SIGHT & SOUND
Need to set the airwaves free
Amita Malik

THIS week, I have for you one of the happiest media stories but, alas, with a sad ending. Incredibly enough, it took place in Bihar, sneered at as one of the most unenterprising and backward looking parts of India. In a small village called Mansoorpur, a young man called Raghav set up a small FM Radio Station, starting with a capital of Rs 50. It had a radius of 30 miles and soon became the voice of the village.

Radio Vaishali, as it was aptly named, had villagers themselves drawing up their programmes, discussing their local problems and, of course, throwing in the required doses of music, and as far as one can guess, filmi music.

But alas, last week, authorities stepped in from the Centre. Quite clearly it was an illegal station, as government not only has the monopoly of nationwide broadcasting through All India Radio, but anyone wishing to set up an FM channel, and there are a few of them now on the waves, has to operate under the most crippling restrictions. No news, no intruding on AIR and DD’s sports broadcasts and so on. So, poor Vaishali Radio may have answered the popular demand of the village, but it simply had to shut down. And a gutsy private enterprise has been killed.

This reminded me of a similar effort, but this time with the blessings of ISRO. In a little village called Pij, near Pune, another such radio station was set up in the late 1970s to enable the village to have a voice. The leading light of the station was the village schoolteacher, who undertook everything from production, to scripting and voicing and soon built up an enthusiastic team of local broadcasters. It became an instant hit for miles around and became truly the voice of the people.

But sooner than later, AIR stepped in, since the village voice had shown up DD’s dull, bureaucratic one. So one fine day, the I&B Ministry took over and, soon after, the whole thing closed down. But there was a tragic ending. The village schoolteacher was soon burnt to death inside his own hut. It was explained as an accident due to a short circuit. But most people believed he had committed suicide after his beloved station was closed down.

The strange thing is that the present monopoly of the central government in radio broadcasting is based on the Indian Telegraph Act of (as far as I remember) of 1898. Yet even in the British times, two "native" states, Mysore and Baroda, had broadcasting stations of their own. In fact, Mysore Radio was called Akashvani, a name since taken over by AIR. That the monopoly of AIR was on very flimsy legal ground was realised by many top media people and among them three people I knew decided to challenge it legally.

These were Romesh Thapar, P.C. Chatterjee and my late husband, Iqbal Malik. Both Chatterjee and Malik had been top officials in AIR and Doordarshan. Romesh Thapar was a literally powerful voice in the media and they felt they had a strong case. Sadly, Romesh died soon after and the whole thing fell through.

But only very recently, on a question of freedom of expression, a Supreme Court judge said loudly and clearly: "The air belongs to the people". Incidentally, this wonderful phrase is said to be the opening phrase of the constitution of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which, together with the BBC, is looked on as a shining example of what really constitutes an autonomous broadcasting organisation.

In India, Prasar Bharati, call it by any name, has remained the mouthpiece of every central government, no matter which party has been in power. It is too powerful a handle for party propaganda and personal publicity for any government to give up its monopoly.

Various state governments, including that of West Bengal, have tried to make out a case for its own broadcasting organisation, but failed. So much for the cheering words of the Supreme Court judge.

So where powerful state governments have failed, poor Radio Vaishali in Bihar did not have a devil of a chance.

Perhaps we should be thankful that at least DD has lost its monopoly over TV and has to face professional competition from private channels. Here government has been more lenient because, as far as the ordinary Indian goes, especially in the rural areas with no electricity, TV remains an elite medium. And radio still leads the race, especially with transistors, which is why government is still guarding its monopoly so jealously.