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'How can these television channels come to my country and show what they like without my permission?'

In this interview with Sundaymagazine editor Vir Sanghvi, Chand Mahal Ibrahim spoke with a rare candour.

No obscenity is being shown and nobody is blaming you anyway.

All the time in Parliament MPs are complaining. And I have no law. I have no way of enforcing any responsibility. Still, MPs are blaming me for what appears on television.

That is why I wanted to have a law that will give us the power to license channels. Once you've licensed them you can put conditions on what kinds of programmes and second, you can also get income.

That's an argument for broadcasting law in general, not for your Bill in particular.

Opinion is divided. Some people are saying that this man is against foreigners. But many of the same people who are supporting foreign airlines are opposing foreigners being allowed to broadcast. So I am not able to understand why there is a division of opinion.

What about the effect the law will have on all the existing channels: MTV, STAR TV, etc? They will not be able to function.

They will have to come to India and uplink from here. They will also have to take Indian partners. Then they can function.

Does that make any sense?

It is my country. How can they come to my country and show what they like without my permission?

Every country in the world has broadcasting laws. Why shouldn't we have our own?

Nobody has broadcasting laws like the one you are proposing.

Who says so? There is no STAR TV in Singapore.

There is no democracy either. That's hardly a good example.

What about France? That's a democracy. They don't allow satellite TV.

That's simply not true. You can receive MTV, the BBC, CNN and God alone knows what else in France without their having to uplink from Paris.

But they are not allowing broadcasting in French language.

But you are doing more than banning programming in one language. You are not allowing anything.

I am not saying that these proposals are final. I am only saying that we should have some control. I have agreed for the draft Bill to go to a Cabinet committee. And I have said that there should be more discussions. All these matters can be discussed.

What about DD3 (Doordarshan's third channel)?

We need to invest a lot of money in DD3 to make it a very successful channel. Unfortunately, we do not have the money. So I have said that if somebody wants to buy 49 per cent of DD3, I am willing to sell in to raise the funds.

Even to Rupert Murdoch?

Yes, to anybody who can pay.

Let me get this straight. Rupert Murdoch cannot own more than 40 per cent of STAR TV, a satellite channel, according to you Bill. But, he can buy 49 per cent of DD3, a terrestrial channel?

If was Murdoch I would just buy DD3 and put the same STAR TV programming on it because you seem to think that's OK.

Does this strike you as being at all logical?

(Laughs) Well, that little conflict is there. That is under discussion. I understand what you are saying. But I am going to go to Delhi from Bangalore in two days time. And then I am going to launch a national debate on the issue.

From this month only we are starting a Focus programme on DD and this will be devoted only to the Broadcasting Bill. Let us have debate, let us have transparency. We are calling people from all walks of life to air their views.

We will call judges, Parliamentarians, press people -- in fact, I had already put your name down on the list, even before this interview - and people from other television channels. Let us hear their objections and then let us formulate the policy.

Let me try and summarise your position. One, we need new broadcasting legislation. That is not negotiable. Two, what the legislation will contain is still open to discussion and debate. Is that fair?

Yes, yes, yes. And you should add that we will have full transparency. The debate will not be in-camera. It will be on the national network.

Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine

Interviews