Star Under Siege

The governments 15-day deadline has come and gone. But Star TV CEO Rathikant Basu hasnt been sacked yet. And now the lawyers on both sides are poring through the documents mustering their arguments and counter-arguments.

What will happen next in the battle royale between the government and Star Television? Already the plot reads like something concocted by one of Stars tackier scriptwriters. The government has thrown the book at its one-time blue-eyed boy Rathikant Basu. Now it has brought in the sleuths from the CBI to uncover evidence of wrongdoing during Basus stint as Director-General of Doordarshan.

Inevitably, plenty of muck is now coming to the surface. The CBI is investigating why a deal with WorldTel for the rights to the World Cup Series went wrong. At the time Basu scored a coup by buying the rights to the World Cup Series for Rs 8 crore. He then scored a second coup by selling the satellite rights to Star for a good deal more.

But the deal went wrong because Doordarshan failed to pay up in time. And WorldTel CEO Mark Mascarenhas, who is said to have got scent of the Doordarshan-Star deal, decided to cancel the original agreement and negotiate afresh with Star. Was this a Machiavellian plot masterminded by Basu? Its hard to say, but it wouldnt be the first time that the government has been late on payments.

Inevitably, now that it is caught in a crisis, Star TV is dodging the limelight. But it is obviously alarmed by the governments hardline stance which has been threatening to blacklist the Hong Kong-based broadcaster. Already Star TVs Hong Kong based CEO Gary Davey has flown into India twice in the last few weeks. But there are indications that he isnt getting much of a hearing from the government.