Doordarshan prepares for a two-day mega coverage of the Ayodhya Ram Temple event

NEW DELHI: National broadcaster Doordarshan is putting together a mega two-day show to telecast the Ram temple ceremony, along with special programmes related to lord Ram and Ayodhya to be shown on all its channels on August 4 and August 5.
According to officials, Doordarshan has already deployed multiple cameras and OB (Outside broadcast) in Ayodhya while teams of reporters and anchors have been sent to the temple town.

The telecast will begin on Tuesday evening on DD national with a live telecast of Deepostav from Ayodhya, an event of lighting of lamps that is being organised by the administration and BJP.

On Wednesday, the channel will start showing the ceremony from as early as 6 a.m., which would include live coverage of the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the temple, worship rituals and chanting of mantras, apart from musical programmes and speeches that have been planned.

As of now, PM Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and UP CM Yogi Adityanath are among the VVIP guests expected at the event.

The live coverage is expected to continue till 2 p.m, after which special shows on the issue will be shown.

"The live streaming will be done on YouTube on all three channels - DD National, DD News and DD India for both domestic and global audiences... We will also share the feeds with all those interested to carry," an official in the channel said

According to the official plan, DD News and DD India "will do breaking live reports" while DD National and other DD channels will cover the main event live.

DD National is among the oldest channels of doordarshan that handles the responsibility of covering big occasions such as any big sporting event, mega political rallies of the PM or even the Republic day parade every year.

Left parties oppose coverage by DD
The live telecast of the temple ceremony by DD has been opposed by the left parties. CPI MP Binoy Viswam had recently said in a letter to I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar that it "is contrary to the accepted norms of national integrity and secularism."

A more critical response came from CPI (M). Former MP MB Rajesh told ET that construction of the Ram temple was not "at all a religious event but a political one."

"The temple is being built after an act of demolition that caused multiple riots in the country, and loss of many lives...Doordarshan is only being used as a propaganda tool for the government."

Rajesh recalled that DD first "digressed from its mandate" by covering Bhagwat's Vijayadashami speech live in 2014. "In a secular country, the public-funded national broadcaster should not be doing this," he said.

He also pointed out how the government had the started the re-telecast of shows such as Ramayana and Mahabharata during the lockdown.

"The government continues with its propaganda even when country is going through a pandemic," he said.

DD officials, however, cite a list of "non Hindu" religious events that have been covered in the last four years, which include relaying of Christmas message of the Pope every year, telecast of midnight mass at St Peter's Basilica in Vatican city and also live telecast of sainthood ceremony of Mother Teresa in 2016.

"Under the UPA, many events held in the Vatican city were shown live, including the succession of Pope Francis in 2013. There were many Nehru-Gandhi family documentaries made and shown on DD, apart from a multipart documentary series on Rajiv Gandhi, and a comprehensive series on Faiz Ahmed Faiz poetry. Even the Mahakumbh mela in 2013 was also covered extensively..." an official said.

The official also added that the public broadcaster "carries nearly 20 private news channels all of which directly compete with DD News to 35 million households through its DD FreeDish DTH Free to Air platform."

Recently, former CEO of Prasar Bharati Jawhar Sircar wrote that Doordarshan has "moved on to eulogising whichever government came to power, and the paymaster decided what subjects to cover. "

A former I&B secretary, on condition of anonymity told ET that the national broadcaster has always been used to cover events that align with the agenda of the party in power.

However, the national broadcaster's mandate to focus on the Prime minister and cover all the events he participates in, "may justify" its coverage of official events such as the Ayodhya one, he added.

"The Prasar Bharati act makes it clear that it needs to present a fair flow of information, including contrasting views without advocating any opinion or ideology of its own.But it is also part of agreed norms to cover the PM wherever he goes.So DD is expected to cover these events, be it Indira Gandhi in Deoband in 1980 which it did, or Narendra Modi in Ayodhya in 2020."