Protests over partisanship

RAISINA HILL

It's election time and the National Democratic Alliance-led government is doing more than its best to spread the India Shining message far and wide.

A Rs 50-crore budget for the campaign, which runs across most satellite channels, and in almost every regional language, is probably okay. Pocket change for a country with an expenditure budget of over Rs 4,00,000 crore!

But propriety demands that the government stop using the official media campaign as a tool to further the ruling party's political agenda just ahead of elections. Accordingly, the India Shining advertisements will appear for the last time on television channels on February 20.

While the creative for the India Shining campaign was designed by Grey Worldwide, it was anchored by an Indian Information Service (IIS) officer from the Government of India.

Moreover, a team of senior government officials, including Chief Economic Advisor Ashok K Lahiri and Expenditure Secretary D Swarup, inspected the draft of the publicity material, whether for the print media or for the television channels.

So much so that only traditional and Indian attire was used by models and anything remotely objectionable sartorially was discarded. The media campaign, going by public reaction, has been fairly successful and has been widely noticed. So far, so good.

But what has irked IIS officers is the way Doordarshan News (DD News) is being managed these days. Last Friday, Shastri Bhawan was witness to a dharna by IIS officers in front of Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's office. The IIS officers were protesting against the blatant manner in which DD News was telecasting one-sided versions of the news.

Moreover, many in the rank and files of the IIS have been transferred for disobeying the diktats of DD News' newly-hired consultants. It doesn't help that the consultants are paid substantially higher salaries compared to the IIS officers.

A recent example of DD News' one-sided attitude involved Pramod Mahajan. The BJP leader's declaration that even children of people of non-Indian origin should not be eligible to become the country's prime minister, was played time and again by DD News.

As journalism demands, the least a correspondent has to do is take the reactions of other political parties as well. But a Congress reaction to Mahajan's statement was not entertained, officers told Prasad. And someone who insisted that it be taken was transferred.

This was not the only instance. According to IIS officers, over a dozen officers have allegedly been transferred for not toeing the party line.

Such blatant use of the government's machinery to meet electoral objectives has infuriated the 480-odd civil servants belonging to the information services.

On Friday, the principal information officer along with other senior Press Information Bureau officials had an hour-long session with Prasad.

The minister, according to senior IIS officials, has promised to set things right. He, however, did not hold any promise of bringing back the dozen-odd officers and reinstating them at their original position and responsibilities.

For Prasad, it will not be difficult to get to the bottom of the issue and act in the right fashion. The main problem in Doordarshan seems to be the lack of a proper chain of command.

Doordarshan does not have an Additional Director General (ADG) "" traditionally, an official of the additional secretary-level. The consultant appointed by the ministry, therefore, decides the content.

While appointing consultants and giving them fatter pay-packets is not unusual, it should reflect in the value-addition they bring to the table.

There are several other complaints that the information service has. Promotions have been held back for long and cadre reviews are waiting to happen.

Successive ministers, officers complain, have often made promises, but failed to deliver. This is still tolerable, they say, but curtailing their independence is not.