Aaj Tak and India TV air BJP promotional content as news

For observers of television news media’s decline, it may no longer seem odd for Indian news anchors to sit inside the BJP headquarters to host shows airing the party’s propaganda. But what if they telecast bytes and lift videos from a publicity arm of the BJP?

Following the recent elections, the tone of shows on a large section of television news media had suggested that all the results were in the BJP’s favour – even though the party lost the Himachal Pradesh assembly poll and the municipal election in Delhi while registering a historic win in Gujarat. And as channels raced to heap praise on the BJP and prime minister Narendra Modi, two shows on Aaj Tak and India TV on December 11 took it a notch above, by lifting all their bytes from Modi Story – a Twitter handle and website associated with the BJP that had published them months ago.

For unsuspecting viewers, this might have come across as copyrighted content on Aaj Tak, whose Shweta Singh hosted Yun hi koi Modi nahi ban jaata, and India TV, which had reporter Pawan Nara anchoring Modi Story.

Singh, Nara and the editors of the two channels are yet to respond to Newslaundry’s requests for comment. This report will be updated if a response is received.

BJP IT cell and the Modi Story

The Modi Story website aims to share memories of people who have closely observed PM Modi. It was inaugurated on March 26 by Sumitra Gandhi Kulkarni, great-granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, and a video of the ceremony was posted by the BJP’s Twitter handle, calling the effort a volunteer-driven initiative.

Modi and several union ministers often promote and give interviews to the website. On Twitter, it is followed by a host of BJP ministers and leaders while the account follows only PM Modi.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a BJP IT cell staffer said, “Modi Story is a platform of the BJP IT cell. Its operation is monitored by an officer working in the PMO. The IT cell helps.”

Most of the videos on the Modi Story website are also featured on NarendraModi.in and the NaMo app, whose chief compliance officer and nodal and local grievance officer is BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya.

Asked if Aaj Tak and India TV took permission to use these bytes on their shows, Malviya said, “They don’t need to. We haven’t copyrighted our content and anyone is free to use it as long as they give credit. We in fact encourage people to visit our sites and digital platforms to see our content and use it as they deem fit.”

He continued, “The kind of interest in everything to do with prime minister Modi is massive and it shows in our traffic. It includes media, academics and researchers among others who use our content as input for political literature and multimedia content. We don’t and have never felt the need to ask anyone to use our content and/or do specific programmes…They do use our content, pictures and video footage all the time and we are fine with that. It is an open source for anyone to pick from…There is no need for any coercive action.”

Let’s take a look at the bytes that were used on the two shows.

From former minister to local leaders

Raghunandan Sharma, a senior BJP leader who was the coordinator of the party’s Madhya Pradesh office in 1991 when Narendra Modi was the state election in-charge, appears on Aaj Tak at 3 minutes 11 seconds and on India TV at 10 minutes 11 seconds.

Similarly, Sudha Yadav, who was recently included in the BJP's parliamentary board, can be seen on both the channels talking about how Modi handed her Rs 11 that was given to him by his mother to contest the election. The only difference is the video editor zoomed in on the byte on India TV. She appears on Aaj Tak at 2 minutes 10 seconds and on India TV at 13 minutes 14 seconds.

Nandkumar Sahu, a BJP leader from Chhattisgarh and former Raigarh MP, recounts a story about a wedding procession on Aaj Tak at 8 minutes 30 seconds and on India TV at 14 minutes 43 seconds.

BJP veteran Hiren Pathak, a former union minister, is similarly featured on both the channels. So is Manoranjan Kalia, a senior leader in Punjab BJP, who appears on Aaj Tak at 34 minutes 52 seconds, and on India TV post the 14-minute mark. Former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani is also seen on the two channels, just like Mahendranath Sofat, a former Himachal minister erroneously referred to as Rajeev Bindal on Aaj Tak at one instance.

Recorded months ago

Several of these bytes were put out in the public domain months before the broadcast. Pathak’s quote, for example, was tweeted by Modi Story on September 11. Pathak told Newslaundry: “Around eight months ago, I got a call that an app named Modi Story was being made and I should share my memories of Modiji. I called them home and gave them an interview.”

Similarly, Yadav’s video was tweeted in June by union minister Piyush Goyal. Sofat, whose video was first tweeted by Modi Story on November 3, said, “This video was recorded before the Himachal Pradesh election. A team came to record it.”

Kalia told Newslaundry that his video was recorded over a year ago. Raghunandan Sharma’s byte was tweeted by Modi Story on December 9.