The Great Communicator

Narendra Modi has done the unexpected: he has brought DD and AIR in the news again. For the man who has become known as the Great Communicator, this is a big surprise: after all, DD and AIR had fallen into irrelevance in the last couple of decades, so his use of state media was another example of his thinking out of the box.

Let’s recap for a moment. First radio. AIR has had a virtual monopoly of the airwaves ever since Independence. Jawaharlal Nehru, in spite of his strong belief in democracy and free speech, was persuaded to keep government control of the only mass medium of the country. No doubt this was done for noble purposes — to bring worthwhile programmes on culture, science, social issues and so on, to listeners. We can safely assume, however, that one of the main reasons was the news, when newsreaders intoned in BBC voices “This is All India Radio bringing you the news”.

This intent to control the news became clear, when bowing to general pressure to open up the airwaves — and finding a new avenue to add to government revenues — private broadcasters were allowed on the FM bandwidth. This so-called opening up was strictly limited. FM stations could air entertainment and nothing else, certainly no news or current affairs programmes.

When television came to India, Doordarshan was the only channel available. The world’s greatest democracy had no intention of allowing its citizens unfettered access to the real world: with AIR and DD, we could hear or see only what the government of the day wanted to permit us to do. The phrase “government of the day” is important — when the Janata government of Morarji Desai came to power in 1977, post the Emergency of 1975 to 1977, you would have expected it to swiftly dismantle control of the state media: after all, the entire Janata leadership was at the receiving end of fabricated news throughout the Emergency. But what did L.K. Advani as the information and broadcasting minister do? He talked of an autonomous institution called Prasar Bharati which would run both AIR and DD.

Thirty-five years later, the autonomy remains a figment of successive I&B ministers’ imagination. FM radio and satellite television channels may have made both AIR and DD irrelevant, but even then, no one has made the slightest attempt to bring in any freedom of operation to Prasar Bharati. The Congress, now vehemently protesting the telecasting by DD of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s Vijayadashami speech, has been the worst offender: apart from Indira Gandhi’s cynical use of state media during the Emergency. Rajiv Gandhi treated DD like a pet poodle. In fact, he dominated the only television channel in the country of that time so much that this columnist began to call it PM Darshan.

Mr Modi seems intent on taking this further. His first step, so unexpected of the Great Communicator, that it took the entire media world by surprise, was to exclude access to him and the PMO to everyone but AIR and DD. His second step was to do away with the well-entrenched system of taking journalists and broadcasters on board the PM’s aircraft when on state visits overseas. Now only AIR, DD and the government-controlled news agencies PTI and UNI are invited. The rest can go at their own expense.

Is this good or bad? Obviously, it is wonderful for DD and AIR. They have with one single order been revived.  Obviously, this hasn’t been done out of any altruistic intent; this is Mr Modi’s way of going to the public directly. We should actually have seen it coming: throughout his incredible election campaign when he crisscrossed the country and gave a record number of speeches, Mr Modi gave no press conferences, and hardly any interviews. This PM is the most publicity conscious one in our history;  but he is reaching the people on his own terms. In a way this almost parallels the Chinese model.

His first address on AIR last week was no doubt inspired by the “fire side chats” of President Roosevelt. The tone was friendly, the message was non-controversial and non-partisan. His talk made no overt political points, it made no reference to the important byelections. He spoke of nation-building in a way no one could possibly object to. I will not be surprised if we soon have a conversation between the PM and a friendly anchor on DD, though the frequency of these will no doubt be limited.

In a general sense, nothing has changed — our media is still free; it’s just that the PM has found a way of bypassing it. There is a small caveat here, which has to do with the freedom of our media. There have been upheavals in major newspapers and TV channels with leading editors and anchors either being shown the door or being made to feel unwelcome. No one thinks this has happened due to pressure brought on owners by the PMO, but it’s also clear that owners have shifted out people thought to be opposed to Mr Modi. Anticipating pressure and giving into it is much worse than giving in to actual pressure. As it happens these owners have acted in haste: much of the opposition to Mr Modi is due to Gujarat 2002, but even that legitimate feeling might have been tempered by Mr Modi’s conduct as PM. But that now is speculation.

The broadcast by DD of Mr Bhagwat’s speech should, however, be a cause for concern. Prakash Javadekar, the I&B minister, has claimed that he had no idea that DD was broadcasting the speech but no one believes that for the simple reason already stated, which is that DD is not, and has never been autonomous.

Viewed objectively, the RSS chief’s broadcast was newsworthy and could have been part of DD news as an item, but to broadcast the speech live gave it the importance of a national event, which it undoubtedly wasn’t. Taking this together with many of the unfolding events in the country you begin to wonder if this is the thin edge of a very dangerous wedge.

The writer is a senior journalist