Prasar Bharati CEO blames Manish Tiwari for editing Modi’s DD interview

The CEO of Prasar Bharati, Jawhar Sircar, admitted that there was an editing in BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi’s interview to Doordarshan due to ‘political interference’ by the information and broadcasting ministry.

The admission comes at a time when government is under fire from BJP and a section of media for undermining ¬Prasar Bharati’s freedom.  

Jawhar Sircar hit out at information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari for lack of autonomy and also claimed that this incident denting Doordarshan’s credibility due to government interference.  

In a letter to the ¬Prasar Bharati board members on Friday Jawhar Sircar expressed his doubts about deliberate editing of some vital portion of Modi interview in which he talks about Priyanka Gandhi and Ahmed Patel.

In the letter he also snapped Manish Tewari for “break this long traditional linkage between the ministry and the News Division, which has continued unabated long after Prasar Bharati was born and assigned its distinct role in 1997″ and not changing Prasar Bharati’s recruitment policies so that professionals could be hired.

Sircar’s letter also exposed government’s stand and continuous interference in the autonomous body of ¬Prasar Bharati.

Embarrassed Congress as well as government were quick to hit back at Sircar by denying the allegations.

“He is attacking Tewari because he knows that Tewari has not contested the elections and will not return to the ministry,” a high-ranking government official said.

Ashok Srivastav, the DD journalist who took the interview of Modi expressed his unhappiness over the editing controversy.

“I did my duty,” he said adding, it was “sad that the interview that should have got mileage for DD has become a source of controversy”.

BJP has slammed Congress for tampering Doordarshan’s freedom. BJP said Congress’s act is a last minute attempt to save the party from awkwardness. In that interview where Modi said Priyanka Gandhi is like his daughter to him and described Sonia Gandhi’s secretary Ahmed Patel a good friend, were later cut for the ‘technical issue’.

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