Penblunt & Hogwash

Democles' in waiting

Sholay is our evergreen, undying film.

Now when I see and hear the commotion over content code controlling TV news, I often think of Gabbar Singh nee Priyaranjan Dasmunshi.

“Jab door gaon mein bacchaa rota hai to maa kahatee hain, beta so jaa… so ja nahin to Gabbar Singh aa jayegaa” a la Sholay. (When a child cries at night in a faraway village, the mother says, son, go to sleep…go to sleep or Gabbar Singh will come.)

Dasmunshi has banned two TV channels so far, and threatens to do more.

And to the news channels, especially those showing Taslima Nasreen being beaten black and blue for umpteen hours, and feel like telling them, Betey sudhar jaa, sudhar jaa nahi to Gabbar Singh aa jayegaa. (Children, change your ways, change your ways or Gabbar Singh will come.)

The content code is hanging like a very loose Damocles’ Sword on a tenuous wire over the news channels. Last week, they had a noisy meeting at the ministry of information & broadcasting and said they want nothing to do with it.

But you may not want anything to do with it and yet, it may want and may actually do what it feels like with you. I do not think Harish Thawani needs to be told that Gabbar ‘DM’ Singh aa jayegaa. (Das Munshi, the Gabbar Singh will come)

Gabbar Singh has already gobbled Neo Sports and scattered its cricket show across the India through DD and the DTH players have dipped their finger in the DD pie and shown all of Neo cricket on their platform, arguing that their licensing conditions say they must show all DD channels, and Neo’s purse got just a few nickels in!

Likewise, Gabbar DM Singh will enter the arena with his famous pistol and ask any news channel, Kitaney golee hai is bandook mein, Sambha? (How many bullets are there in your gun, Sambha.)

This is serious. We have a government empowered by the people, though it is neither of the people nor for it, which has all the powers and will act through an Act in the name of the people.

And the news channels would keep telling each other in disbelief, “But we said we want nothing to do with it!”

The government has a singular tool. Airwaves.

Gabbar will come with his content code and the TV news channels can do either of two things: defy or oblige.

If they oblige, that would be OK.

If they defy, the government will say: we shall not take action, neither penalise nor arrest you, but just stay off our airwaves. Airwaves, most of you must be knowing, are public property.

In India, ‘public property’ means government property, and the Supreme Court and courts below it have repeatedly asserted that airwaves are public property, so the government can say, stay off it.

That is, de-licence a channel.

Why do the news channels resist coded functioning? They say we are a mature democracy and have done without government controls for so long, so why now? We know what needs to be done, and where to draw the line!

But they don’t.

I have been talking to senior media managers, editors and such species who have been asserting that they are mature democrats.

They have been telling me that there has to be a line drawn, but who will draw it? And who will abide by a line drawn by a rival channel?

Or will the editors sit together and draw a line on mutual consensual basis? Is that possible?

When the editors of TV news channels cannot agree upon what is news, and got to each other’s jugulars last month during a debate at the News Television Awards (on stage, in full view of the public as well as the public servants, in a posh hotel) who would care about lines.

If one channel says, well here it is, this is the line, the other channel would draw another one cutting across it, and say, but this is the real line, you see and annul each other.

Thirty news channels and 100 more coming. 24 hours a day. Seventy one million cable households. Rs 6,000 crore advertisement pie annually. That is the limit. It will not likely grow, the ad pie. So if there is scramble when we are 30, what will happen when we are 130?

The average running cost of a moderate news channel is about six crore a month, or Rs 72 crore a year. Let’s calculate:

Rs 6,000 crore divided by 72 crore, that is, at the most 83 odd channels can survive and some may make a little money from this market as it exists.

Rupees 72 crore multiplied by 130, that is, Rs 9,360 crore would be the money needed to allow 130 channels survive and may be let a few make some money. Where is that going to come from?

If that does not, the channels would have to gouge the rival channels’ eyes out to get that number of eyeballs to find the revenue from the limited share of ad pie, and that would mean more cheap programming (both in terms of money spent on and quality of programming), which means more crude, crass content.

I cannot for the fear of God (or Gabbar, or Dasmunshi) figure out where we are headed. Dog eat dog meat for sure. Cultural mayhem, nay apocalypse guaranteed, if the news channels are not reined in.

So I say, Betey, sudhar jaa, nahi to Gabbar Singh aa jayegaa aur kahegaa: bahut maal kamayaa hai… ab golee khaa! (Son, reform otherwise Gabbar Singh would come and say; you have made enough money…now have bullets.)