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When the Narendra Modi-led government came to power, expectations were high that he would bring in minimum government with maximum governance. Modi went back on his promise of minimum government by expanding the number of ministers, but that would be have been excused if he would have delivered on the governance part.
The Sun TV Network episode is a clear case of how various wings of the government are acting as autonomous bodies. Less than a week back, the home ministry struck down a proposal that was cleared by the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry for giving security clearance to 33 television channels of Kalanithi Maran-promoted Sun TV Network. The move could have led to cancellation of their broadcasting licence.
Now, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said the government should grant security clearance to all the 33 channels.
Maran, on June 10, backed by a legal opinion from the former Law Commission chairman and retired Supreme Court judge, A R Lakshmanan had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that his Sun TV Group had been singled out by the Home Ministry while denying security clearance. The letter had the names of 61 channels owned by 16 media groups having criminal cases against their promoters.
Maran’s letter to Modi was written after Maran wrote one to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, which went unanswered.
Maran also mentioned the point that there were several TV and FM Radio companies, which had pending cases involving 2G spectrum, corporate espionage at the Ministry of Petroleum, corruption involving disproportionate assets and extortions, yet security clearances for these media companies have not been revoked and only Sun TV was singled out.
Lakshmanan in his opinion had pointed out that “The words of National Security and Public Interest as contained in the policy guidelines have to be given a strict interpretation. The same have to be seen in the light of the content of the transmission and uplinking and not on the basis of the alleged allegations against the promoters of the company… the criminal case at the stage of an FIR or enquiry or framing of chargesheet by CBI cannot form the basis of revoking the licence or suspending the licence or denying the renewal on the ground of public interest or national security concerns.”
Meanwhile, I&B has asked Home Ministry to give a definition of “economic security threat” that can be cited in the cancellation letter to Sun TV Network.
As the ministries fight among themselves little thought is spared for the investors of Sun TV. Many broking firms downgraded the company after the news of cancellation of licences appeared, and rightly so. Since almost all of Sun TV’s profit is derived from these channels, it made little sense to hold on to the company’s shares. As the stock opened sharply lower a day later, investors had to book big losses by getting out at lower prices. The company lost over Rs 2,000 crore in market capitalisation on account of the news, closing 22 per cent lower.
But now that there is a chance that Sun TV’s licences will not be cancelled (though the Attorney General’s opinion is not binding on the government), the stock again shot up immediately giving little time for investors to react. Sun TV closed the day at Rs 333.55 recording a gain of 7.86 per cent over the previous day's close. While the stock has not reached the levels from which it fell, the point is such random decision making will frighten investors away.
