Vatican correspondents are stunned by the low-key greeting accorded to the Pontiff on his arrival at Delhi on Friday night. According to them, it is extremely unusual to have such little fanfare for the Holy Father's arrival in any country. While Associated Press reported that the Pontiff had been "accorded an extremely cold reception at New Delhi," the CNN correspondent said "In his 89 trips around the world, rarely has Pope John Paul II received a more subdued reception." No anthems, no flag-waving, no crowds cheering, and apart from Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Panja, absolutely no Indian officialdom. Normally, it would have been the President as the head of State who would receive the head of the Vatican state. Government officials try to explain that as the papal plane arrived late (2030 hours), and as the prime minister was still on his way back from Orissa his "official reception" was postponed to Saturday morning, where he was accorded a full ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan, and then was received by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Hyderabad House. Visiting hacks are not impressed, however. What is particularly curious, is Doordarshan's attitude towards the Papal visit. Way back in August, when the visit seemed a certainty, Mandi House bigwigs agreed that the Pope's itinerary would be covered live. If nothing else, at least the High Mass at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which will be attended by an estimated 70,000 people, and will include the Papal address, colourful dances, etc would have been covered live for all Indians to see. As other television agencies including international ones like BBC, CNN, the Italian television network Rai, and Associated Press Television were making their plans at the time to broadcast the events live, the information and broadcasting ministry took another decision. They would not allow any other agency to uplink and broadcast the events live on their own (uplinking permission is now routinely given in cases like election coverage, Mother Teresa's funeral, etc). They would, instead have to take DD's coverage at their regular rate (normally $ 1,000 to $ 1,500 per hour of coverage). The agencies seemed agreeable, even relieved that DD would take care of all the technical aspects at what seemed a reasonable price. Then, things got strange. At a high-level meeting between DD officials and MEA officials last Saturday, a decision was taken rejecting the earlier plan, and DD announced to the press that it would not cover any of the Papal events live, stunning all the news agencies that were depending on DD. According to well placed sources, when the MEA begged and Church officials pleaded, DD, which is now covering the events on its international channel, DD India, agreed to provide live picture feeds to the television news agencies at a price. The price -- an exorbitant $ 3,000 per hour (roughly Rs 130,000.) The result? No agency, besides DD International (with a negligible viewership), is carrying live pictures of the Pope's visit. This means a colossal loss for DD itself, and seems to have served no purpose at all. With the worldwide population of Catholics having crossed one billion, it would seem that DD could have earned a huge revenue from selling its pictures of the Pope at an acceptable, reasonable price. But for reasons known best to the government itself, it chose not to. Suhasini Haidar worked for CNN before accepting an assignment at rediff.com
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