Will S S Gill be ousted? Sushma won’t say

At an informal meeting with journalists, she was all charm and lots of hedging. She did let slip some facts though. Yes, the ordinance was going to be allowed to lapse. And the BJP Government would introduce a fresh Prasar Bharati Bill in the budget session. The board would not be changed, though she would not comment on the status of Gill she wasascertaining a variety of opinion on it before presenting a note to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

She is clearly in no hurry, especially in appointing the Member (Finance) and Member (Personnel), who will automatically be put on the same level as the CEO once the ordinance lapses on May 6.

“The ordinance was enacted to benefit a particular person,” she said. Interestingly, Swaraj had a good word for DD news under the Prasar Bharati regime.

“It is definitely looking up,” she said in what Gill would consider a major boost. She finds the news on satellite networks far more credible, though. Swaraj has clearly set a timetable for herself on the Broadcasting Bill. “It is closely connected with the issue of a national media policy,” she said, adding in answer to several questions, that there was no debate on the 20 per cent foreign equity cap for the electronic medium. She does not foresee the Bill being referred to another select committee once it is re-introduced in Parliament hopefully inthe budget session.

“The Joint Parliamentary Committee of the 11th Lok Sabha has already collected a considerable amount of evidence which could never be deliberated upon because it was dissolved. We will include those recommendations.” For those who hope to see a decision on Direct-To-Home television soon, all she would say is that the “matter is now in court” and “the Broadcasting Bill will anyway regulate it”.

She is intent on retaining parliamentary control of the Prasar Bharati as it was envisaged in the 1990 Act but she seems in no mood to throw out all aspects of the October ordinance.

“There are certain sound points in it which we want to include in the new Bill,” she said.

She also denied that she had ever lobbied to be Information and Broadcasting Minister.

“Even 10 minutes before Mr Balayogi was chosen, my party leaders asked me to be Speaker. I told them I was willing to do whatever they wanted me to. All these stories are completely baseless.”

It was a busy day for theMinister from meetings with Cable Networks Association representatives who want a ban on digital encryption to an appointment with Delhi Vidyut Board Chairman Navin Chawla to another meeting with Jai Hanuman producer Sanjay Khan. Gill, clearly, will have to wait.