A radio (BBC) reporter on a campaign trail

A radio reporter on a campaign trail

Pune Plus, The Times of India

By Camil Parkhe

Pune, June 13, 1991 :

“This is Sam Miller reporting from Poona; “P” for Paul, “O”, “O”, “N” for New York, “A”. The BBC correspondent was speaking on telephone as soon as he established contact with his office in London.

The reason for his arrival in Pune on Thursday – the polling day was obvious. The chief minister of the state, Mr. Sharad Pawar, hailing from Pune district, had emerged as the strong contender for the prime ministerial post..

Within three hours after the polling process commenced, Mr. Sam Miller had already sent his first dispatch from his hotel suite in Pune to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) office at Bush House in London.

The 10-minute-long dispatch included information on the poor response of voters in the early stages of polling in the Pune Lok Sabha constituency and Baramati, Mr. Pawar’s home-town, with description of the muddy roads in the rural areas and on-the-spot reaction of the electorate.

This was the second dispatch by Mr. Miller, the 28-year-old Briton posted in New Delhi as the radio’s correspondent.

His first dispatch was broadcast twice by BBC. As he finished sending the dispatch, he kept his equipment – a lap-top personal computer, tape-recorder and microphone – in his bag. He was ready for another news piece on the voters’ mood towards various political parties and Mr. Pawar’s chances to the highest executive post in the country.

In the afternoon as the number of voters at the polling booths stared swelling, Mr. Miller conducted exit poll to gauge the mood of the voters.

“Excuse me, do you speak English?”, he asked smilingly to the persons emerging out of the polling booths in the city.

The response was not always encouraging, of course. Most of the voters, unaccustomed to the concept of an exit poll, were unwilling to disclose to whom they had voted.

When the voters hesitated in disclosing party they had supported, Mr. Miller would reframe his question. “Well, please tell me, which is the most important poll issue for you?” The voters would then answer, ‘Stability’, some would replay, ‘social equality’ and “Clean and stable government?’

“W-h-y?”, a smile appeared on Sam’s face as he continued to gather interesting answers from the interviews for the BBC’s listeners all over the world.

But Mr. Miller did face a piquant situation when some interviewees objected to the question as to which party they had supported. “You can’t ask this question, the voting is secret,” they would argue angrily as the BBC correspondent tried to convince them that there was nothing wrong in telling how they had voted since he was not disclosing their identities.

“Why do these people don’t understand that there is nothing wrong in me asking this question or their replying to it, this is the first time I have across this strange situation,” he would remark, throwing up his hands in the air in despair.

Mr. Miller, posted in New Delhi only in January this year, has learnt to read Devnagari script and has acquired good knowledge of the political situation in the country.

This was made clear when during the conversation he referred to the chances of Mr. Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil, in Ahmednagar, and Mr. Banwarilal Purohit, in Nagpur, and others.

He described the possibility of Mr. Pawar assuming the Delhi gaadi as the return of the Maratha power in the country after a lapse of two centuries.

The sight of the foreign national with the tape-recorder and the microphone in his hand surprised many villagers in Baramati constituency.

His question to most of the voters in this constituency was : Whom would you prefer as the next prime minister? The pat replay in the most of the cases was “Mr. Sharad Pawar!”

To Mr. Miller’s next question, “Why,” the interviewees cited the chief minister’s proven abilities as an administrator and his leadership quality.

The BBC correspondent rushed to his hotel suite to meet his deadlines as soon as he felt that there was sufficient material for his next dispatch.

Then he fed his commentary to his personal computer, played and replayed the tape recorder to select a few interesting answers of the voters. Then once again it was time for contacting his colleagues in London.

“I’d love to come back to Pune, It’s lovely, green city,” he said as he viewed the picturesque scene of the Pune Cantonment area from his hotel suite. “Compared to other places, it’s so easy from here to contact my office in London,” he said.

During his hectic day-long schedule, Mr. Miller had spoken to London three times, each time, the conversation had lasted more than 10 minutes.

During his official visit, the BBC correspondent also took some time off to meet the former governor of Goa, K. T. Satarawala. The former governor and environmentalist residing in Pune, is related to Mr. Miller’s wife.