortunate inhabitant of Delhi that is the capital of India,...

The gong8217;s gone for the first round of polling. If you are a privileged but unfortunate inhabitant of Delhi that is the capital of India, you might be forgiven for missing the event. Such has been the vibrancy and urgency of the election campaign, nobody but the campaigners noticed it.

People living in the 40-odd million homes whose misfortune it is to receive only Doordarshan8217;s terrestrial TV signal, might have suffered a similar psychological disorientation. That8217;s because the last general election of this benighted century might be happening only India but DD1 acts as if the elections are happening in a small island in the Pacific Ocean.

Watch the national channel; go on, watch it. Other than the daily news bulletins, Chunauv 8217;99, the Sunday Great Debate and the occasional other programme which is telecast on an ad hoc basis to ensure that none of us know when it is being broadcast and consequently don8217;t see it, the elections have been virtually missing. If there is more to the coverage, it8217;s a hand-me-over from DD News channel, like Talk Back.

Millions of viewers, especially the illiterate, might have expected, a comprehensive coverage of the issues before the electorate on Doordarshan. Failing that, they too could have heard the impolite political exchanges, learnt more about our politicians non families, their origins, even their blood types8230; Discrimination: why should those who cannot read newspapers, who don8217;t have cable TV connections, be denied the pleasures of such irrelevant irreverence? The airwaves, according to the Supreme Court, belong to the people; isn8217;t Doordarshan first a public service and only then whatever it is that it8217;s trying to be?

During the 1998 elections, DD had made efforts, albeit disappointing ones. There were live debates with Nalini Singh and a viewers8217; phone-in facility; there was a series of interviews by Pritish Nandy and Javed Akhtar featuring leading leaders of the main political parties: Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and Jyoti Basu.

Now it8217;s left to DD News channel, which is on a test transmission, which is broadcast via satellite to cable homes and that too if the cable operator is in the mood. If you can logically, satisfactorily explain this phenemenon and the strategy behind it, you should be the next person to get a programme on the news channel! Seriously: wouldn8217;t it have made undeniable good sense to telecast, debates, interviews, public responses/questions on DD1 at prime time? If it does, then why isn8217;t it happening? Because you got it the elections aren8217;t really happening on DD1.

DD News: its picture quality is moocho moocho good, best we8217;ve ever seen on a DD channel being a digital channel, that8217;s hardly complimentary. The signature tune and visuals seem to have been created by moonlighting Zee employees that8217;s how similar they are. Also, this is where you get to see what newspaper editors or TV journalists, unattached to STAR or Zee who are denizens of Delhi, look like.

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The news: with the Election Commission barking at it like a watchdog, the news is bland as boiled food. Matched headlines across two news channels in alphabetical order, DD News, STAR News, last Thursday afternoon 2 pm: there was little to choose between them. This is not the time to judge the news content: that will come once voting is over.

Current affairs programmes: there8217;s variety and there8217;s none. This obscure observation will soon make sense. There are shows skirting many topics: World View India, Pakistan Reporter old show: both are self-explanatory. As is Business Tonight, Sports Time. Then there is Talk Back, In Conversation, Two8217;s Company: general conversation pieces with a host of diverse guests; also take in Svywam, Sankalp, presumably there to provide 33 reservation for women on the channel. Don8217;t forget, Nishan, the political debate show 8212; by far the liveliest programme on the channel. Children get a programme so does yoga which for some inexplicable reason was telecast on Sunday night at 8 pm; surely, 8 am would have been more fit-ting?

There8217;s more. Individual programmes are blameless, unexceptional, sometimes even good with distinctive decors white sofa sets, chessboard black and white sets, shady lamp lit sitting rooms... Taken separately, they can be informative, even useful; taken as a flood, wave upon wave, one after the other, they have a seamless sameness which robs them of any identity. Like water flowing into the ocean. More significantly, there are just too many people sitting still and talking at us. Yackety-yack-yack all day long. Except for programmes such as World View and Sports Time, the visual content is non-existent; nor are there any graphics to provide relief from human faces.

If DD News is a long term prospect, it has to change this shop talk attitude. Otherwise, it will be shortlived.