It was my first experience in election programming on television and I was all excited to play a part in the complex plan to connect all of India LIVE. It was a logistical nightmare, which required extensive planning and elaborate checking of video and audio signals coming into the main hub located at Asiad Village in New Delhi. DD’s engineers worked tirelessly with NDTV crew to make it happen, as seamlessly, as possible.

I was assigned a role in the data entry team at the Central Production Centre (CPC) to feed the results coming to us via National Informatics Centre Network (NICNET). The data needed to be keyed into a software application which would reflect as graphics on the television screen.

Each computer terminal at the Data Centre was assigned to a team of two – a NDTV staffer supervising an intern – for the seamless broadcast of election results.

In a single, momentary lapse of attention, the intern who partnered me, pressed a wrong key. The software application required selection of Y or N key to denote leading, trailing, won, or lost. By mistake, his finger touched the wrong key. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a glaring error.

The ticker at the bottom of the screen showed PV Narasimha Rao, the incumbent Prime Minister trailing from his constituency. I noticed the error as soon as it was made and quickly corrected it. The entire process of correction took half a minute before it reflected on air.

But Dr. Prannoy Roy who hosted the election special broadcast along with the late Vinod Dua, had noticed it before the correction, and brought the attention of his panel and the entire nation to it.

This was BREAKING NEWS of the highest order. He announced it on air and India heard. Moments later, he spotted the correction and told the viewers that there has been a mistake. The Prime Minister is leading, he said, not trailing, as pointed out a few seconds ago.

When the mistake was rectified in a jiffy, it was clear that someone had erred in the Data Centre. Candidates don’t trail and then lead in less than a minute.

The lady boss of the Result Centre rushed into the data entry room, demanding to know who was responsible for it. Just as I was about to raise my hand, my young partner held my arm and gestured not to mention his name. It was an honest error. He was visibly shaken. I had a second or two to decide. I kept quiet.

My partner made no error before or after this incident. It was this solitary but significant one which spooked him out. Looking at the glass half full, it could have been worse, had the error reflected the PM has lost the election. Comparatively, it was a lesser error.

Being a movie buff, when I rewind, this incident had a striking resemblance to a scene in the 1982 Hindi film Shakti, the only one featuring the two of India’s biggest superstars – the late Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan – together. In the film, Kulbhushan Kharbhanda (KK), an aide of the villain, bails out Amitabh junior when his fellow goons are out to nab the young lad. It is the innocence and fear in the child’s face which touches KK’s heart, and he lets him go. I spotted pretty much the same facial expression in the intern and my heart melted. 

When we wound up that night, I took him aside near the car parking area, put my arm around his shoulder and joked, to put him at ease. I told him he now had a story – which he could tell his parents, and years later to his children, and grandchildren – how he startled an entire nation at the press of a button.