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| Opposition condemns RSS chief's Dussehra address shown on DD | | | Agencies
NEW DELHI , Oct 3 : A controversy broke out today over the live telecast by state broadcaster of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's address at Nagpur with Congress and Left parties slamming the "misuse" of Doordarshan but BJP defended it.
Congress spokesman Sandeep Dikshit termed the hour-long telecast as a "dangerous tradition", saying RSS is a controversial religious and political organisation.
"It is a dangerous tradition. This is not an organisation which is completely neutral. It is a controversial organisation," he said, adding it is a political decision of the government.
Congress leader Rashid Alvi said, "this naked state majoritarianism must be resisted."
Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid said, "we do not accept the record of RSS as being above board in terms of our national aspirations".
Condemning the live broadcast, CPI(M) said, "The RSS uses the occasion propagate its Hindutva ideology. The national public broadcaster has no business to telecast live the speech of the Chief of an organisation like the RSS."
The CPI also condemned the live telecast with its National Secretary D Raja saying the government, particularly the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, should give an explanation to the people for allowing DD to be the mouthpiece for the RSS.
He said it was "a disquieting and distressing trend that the country's secular and democratic values were undermined by the government actio
Historian and commentator Ramchandra Guha said this "naked state majoritarianism" must be resisted.
"This (showing it live) is a dangerous misuse of the state machinery. The RSS is a sectarian Hindu body. Next, imams in mosques and priests in churches may ask that DD covers their speeches live," he said in his tweets
Slamming the live broadcast of the RSS chief's address, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi feared that from now on, the country would be ruled through the official media "for Nagpur, by Nagpur and of Nagpur".
"This is absolutely amazing, shocking, unbelievable and unprecedented...This is the most unfortunate, gross, blatant misuse of official government largesse and machinery," he said, fearing that such events might turn out to be an annual affair.
He contended that the broadcast has once again brought to fore the real game, character and definition of the "real" remote control and wondered whether the UK government would have directed the BBC to officially broadcast the live speech of any conservative party leader.
"This is the true chal (game), charitra (character), paribhasha (definition) of the real remote control. From now on we are going to be ruled through the use of official media for Nagpur, by Nagpur and of Nagpur," he said.
Contrary to the views of the Left parties and Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Bhagwat's address and said that the issues that the RSS chief raised were "very relevant."
Defending the telecast, BJP's Shaina N C said the RSS is only a nationalist organisation which believes in 'India first' and the country above the interest of any individual.
"I am glad that this speech has been highlighted and people realise that if there is one cadre in the country today that has genuinely contributed to patriotism and nation-building, it is the RSS," she said.
When asked about the telecast of the RSS chief's Dussehra address on Doordarshan, the information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said the government had no role in the coverage or otherwise on Doordarshan.
He said the event was telecast over various private channels, including the channel he was speaking on (NDTV), and if all of them considered it a newsworthy event to telecast, why should there be a controversy over Doordarshan doing it too.
Javadekar said that his ministry or government had no role to play in the telecast, and it is possible that the earlier governments may have forbidden Doordarshan from telecasting these newsworthy events, but his government had not put any such restriction.
Perhaps that is why, he said, the state broadcaster had felt free to telecast the address |
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