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India's flailing national broadcaster got support from an unlikely quarter as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi grieved over Doordarshan's struggle to "maintain its professional freedom." Modi's lament seemed conceivably more as a reaction to the row over his interview being culled, and less an avowal to truly set free the country's "suppressed" public broadcaster. He hasn't after all displayed traits that would lead us to believe he'd like to be put through much scrutiny by an empowered press. And with history as precedent, it is all too obvious that while India's politicians across party lines have forever waxed eloquent about the spirit of a free press, even demanded autonomy for Prasar Bharati (which comprises of Doordarshan and AIR) when in opposition, once in power no political party has quite mustered up the will to unchain it from the shackles of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
"This was a promise made by Nehru to Parliament in 1948. But it is yet to be redeemed. The post-Emergency 1977-78 broadcast autonomy committee, in its report “Akash Bharati”, presented a blueprint for autonomy. That was dumbed down by the Janata government and a Prasar Bharati bill was finally enacted in 1990, brought into force in 1997 and emasculated almost ab initio" writes B G Verghese, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in a piece for the Indian Express.
Will Narendra Modi change this depressing narrative? Will he walk the talk about preserving "in letter & spirit" the free press which as he declared on World Press Freedom Day was "a democracy's cornerstone"? Will he liberate Prasar Bharati?
There is little hope if what happened during the NDA years is any inkling of what is to come if the BJP comes back to power. Pramod Mahajan, the I&B minister during the BJP's reign had quickly transferred a station director for not leading with the PM's address in the evening news according to independent media writer Amberish K Diwanji. Doordarshan, during the BJP's last reign, ended up carrying regular news items of the prime minister and party, keeping alive the age old tradition of pushing up superfluous stories about the government of the day, he wrote in a 1999 piece for Rediff titled "Autonomy appears a pipe dream for Doordarshan". This was keep in mind, the same BJP that had raised a bogie for DD's autonomy only a few years prior.
Ten years later, as Modi bewails the death of a free press, one can't help but feel a sense of déjà vu. Doordarshan continues to gain more notoriety for being a mouthpiece for the government, and media experts continue to remain skeptical that very much will change.
"They did a couple of good things including giving industry status to the film industry and initiating a plan for digitization through CAS, the last time they (BJP) were in power. But in terms of autonomy for Doordarshan - I don't see any government doing it. More so, because they see the national broadcaster as something of their own in a space that's dominated by private news channels. Any political party would hate the idea of losing control" says Vanita Kohli Khandekar, a regular columnist for this newspaper and author of book, The Indian Media Business.
The jury is still out then on whether Modi will walk the talk. But if he does decide to, in the event that his party forms the next government, he need look no further than the exhaustive recommendations of the Sam Pitroda Committee whose report purportedly was deliberately delayed till the EC's model code of conduct came into force so it wouldn't have to be implemented. From administrative and financial autonomy to a regulatory mechanism to ensure public accountability (and avoid what happen to Modi's interview?!) and a viable funding model that will improve Prasar Bharti's revenue streams, the list of 26 recommendations the committee makes are comprehensive. They also include undertaking audits of Prasar Bharti's manpower, increased funds for content generation, digitization of selective operations and taking steps towards the creation of a world class channel of global repute on the lines of the BBC and CNN.
It will be the next government's responsibility to ensure it doesn't gather dust in a I&B ministry vault like the reports of five other committees who've worked on the restructuring of Prasar Bharti's operations over the last 5 decades.
