From News Dispatches NEW DELHI: Who makes news on Doordarshan?
The Prime Minister and his men mostly.
But even in this unchanging pattern it is interesting to see who tops the visibility charts.
In fairness to Doordarshan (DD. for short), they don’t put the Prime Minister on every single day. There were actually 11 days in March when he did not figure on either the morning or evening news bulletins on Channel 1, But it certainly did not seem like it to the average viewer because on the remaining days DD more than made up for this. When Rajiv Gandhi did figure he often did so three times in a single bulletin, rating altogether 41 mentions usually with lingering visuals on the months news.
The President came next reversing the official protocol with 13 appearances on the national news.
And who after the President?
The Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar (11 times) Nor was all of this because of the proceedings in Parliament. That was the case only on four bulletins. The rest of the time it was Jakhar attending functions in the Capital inaugurating a low power transmitter somewhere addressing farmers, meeting parliamentary delegations and so on.
Viewers may be surprised at Jakhar’s ratings but not the folks at DD. They know that the Lok Sabha Sneaker like H.K.L Bhagat.
K.C. Pant and Natwar Singh to name a few is rather fondness that they are frequently called upon to humor.
What is noteworthy is that Jakhar beat Bhagat in the DD sweepstakes. No mean achievement!
The Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting tied with the Vice President S.D. Sharma, rating 10 mentions each on the news. Apart from inaugurating low power transmitters, TV relay centers and new DD buildings all over the place. Bhagat was also shown gracing music concerts and such like.
Narasimhao Rao the Minister for External Affairs came next with seven mentions followed as it should be by his deputy Natwar Singh and K.C. Pant the Minister for Defense. Five each On the whole, March was a relatively Mantril (Minister Politician) free month on DD news thanks to Rushdie, Afghanistan and other international stories which dominated the news. Perhaps the PM’s men can look forward to more generous treatment in April.
So here are DD’s darlings for March:
1, PM (41 appearances)
- President (13)
3, Balram Jakhar (11)
- H.K.L. Bhagat and S. D. Sharma (10).
- Narasimhao Rao (7).
- Natwar Singh and K. C. Pant (5).
Article extracted from this publication >> May 12, 1989
