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IT is probably a sign of a battered economy that most news channels did not send representatives to COP 15, the official name of the summit on climate change being held in Copenhagen this week. Perhaps they will send later. But till then we are merely recipients of a whole lot of buzz words (carbon emission, need vs greed, Hopengaen) and the convolutions within the Indian delegation. Interestingly, the run-up to the conference saw a lot of pessimistic stories being aired mostly with foreign footage. The defining images have
been those of storms, floods, melting ice caps and children wailing
about their future backed by a strong commentary. The BBC has, as part
of its excellent coverage over the year, systematically been covering
communities which have been displaced by climate change, while CNN has
been looking at global hot spots in shorter features. But when the
conference kicked off last Monday with 192 countries descending on
Denmark, a silver lining has been appearing. Hopes have been increasing
of a credible climate deal emerging (refer to BBC's David Shukman's
reports on BBC).
However, it would be fair to say that Indian channels have been oddly subdued on climate change, unless it is to air Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh stoutly defending himself against charges that the government was kowtowing to the developed nation's (read America's) position. The indigenous reporting, such as it is, ranges from no coverage at all to the panic mode. In between, there have been studio-based discussions with assorted activists, experts and Opposition leaders shouting and creating general mayhem. Given India's canvas, the climate change story can be hugely diverse if one looks at its impact, mitigation, politics and global intersection. So the lapse is strange because in some ways the media can also be seen as a key negotiator and a way to build public opinion on a very crucial issue. It has been 20 years when militancy appeared in the Kashmir valley. Though news networks love to acknowledge anniversaries (who can forget the recent 26/11 tamasha) and their own commemorations (NDTV's been constantly reminding us that it has turned 20 and CNBC 18, we were told this week through elaborate promos, is 10), somehow this important landmark fell through the cracks. But it was a topic that was raised and discussed in detail on Lok Sabha TV. The channel, which as I have said before, despite its sets that look like something out of Bulgaria, circa 1960, manages to overcome that handicap and gives us the thinking person's TV. Pages from History, a programme anchored by Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, had three able panellists — Ashok Jaitley, a former Chief Secretary, Navnita Chadha Behra, a political science professor from Delhi University and author of Demystifying Kashmir, and Lieut Gen (retd) Vinayak Patankar. The trio represented the political, administrative and security aspects of the issue, and for anyone vaguely interested in the whys and the wherefores, I suggest that you surf the channel and catch a repeat, or, as the case may be, a repeat of the repeat. The discussion’s measured approach even made you overlook the programme's ghastly orange-tinted graphics, including a watch that kept rewinding backwards. Maybe that was some graphic artist's idea of a visual representation of a page from history but, seriously guys, it is time go back to the drawing board. After giving us Pati, Patni aur Woh and Rakhi ka Swayamvar and on the verge of giving us Swayamvar Season Two with Rahul Mahajan, that cocaine-inhaling youngster, you may want to question the creative team at NDTV Imagine. But this week my concerns increased dramatically when the entertainment channel aired Raaz Pichle Janam Ka, which deals with past life regression. In its inaugural programme, Swati Singh from Bhopal gets hypnotised to find out why she has a fear of flying. "Put under" by Dr Tripti Jayin, the hypnotist, 30 minutes later we find out that this mother of a four-year-old child is actually the incarnation of a sailor, R. Singh, who died in a air crash in 1966 — the same Air India plane which had also carried top scientist Dr Homi Bhabha. Later shows will have assorted celebs, including Shekhar Suman and Monica Bedi talking about their 'past'. In a not- so-clever promo, the show was also publicised, perhaps advertised would be a more apt word, by Headlines Today in its news. After having its ears tweaked by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry when Star Plus showed Sach Ka Saamna, you would have thought the general entertainment channels would have been more careful. Getting hypnotised to find out about your past is certainly a tricky area. |
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