Sushma's Swaraj?

DURING his shortlived but rather eventful tenure as information and broadcasting minister, Sudini Jaipal Reddy rarely lost an opportunity to articulate his 'free-the-airwaves' agenda: "I want to liberate the ministry from the minister, and the media from the ministry." The United Front government didn't last long enough and, worse still, didn't have enough elbow room to push full-fledged electronic media autonomy through. The BJP-led coalition now in power at the Centre faces a similar predicament, but Reddy's successor, the irrepressible Sushma Swaraj, is in no mood to let anybody render her office redundant. If her exertions as I&B minister in the 13-day A.B. Vaj-payee government of 1996 are anything to go by, the loquacious lady will personally decide on every detail, right to what the newsreaders should wear on air. Autonomy be damned.

I&B officials are on their toes already. In the musty portals of Mandi House, a section of Doordarshan employees have started talking of the Prasar Bharati board's executive member, the high-profile S.S. Gill, in the past tense. For, even as she plays down her party's avowed distaste for the functioning of the Prasar Bharati board, the new I&B minister has made her intentions quite clear: the amended Prasar Bharati Act, introduced through a presidential ordinance in October last year, will be allowed to lapse. That couldn't be music to Gill's ears. If the amendments are not ratified by Parliament by the end of April, it will be the end of the road for the Prasar Bharati CEO. The former I&B secretary is 70 years old, and under the original Prasar Bharati Act, the board's full-time executive member holds office for six years or until he attains the age of 62, whichever is earlier.

But it's not merely a question of individuals. What's at stake is the very purpose the Prasar Bharati Act is purported to serve: genuine autonomy for DD and Akashvani. But if Sushma establishes her 'swaraj' over the two national broadcasting agencies, especially DD, it'll pose a real threat to the very principles enshrined in the Act. She seems to have found an equally strident ally, the new minister of state for information and broadcasting, Mukhtar Naqvi. The latter has hinted that several of the Prasar Bharati board members will have to make way for people who can deliver the goods. Naqvi is certainly not referring to the age factor, which, admittedly, is not on the side of the board. What he and his party are concerned about is, as BJP spokesman Venkaiah Naidu said recently, "the fact that some members of the board have a political bias".

Veteran columnist Nikhil Chakravartty's views are too left-wing for the BJP's comfort. Yet, I&B ministry sources suggest, the octogenarian chairman of the Prasar Bharati board may survive the imminent upheaval, his age and political leanings notwithstanding. But many others may be on the chopping block. Swaraj has already prepared a note for the Cabinet; a decision is expected soon. Abid Hussain is too close to the Congress; litterateur Rajendra Yadav and historian Romila Thapar have never concealed their leftist sympathies. Neither is media expert B.G. Verghese a BJP favourite. So, while Swaraj was at pains at her first press conference as I&B minister to convince the media that she'll approach the task of recasting the Act and reconstituting the board without prejudice, the die, it seems, is already cast against these personages.

Again, it is certainly not a question of individuals. The most retrograde step the BJP-led coalition government is contemplating is the reinstatement of the provision of a 22-member parliamentary committee. The panel was envisaged in the original Prasar Bharati Act as a mechanism to make the board accountable to Parliament. In scrapping the provision, Jaipal Reddy had argued: "In view of the fact that there is a standing committee of Parliament dealing with information and broadcasting, another committee of Parliament to look into the functioning of the board is redundant." Swaraj obviously thinks otherwise.

Where does that leave autonomy? Says one member of the Prasar Bharati board: "If a parliamentary committee is allowed to call the shots, there's no way the board can function effectively." Precisely. If 22 MPs drawn from a hopelessly fragmented Parliament control the board, the latter, manned by people much better qualified to run a media organisation, can only crack under the pressure. Much worse, if every time a new government is installed, the provisions of the Act and the composition of the board are tinkered with, we might as well stop deluding ourselves, kiss media autonomy goodbye for good.

 But to be fair to the new regime, the Prasar Bharati board isn't exactly the epitome of balance. It's anything but representative of all shades of thought and age groups. And that's where the UF government went horribly wrong: by packing the board with "friends of I.K. Gujral"—that, indeed, is the popular perception—it left the gates ajar for manipulative tendencies and the depredations of the Thought Police to come crashing in.

Two wrongs don't make a right. But do right-wingers have a clear sense of what's wrong? Unlikely. Swaraj and Naqvi's pronouncements don't inspire confidence. Following the notification in July last year of the Prasar Bharati Act of 1990, DD, despite some hiccups, was well on the way to evolving as a free, dynamic media organisation capable of responding to market realities without sacrificing its charter as a public service broadcaster. But if political interference in DD's functioning becomes the norm once again under the new dispensation in Shastri Bhavan, Reddy's commendable groundwork will be undone. One fears, the damage could be irreparable.