New Delhi Television - NDTV frauds: a classic example of breaking of law by Indian media houses

My earliest memories of New Delhi Television (NDTV) was watching a foreign-returned Psephologist called Prannoy Roy, who used to stay up all night as counting (in those days, it was manual) went on round the clock and updated the eager population of India with trends, results and where the parties were headed. Poll projections were not in vogue yet. What amazed me was that Roy was a constant at the TV network, sometimes for 36 hours at a stretch while the rest of the panelists changed by the hour! As the results caused the fortunes of parties to ebb and flow, when one party surged ahead, its spokesperson turned up and claimed how he/ she saw it all along, only to be replaced by someone else from some other party saying the same things. How did this earnest looking man, with a sly smile ended up presiding over one of the most corrupt media houses in Indian history?

NDTV was built on public money from the very beginning when it started as a private production house and bagged programs from the public broadcaster Doordarshan in the mid-80s. In 1988, NDTV got a good contract from Doordarshan to produce a famous weekly show called The World This Week , which was anchored by the owner Prannoy Roy. As per records, Doordarshan granted Rs.2 lakhs ($6000 ) per episode to NDTV, which was a princely sum in those days. Incidentally the head of Doordarshan at that time was Bhaskar Ghose and his son-in-law journalist Rajdeep Sardesai became the No. 2 in NDTV. The Congress Party was in power then and showed all possible support to NDTV and provided a red carpet welcome to the private media unit to enjoy the national resources of Doordarshan. Every resource and infrastructure of Doordarshan was used for NDTVs growth. In fact, in the early days (1995-1997), it is this tax payer money (Doordarshan contract) that got him personal gains again when he did sweet private equity deals (for sale of personal stake belonging to him and his wife) to a few global private equity funds. Thus, he built a business from patronage (government money) and then created value and cashed some of it by selling to private equity investors such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Alliance Capital, Jardine Fleming etc.

Prannoy Roy was appointing sons, daughters, in-laws, nephews and nieces of top officials and politicians in NDTV as journalists. This show of nepotism in journalism changed the style of journalism as access to corridors of power became easy for media houses. Not only bureaucrats, several kith and kin and siblings of top police and military officials too became journalists in NDTV, as and when the organization needed largesse from the system. This unholy recruitment of journalists completely changed the character of Indias journalism. In those days the joke in Delhi was that all siblings of the powerful, not-so-good-in-academics can become journalists through NDTV. Still, when you look at the family details of many journalists in NDTV, you can see their links with IAS, IPS, IRS, Military top brass uncles, fathers, and in- laws.