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Journalism of Courage
A helping hand!
To reach the threshold of power in Delhi, the BJP desperately needed some extra momentum which its leadership and cadres were unable to generate on their own. Ironically, the BJP has got the much needed push before the third round of voting, thanks to its bitterest foes, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Arjun Singh.
The normally flat-footed BJP for once seized the initiative and converted the on-going drama into a morality play enacted non-stop for several days on all the TV channels 8212; even Gill8217;s Doordarshan, perhaps sensing whichway the wind was blowing, was fairly objective. As a consequence, the TV nightly news staple of Sonia and her children waving at rallies 8212; Sonia8217;s sister-in-law Maneka cattily referred to the waving exercise as the movements of a car windscreen wiper 8212; was missing for several days.
Unfair advantage
TV Today, a sister wing of India Today, bagged the coveted contract to produce for Doordarshan, the marathon 72-hour programme on election results. Over two dozen Doordarshan correspondents from all over the country were flown to Delhi at considerable expense for a briefing on the exercise. To the indignation of the DD staff, the private producer claimed that except for one, none of the correspondents was up to the mark. While rejecting DD8217;s manpower, TV Today will be happily using all DD8217;s equipment and resources from OB vans to uplinking facilities and transponders.
The most extraordinary part is that Prasar Bharati 8212; even though it is no longer part of the Government 8212; hopes to receive electiondata from the National Informatics Centre Network NICNET, ahead of the competition, for its privately produced election show. The idea is that NICNET will be first accessed exclusively by Doordarshan which will unscramble the data and re-load it only 50 minutes after it has been used on television in its programmes. The government computer agency8217;s vast network is to give an exclusive feed to Prasar Bharati for a fee of a mere Rs 75 lakh.
The Press Information Bureau PIB has protested to NICNET and the Election Commission that election results are public information to which all government and semi-government agencies should have immediate access as has been the practice in the past.
An afterthought
If Satyajit Ray8217;s widow at first rejected the Bharat Ratna award for her late husband it was because she felt, justifiably it seems, that the great Bengali filmmaker8217;s name was included at the last minute as an afterthought. The decision to honour Ray was first taken in 1992 when P.V. NarasimhaRao was Prime Minister, but a writ was filed in court challenging civilian awards and Ray was totally forgotten 8212; even after the honours were reinstated.
Late last year the Gujral Government announced the name of scientist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for a Bharat Ratna. This year C. Subramaniam and M.S. Subbulakshmi were added to the list, even though by then it was a caretaker government in the saddle. Actually it was not Gujral who was responsible for the additions but President K.R. Narayanan or more accurately his secretary Gopal Gandhi. Both Subramaniam and Subbulakshmi were proteges of Gandhi8217;s maternal grandfather C. Rajagopalachari. Ray8217;s name seems to have been included to add weight to the last-minute inclusions.
Incidentally, a request for bestowing a Bharat Ratna on TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao was rejected for fear that each member of the 14-member UF government would insist on its choice as well.
Government on hold
Work in government offices comes to a virtual standstill during electiontime, but this year because of the big gap between polling and counting, the number of man days lost by the Government of India is far more than usual. Some 16,000 to 20,000 key Government officials inducted as election observers are off duty for over a week. They have to visit the constituency at least three times first for a preliminary inspection, then for supervising polling and finally for counting. With the key joint secretaries away, their bosses, the additional secretaries and secretaries, made hay and were often seen leaving their offices by 2 pm.
The main task engrossing the Capital8217;s bureaucrats at the moment is studying the various party manifestoes to decide what sort of programme should be drawn up to please their political masters. But since no one, including the soothsayers, can predict who will be the boss in the coming months, it seems to be a wasteful exercise. In the Prime Minister8217;s Office officials are actually preparing a draft of the prime minister8217;s acceptance speech withoutwaiting to first find out who is to lead the country.
Meanwhile, an unnecessarily cocksure BJP has formed a committee to prepare a list of senior bureaucrats who the party considers reliable.
