Narendra Modi interview row: CEO Jawhar Sircar, Congress quarrel over Prasar Bharati freedom

NEW DELHI: The controversy over Doordarshan’s news channel editing out portions of BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi’s interview took a strange turn when the man at the helm of the public broadcaster decried ‘political interference’ and ‘lack of credibility’ of DD News. He slammed information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari for lack of autonomy.

The Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, Jawhar Sircar, attacked the minister for not snapping the umbilical cord between the ministry and DD News and also for not changing PB’s recruitment policies.

The chief executive officer made a scathing attack on the ministry saying that he has no control over the news division. But a Congress source claimed that Sircar was merely currying favour with the new dispensation as he had never raised the issue of autonomy earlier.

"Autonomy is not given by the minister, but the Prasar Bharati Act," the Congress source said.

Sircar in a letter to the PB board members on Friday tried to dispel doubts about Doordarshan doctoring and delaying the Modi interview.

He insisted that DD News was merely trying to seek a "balancing interview" from the "other side". Blaming the delay on Congress for not providing a "balancing interview", the chief executive officer said that for the last two years he has been seeking more autonomy to bring in professionals from outside but he failed to revise DD’s recruitment rules.

Sircar lamented the lost opportunity to convince a "young minister to 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."

Pointing out that government control over transfers, posting and overall career trajectory of officials of the news division cast a long shadow over the department, Sircar said that he has no real powers over the news division.

Though Manish Tewari refused to comment, a government source insisted that DD News was very much part of PB and nothing had stopped Sircar from asserting his authority over the news division earlier.

"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.