Mamata's cable war: Protecting aam aadmi or encouraging theft?

The depression of the Bengali post-Durga Puja knows no bounds. Life after Lakshmi Puja seems hardly worth living in Kolkata. The excesses of Durga Puja are now just a Gelusil memory. The city is littered with the bamboo skeletons of dismantled pandals. The puja bumper sales are over. The firecrackers of Diwali and Kali Puja seem far away. And Bhai Phonta or brother’s day is hardly enough of a consolation prize for our babus as they trudge back, shoulders slumped, to office. Into this autumn of our discontent comes fresh despair. From tomorrow no TV. On 1 November, millions of residents of Kolkata will lose their last scrap of pleasure as the deadline for going digital rolls around. No more Raashi or Didi Number 1 or Sa Re Ga Ma if you don’t have a set-top box in place. Apparently 2.5 crore Kolkatans  do not. But luckily, we do have Mamata Banerjee — our personal Durga, goddess of all small people, slayer of all monsters from full-price LPG to Chinese-made set-top boxes. Didi has made it clear that this deadline is “unacceptable. We will not allow it.” [caption id=“attachment_509469” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] We are used to getting our cable for cheap and illegally from the neighbourhood cable-wallah. We are used to getting one connection and “sharing” it around the house. Reuters[/caption] And because no issue is safe from the “what Kolkata thinks today, India thinks tomorrow” syndrome, she added “If necessary, we will launch a state-wide movement and later spread it to the whole of India.” On the face of it, it does not sound unreasonable. In a poor country like India, does everyone need to be frog marched into digital-land whether they want better picture quality or not? Mamata says set-top boxes are an added expense, there are not enough around, and the whole drive is anti-poor. And don’t forget the Durga Puja factor. The central government, she complained did not take into account the fact that people wouldn’t have money to spare during the festive season. Really. How callous of Ambika Soni to have thrust Bengalis into this kind of Sophie’s choice — new clothes for the children or a set-top box for no disruption in watching Saat Paake Bandha? Cable operators have seized on her belligerence to go slow on the conversion which means unending confusion for their customers. The Cable Operators’ Digitisation Committee says 40 lakh set top boxes are needed which is twice the ministry’s estimate. It claims hardly 35-40 percent of households in Kolkata have made the switch. But Siti Cable in Kolkata says 70 percent of its customers have switched over. The MxM India study says as of 23 October 34% of Kolkata has been digitised. Chennai is the furthest behind at 19%. But all this quibbling over numbers dances around the elephant in the room. We are used to getting our cable for cheap and illegally from the neighbourhood cable-wallah. We are used to getting one connection and “sharing” it around the house. Even Mamata alluded to that in her press conference. “One cable connection allows us to run four TVs at home. Elderly parents, young children, adult couples, all have different tastes. So there are three-four TV sets in several households now. With digitisation, one set-top box will transmit signals to a single TV.” Mamata says she’s speaking up for the “common people” and against the “dadagiri” of the centre. But in the name of a law and order situation she is also condoning all those cable operators, who with a wink and a nod and for a little extra cash, allow multiple connections from one source with signal boosters. It’s a sort of win-win under the table arrangement. The subscribers pay less for their cable. The operator under declares the number of connections. And the broadcaster can do little except fume. The set top box threatens to upset this cozy set-up by requiring one box per television. Didi is a canny politician. She knows more people are worried about no television on Thursday than they are about Wal-mart in the distant future. But she’s also digging in her heels for a system that’s really about theft. We don’t consider it as theft because we live in a society where we regard piracy as a sort of chalta-hai birthright but as a colleague points out “those who get cable cheap are buying ‘stolen’ goods.” There are real questions to be raised about the conversion to digital. What is the real problem in letting analogue and digital co-exist? Was the deadline too soon? Has the government done enough to explain what’s at stake to consumers? Are enough boxes really available? Is there an artificial shortage being created? Why are boxes that once cost Rs799 suddenly going for Rs 1500? Should there be subsidies made available to the elderly and the poor so they can actually afford a set top box? But instead we live in a society of sops and ultimatums. So a Jayalalithaa gives away free televisions (minus set top boxes) and a Mamata warns there will be “protests on the streets”. The Bengali, however, can take some consolation. Deepa Das Munshi, the newly minted minister of state for urban development, has said this week that she has spoken with Bangladeshi opposition leader Khaleda Zia urging her to increase the supply of hilsa from the Padma to Kolkata. Thank Ma Durga for that. If they cannot watch television, let them have hilsa instead?