A change in the colour of the logo of public broadcaster Doordarshan News from red to orange has sparked off a political row with the opposition calling it “unethical” and “grossly illegal”.
The government-owned broadcaster Prasar Bharati unveiled the new look of DD News last week.
The saffron colour is often associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar.
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Expressing shock over the new look of DD News logo, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday described it as the “saffronisation” of the Doordarshan.
“I am shocked at the sudden saffronisation and change of colour of our Doordarshan logo when the national elections are taking place across the country! It is absolutely unethical, grossly illegal, and speaks loudly of the pro-BJP bias of the national public broadcaster,” Banerjee said in a post on X.
Taking a jibe at Banerjee, Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said her love for “saffron” is “publicly known”.
Banerjee also questioned the Election Commission of India for allowing the “crude, pro-Saffron violation of the Model Code of Conduct” during elections.
However, the BJP termed the change as a “homecoming”, contending that the saffron logo was tested in 1982.
BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya said India got colour TV in 1982 and Doordarshan became the national broadcaster the same year.
“This is how it was launched. Saffron. We just reclaimed it,” Malviya said on X, sharing a clip of the promo of Doordarshan from yesteryears.
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“On Doordarshan’s saffron colour — it was tested way back in 1982. So, don’t be shocked and find out who changed it to blue. This is nothing but a homecoming for the national broadcaster,” Malviya said.
Former Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar, a member of Rajya Sabha from TMC, said that he has been watching Doordarshan’s “saffronisation with alarm”.
“This is an optical construct where the identity of the party and the state are merged together. This is part of a totalitarian regime where you cannot differentiate the party from the state,” he added.
Prasar Bharati CEO Gaurav Dwivedi dismissed the criticism, saying the logo of the network’s English news channel DD India was changed to the same colour ahead of the G20.
“Thus, two news channels from the same group now follow the same visual aesthetic,” he added.
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Published: 20 Apr 2024, 10:53 PM IST