The state-owned public broadcasting organization Doordarshan has completed its 63 years of service. It started as a humble experiment on September 15, 1959, in a makeshift studio. Initially, it was part of the All India Radio and provided services only in the Delhi region. It became a service in 1965 and started beaming signals to reach television sets in and around New Delhi. It took another seven years for Doordarshan to expand its services first to Mumbai and Amritsar in 1972. Further expanding its services, Doordarshan then reached another seven cities by 1975.
On April 1976, Doordarshan finally had its separate department as part of the national broadcaster Prasar Bharti in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Notably, All India Radio still offers several services for Doordarshan, especially for the news segment.
As time passed by, the organization expanded its roots across the length and breadth of the country, covering several sections, including linguistic, geographical, and cultural groups. The broadcasting services promoted the social, cultural, and educational development of the country and expanded its studio presence in different parts of the country to produce programs in regional languages.
At present, Doordarshan has an array of 36 satellite channels along with free-to-air DTH service with 110 channels in the kitty. There are over 66 studio centers of Doordarshan across the country, out of which 17 major studios are located in State capitals and 49 studios in various cities.
Important timelines of Doordarshan’s history
- September 15, 1959: Experimental transmission from Delhi
- October 24, 1961: School television for Delhi students.
- August 15, 1965: Regular service with daily news bulletin in Hindi.
- January 26, 1967: Krishi Darshan – programs for farmers.
- October 2, 1972: Television in a second city, Mumbai.
- August 1, 1975: SITE launched.
- January 1, 1976: Commercials introduced.
- April 1, 1976: Doordarshan delinked from AIR.
- August 15, 1982: National programs, colour transmission, and networking through satellite.
- November 19, 1982: Expansion through LPTs launched.
- August 15, 1983: Countrywide classroom of UGC launched.
- July 15, 1984: First mass appeal serial Hum Log.
- August 9, 1984: Second channel at Delhi.
- August 9, 1085: First regional satellite network in Maharashtra.
- February 23, 1987: Morning transmissions
- January 26, 1989: Afternoon transmissions
- April 1, 1993: Metro channel with satellite networking
- October 1, 1993: Regional language satellite channels.
- August 15, 1994: Restructuring of channels -DDl to DD 13
- March 14, 1995: DD India—International channel.
- November 23, 1997: Prasar Bharati—the autonomous broadcasting corporation of India.
- March 18, 1999: DD Sports channel was inaugurated.
- July 10, 1999: News on the hour.
- August 15, 1999: DD News and current affairs channel. (Test transmission).
- Controversies that still haunt the public-broadcaster
Apart from glorious history, there have been moments in Doordarshan’s history that caused controversies and haunt the public broadcaster to date.
The funeral of former PM Indira Gandhi
On October 30, Doordarshan did a live telecast of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. During the funeral, alleged incendiary slogans were raised that fuelled the already tense atmosphere in the national capital. Bollywood veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan is known to be close to the Gandhi family, especially Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
Following the murder of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, Amitabh Bachchan visited her residence to pay respects to the departed. He also attended the funeral of the former Prime Minister and remained close to Rajiv Gandhi throughout the last rites. According to the eyewitnesses, the actor allegedly gave an inflammatory speech and raised slogans like ‘Khoon ka badla khoon,’ which translates to ‘blood for blood.
In 2011, the Times of India quoted Jagdish Kaur, one of the prime witnesses in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots saying, “I wonder why no one in India lodged a case against Amitabh Bachchan for provoking killing of Sikhs.” She said whoever watched Doordarshan at that time knew what Bachchan had said. The alleged slogans raised by Bachchan went “missing” from the archives, never to be found.
‘When a big tree falls…’ Rajiv Gandhi’s speech justifying anti-Sikh riots
Not only Amitabh Bachchan but former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s objectionable remarks on anti-Sikh riots were aired on Doordarshan in 1984. On November 19, 1984, while giving a speech in front of thousands of people, then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi justified anti-Sikh riots by saying such incidents happen when a ‘large tree falls’ referring to Indira Gandhi’s death and the aftermath of the murder.
Rajiv Gandhi said, “Hamein Indira ji ka yaad rakhna hai. Hamein yaad rakhna hai ki unki hatya kyun hui. Hamein yaad rakhna hai ki kaun kaun log iske peeche ho sakte hain. Jab Indira ji ki hatya hui thi, to haamre desh mein kuch dange fasaad hue the. Hamein maloom hai ki bharat ki janta ke dil mein kitna krodh aaya, kitna gussa aaya. Aur kuch din ke liye, logon ko laga ki bharat hil raha hai. Lekin jab bhi koi bada ped girta hai to dharti thodi hilti hai. (We should remember Indira Gandhi. We should remember why she was killed. We should remember who can be behind her assassination. When Indira ji was killed, there were some riots in the country. We know how angry the people of India were. And for a few days, people thought that India is shaking. However, whenever a big tree falls, the earth shakes.)”
Opposition to airing Ramayana
Ramayana serial is one of the most popular series telecasted by Doordarshan. Its impact on the public is well documented, and those who lived in those years must remember how streets used to get empty during its telecast on Sundays. However, very few people are aware that the administration at Prasar Bharati did not allow its telecast for long.
Ramanand Sagar’s son Prem Sagar openly spoke about the resistance and said, “Baba knew he would make the Ramayana as early as the 1940s. He had begun conceptualizing the idea back in 1975 itself. But every time, at Doordarshan, someone or the other pulled the plug. They had an agenda. It was probably down to the officers high up in the organization. Eventually, someone got transferred here or there or left office, and the show finally happened.”
Another aspect of that period is that to ‘monkey balance’ the telecast of a series based on Hindu religion, Doordarshan produced programs like Bible ki Kahaniya, Alif Laila, and more.
Special cell to target then-CM Modi
In his book titled “Narendra Modi Censored,” journalist Ashok Shrivastav revealed a special cell was constituted in DD News to run news stories, documentaries, programs, etc. to target Narendra Modi, especially around the 2002 post-Godhra riots. Not everyone was allowed to walk into this cell which was housed in room no. 123. Controversial ‘activist’ Teesta Setalvad was a special and regular visitor to the cell.
‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ removed from logo
Journalist Ashok Shrivastav in a recent tweet, alleged that during UPA tenure in 2013, the iconic phrase ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ was removed from Doordarshan’s logo.
कई मित्र पूछ रहे हैं कि क्या दूरदर्शन के लोगो से “सत्यम शिवम सुंदरम” हटाया गया है।सबको निजी तौर पर जवाब देना संभव नहीं।
— Ashok Shrivastav (@AshokShrivasta6) April 13, 2019
यह सच है संभवतः 2013 में अचानक लोगो से “सत्यम शिवम सुंदरम” हटा दिया गया।क्यों, नहीं जानता।
शायद “सेक्युलर” बनने के चक्कर में या शायद हिंदुओं से एलर्जी के कारण
It was added back when the government changed in 2014.
