The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDSA) has found a News18 interview with a self-styled godman in violation of its code of ethics and directed the news channel to remove it from all digital platforms within a week.
News18’s managing editor, Kishore Ajwani, had interviewed Dhirendra Shastri, popularly known as Bageshwar Baba, on July 10 last year. The NBDSA in its order said that Shastri made several statements that promoted superstition and were divisive in nature.
The association was hearing a complaint made by Pune-based activist Indrajeet Ghorpade.
“In the instant case, the seer who was invited by the broadcaster made several claims during the broadcast, which promoted superstition. Furthermore, during the broadcast, several statements were made by the seer concerning Hindu Rashtra and religion, which were divisive in nature, such as that in order to live in India it would be mandatory to say “Sita Ram” and that Islam asked men to trap young Hindu girls in love jihad and then kill them,” the NBDSA observed.
The association said that the broadcast violated its specific guidelines covering reportage relating to ‘racial and religious harmony, supernatural, occultism and paranormal’ as well as the advisory on ‘reportage spreading superstition, occultism and blind belief’.
“NBDSA observed that programmes which advance belief in superstition and tend to create disharmony between communities should not be countenanced and should not be broadcast,” the order read.
In the interview, Shastri had claimed that he could find diamonds, predict polls and heal people through supernatural powers among other things.
The association also warned the channel and advised it against inviting individuals whose views could be construed as promoting superstitious beliefs and practices.
‘News value attached to the seer’
In its submission to the association, News18 had argued that there was significant news value associated with the godman to justify why he had been invited to the programme.
The channel also claimed that it did not promote or support any statements made by Shastri in an individual capacity and were therefore not responsible for them.
Ghorpade, in his rebuttal to the channel’s claims, said that News18 was well aware of Shastri’s tendency to make such statements and questioned Ajwani’s failure to adequately interject during the interview.
“In rebuttal, the complainant submitted that, as admitted by the broadcaster, the seer was known to make controversial statements such as on Hindu Rashtra and love jihad; the channel was well aware of the seer’s tendency to make controversial statements and had therefore invited him in the broadcast.
[Ghorpade] submitted that the broadcaster’s submission that it had not raised any question regarding the seer’s supernatural abilities was false, as it was the anchor who had himself, during the broadcast, questioned the seer whether he could predict election results. Therefore, the interview was well crafted, as the channel knew what Mr Shastri would say,” the NBDSA order said.