TELEPROMPT
Too much of BJP
Mannika Chopra

It is another week of the obsessive media focus on the BJP that I am almost feeling sorry for the party, which clearly is in a mess. On any given news bulletin you will have breaking news of who is meeting whom, with huge speculations on why. While I am not against the party eating up so much airspace if there is something different to say, but when you have 30-odd news channels repeating themselves hoarse on the same bit of information, day and night, it does get a bit tiresome.

Not that you can really blame the channels because some times they are simply reacting to deliberately played out sound bites and strategically positioned interviews. Take Brajesh Mishra’s (Principal Secretary to former Prime Minster Atal Behari Vajpayee) interview last week to both NDTV 24x7 and CNN-IBN. Played simultaneously on both channels, watching it was an exercise in spot-the-difference. And frankly, it was pretty hard. If Barkha Dutt on 24x7 was asking Mishra on Kandahar, a nanosecond later Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN was asking exactly the same thing.

If Thapar was asking how Vajpayee would have reacted to a book exulting Jinnah, then, wham, you had the same question and answer being played out on NDTV 24X7. Did they both discuss the questions they were going to ask? Not likely. The setting was also exactly the same — Mishra’s drawing room — though, perhaps, NDTV won in the lighting department. Clearly, Mishra must have called both the channels and told them that he was willing to unburden his soul, and also at the same time indulge in a sophisticated art of Advani-bashing.

He may have also laid out the ground rules about questions to be asked and not asked. And guess what? Both anchors fell into the trap, hotfooted it and, sadly, didn’t even think of changing the background setting, and aired it at the same time. The channels not privy to this ‘exclusive’ continued with their version of the fall and fall of LK Advani. The man himself has chosen to remain silent (now getting him would be a real exclusive), leaving his party functionaries to fend off the criticism.

But in a real display of loyalty, friendship and I don’t know what other emotion, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah on NDTV’s newly revived The Buck Stops Here ranted against the media, urging it to leave this "icon" alone. It was a moving little gesture, which might just have some effect on the media’s latest preoccupation. I have said so in the past and I will say so again. If there are any serious viewers of television debates and discussions out there, they should see the Lok Sabha channel. With sets resembling what TV studios must have looked like in the Soviet Union, circa 1965, no snazzy graphics and no advertising whatsoever to relieve the monotony, the channel still manages to redeem itself by broadcasting sensible discussions by using knowledgeable commentators and experts.

This week the discussion on food security was insightful, timely and just what a viewer wanting to know about the impact of the drought would have wanted. Economist Jayati Ghosh and journalist Gargi Parsai did a commendable job, with the anchor — and I have to shamefully admit that I don’t know her name — asking astute questions without badgering and barking. So refreshing. And this was not a one-off. If you scan the channel regularly, you will know that it ends up having some memorable interaction like Mrinal Pande’s and her weekly chats with cultural personalities in Baton Baton Mein.

So you want to know about money? It’s history, psychology and impact? Start viewing The Ascent of Money, a six-part series which is currently being shown on Fox Entertainment and News. Anchored by Niall Ferguson, who has written a book by the same name, the series looks at the history of money. May be you really knew all this but the way the whole topic is presented is simply brilliant. So you don’t see boring graphics, or hear heavy economic jargon, but instead are exposed to the role of money, and greed, down the ages.

But if you want to know what filthy lucre does to a family and also have a dry laugh, see Dirty, Sexy, Money on Star World. The weekly drama dovetails on how Nick George, a squeaky clean lawyer, takes his dead father’s clients, the richy rich Darlings, and possibly in the process loses his soul. The show has a stellar cast — Donald Sutherland plays the ruthless white-haired patriarch, Tripp, while Jill Clayburg is his angst-ridden wife.