Window on the world
Amita Malik

THERE was a time when Prannoy Roy’s The World This Week on Doordarshan was the only India-based programme which looked out at the rest of the world. Then Saeed Naqvi’s World Report went much further afield and had rare exclusive interviews with world leaders such as Gorbachev in the Kremlin and Fidel Castro in Havana on their home soil.

Naqvi is one of the most relaxed and confident interviewers and even had time, when he and Gorbachev were passing a corridoor lined with books, to ask him if he had time to read any of them. Among other achievements of Naqvi which have not yet been equalled is his coverage of Indian peace-keeping forces under the auspices of the UN, sometimes in high-danger spots where he risked his life and that of his crew to do the coverage. But Doordarshan, in its infinite wisdom, confined these extraordinary exclusive programmes, the only one of their kind on Indian TV, to very early morning and very late at night instead of prime time, so hardly anybody saw them. This had its come-uppance when a show of all Naqvi’s programmes on India’s peace-keeping programmes were shown to a distinguished audience at India International Centre. When I asked any member of the audience who had seen the programmes on DD to put up their hands, not a single hand went up, although the then CEO of DD had just boasted to the audience that only DD had shown the programmes.

So it was welcome news that Prannoy Roy was reviving The World This Week on NDTV and I tuned in eagerly to the first programme. I must confess I was a little disappointed. Not a very exciting line-up of items, rather bleak in fact. And the item on the Pakistan Prime Minister was distinctly dated. However, I cheered up with last week’s edition which had a formidable line-up of items. There was Barkha Dutt in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border and a statement from Abdullah Abdullah, Roy the professional economist’s shrewd evaluation of Cancun, Suchitra Ghosh in London talking about Tony Blair, an item on India’s ditching of Aung Sang Suu Kyi and lighter items with Jennifer Lopez, Madonna and a skit on Bush and Mush, which seems to be a regular.

However, I have my reservations about some of the reporting. When it comes to a specialist like Ajai Shukla, or experienced reporters on our neighbouring countries like Rajdeep Sardesai, the programme is on sure ground. But its New York and more sparse London coverage is far from novel, authoritative or exciting. These two correspondents, when it comes to American or British items, are competing with CNN and the BBC and they are not really up to it. Their items always seem second-hand and culled from the local press and media rather than original. Here our more experienced press correspondents do much better. So the main contribution these two correspondents can make is of the Indian angle, and this is done in a routine and predictable way which makes them far from exciting. And not really up to the demanding standards of The World This Week and its outstanding anchor. I think NDTV needs better foreign correspondents.

So much for The World This Week. We have also had on Doordarshan for some time now, and luckily at 10.30 pm on Monday to Thursday, another programme, which in its less dramatic but equally thought-provoking style has been doing very worthwhile coverage of the world beyond India and, like The World This Week, with a clear Indian perspective.

Anchored by a young and very assured lady, Farah Deba, World View India has a good line-up of experienced correspondents, some of whom have specialised in particular regions, such as Afghanistan, Iraq and West Asia. And, of course, they had the tremendous advantage of Satish Jacob reporting for them from Iraq when most other Indian correspondents had left. The team of roving correspondents for World View India, has Harinder Baweja, Sanskarshan Thakur, Sashi Kumar who got that rare interview with Masood before he was assasinated, and Mohd Ahmed Kazmi. Some have been to Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, and other trouble spots. The programme ropes in freelancers for variety. Last week there was Aunohita Mojumdar having a cosy chat in Kabul with young Indian telecommunications engineers rapidly adapting to life in a new climate. The day before Arun Jaitley left for Cancun, they got Paranjoy Guha-Thakurta to do a specialised interview with him. Since the team consists mostly of youngers, including the anchor Farah Deba, may I ask them to keep up the good work?

Everyone can’t be Prannoy Roy, but there is good teamwork and the freshness of youth. And that counts for a lot.

Tailpiece: NDTV is reviving its Hindi channel. Of the new programmes I found fascinating the way a couple of experts transformed a drab middle class flat into an elegant one. But I am totally against the cosy tie-up between five-star hotels and chefs and TV channels, with mutual benefit. I would rather have independent gourmet cooks like Chitra Ghosh doing Bengali recipes or Bhicoo Manekshaw Parsi food. But, Hum Log continues to do a fine job, last week’s session on agriculture being quite outstanding.