National

The Retailing Of Rao

The I&B Ministry and Doordarshan are working overtime to apply gloss to the Prime Minister's image

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The Retailing Of Rao
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It is presumably a day before the festival of lights. At a small fair price shop in a remote pocket of India, a middle-aged woman asks for her weekly quota of sugar and rice. Wonder of wonders, not only are the two commodities available, the shopkeeper reminds the lady to pick up her entitlement of kerosene oil as well. Wah, intones the pleasantly surprised woman, thanks to Narasimha Raoji, it will be a real Diwali for us at last.

Welcome to P.V. Narasimha Rao’s India. It has acquired a bright, phosphorescent glow. In Doordarshan’s enticing, made-to-order visions of national well-being—on view on the national network on prime time, night after night—nothing, absolutely nothing, can go wrong. The public distribution system is doing wonders in the poorest of poor districts; the economic reforms are bearing fruit all around; rural development and employment schemes have empowered the masses; and communal amity reigns in every heart. Bliss for everybody.

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Governance at its very best. That is what the Prime Minister has given India during the last four years, if Doordarshan’s undisguised advertorials are to be believed. There are a large number of them in circu -lation already, with more on the way. The pre-election message of hope—India is God’s own country under the benevolent reign of a messianic Rao—has to be conveyed to the people. And quick. With the next general elections only a few months away, the government-controlled broadcaster is running out of time. So it has shifted into a new mode. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry in Shastri Bhawan and the Doordarshan Directorate in Mandi House are hives of frenetic activity. Ministers and officials are working overtime to brush away the cobwebs that have gathered on Rao’s image.

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No more half-measures, no more subtlety. Hardsell is the need of the hour. So a comprehensive media action plan has been drawn up by the I&B Ministry. And for the next six months, it will be Narasimha Rao all the way. An estimated Rs 100 crore is to be spent on producing literature, films, serials and sundry video snippets extolling the virtues of the various poverty alleviation and rural employment schemes that the Rao Government has introduced. The I&B Ministry, now run by Purno A. Sangma, has already released nearly Rs 15 crore to its various arms—the Directorate of Audiovisual Publicity (Rs 4 crore), Films Division (Rs 1 crore) and Doordarshan (Rs 10 crore).

But with the PMO closely monitoring the media action plan, money is no problem. Development-related ministries are pumping in money to produce pro-Rao propaganda for Doordarshan. In return, they have sought free air time to get their points of view across. Needless to say, Door-darshan is all too willing to cooperate. And, thanks to the efforts of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is responsible for organising funds for Rao’s pre-election publicity, money seems to be flowing in from other sources as well.

On the anvil are a Rs 1.5-crore film by Shyam Benegal, a Rs 1.5-crore, 52-episode television serial by Sai Paranjpe, a series of short TV films by Prannoy Roy’s NDTV and a string of intimate interviews with the Prime Minister by Mahesh Bhatt and produced by Amit Khanna’s Plus Channel. Then there are a host of pro-grammes to be handled both in-house and by private parties. DD has sought about Rs 10 crore more to produce a clutch of documentaries on the government’s economic policies. The I&B Ministry has, in turn, submitted a supplementary budget demand of over Rs 100 crore and a part of that amount is likely to be made available within the next four weeks. "It will be a windfall for many private producers, who stand to make a killing from this publicity blitz," admits a Mandi House official. Says a Bombay-based software producer: "For us it’s just another job, and there’s money in it."

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Others, too, have their rationalisations worked out. Bhaskar Ghose, secretary to the I&B Ministry, feels the contention that the electronic media is projecting Rao is a gross exaggeration. "What Doordarshan is trying to do is sensitise the people, make them aware of their rights. It would be failing in its duty if it didn’t," he argues. Sangma, too, told the parliamentary consultative committee of his ministry on October 26: "It is a government media organisation’s job to spread awareness about the government’s policies and schemes."

But that is not how the Opposition sees it. Says Janata Dal’s Ram Vilas Paswan, chairman of the government’s media policy committee and a member of the I&B Ministry’s consultative panel: "Is extolling Rao the same as spreading awareness? How can the government set up a media policy committee and then go ahead and misuse the electronic media to project a single political party?" He scoffs at Sangma’s suggestion that DD is a mouthpiece of both the Union and state governments. "That’s pure bunkum," he says. "Will they allow a state chief minister to exploit Doordarshan?"

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But hasn’t the Opposition been rather reticent? "That’s not true," says Paswan. "We will raise the issue during the winter session of Parliament. We didn’t walk out of the consultative committee meeting only because it was Sangma’s first meeting as I&B minister. But if the Congress propaganda on DD does not stop, we will not the allow the next consultative committee meeting to be held." At the October 26 meeting, Paswan was backed by J.P. Mathur of the BJP, Geeta Mukherjee of the CPI and Rupchand Pal of the CPI(M) even as the Congress members, significantly, maintained a studied silence.

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Paswan adds that the pro-Rao campaign could boomerang. "Rao is certainly not better looking than Indira Gandhi. The people will get fed up with his face soon enough. Even Indira Gandhi was voted out of power because she projected herself far too much during the Emergency."

At any rate, the PMO is believed to be orchestrating the entire campaign. Sangma’s appointment as I&B minister and P.M. Sayeed’s as minister of state under him were part of the PMO’s plans to ensure that the electronic media stayed in its control. Sangma’s low-key style of functioning is in sharp contrast to the imperious ways of his predecessor, K.P. Singhdeo, who was not particularly close to Rao. But Sangma, who could not be contacted despite 10 calls and a visit to his office, has been avoiding the press. Says a source close to him: "He is not granting interviews because he is still feeling his way around."

But that has not prevented him from asserting himself in Doordarshan and I&B affairs. Deputy director-general of DD Urmila Gupta, who ran foul of Singhdeo and was shunted out, is back in Mandi House. K. Subramanya Sarma, an Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer who is close to Sangma and the PMO, has been appointed joint secretary (broadcasting).

"Sangma has simply brought his perspective to the ministry, he has done no violence to the existing structure," says Ghose. "Over 60 per cent of Doordarshan’s pro-grammes have always been devoted to information and education. All we are doing now is reorganising these pro-grammes on more professional lines. We are moving away from Mahilayon ke Liye and Krishi Darshan type of shows."

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But isn’t the much-touted third channel in danger of being scrapped because of the Congress propaganda blitz? "There is no such move afoot," clarifies Ghose, adding that the channel is doing quite well in places like Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, where it is availabe on the same platform as DD1 and Metro, unlike in Delhi.

Whether DD3 thrives or sinks, Narasimha Rao will loom large over small screens across the country during the run-up to the next elections. But will that translate into votes? Wait for the next episode.

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