Doordarshan’s last tune: From Shehnai to Scream
Onkareshar Pandeya April 5,2025
At the time of Doordarshan’s establishment on 15 September 1959, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had a dream. That was that “Doordarshan should become an independent and impartial medium, free from government control and serve the interests of the people.” Nehru had said, “Doordarshan is a powerful medium, whose purpose is not only entertainment, but it should also be used to educate and make the people of the country aware.” Nehru wanted to make Doordarshan autonomous like BBC and a global broadcaster on the lines of CBS and NBC. With this dream, ‘Television India’, born with the tagline of ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’, became ‘Doordarshan’ in 1975.
When it was broadcast for the first time on April 1, 1976, with a beautiful logo having the aura of the ancient Chinese philosophy, the classic depiction of Yin-Yang, on a tune composed by the famous sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar and Shehnai player Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain Khan, the eyes of every Indian viewer filled up with joy, the honey of that melodious music dissolved in the ears and the chest swelled with pride. When a still sound signal breaking the silence of the radio changed into a moving scene, people realised that the country was progressing.
In 1965, daily news bulletins were broadcast (initially in Hindi and English), in 1982, colour broadcasts were introduced during the Asian Games and then shows like ‘Ramayana’, ‘Mahabharata’, ‘Humlog’, ‘Buniyaad’ and Surabhi. With such landmark presentations, news bulletins were also started in regional languages. Doordarshan began to grow rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s.
During Rajiv Gandhi’s reign from 1984 to 1989, Doordarshan became popular across the country with colour television and expansion of the network. After 1990, the network of AIR-DD expanded tremendously. In 1992, Doordarshan had 535 transmitters, which increased to 1415 by 2018. In 1990, Akashvani had 186 transmitters and 100 stations, which increased to 546 while the total number of stations became 376. Today, with its 35 channels (8 All India, 11 regional, 15 state level and one international), Doordarshan is a world class network, but its credibility is declining.
Its credibility was built on the strength of purity in entertainment, balance in information and truth i.e. ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ content. At that time, Doordarshan’s broadcasts promoted communal unity in the country.
When the BJP was in the opposition, it strongly criticized the government control over Doordarshan and strongly demanded to make it an independent institution. Top BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani wanted to make Doordarshan an independent and impartial public broadcaster. At that time, they used to say that Doordarshan should serve the interests of the public rather than the government.
In 1997, the Prasar Bharati Act was implemented in the government of Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, but the Vajpayee government played an important role in forming its role in 1996. Earlier, Advani, who was the Information and Broadcasting Minister from 1977 to 1979, also advocated for the autonomy of Doordarshan. Prasar Bharati was formed, but Doordarshan was not freed from government control. However, despite not having full autonomy, no government has ever made it a pet parrot like the Modi government has made it today. Doordarshan has become a pet dog today.
Doordarshan, which went beyond ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ to become ‘Jan Jan Ki Awaaz’, was given the slogan of ‘Desh Ka Apna Channel’ and ‘Har Pal Aapke Saath’ in 2014 after the coming of the Modi government. But on one hand, the shine of private channels increased and when the content of Doordarshan’s culture, traditions and values weakened, it started losing its national identity.
Once, the decent anchors of Doordarshan had a special national reputation. Today, the current lapdog editors of DD News have crossed all limits. Media, and that too a government channel! Tearing its own lungi of decorum to shreds, itself getting exposed. The anchor will show a book, read a selected part as per his convenience, and will ask loudly, did you say it or not, tell me did you say it or not, and will repeat it ten times, will not even let the spokesperson of the opposite party speak and then will openly say in an unjust manner, that shut down his voice, and will not feel ashamed, proving himself to be a true presstitute.
If we look at the programmes aired on Doordarshan News in the last two years, we can see how this channel is continuously tarnishing the reputation of not only Doordarshan but also the NDA government in its blatant attempt to present a biased and allegedly pro-Hindutva false narrative. They have forgotten that Doordarshan is a public broadcaster. It is never a private mouthpiece of any party.
DD News’ reporting has been constantly inclined towards government propaganda, Hindutva narrative and anti-opposition, due to which both its impartiality and professional reputation are under question. Look at some of the major programmes aired in 2022-2024.
2022–2024: A glimpse of Doordarshan News’ ‘select’ programmes
How a public broadcaster became a propagandist of the establishment. Programmes that raise questions:
2022–2024: A glimpse of Doordarshan News’ ‘select’ programmes
How a public broadcaster became a propagandist of the establishment. Programmes that raise questions:
August 2022 – “Islamisation of Jharkhand?”
With BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, accusing Jharkhand government of Islamisation – without any balanced approach.
December 2023 – “Mamata’s Jungle Raj!” → Attempt to portray the attack on Nadda’s convoy as a “failure” of the Bengal government.
