Serving themselves

One is so inured to corruption in public life that it takes the picture of Doordarshan Deputy Director-General M.B. Pahari with Rs 1.23 c...

One is so inured to corruption in public life that it takes the picture of Doordarshan Deputy Director-General M.B. Pahari with Rs 1.23 crore in cash, stashed in a box bed, to jolt us out of our sloth. It says a lot for the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI that they kept track of Pahari8217;s dealings since the lavish wedding he staged for his daughter in Calcutta.

But it says more for the impunity with which public servants are administering a corporation which has assets of over Rs 55,000 crore. Three homes, 10 carpets, 60 wristwatches, and over 30 bottles of premium liquor doesn8217;t speak only of avarice. It speaks of carelessness, a supreme arrogance that the watchdogs are not watching, and that the rot has spread so deep and wide that one of the 100 bad apples will not be noticed.

For, in the general self-congratulation that has followed the arrest of Pahari by the CBI, it is easy to forget that he is not alone in his way of working. Talk to any television producer and countless tales of bribery atDoordarshan will unfold. So will the jokes, about how the accent is on commission in commissioned programmes 8212; of every Rs 2 lakh that Doordarshan doles out for a half-hour of programming, 15 per cent goes into the pockets of Mandi House officials. It is a world with its own code: pay up and show.

It is a code that has several implications: on the quality of programming which suffers because the producer8217;s margin declines, on independent producers who cannot afford the cuts8217;, and on professionals who refuse to learn the language of compromise. It has led to the departure of bright people to private networks and it had caused the still-birth of many potential talents.

Is it a surprise then that Doordarshan, which turns 40 this year, is losing both revenue and viewership? Those who are no longer held hostage to Doordarshan, thanks to cable and satellite television, have an option, and despite the figures that Prasar Bharati CEO Rajeeva Ratna Shah unveiled at a high profile Press conference in the Capitalearlier this week, people are preferring to turn off DD.

Its revenue this year was just Rs 400 crore, almost Rs 90 crore less than last year. According to Television Audience Measurement ratings, only 60 per cent of the Socio-Economic Category ABC the only people advertisers listen to watch the National Network and DD Metro. Sony Entertainment Network, which began three years ago, and Zee TV, which started in 1993, have overtaken DD in audience share: at 72 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.

The CEO may argue that DD still leads in homes which are terrestrially connected, which is double the cable and satellite households, but DD8217;s bottomline is still scraping the barrel. Autonomy has not helped it any.

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Neither have the sermons of the few good men on the Prasar Bharati board. As the corporation speaks about launching 24-hour networks and setting up virtual studios, it should do an inventory of the quality of manpower it is taking into the new century. If there are any more Paharis 8212; and by allaccounts, he could not possibly have worked alone 8212; then let them be exposed. Let the CBI not do what it has done in other chargesheets: promised action only to falter.