Independent India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is set to return to Doordarshan and All India Radio, in the week-long celebrations planned to observe his birth anniversary which falls on October 31, representing a break from the past in more than one way.
For one, October 31 also marks the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was killed on the day, and which finds no mention in the directive from the policy division of the public service broadcaster asking programmers to plan suitable programmes on Patel beginning October 25.
Second, as opposed to observing the anniversary on a single day, this will be a week-long celebration of the leader and his vision.
For officials in Doordarshan and All India Radio, a regime change at the Centre has often presented a challenge in the changes brought to news programming, though on paper, both remain autonomous public service broadcasters. Officials insisted that the decision to observe the anniversary was an autonomous decision without directives from the parent Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which bankrolls it.
Last year, October 31 marked the day when the birth anniversary celebrations of Patel overshadowed the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi. In a well-crafted event, the BJP appropriated Patel by observing the day as National Unity Day, leading to protests by the Congress, which accused the ruling party of deliberately overlooking Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary.
For the BJP, which has made clear its intentions of appropriating Patel, the week-long celebrations on the public service broadcasters will serve as a perfect vehicle to showcase its intent. Since the return of the BJP to power in 2014, the public space has seen a contest for commemorating leaders whom the party perceives as belonging to its ideological league and also as persons given short shrift to by the Congress. This has also provided for contesting narratives where political leaders are pitted against each other.
Officials in AIR and DD said there was no directive to observe the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi.
Officials also said that they had lined up programmes and discussions centring on the vision of Patel. From discussions on his foreign policy to a programme feature titled, “Silk that became Iron”, AIR has planned talk shows featuring former Panchajanya editor and Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay, and journalist Kuldip Nayar, to name a few.
