Row over telecast of RSS chief’s speech

RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat’s address to his organisation’s workers and national broadcaster Doordarshan’s (DD) decision to telecast the event live have kicked up a political debate.

While the ruling BJP justified DD’s decision, saying the RSS is a nationalist organisation, the Congress and the Left flayed the Government for using the state broadcaster to propagate its Hindutva ideology.

The DD’s decision to telecast the speech proves that the RSS controls the Narendra Modi Government, said the Congress.

“This is absolutely amazing, shocking, unbelievable and unprecedented...This is the most unfortunate, gross, blatant misuse of official government largesse and machinery,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi.

He added that the move defines the real remote control. “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 told reporters here on Friday. The RSS is headquartered in Nagpur.

Condemning DD’s decision, the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) alleged that the RSS used the occasion to 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. Such an action shows how the public broadcaster is being misused by the Modi Government,” the Polit Bureau’s statement said.

However, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javdekar justified DD’s telecast of the one-hour speech.

He said that in the past, the Government might have restricted the official broadcaster from telecasting the speech.

“Prasar Bharati takes its own decisions and I don’t know why they were not showing it earlier. It’s a news-worthy event. All private news channels are showing it. Then why should DD be banned from doing so?” he said in Mumbai.

Comparing the RSS supremo’s speech with that of the Pope, BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said the Congress and Left never raised objections when the Pope’s message was telecast live, even when they were in power. She said people are interested in what Bhagwat says as his statement is news worthy.

The Congress and the Left trying to gain relevance by raising non-issues, she added.

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