Some slots which were not aired by the DD channel of the interview with Narendra Modi have raised questions on the interview that the channel aired. On 27th April, the channel aired an interview of BJP’s Prime 
Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in which his statement about Ahmed Patel and Priyanka Gandhi were not there.
The unedited footage of the interview which is now in public domain indeed shows Narendra Modi speaking about Ahmed Patel and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Spectralhues did visit the official YouTube channel of Doordarshan and saw all the three parts of the interview that were aired on the channel. Surprisingly, none of these three parts contain those two slots.
The anchor of this interview Mr. Ashok Shrivastav too tweeted, “The original interview is of 56 minutes but I got an half an hour chunk. We telecast 34 minutes.”
Ashok Shrivastav’s second tweet read, “Professionally I feel we should have telecast the full version.”
He again tweeted to say, “And professionally I also feel that portion is important shouldn’t edited. I am not final authority.”
A statement from the channel said, “There was no deliberate editing or omission of any portion of interview. Whenever editing was done was for technical reasons and during post production. There was no interference or control from any authority in the entire process.”
- The Unedited parts.
The unedited version of the interview shows NarendraModi speaking about 
Priyanka Gandhi. He says, “I don’t take these talks seriously. I don’t take these things seriously because any daughter will do everything for the victory of her mother and brother. And I think that atleast a chance should be given to her. After all daughter is a daughter. If she wouldn’t do anything for her mother then for whom will she do? If she will not do it for her brother then for whom will she do it? And as a daughter is she says anything I won’t consider it as offensive.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, today was campaigning in Amethi for her brother Rahul Gandhi when she said that I am only Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter.
In another slot of the unedited interview, NarendraModi spoke about his relations with Congress leader Ahmed Patel. Modi said, “For your information Ahmed is one of my friends in Congress party. Now, he is not that close. I don’t know what the reason is. He doesn’t even receive phone calls. I used to go to his house for a meal. We have a good friendship. And personally, I am of this opinion that we should have a friendship. And you don’t know that we never used to call him Ahmed Bhai we used to call him Babubhai. And for years we’ve known him as Babubhai.”
Ahmed Patel called Modi’s statements baseless and ridiculous. Ahmed Patel who is the Political Secretary of Sonia Gandhi said, “When Modiji is saying that I am his friend then I am really feeling like laughing. It’s ridiculous. This isn’t the truth. And when Modi doesn’t have any friends in his own party how can he be my friend. And whatever he is claiming that he used to eat my house and I used to eat at his, I think I’d offered his meal long time back in the 80’s when he had come to my house when he was the General Secretary of the BJP. And after that I’ve neither been to his house nor at his office. In the beginning after he became the Chief Minister, he used to call me during festivals. Otherwise I have not taken any personal favours from his or have not said anything about my constituency.”
The Times of India quoted a source who said, “As a measure of abundant caution it was decided to edit out the part where Modi refused to attack 
Priyanka Gandhi in response to a question, saying she was like his daughter and not a political rival like her mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi.”
The BJP meanwhile blamed the Prasar Bharti for editing the interview and cutting those slots out. The Times of India also quoted BJP’s spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman, “It is for Prasar Bharti to say why they delayed the show for three days and why they censored the portion concerned. It is the same party that talked of censoring the social media and so it for Congress to answer this question.”
On the contrary, the channel says that the interview with Shri. Narendra Modi was recorded at Gandhi Nagar on 26th April. The statement also says, ”the DD News announced at 1:30pm on 27th April the next day that a special interview with Shri. Narendra Modi will be telecast at 9:30pm with a repeat telecast at 3:00pm on 28th April. It was widely announced on social media also. Special Announcements were made on DD news.”
The channel also clarifies that there was no attempt to downplay the interview.
Tags: Ahmed Patel BJP Controversy DD channel Doordarshan Modi doordarshan interview NaMo Narendra Modi Priyanka Gandhi
