Top ABP editors quit, staff say Modi govt may have ‘arm-twisted channel for criticism’

Milind Khandekar, one of the journalists who quit | Facebook

Centre categorically denies allegation that it had something to do with the resignations, minister says channel’s TRPs were down.

New Delhi: The resignation of two top editors at ABP News, a Hindi news channel, has sparked speculation that the media house may have been forced to buckle under government pressure for broadcasting content unpalatable to the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Wednesday, managing editor of ABP News Milind Khandekar announced his resignation, which was soon followed by the exit of journalist Punya Prasun Bajpai, who anchored the popular show Master Stroke.

14 years & 8 days later it’s time to move on. Today was my last day as Managing Editor @abpnewstv . Thank you for being part of my journey so far.

— Milind Khandekar (@milindkhandekar) August 1, 2018

Even senior news anchor Abhisar Sharma was asked to go off the air and has gone on long leave, ThePrint has learnt. Sharma had been highly critical of the Narendra Modi government in his video blogs. He could not be reached for comment.

Khandekar, Bajpai and senior management representatives of the channel were also unavailable for comment. ThePrint will update this report with their comments when they are received.

However, in Parliament, Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore strongly denied the charges that the BJP had something to do with the journalists’ departures.

“No showcause notice was served on the channel when it was running wrong news. The government has nothing to do with it (the resignations)…the TRP of the channel is going down,” PTI quoted Rathore as saying.

The issue reverberated in Parliament Friday, as the Congress raised it during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, alleging that the Centre was curbing the freedom of the press.

‘Under pressure for months’

ABP News insiders claimed that the channel’s top management had been under pressure for a few months for carrying news critical of the government.

The tipping point, they claimed, came about a month ago, when the channel aired a report countering the Centre’s claims of having doubled farmers’ incomes. The channel zeroed in on a Chhattisgarh woman, who in a video conference with the Prime Minister had said she had doubled her income after diversifying her crop.

Appearing on the channel, however, the woman said she had been tutored to make the claims. The government rebutted the segment, with Rathore and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman even criticising the channel for airing it.

ABP insiders claimed there was a lot of pressure on the channel’s management to issue an apology. The channel, however, decided to stand by the story, a senior ABP reporter told ThePrint, adding that this outright defiance did not go down well with the government.

Sources in the channel said that BJP leaders then began boycotting the channel.

“For over a month, no BJP spokesperson or a prominent party face was willing to come to our news debates or even give us bytes. In order to represent the party adequately, we had to make do with people affiliated to the BJP or RSS,” a correspondent with the channel said.

They clearly told us that they have been asked by their higher-ups to avoid ABP News and instead rebut us on social media, he added.

Talking to ThePrint, a senior BJP functionary said avoiding a channel is a silent form of protest that has been carried out by both the BJP and the Congress.

“There are times when relations between a channel and the BJP or the Congress can go sour for whatever reasons. What is happening now could be a silent form of protest against the channel. Even the Congress has done this. There have been times when relations have improved as well. But it is unfair to link it with the government,” the BJP source said.

Trouble in the airwaves

Some ABP staff also claimed that soon after the report on farmers’ incomes, the channel’s transmission signals began getting distorted around prime time.

“We were not sure if the problem was region-specific. So we checked among ourselves in our WhatsApp group if this was a problem across the country. My colleagues from other states, too, reported the same problem,” another senior correspondent claimed.

Another ABP journalist claimed that the problem disappeared soon after the resignations.

“The transmission signal of the channel, during the telecast of Master Stroke, was flawless last evening. All of us deliberately kept a watch,” the journalist said.

A senior government official from the Information and Broadcasting ministry, however, refuted all claims that indicated the government had anything to do either with the disturbed transmission signals or with the resignation of the editors.

“The ministry has not issued them any show cause notice. Instead of blaming the government, they should look into why the channel is losing out on TRPs and has slipped to the fifth position,” the official told ThePrint.

The official said allegations that the government deliberately hindered the channel’s transmission signals are completely baseless. “It is there on our Doordarshan Free Dish and the signals are completely smooth there. Why should we harm it? It will affect our own revenues,” the official said.