January 2022 – “What did UP say” → During elections, BJP/RSS/VHP workers were projected as “common citizens”.
July 30, 2024 – “Do Tuk: Conversion-Love Jihad. How will this crime stop?” → Tone that increases communal polarisation – emphasis on coined words like ‘love jihad’.
July 30, 2024 – “Do Tuk: Amrit aur Congress ka Vish” → Open criticism of the opposition, using words like “venom” to shred fairness.
29 July 2024 – “Do Tuk: Population Change a New Wound” → Attempt to spread communal fear under the pretext of population debate.
19 March 2021 – “Do Tuk: Constitution or Sharia” → Direct religious polarization, which fueled communal dispute.
Hindutva agenda in special programs:
15 August 2023 – “Desh Darshan”
→ Anchor: BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi. Topic: “9 years of Modi government: India’s global rise”
→ Praise of government achievements; criticism absent. Guests: Amish Devgan, Swami Chidanand Saraswati
5 February 2024 – “Rashtriya Charcha: Ram Mandir Nirman
A Cultural Renaissance” → Anchor: Rajat Sharma. One-sided debate, opposition absent. Guests: Mohan Bhagwat, Sadhvi Prachi, Zubin Niaz
8 March 2023 – “Sashakt Bharat: Nari Shakti and Modi Government’s Schemes”
→ Anchor: Anshul Sakshi. Promotion of government schemes; no mention of incidents like Manipur or Unnao. Guests: Smriti Irani, Tessy Thomas
12 December 2022 – “Samvaad: Kashmir Files – What is the Truth?”
→ The film was described as a “factual document” rather than anti-Muslim propaganda. Guests: Vivek Agnihotri, Ashwini Upadhyay
25 January 2024 – “Muddya Ki Baat: Hindutva – Soul of India?”
→ Hindutva was described as a national idea, no debate on secularism.
Guests: Champat Rai, Swati Goyal10 April 2024 – “Chunavi Dastak: Congress Mukt Bharat – Kya Sambhav Hai?” → A programme promoting the BJP slogan. Guests: Prakash Javadekar, Sambit Patra
Source – From DD News’ social media handle (Twitter-X/YouTube).
It is not just about government propaganda, which all governments do more or less. Today, the channel’s cheap, biased, hateful, communal and fanatical programmes have raised serious questions on its reputation. By promoting the BJP-RSS-Hindutva narrative in a factless and false manner, the government is suffering losses instead of profits.
Questions have been raised on Doordarshan’s autonomy earlier as well. In 2014, during the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had raised a hue and cry when Doordarshan telecasted edited portions of an interview of Narendra Modi. Then the same BJP and Modi had accused the government of interfering in the autonomy of Prasar Bharati. Whereas Manish Tiwari, the former Information and Broadcasting Minister, had said that the government maintains “arm’s length” from Prasar Bharati and steps are being taken to give it more autonomy.
In 2014, after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, when Doordarshan telecasted the Dussehra speech of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat live for 70 minutes for the first time, the opposition parties strongly criticized it. In April 2024, Doordarshan News changed the colour of its logo from red to orange (saffron), leading to political controversy. Opposition leaders, especially West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, called it an attempt to ‘saffronise’ Doordarshan and called it unethical and illegal. BJP leaders called it a ‘ghar wapsi’ and argued that in 1982, the colour of Doordarshan’s logo was saffron.
In 2016, Prime Minister Modi promised to ‘make Doordarshan like BBC’. But DD is nowhere compared to BBC in terms of autonomy, credibility, TRP, and annual budget. The ‘DD Kisan’ and Arun Prabha channels for the Northeast announced by Prime Minister Modi also did not become a significant entity. The reason was lack of budget and lack of capable editors.
But today its condition is very bad. In the Modi era, Doordarshan’s TRP has fallen to 0.05%. Revenue has fallen by 42%. More than 7,000 employees have been reduced. During Manmohan Singh’s time, its TRP was 1.5 to 2% and there were very few questions raised on impartiality. The reports of the Parliamentary Committee of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the CAG mention the poor condition of Doordarshan, biased coverage and financial irregularities.
Doordarshan News is facing challenges of declining viewership, lack of human resources, and increasing revenue. To solve these problems, there is a need for improving the quality of content, technological upgradation, and effective policies. Forget about Nehru’s vision and the dream of making BBC, Doordarshan today has become an irrelevant medium of government propaganda, beyond the imagination of Vajpayee and Advani. The decline in TRP, revenue and employees tells the story of its failure. The effort to bring in controversial anchors like Sudhir Chaudhary is nothing but an attempt to “glamorise ‘Godi Media'” unless there is editorial freedom and institutional reforms.
