DD News prime time: Funded by the public, against the public

When state broadcaster DD News introduced its saffron logo in April this year, it promised to prioritise accuracy, facts, and truth over speed, claims and sensationalism. “Because if it is on DD News, it is the truth.”

But its primetime show seems to have completely missed that marketing pitch. 

Over the last few months, Do Took, hosted at 9 pm by Ashok Shrivastav, has repeatedly seen divisive remarks, sensationalist debates, and discussions framed against civil liberties with little space for public interest issues.

Prima facie, this is in violation of the channel’s responsibilities as outlined by its governing body, Prasar Bharati, whose 20-point programme code explicitly prohibits content that contains attacks on religions or communities or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups or which promote communal attitudes. 

Between July 1 and August 30, Newslaundry tracked 42 segments of Do Took to assess whether critical public issues such as corruption, unemployment, education, inflation, and crimes against women and minorities had received any adequate coverage in the aftermath of the Lok Sabha elections. We placed these segments under four categories: public interest, anti-opposition, communal polarisation, and misinformation and disinformation.

This analysis was based on identifying the most prominent topic, examining the anchor’s statements, and the agenda driving the discussions. By evaluating these elements, we grouped each telecast according to the main theme and the overall message it conveyed.

A majority of these segments were anti-opposition (59.5 percent), followed by misinformation and disinformation (28.6 percent), and communal polarisation (7.1 percent). Only two segments, or 4.8 percent of the total, focussed on public interest (those two also in the context of opposition-governed states).

Communal polarisation

Three segments, or 7.1 percent of the total shows analysed, had hateful communal themes. 

On July 2, a show titled ‘Hinduo par prahaar, vipaksh ka vyavahar, desh bhulega nahi’ focussed on Rahul Gandhi’s remarks against the BJP in parliament, where he had said that “Hinduism was not about spreading fear, hatred and falsehoods”.

The debate had four panellists: Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ashok Yadav, political analyst Rahul Lal, senior journalist Awadhesh Kumar and BJP MLA Shalabh Mani Tripathi. When Ashok Yadav tried to explain Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, Shrivastav launched a tirade, telling Yadav to have the courage to ask about the versions of Islam understood by Asaduddin Owaisi, Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Jinnah and terrorists. Shrivastav then interrupted Yadav over a dozen times, asking, “Chaliye bataiye Islam kitne tarike ka hota hai?”

In a show on “love jihad” on July 31, Shrivastav cited “demography change in many states” as a “big problem” for the country while discussing Uttar Pradesh’s new anti-conversion law.

On August 15, in a discussion on the Uniform Civil Code, Shrivastav urged the need for a “secular civil code”, mentioned by PM Modi in his Independence Day speech. He claimed minor girls were being married off in the name of Muslim personal board and Shariah. 

It’s worth noting that IndiaSpend in 2016 analysed census data to say that 84 percent of 12 million married children aged under 10 were Hindus. 

Hateful remarks were also found in discussions placed in other categories.

 For example, in debates classified as misinformation on August 9 and August 27, Shrivastav made a snide reference presumably against Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair, pointing to a “clip katua” – a term used by Hindutva trolls for the journalist containing an oblique reference to a slur used against Muslim men. While Shrivastav did not name Zubair, an overwhelming majority of social media posts using this term are aimed at the Alt News cofounder. 

Misinformation and disinformation

Twelve segments during this period contained large chunks of misinformation and disinformation. 

On July 5, in a show titled “Jan sankhya badlav, ek naya ghav”, Shrivastav recounted alleged instances of infiltrators casting votes in Indian elections. He started off with an FIR against four individuals who had managed to procure Indian passports to vote in the Lok Sabha polls, but added a twist. He said around 2,500 “infiltrators” had managed to vote in Tripura, even though the truth was that the Election Commission had made these arrangements for nearly 2,500 Indian voters living beyond the wire fencing on the India-Bangladesh border that falls under the West Tripura parliamentary constituency. He also claimed that the numbers are “said to be in the thousands in West Bengal”.

