Was overwhelmed, but had to read news: Salma Sultan recalls most difficult assignment

PTI, Mar 6, 2022, 5:44 PM IST

New Delhi: For veteran TV anchor Salma Sultan, perhaps the most difficult assignment of her career was on October 31, 1984 when she had to read the news of the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

An emotionally overwhelmed Sultan, a prominent face of Doordarshan of that era, however, went on to present the news, with the calmness and discipline that her profession demanded.

Sultan, who will turn 75 this month, was felicitated by India’s first woman IPS officer and former Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi during an event ”#Women Power” held here ahead of International Women’s Day.

Recalling that fateful day nearly four decades ago, she said, ”At the office, we all were in shock and full of grief. But, in the newsroom, one has to have discipline and read news without any bias. And, I tried doing my best in that situation.” Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her security guards. She was shot at on the morning of October 31, 1984 at her official residence at 1, Safdarjung Road in Delhi, which now serves as a memorial to her.

She was taken to AIIMS but doctors could not revive India’s first woman prime minister, nicknamed ‘Iron Lady’, whose life had inspired women across the world.

Back in the 1980s, the news did not travel as swiftly as in today’s digital age, and Sultan recalled how the tragic incident had left everyone stunned in disbelief as the nation plunged into grief.

In a short clip from DD footage, which in recent times had gone viral, she can be seen reading the news with dignified calm, yet with a heaviness in her voice and grief-laden eyes.

In an interview to PTI, on the sidelines of the event, she also confessed that ”she doesn’t watch news anymore”.

Asked about the style of news presentation today, with speed news and breaking news dominating the screen space, Sultan said, ”Anchors work very hard today as well. They do what they are being told to do. They are just part of the larger system”.

”In our professional days, everyone wanted to join DD, which was a very unique organisation. We were nurtured by people there, and we felt very secure, surrounded by cultured people,” she reminisced.

Born a few months before Independence in Bhopal, Sultan along with a few other news presenters became the face of Doordarshan news in the nearly three decades she served the public broadcaster before the mushrooming of various private channels.

She, however, rued that sensationalism has crept into journalism today.

Asked about her academic life, she said, ”I got my bachelor’s degree from Maharani Laxmibai College in Bhopal. And, then got an MA in English from Indraprastha College for Women in Delhi”.

Any praise for Sultan’s elegance on the screen is incomplete without the mention of her gracefully carrying a rose in her hair, tucked gently behind her ear.

”I am fond of gardening, and I have a lot of flowers in my garden. So, I would just pick a flower and put it in my hair on way to the office and then it kind of became routine,” she recalled when asked about it.

At Saturday’s event organised by Global Talent in association with Assocham, held at the India Habitat Centre, Sultan, with her trademark flower in hair, was surrounded by a large number of young women, most of whom wanted to get a selfie or a photograph with ‘the Doordarshan diva’.

Many women achievers, from a para-athlete to an entrepreneur, were awarded on the occasion, and Sultan lauded and cheered for them as they collected trophies and shared ”stories of women empowerment and sisterhood”.

One of them, an IT professional, told how she wanted to be a news anchor inspired by Sultan’s career and graceful conduct on TV.

”This era belongs to women. And, she has to assert herself to establish her identity as a woman. Women will have to believe in themselves if they have to achieve anything in life,” Sultan told the audience.