The small screen sizzles

 PUNJABI ANTENNA

By

Randeep Wadehra

For the past fortnight or so the Punjabi small screen has been sizzling. On 13 April a petroleum tanker, carrying natural gas, exploded on a busy road near Ambala railway station killing several people and destroying property, including passing vehicles, worth crores. It took several hours to bring the fire under control. First reports indicated “gas leakage” as the cause of explosion – providing a prophetic halo to Maut de license – an expose by the PTC News reporter Daljit Singh, telecast only a couple of days earlier. Various government agencies have prescribed norms for constructing and certifying petrol tankers/storage tanks. But, Daljit and his camera team revealed how, instead of a qualified engineer, a non-technical man – who appeared to be a Class IV employee – inspected the tanker. The report also showed money changing hands. The ‘Certificate of Safety’ was thus issued after enacting a charade of technical inspection. Shockingly, the engineer, who has purportedly signed the certificate, is not available at the address provided in the certificate; the PTC expose informs that he probably does not live in India. Various persons, including manufacturers, tanker owners and touts, admit on camera that most of the tankers on road seldom go through the prescribed testing/certification procedures. The expose then goes on to focus on storage tanks. Daljit discovers a firm in Baddi that had applied for renewal of the license for its over-ground petroleum storage tank. Instead, the GOI’s Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization, Nagpur, issued a license for “One underground petroleum storage tank…”! How could they do this when all the relevant documents submitted pertained to an over-ground tank? Was it sheer inefficiency or were the sarkari babus playing Office, Office?
One fears the above expose is going to escape due attention owing to the political pyrotechnics that have been triggered off following the journalist Jarnail’s shoe throwing exercise in PC Chidambaram’s press conference. TV screens came alive with people – including women and children – storming police barricades, various political outfits taking out morchas, Akalis announcing reward for Jarnail and senior Punjab journalists expressing their displeasure at the transgression of professional Lakshman Rekha. However, while Doordarshan, Jalandhar, has predictably confined the incident to its news bulletins, Zee Khabran remained satisfied with replaying the clip a few times. When queried by this columnist they informed that Zee Punjabi was not contemplating any special/talk show on the issue. Thus PTC News is not only the first off the block with three talk shows in a row but also the only Punjabi channel to interview Jarnail Singh (Straight Talk); all the three shows were anchored by Davinder Singh. His incisive and provocative questions set off heated exchanges between Chaman Lal and Phoolka. In another show Naresh Gujral and Makkaul (who flung his son’s case file at the Chief Justice of India during his visit to the Punjab and Haryana High Court), while criticizing Jarnail’s action, gave it the 1984 context and cited CBI’s clean chit to Tytler as the immediate provocation. The frustratingly slow judicial proceedings often provoke illegitimate forms of protests, they argued.
But it was Jarnail Singh who proved to be a cool and crafty customer. All the tricky/loaded questions by Davinder Singh (Straight Talk) were parried. While expressing regret over his action Jarnail did not exactly deny explicitly harboring political aspirations. Whilst pointing out how he got congratulatory messages from around the world he could not hide the gleam in his eyes. “Shoeing” as a shortcut to prominence? May not work always. Ask the retired teacher Ram Bhaj who, four days later, had followed Jarnail’s example and, in the bargain, got thrashed by Jindal’s followers.

THE TRIBUNE