Shrivastav completely skipped any mention of the nearly 1 lakh doubtful Hindu voters in Assam – a contentious subject in the state’s politics. He also claimed a “conversion mafia” was targeting minor girls in Santhal Pargana division of Jharkhand. 

In another show on August 9, Shrivastav endorsed OpIndia chief editor Nupur J Sharma’s “factual reporting” on the attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus. 

We’ll point out here that Bangladeshi fact-checking outfit Rumor Scanner had found that Sharma routinely spread fake news from her X handle. After one of her posts was identified as false and flagged by a Rumor Scanner team member on August 11, she responded by blocking that particular member on X.

Interestingly, hours before the segment, Sharma and Shrivastav had shared a video on X, claiming it showed “a Hindu woman being abducted by Bangladeshi Jihadis”. Both of them deleted their post after Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair pointed out that the man in the video was a drug addict, a Hindu, and the woman’s  husband, who had been separated from her for months. 

On August 5, Shrivastav’s show fuelled fear-mongering about the student-led protests in Bangladesh, by trying to suggest they followed the same script as the Shaheen Bagh protests in Delhi. “In another Islamic country, an elected government has been brought down today,” he said. Despite the record of police brutality during the Bangladesh protests, the anchor said PM Sheikh Hasina would’ve never fled the country had the army not surrendered before the protesters.

Shrivastav pushed the conspiracy theory, with little substantiation, in three other primetime shows on August 5, August 6, and August 12, claiming that “certain people” in India are attempting to recreate the events that occurred in Bangladesh. On August 12, he even said the “opposition held the Hindenburg report dear” as preparations are underway to carry out in India what had happened in Bangladesh.

On August 7, Shrivastav held a debate on the Waqf Board Amendment Bill, portraying the Waqf board as a land-grabbing entity with unchecked powers. He claimed that the Congress gave the Waqf board such unlimited powers that it can declare any property as its own and cannot be challenged in court. However, this misrepresents the actual legal framework. While disputes involving Waqf property are initially handled by Waqf tribunals, these rulings can be challenged in higher courts, such as the high courts or the Supreme Court. 

On August 8, in another show titled “Shariya-Samvidhan, sab Waqf ke naam”, Shrivastav focused on the opposition’s stance against the amendments to the Waqf Bill. In this episode too, he made similar claims about the Waqf board’s powers. He claimed the Waqf board can take over anyone’s property, but the board’s powers are restricted to raising a claim about only a few types of properties.

On August 12 and 14, Shrivastav hosted two debates centred around Rahul Gandhi’s alleged connections with organisations “conspiring against India”. Shrivastav claimed that during Gandhi’s visit to the US, he met such individuals and organisations and that these entities were purportedly funded by billionaire George Soros. 

In both of the shows, Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury was invited to speak, though Shrivastav did not hold him to the same standard of cross questioning he subjects anti-BJP voices to. Choudhury claimed Sonia Gandhi was a supporter of ISI, and that Rahul Gandhi had met those who posed a serious threat to India’s sovereignty. 

“There is so much information and evidence on him [Rahul Gandhi] that I cannot believe my eyes,” Shrivastav said, without demanding that his panelist present evidence to back his bizarre claims. 

If you’re wondering about Choudhury’s credentials, he’s the editor of a publication called The Weekly Blitz. He once wrote an article alleging Rahul Gandhi’s maternal grandfather was a Nazi soldier whose real name was “Stefano Eugene Maino” who “expressed unwavering loyalty to Mussolini and Italy’s fascist past”. The article also alleged that Sonia Gandhi’s real name is “Hedvige Antonia Albina Moina”. Choudhury also used an image of Reese Witherspoon from her movie Fear and claimed it was Sonia Gandhi.

None of this was brought up by Shrivastav. Choudhury had also contributed to OpIndia, with his writings dating back to February 14, 2023. 

