Opinion Questions for IBN

If you instead want to fill your programming with random conjectures and share bits of juicy Delhi gossip,you could turn away from the declarative to the interrogative. On CNN-IBN,in particular,it seems,questions heavy with implication are cherished as the highest of literary forms. Here are the questions that led off,and ended,CNN-IBN’s news capsules on the subject: “Will Sonia take over the duties of party president once again,or leave Rahul solely in charge?” “Will Sonia’s absence from active politics be a change of guard from one Gandhi to another?” I don’t know the answer to those questions. Having watched those capsules,I can assure you that CNN-IBN doesn’t,either. The actual content of the bulletins merely reported the Congress’ release of information,and what is on the party’s agenda during the time that Sonia Gandhi is likely to be away; and yet someone took the decision to bracket that with little queries that appear to go off in a completely different direction.

Rajdeep Sardesai’s show on Thursday asked another set of questions: “With Sonia Gandhi out of action,what next for the UPA?” Wonderfully framed — because on the surface of it,the topic appears utterly anodyne. Yet we were forced to,over the course of the discussion,realise that it embodies an assumption: that Sonia Gandhi will be “out of action” for long enough that the UPA will need to plan a succession. And consider,too,the direction in which the question insists discussion must go: into “what next”,which you or I might call completely fact-free speculation,but CNN-IBN apparently wants us to call “news”.

Meanwhile,the titles along the top were asking even wilder questions: “Is Antony the next PM?”,for example. Look! There’s a question mark! For us at CNN-IBN,it means freedom from constraints! It means we can say anything we like,repeat any rumour we hear,guess wildly — because we’re just posing a question!

Amusingly,Sardesai asked Congress spokesman Manish Tewari why the Congress had been secretive about its president’s medical condition — adding,with every appearance of concern,that “secrecy often leads to speculation”. We are all relieved that CNN-IBN does nothing to aid that worrying process.

Tewari said,“Rajdeep,with all due respect,this discussion is wholly and completely inappropriate.” (Yes,I like to participate in wholly and completely inappropriate discussions,too.) He tried to continue,“We should not unnecessarily speculate”,when Sardesai interrupted him: “We’re not speculating! We’re not speculating!” Sardesai then turned to Yogendra Yadav to ask: “Is the presence of A.K. Antony as one of this four-man panel a sign that he is the one man the Gandhis trust the most?” Yup,no speculation there.

Meanwhile,everyone seeking desperately to make the composition of the four-member panel as newsworthy as possible seemed to find different things to emphasise. CNN-IBN declared that the inclusion of Antony was “surprising” — a pious assertion somewhat undercut by Sardesai’s claim within a few seconds that there has been “a lot of buzz in Delhi” about Antony’s closeness to 10 Janpath. Meanwhile,over on NDTV,Sonia Verma Singh declared that the real surprise was the inclusion of Janardhan Dwivedi. There wasn’t any explanation as to why it was surprising. Just that it was. I suppose that is news,in the sense that I didn’t know NDTV was surprised before they told me. But at least I didn’t notice any theories-as-questions being sneaked in on NDTV’s bulletins,and there were none that I saw on Times Now’s,either.

Because,once again,Times Now had something quite different to outrage! about. In the News Hour,Arnab Goswami shared his sense of betrayal with us. “What happened to the BJP? We thought you were going to insist on voting,you would bring the government to its knees,” he demanded of Chandan Mitra about the Lok Sabha debate on prices. But,instead,“you went and compromised!”

Mitra tried sarcasm,saying that the channels would have loved the confrontation,wouldn’t they,their programming would have been taken care of — but Goswami is immune to such darts: “But you promised it yesterday!” he complained. The BJP’s floor managers should have known better than to go back on a commitment to Times Now. Such commitments have binding,justiciable force.

Truthfully,I felt for him. It was truly an intolerable betrayal. After all,if people start settling their disputes maturely,the News Hour might well become the News Minute.

mihir.sharma@expressindia.com