Tube Travails
This was something Kolkatans have been waiting for, and when the moment came, their TV screens went blank. Sourav’s comeback was missed by a majority of Kolkatans; and the resultant rage was understandable. I&B Minister PR Das Munshi, who was in this city that time, spewed venom at Nimbus, the channel that had bagged the exclusive TV rights to broadcast the match, even going to the extent of calling the channel unpatriotic. But the point everyone missed was that Kolkatans would have been able to merrily watch the Nagpur match had the state government implemented the Conditional Access System (CAS) here three years ago. That time, despite repeated requests from theunion government, the state government dragged its feet in deference to the wishes of the powerful cabal of cable operators to scuttle the plan. Under the CAS regime, the cable operators would not be able to under-report the number of their subscribers and, hence, they were opposed to CAS. Cable operators of Kolkata declare just a fraction of their actual number of customers and, hence, rake in lakhs of Rupees every month illegally. But now, since implementation of CAS in phases has been made mandatory and 15 percent of Kolkata has come under CAS, all those with set-top boxes, including about 25,000 homes in Behala (Sourav’s locality), could cheer and celebrate Dada’s spectacular show on Tuesday. As for the rest of Kolkatans, they should blame the state government, which, rather than catering to the interests of the people, seems more interested in protecting crooks and vested interests.