On August 23, on an episode headlined ‘Vipaksh kare apmaan, vishv mein badh raha sammaan’, Shrivastav discussed PM Modi’s Ukraine visit and claimed, without evidence, that Russia “announced that there will be no war as long as PM Modi is in Ukraine”. Russia has never made such a statement in the public domain. The BJP has repeatedly tomtommed the “war rukwa di papa” claim, baffling satirists and fact-checkers in India and abroad.

Public interest

Shrivastav did conduct two debates where he questioned authorities about serious crimes and the mishandling of government funds in opposition-ruled states.

On July 11, he took aim at the Congress-led Karnataka government for allocating 37 percent of their total SC/ST welfare funds to finance the party’s flagship guarantee schemes. He pointed to the lack of accountability over political promises to uplift SC/ST communities, highlighting how the government’s actions contradicted their pre-election commitments.

On August 19, in an episode on the Kolkata rape-murder case, the anchor called out the Mamata Banerjee government for its failure to take appropriate and timely action. Politicians were also called out for limiting their response to mere tweets, instead of addressing the gravity of the issue.

Anti-opposition

Twenty-five segments featured relentless attacks against parties opposed to the BJP. Towards the end of many of these episodes, the anchor resorted to yelling at panellists.

On July 1, the anchor led a segment aimed at presenting the Congress as a party with an anti-Hindu mindset, in the wake of Rahul Gandhi’s parliament speech on tolerance preached by religions. “The way the BJP united Hindus through the Ram Mandir aandolan, Rahul Gandhi’s strategy was to divide Hindus over OBCs and Dalits, and abuse the rest of them.”

On July 29, he suggested that Rahul Gandhi’s speech writers were “urban Naxals” and wanted to split the country into many parts.

On August 1, in the wake of a Delhi High Court order pulling up the authorities over the Delhi coaching centre deaths, the anchor lashed out at the Arvind Kejriwal government.

While the court had also criticised the Delhi police, questioning their absence and calling it a case of “criminal neglect”, Shrivastav selectively focused only on the part of the judgement that targeted the Delhi government. When Parminder Singh Sethi, a political analyst and AAP supporter, highlighted that both the BJP and AAP share collective responsibility, Shrivastav repeated the “Sheesh Mahal” allegations against Kejriwal and said the chief minister had enough money to renovate his residence but not enough for infrastructure.

Among headlines to his other episodes were “Modi ka palatwar, vipaksh sadan se faraar”, “apne jaal mein phans gaye Rahul”, “Kolkata se kannauj, maun kyu ‘secular fauj’?”, “vipaksh kare apmaan, vishv mein badh raha sammaan”, and “Faizabad me haar, Ayodhya par prahaar”.

Discrimination funded by taxpayers 

So, is a state broadcaster’s reach being used to push a narrative that seems to align with the central party in power?

DD was expected to rise above the issues that plague the mainstream media – misinformation, communal bias, and sensationalism for the sake of TRPs. But the irony is that such content is being funded by the very taxpayer it targets.

In January 2023, the Modi government approved a Rs 2,539-crore scheme to enhance the infrastructure of Doordarshan and All India Radio from 2022 to 2026. Additionally, in 2023, the government planned to distribute 8 lakh DD Free Dish DTH set-top boxes to people in remote areas, including regions with tribal populations and those affected by left-wing extremism.

The government’s commitment to expanding the reach of DD and AIR, while allowing such content to proliferate, represents a dangerous shift. 

Newslaundry reached out to Ashok Shrivastav for comment on the phone, email and WhatsApp. In a WhatsApp text, he said, “I used to watch Newslaundry a long time ago and sometimes used to read its reports. But in the last few years, your standard has depleted. People on social media call Newslaundry a ‘propaganda website’ and troll website. I was also told that your organisation is accused of tax evasion. Anyway, please send me the latest Newslaundry reports and any of yours too. I will look at your and your organisation's work once. If the work is of good quality then we can meet and discuss the matter after Diwali.”

This report will be updated if he responds to our specific queries.

In times of misinformation, you need news you can trust. We’ve got you covered. Subscribe to Newslaundry and power our work.

Jharkhand and Maharashtra are set to vote soon, and our teams will hit the ground. Contribute to our new NL Sena project today.