The Press Information Bureau (PIB), the nodal agency of the Government of India, on Friday slammed NDTV for broadcasting a highly misleading and erroneous news report regarding the government’s procurement of rice.
In a letter to NDTV’s Editorial Director and President of the NDTV ethics committee Sonia Singh, Alpana Pant Sharma, Additional Director General of the PIB said, “In a shocking display of poor journalism and sheer disregard of actual facts, Shri Ravish Kumar of NDTV has resorted to incorrectly portraying paddy procurement by the Government of India.” She goes on to say that the news was “totally misleading” and that it creates an impression among viewers that the procurement in the current year is lower as compared to last year.
Sharma further said that Ravish Kumar has misrepresented important facts, especially at a “sensitive time” when some farmers are protesting at the borders of the national capital. “This not only misleads our nation’s farmers but also incites negative sentiments in society,” she said.
The PIB official went on to confirm that till January 10 last year of the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2019-20, 423 lakh MT of paddy was procured by the government. “Compared to the same period, 534 lakh MT of paddy was procured till January 10 this year by the central government during the current KMS. This shows that the increase till January 10 is indeed 26 per cent. Shri Kumar’s report on your channel does an unfair comparison of full year procurement of 2019-20 with ongoing procurement of 2020-21,” she said in her letter.
She further stated that the infographic mentioned in the news clipping from the twitter handle of Union Minister Piyush Goyal has been cropped, which amounts to “a malafide act”.
The officer also said that the news report further confused paddy figures and rice figures, although both are different. Since rice is procured from paddy, the figures in lakh MT of rice will always be lower than paddy, she said.
“Strongly” urging NDTV to retract the news report, the Additional Director General requested the channel to broadcast the correct information to the viewers.
BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya shared a copy of the letter on his Twitter handle.
The lies and propaganda had to be called out at some point… pic.twitter.com/3OOK0OTSSp
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) January 16, 2021