Doordarshan struggling to maintain professional freedom: Narendra Modi

Ahmedabad: Escalating further the controversy over his interview to Doordarshan, Narendra Modi on Saturday rued the “decline” in journalistic freedom in the public broadcaster and invoked “horrific” memories of the Emergency days in 1975.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate joined the war over Prasar Bharti editing out certain portions of his interview last Sunday and the subsequent raging controversy that it stoked by the “delayed” telecast.

“On days such as this, I feel very sad to see our national TV channel struggling to maintain its professional freedom,” Modi said on Twitter while extending his wishes to journalists on the World Press Freedom Day observed on Saturday.

Prasar Bharti has said that a decision on whether or not a probe is needed into the row surrounding the interview will be taken on Monday. “We will look at papers on Monday and take a call,” Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar said when asked if the public broadcaster was planning to initiate an inquiry.

Modi did not forget to remind the people of the Emergency imposed by the late Indira Gandhi in 1975 when curbs were placed on the media.

“We have witnessed the horrors of Emergency when freedom of press and freedom of expression were suppressed. It is a blot on our democracy,” Modi said in another tweet.

“Greetings to journalists friends on World Press Freedom Day. Free press is a democracy’s cornerstone and must be preserved in letter and spirit,” he said.

A controversy erupted on Friday following news reports that Modi had said that Priyanka Gandhi was like his daughter, remarks that were neither appreciated by her nor by Congress leaders.

However, it turned out that Modi had not made any such description.

The other issue related to his remarks claiming closeness with Ahmed Patel, close aide of Sonia Gandhi. Patel issued a strong rebuttal of these claims.

Modi’s remarks on these subjects in the interview were edited out but became public through the social media.

While Congress leader Rashid Alvi said a “big fuss” was being made of the issue which relates to editorial freedom while some other commentators have accused both the BJP and the Congress of misusing Doordarshan whenever opportunities came.