Decision to broadcast speech based on merit: DD

The RSS said on Twitter that “more than 10” private TV stations too had covered the speech.

Faced with criticism for having broadcast live RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s Vijayadashami address, Doordarshan on Friday said it judged the “merit of each event” before covering it — and that it would be open to broadcasting events featuring other politico-religious bodies as well, provided there was “merit and news value” in them. The Congress and communist parties expressed dismay at the “dangerous” and “distressing” signals that DD’s decision had sent, and condemned the “misuse of the public broadcaster”.

The RSS said on Twitter that “more than 10” private TV stations too had covered the speech. PM Narendra Modi tweeted a link to Bhagwat’s address from his personal handle. “We see the merit of each event and take a call on whether to cover it,” DD director general (News) Archana Datta said. Asked if DD may now cover functions organised by other organisations like the RSS as well, Datta said, “If a programme has news value, it’ll be covered.” DD officials said a factor was “credentials of the organisers”— whether anti-national elements were involved, and the “kind of people who are talking”.

Another DD official said the broadcaster had not gone out of its way to air Bhagwat’s hourlong speech live — only harnessed equipment already available. “We already had a DSNG (Digital Satellite News Gathering) van in Maharashtra to cover the Assembly polls, and the same van was used to cover this speech. No special arrangements were made,” the official said.

Datta declined to have a longer discussion on the matter. Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar did not respond to phone calls and an SMS seeking his comments. Hours after Bhagwat’s speech, and as criticism of DD mounted, the RSS issued a justification for the broadcast on Twitter, saying, “If ppl [people] aspire to know what RSS speaks on Vijayadashmi, it is quite natural for any channel to cover it, so DD too covered. “More than 10 private chnls [channels] covered #RSSVijayadashmi live, it shows ppls [people’s] interest in knowing what RSS speaks on Vijaydashmi.” The RSS chief’s Vijayadashami speech has been webcast live earlier on the websites rss.org and vskbharat.com, and on the spiritual network Sadhna TV. This is the first time that DD covered it.

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