NEW DELHI — Editorial director of one of the private news channel quit in protest against allegedly “fixed” interview of Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi. Qamar Waheed Naqvi's resignation from India TV acquired deep political overtones on Tuesday with the ruling Congress claiming that it showed the kind of pressures journalists faced from the BJP. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been complaining of media's alleged bias in favor of Modi, took up the issue on the social media congratulating Naqvi for his “courage.” The Congress party recalled the police complaint of a senior journalist of the Hindu after she received threat calls for a piece she wrote on Modi late last year. “This is the trailer of the good days that BJP advertisements are promising” said the party's media chief Ajay Maken. Naqvi quit on April 13, hours after Modi was featured in Aap Ki Adalat (people's court) on the evening of April 12. The interview program is hosted by India TV chairman Rajat Sharma. The resignation came amidst accusations that the channel's Modi interview resembled a “public relations exercise.” Sources in India TV said that the channel's pro-Modi bias was clear in the news bulletin line up with the pieces loaded heavily in favor of the BJP. “If there were 10 negative stories against Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal, there would be one against Modi,” a source with the channel said. He said Naqvi had expressed his reservations to Sharma on several occasions. Channel sources also pointed out that Naqvi had expressed the apprehension about the channel's alleged bias before he was hired, but was assured that India TV wanted to move away from being a “sensational, soap-opera driven channel to a serious news channel.”
