If the video shot on a mobile phone showing what happened on the side when Varun Thakur, the father of Pradhuman, the 7-year-old boy who was killed at Ryan International school, was being interviewed on TV had not been outed, those ignorant of the manner in which the news industry works in India, would not have known about its ugly side. The video shows the Republic TV representative trying to remove the lapel mike off Thakur, not once, not twice but five times, while he is on air on Times Now. The representative of Times Now at the same time is trying to prevent her physically from doing so.

In the attempt to win the battle of the airwaves every day at prime time, several smaller battles are waged – both verbally abusive and sometimes physical – to ensure the channel you work for, gets the guest it seeks. The story does not matter, the emotions of the guest (in this case, the trauma of Varun Thakur) is irrelevant. Girish Kumar*, senior guest coordination producer at one of the biggest TV networks, says, “It has become a culture of mercenaries, you are expected to get the guest by hook or by crook.”

The people who ensure this happens are called guest coordinators whose primary job is to ensure that the different news shows get the guests they seek. Ruthvika*, an anchor with Times Now, says the debate slows down if there are only a couple of guests so the attempt is to get the maximum number of guests to make the channel look vibrant. That puts a lot of pressure on the Guest desk.

If a big story has broken, expect armies of guest coordinators to be deployed by every TV channel in town to corner the newsmaker of the day. By the time, the clock wearily moves to 11 pm, after the prime time shows are over, left trampled on the battlefield are loads of self-respect and job satisfaction.

“The guest desk is expected to be the bouncer of the channel,” says Prafulla Mishra, chief programme coordinator at NDTV. “The pressure from the editors is unbearable and that leads to the Republic TV like episode.”

But is the guest coordinator of Republic TV really to blame for the manner in which she behaved? While her conduct was abominable, those who know how the newsroom works say it is certain she would have been under extreme pressure to deliver the guest for Arnab Goswami’s 9 pm show.

“It is an everyday fight,” says Girish Kumar*. “A certain anchor would deliberately stretch the show to ensure the guest who promised time to another channel is not able to leave. This is only to disrupt the show on another channel. Now many other anchors have started adopting the same trick, asking a question to engage the guest just when he is about to leave.”

“What makes it worse is that four anchors from the same channel sometimes want the same newsmaker for their show. Everyone wants the biggie to make their show look better,” points out Mishra, who has also worked in Times Now and DD News.

This often leads to different guest coordinators from the same TV channel asking a big guest to come for the 8 pm show instead of the 7 pm or 9 pm show. This undercutting of one’s own colleagues makes the TV industry look like a market of backstabbers.

Guest coordinators also have to face the flak when anchors in their attempt to pep up the show, deliberately humiliate the guests, sometimes even asking them to get out. While gimmicks of these kinds make an anchor look uncompromising and dynamic and help the video go viral on YouTube, the guest’s ire is directed at the hapless guest coordinator. “The worst part is when we are asked to approach the same guest again a few days later,” says Mithali*, a junior guest coordinator.

In addition to guest coordinators, junior reporters are also deployed to ensure the channel gets the guest. Today, for instance, Karthikeya*, a reporter in the Delhi bureau, has been told that his only assignment is to ensure that the grieving Varun Thakur and his wife are convinced to appear together on the prime time show on his Hindi channel.

“When I asked my boss, Sir, do I also record an interview with them, I was told No, you only ensure they come on the show. We have been reduced to foot soldiers and PAs for the celebrity anchors, to make them look good on air,” he said.

Another reporter Gaurika*, who has spent a year in the field, recollects her experience the day the Nirbhaya verdict came in May.

“I was instructed by my colleague on the Assignment desk to put the earpiece in Nirbhaya’s mother’s ear. When I told my colleague that she is live with another channel now, he told me the anchor will start asking her the questions the moment the earpiece was put in her ear and that will bring her to our channel automatically. But do you know what the mother did? She removed the earpiece and threw it on my face in front of the entire media contingent,” said Gaurika*.

The competition is so stiff that guest coordinators and junior reporters are under instructions not to take a water or washroom break if the immediate competitor channel is on the same location, on the prowl for the same big guest. If television journalism was about being on the edge, the madness to pounce on a guest has pushed the profession over the cliff.

The regular political guests also decide according to their preferred channels and anchors. It also depends on the quality of the technical resource – whether the channel comes with an OB van or asks for a hook up through Skype.

Under pressure to deliver the guest, the coordinators are often forced to display negativity. “Do you really want to go to that number 5 channel instead of the number 1 channel” is an insulting remark dropped to convince a guest.

It is for TV channels to take a deep breath, step back and focus on telling stories in the old-fashioned way of television journalism, instead of reducing every story to a cacophony, trapping several guests in different windows. Because while TV channels are engaged in a rat race, their employees are coming across looking the worse species.

(* Names have been changed to protect identities)

The author can be contacted on Twitter @Iamtssudhir.