DD broadcasts Bhagwat, Opposition cries foul
4 Oct 2014 5:52 AM IST
Though Doordarshan has come out with a statement that Bhagwat’s address was covered just like any other news but 0opposition leaders, particularly from the Congress and the CPI (M), expressed their anger and claimed that the move is to promote saffron ideology in the country by ignoring the sentiments of other communities.
They asked if DD has decided to cover other religious leaders too. Doordarshan is public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati, and it has over the years seldom gone beyond the government line.
Reacting to the severe criticism, information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said that Prasar Bharati takes its own decisions and wondered why objections were being raised when it was a ‘newsworthy’ event covered by other private channels too. ‘When private channels also cover it, why DD should be banned?’ he questioned.
While blaming the previous government, he said, ‘Doordarshan may not have covered the RSS chief’s speech live in the past because of restrictions placed by earlier regimes.’
Congress spokesman Sandeep Dikshit termed the hour-long telecast a ‘dangerous tradition’ claiming that RSS is a controversial religious and political organisation. Another Congress leader and former union minister Salman Khurshid said, ‘We do not accept the record of RSS as being above board in terms of our national aspirations’. CPI (M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan said: ‘The national public broadcaster has no business to telecast live the speech of the chief of an organisation like the RSS.’ Meanwhile, Doordarshan’s DG (News) Archana Dutta in a press statement said, ‘It was just like a news event to us. So we covered it.’
‘There was no special arrangement that had been made for the event and one of the several Digital Satellite News gathering vans (DSNG) that the broadcaster has in Maharashtra for coverage of the state elections was used for the event. We have several DSNG vans in Maharashtra and one such van was used for Nagpur,’ she said.
They asked if DD has decided to cover other religious leaders too. Doordarshan is public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati, and it has over the years seldom gone beyond the government line.
Reacting to the severe criticism, information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said that Prasar Bharati takes its own decisions and wondered why objections were being raised when it was a ‘newsworthy’ event covered by other private channels too. ‘When private channels also cover it, why DD should be banned?’ he questioned.
While blaming the previous government, he said, ‘Doordarshan may not have covered the RSS chief’s speech live in the past because of restrictions placed by earlier regimes.’
Congress spokesman Sandeep Dikshit termed the hour-long telecast a ‘dangerous tradition’ claiming that RSS is a controversial religious and political organisation. Another Congress leader and former union minister Salman Khurshid said, ‘We do not accept the record of RSS as being above board in terms of our national aspirations’. CPI (M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan said: ‘The national public broadcaster has no business to telecast live the speech of the chief of an organisation like the RSS.’ Meanwhile, Doordarshan’s DG (News) Archana Dutta in a press statement said, ‘It was just like a news event to us. So we covered it.’
‘There was no special arrangement that had been made for the event and one of the several Digital Satellite News gathering vans (DSNG) that the broadcaster has in Maharashtra for coverage of the state elections was used for the event. We have several DSNG vans in Maharashtra and one such van was used for Nagpur,’ she said.
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