Rajdeep Sardesai looks back at a decade of television news

Ten years of Moneycontrol.com may seem to have swept by in haste, but a decade at times can feel like an eternity. Rewind to 1999. It was the year of the Kargil conflict, India’s first televised war that changed the rules of the media game. At the time, there were just two 24-hour news channels: Star News and Zee News. The news revolution was yet to take off; Kargil gave it the impetus by bringing the bravery of our soldiers into our living rooms. 
 
As a reporter with NDTV, which produced the programmes for Star News, the war conferred many of us with overnight stardom. Suddenly, the anonymity of the journalist was over: we were now in the age of the ‘star’ journalist, instantly recognisable faces with whom the viewer could connect. The era of the ‘by a staff reporter’ - the ubiquitous byline under which many of us had made our tentative steps into journalism was now truly a thing of the past. TV was offering more than 15 seconds of fame, and there was a growing desire to be part of the electronic media revolution. Suddenly, print appeared almost fuddy-duddy, many print journalists tried to make the switch to television which until then had been dismissed as a ‘lesser’ medium. The taste of the new generation was best exemplified by Kargil martyr, Vikram Batra’s line, Yeh dil maange more! 
 
Today, there are almost a hundred 24 hour news channels in different languages, more than any other country in the world, each breathlessly reporting every little piece of ‘breaking news’. Year 1999, in a sense, was the turning point. It wasn’t just Kargil, it was also the year of the Kandahar hijacking, another momentous news event that changed the media landscape. LK Advani and Jaswant Singh may well squabble today over who was responsible for the decision to release Masood Azhar and other terrorists, but the fact is that at the time itself, it was the ‘intrusive’ 24 hour news channels that were blamed for forcing the Government’s hand. At the time, round the clock news television may have appeared a novelty today virtually every story is accompanied by a forest of mikes.  
 
It isn’t just journalism that has dramatically changed in these 10 years. Year 1999 was also the year when Atal Behari Vajpayee won a famous victory in the general elections, and it seemed as if the BJP was poised to rule India for a very long time. Sonia Gandhi, by contrast, appeared a political novice, her claim to have the support of a majority of ‘272’ Memebers of Parliament failing to materialise as her ‘foreign origins’ became a potent issue. Today, Vajpayee is both tired and retired, the BJP is in a coma. Mrs Gandhi, on the other hand, is the most powerful individual in the country, while the Congress seems to have rediscovered the Midas touch. 
 
I remember covering Dr Manmohan Singh’s campaign in 1999: The first and only time he contested an election. He lost that election from the South Delhi constituency, and there were many who were writing his political obituary. Today, he has begun a second five-year term in office as prime minister. Could anyone have imagined that the gentle sardar, who seemed deeply uncomfortable in the public domain, would become India’s longest serving prime minister since Indira Gandhi?
 
For that matter, could anyone have imagined that the Sensex, then still a dot on the economic horizon, would become the most eagerly tracked daily figure in the country, that we would have half a dozen business channels in a country? 
 
Much has indeed changed in the last decade, and no doubt much more will change in the next 10 years. On a personal level, my hair has greyed, the shoulders have drooped a bit, middle age truly beckons! Let me confess that I do at times miss the era when there were fewer channels, less breaking news: You actually had time for an extended lunch. Now, as today’s news becomes the next hour’s history, I guess it's only appropriate to feel nostalgic for the past, but also look forward to the challenges that will be posed by the next decade. 
 
Oh yes! One thing hasn’t changed: Moneycontrol.com is still the country’s premier markets and business website!   

The author, Rajdeep Sardesai is Editor-in-chief of IBN Network.