ITV

Tag: Vijaya Dashami

  • PM to give second radio broadcast on 2 November, last broadcast beamed by 270 FM channels

    PM to give second radio broadcast on 2 November, last broadcast beamed by 270 FM channels

    NEW DELHI: In an effort to fulfill his promise of sharing his thoughts with the people through All India Radio at least twice a month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s next ‘Mann ki Baat’ broadcast will be on 2 November.

     

    “Looking forward to the 2nd “Mann Ki Baat” radio programme on Sunday 2nd November 2014 at 11AM,” the Prime Minister tweeted. 

    “Once again, I invite you to share thoughts, comments and examples of good governance initiatives that have left an impression on your mind,” the Prime Minister added. 

    An Open Forum has been created on MyGov.in where ideas and thoughts for the radio programme can be shared.

     

    Meanwhile, AIR director general F Sheheryar told indiantelevision.com that 270 private and AIR FM channels all over the country had carried the broadcast earlier this month, apart from almost all the television news channels. The address in Hindi was also streamed live on several websites. It is learnt that the broadcast was accessible to 91 per cent of the population.

     

    In his address on 4 October, Modi had announced that he will talk to the nation at least on two Sundays every month via radio, since that was the only medium that reached everyone including the farmers.

     

    In his first radio address titled Mann Ki baat on the occasion of Vijaya Dashami, he had called upon people to regularly send him their views through the social media as he had received many constructive suggestions in the past few weeks. 

     

    He had said AIR helped him get connected with the maximum number of people and with those who have no access to TV. “I am really happy to be talking to you on the radio. I can reach all of you through radio, especially our poor, the villages. Today is the start. In future too I will keep talking to you on the radio. It will be on a Sunday at 11:00 am,” he said.

  • DD News stirs a storm by telecasting live RSS annual day event

    DD News stirs a storm by telecasting live RSS annual day event

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has come under fire from various political parties and social media activists for telecasing live-for the first time – the speech by Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to the organisation’s cadres.

    The RSS is the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party; it describes itself as a cultural outfit devoted to the betterment of the nation and upholding Hindu values.

     

    Almost all the opposition parties, which describe the RSS as anti-secular, said the telecast of the speech amounts to misuse of state television by the government.

    However, DD News Director Archana Dutta justified the telecast, saying: “It is a news event for us and that is why we covered it like any other newsworthy event.” However, this event has never been covered live, and in previous years including the years when Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee was Prime Minister, it was reported on by a stringer and not by a DD correspondent.”

     “DD is run by public money. So how is government using it to broadcast the RSS chief’s speech?” said Rashid Alvi of the Congress. “The RSS uses the occasion to propagate its Hindutva ideology,” said the CPI (M) declaring Doordarshan “has no business” in broadcasting the speech.

    The BJP’s Shaina NC defended the broadcast, stating, “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.”

    The annual Vijaya Dashami or Dussehra speech by the RSS chief has never been telecast before by Doordarshan. The address articulates the organisation’s vision and agenda for its 4.5 million volunteers, who played an invaluable role in the electoral victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May, who was an RSS volunteer for many years before joining the BJP.

    Congress leader Salman Khurshid said that the decision was unacceptable, adding that the Congress refused to accept the RSS as ‘above board’ in the national discourse of India. “What they (the RSS) want and what they believe in is not in tune with the values of this country,” he said in comments to the media.

     

    The CPI-M also said it was an instance of the “public broadcaster being misused by the Modi government.”

     

    Prominent historian Ramachandra Guha called the decision a “dangerous misuse of the state machinery”, a tweet that has earned him an editorial in Niti Central, titled Ramachandra Guha’s hypocrisy on Doordarshan.

     

    The decision has also sparked a massive debate on Twitter with those for and against it clashing on the social network. Questions are being asked whether DD will also air speeches by the Chief of the Golden Temple, VC of Darul Uloom or the Archbishop of Sacred Heart Cathedral.