June 10, 2007
One Year After Launch,
Lok Sabha TV Losing Its Way By Faraz Ahmad
New Delhi
Nearly a year after its launch, Lok Sabha TV (LSTV), touted as a
"milestone for Indian democracy", has lost its way somewhere in the
thicket of mushrooming television channels with most cable operators
refusing to show it on the plea there is "no demand".
"There is a niche for such a TV. It exists in England, it exists in
other democracies. The idea is to get people involved in serious
political issues being deliberated and decided in parliament,"
outgoing LSTV editor Raman Nanda told IANS.
However, cable operators like S.S. Luthra in south Delhi say there
is just "no demand" for the channel, which is the brainchild of
Somnath Chatterjee, who took over as Lok Sabha speaker in 2004.
Faced with a hostile opposition and unseemly scenes in the house, he
suggested telecasting the entire proceedings of the two houses to
serve as a sobering influence on MPs. Launching the channel,
Chatterjee had declared: "I am not the owner, and nobody is the
owner of it. The parliament of India is the owner of this channel."
The primary purpose is to offer a fair and objective analysis of
house proceedings that many feel is not given by mainstream media.
But has Lok Sabha TV (LSTV) fulfilled that mandate?
One programme aimed at providing that perspective is "Dateline Lok
Sabha" that reviews the proceedings of the house over the preceding
week with MPs across the political spectrum. But in one recent
episode, there was only one BJP MP discussing the events for an
entire hour!
Another instance is the Nandigram agitation in West Bengal, where
four people were killed in police firing over land acquisition for a
special economic zone (SEZ). Parliament was rocked by opposition
protests and it was frontpage news in all the papers next day as the
debate over displacement vs industrialisation hotted up in the
country.
But not on LSTV. On March 14, the prime time, phone-in programme
(Public Forum/Lok Manch) took up the Bal Shramik (child labour)
issue. On March 15, the subject of Public Forum was 'Alternate
Dispute Redressal System - A Status Report'. On March 16, Lok Manch
discussed 'Schooli Shiksha' (school education). And on March 17,
Public Forum repeated the discussion on the redressal system.
"Throughout the eventful week, a discussion on Nandigram in the
Public Forum was evidently taboo for the officers running the
parliament channel," said Nanda.
While Nanda is leaving, other senior officials have already left.
These include LSTV executive director and former Doordarshan deputy
director general Sudhir Tandon, head of anchors Jagmohan Bhasin,
senior producer Shakeel Ahmad Shamsi and senior cameraman Ajay
Shetty.
LSTV CEO and former information and broadcasting secretary Bhaskar
Ghose was reluctant to discuss the matter.
"I will speak nearer the date. We complete one year in July," Ghose
told IANS.
Kainthala, who had suggested 'filler features' on MP's clothes and
is number two in the channel, was also reluctant to discuss the
channel's obvious failures: "The right person to talk is the CEO
because this is his brainchild. He is the one who had conceived it."
Officials are also reluctant to disclose how much the Lok Sabha
spends.
At the end of the day, just no one was willing to talk - at a time
when the first anniversary celebrations should be planned.
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