Punjabi Antenna
No slant please
Randeep Wadehra

Talk show Masle on PTC is making a qualitative difference to the channel’s analytical content

Lately one has been getting calls from viewers protesting the ‘bias’ in news telecasts by various channels, particularly by PTC News, which allegedly is ‘unabashedly’ pro-Badal parivaar. Not only does one or the other Badal plus in-laws figure prominently in the news bulletins, there are also specially choreographed telecasts singing paeans to the parivar’s patriarch, deifying him as the messiah of the masses whose magic wand banishes all the woes bedeviling the state.

The protests do have some substance, but one must point out here that they are mistaking sponsored news items (akin to political advertisements published in the print media) for the channel’s official bulletins. Unlike political ads-in-news-bulletin-format in newspapers, the ones on the electronic media can be passed off as the real thing. There is certainly a need for resisting this trend.

There is always a gap between the ideal and the practical. This holds good for news dissemination, too. News ought to be restricted to hard facts, with newsreaders giving carefully scripted accounts of main undisputed facts of politics and other significant events. Ideally, there should be no slant, facts shouldn’t be interpreted or analysed. This should be left to separate current affairs programmes that deliver a mix of fact, comment, opinion, analysis and interpretation in interviews, commentaries by experts and feature reports.

If you peruse the news contents of the three major regional channels, you would notice that DDJ normally sticks to the time tested policy of playing safe by playing the role of sarkari mouthpiece. Its news bulletins more or less resemble official communiqu`E9s from New Delhi or Chandigarh. Discussions, debates and analyses are more or less absent. Zee Punjabi’s Zee Khabran, on the other hand, does its best to be even-handed vis-`E0-vis the ruling and Opposition parties in Punjab. However, its news content is essentially Delhi-centric. But its two current affairs programmes—Ikk Khas Mulakat and Khabarsaar—provide regional perspective and concentrate on issues and personalities related to Punjab.

This is where PTC News has proved to be different. Its news content is essentially regional in character as well as scope. It provides relatively more airtime to Punjab’s ruling party and shows deference to Prakash Singh Badal, which is not extended to Captain Amarinder Singh or other senior leaders in the Opposition, or even the coalition’s junior partner, the BJP.

However, it has quite a few current affairs programmes that bring balance to the otherwise skewed perspective. Among these the walk and talk show Guftagu, and the one on one Straight Talk have successfully put many a politician in the dock. Ritesh Lakhi’s disconcertingly searching questions often make the politicos squirm. But, in my opinion, the one talk show that is making a qualitative difference to the channel’s analytical content is the channel’s latest panel discussion show Masle.

In its different episodes, be it the debate on Punjab politics featuring SAD’s Daljit Singh Cheema and INC’s Rana K.P., or the one on the Centre’s policy on giving grants that had Congress’s Chatrath at loggerheads with BJP’s Avinash Rai Khanna, or the acrimony involving some eminent agricultural scientists and environmentalists over the issue of organic farming—a lot of heat was generated, but plenty of light, too. However, the episode featuring Dal Khalsa’s Harcharanjit Singh Dhami, VHP leader Vijay Bhardwaj and SGPC member Hardeep Singh did underscore the fact that the forces of intolerance and communalism still lurk just beyond the pale of our democratic polity.

Ritesh Lakhi as moderator stands out as the voice of reason. Indeed Masle lends a lot of intellectual aura to the PTC News as a channel. If only its news content were less in thrall of the SAD’s first family.