Telescope

Then, he becomes an advertisement for the channel: extracts of his speech form part of SNC’s promos. The same evening (Tuesday) he appears on A Question of Answers (STAR Plus) to discuss the United Front’s economic policies. Sitting next to him is none other than his Finance Minister, P Chidambaram. Doesn’t it strike you as somewhat anomalous that the PM thinks it necessary and worth his while to participate in a discussion on economic policies, when the man responsible for them is right next to him?

On Wednesday, he appears on Face to Face (DD1) with his favourite sparring partner, PritishNandy (what Javed Akhtar was doing there nobody quite knows). But hasn’t Mr.Gujral been interviewed often enough, on every conceivable subject? What is there left to ask him or for him to disclose, barring a few personal details (brand of toothpaste, favourite dish, name of tailor, etc)? It is unclear what the Prime Minister hopes to achieve by this constant exposure; he is not the novelty Sonia Gandhi is (though his stride is rather like hers), nor is he as young or good-looking as Priyanka and he doesn’t have Rahul’s dimple. Laloo Yadav, Jyoti Basu, Ram Bilas Paswan: HELP him.

STAR News Channel. First impressions. The News bulletins: nice to have them around but TVi and Zee India did get there first; neither is as well produced and smart to look at, but often, TVi has great variety. Still, SNC has regular updates — and repetitions. The latter is by no means a criticism, just a fact: unless there is a natural calamity (like the earthquake in Afghanistan) or a man-made one, the news doesn’tchange colour much. So if you’ve seen a bulletin at 4pm, you can safely wait till 9.30 pm to see another. Unless you’re a news junkie and need a fix every hour. Special mention for Yasmin (think that’s her name) who anchored the news in English and Hindi on Thursday with great aplomb.

Battleground: Prannoy Roy doing what he does best: psephologising. The first episode was full of nuggets on voting patterns in the last decade, the rise of the regional parties, the decline of national ones, the hazards of public opinion polls….Roy is now doing what he normally reserves for the election results telecasts: he’s analysing voting patterns and trends already. Headstart over the others. Mrinal Ki Baithak: Mrinal Pande stir-fries politicians. Unlike Nalini Singh on DD1, she manages to get some viewers to call in and ask uncomfortable questions of politicians such as BJP’s Sikander Bakht. However, commercial breaks occurred just when she had asked a question or he was beginning to answer one.Galling.

The Party Line: visits press conferences. Saw excerpts from the PCs of different parties (JD) and the EC. Runs for about an hour. Would be more interesting, informative and even entertaining if there is a a lively questions and answer session with the assembled journalists, a rarity these days. Otherwise, timepass.

Across India: takes you to parts of the hinterland and gives you the view from there. A great relief to the view from Delhi and could be an eye-opener for us city slicks. 24 Hours: invites you to join a candidate’s campaign trail. Soft focus. First day, first show — Sushma Swaraj. Interesting that two BJP stalwarts, Bakht and Swaraj got starring roles on the same day within an hour of each other. Now the party cannot complain of poor coverage.

First Person: from press conferences to the speech of the day. Speeches telecast without cuts SNC says and then analysed by Amrita Cheema and some expert (what would we do without them?). Saw Karunanidhi butcouldn’t understand (hence a translated precis effort by the expert). This makes the exercise a bit iffy (though great for Tamil Nadu). Nightline: Rajdeep Sardesai’s turn to have a go at the politicians. Relates the show to a political development of the same day or day before and then gets politicians/people with differing viewpoints to present them. Should have been the battleground it wasn’t.

But it’s early days.