File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
In the absence of real autonomy, the country's public broadcaster remains at the risk of repeating malpractices like "the heavily-edited interview" of the PM, warns the man in charge of running Prasar Bharati.
(After Modi Interview, Prasar Bharati CEO Talks of "Shadow of Government")NDTV has accessed a series of letters sent to the government by Jawahar Sircar, the CEO of Prasar Bharati, which was created in 1997 and runs All India Radio and Doordarshan.
In a series of letters, Mr Sircar highlights, as an example of government interference, the fact that top executives at Prasar Bharati are not consulted about transferring key officers.
In April, when Mr
Modi was running for Prime Minister, Doordarshan broadcast a shortened interview of the BJP leader. Dr Manmohan Singh's government was accused of censoring the piece - among others, Mr Modi's comments on Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi - were omitted.
(Am Rajiv's Daughter, Says Priyanka; Narendra Modi's Office Releases Interview Footage)Mr Sircar's last letter to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting seeking independence is written on Friday, August 8 - same day as SM Khan, in charge of News at Doordarshan, was removed. He was the top news executive when the controversial Modi interview was shot and broadcast.
(Read full letter)Meanwhile, the journalist Ashok Shrivastav, who had conducted that interview, tweeted on Saturday that he's back at work in DD.
Mr Sircar plaintively warns in his letter dated August 8: "I hope you will consider this proposal (to keep his agency in the loop) favourably as we do not want to land up in issues, such as the deliberately-edited interview of Shri Modi on the 27th of April, which created such controversy."
While Jawahar Sircar refused to comment on his letters, sources told NDTV that Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar has promised to look into the concerns he has flagged.
Before the UPA was voted out, Mr Sircar had accused its Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari of violating Doordarshan's independence. Today, Mr Tewari said, "The chickens have come home to roost," adding that PM Modi's government must now prove how it will handle the public broadcaster's frantic call for independence.