Doordarshan News has unveiled a fresh saffron-hued logo, heralding its revamped identity. The logo (of both the English and Hindi news channels), once ruby red, now gleams with a saffron hue.

The change has generated a lot of controversy. While saffron is reminiscent of the top stripe on the national tricolour, it is also prominently featured in the ruling BJP’s party emblem, and herein lies the controversy.

Prasar Bharati CEO Gaurav Dwivedi, however, dismissed the criticism, telling Hindustan Times that the colour is orange, and moreover, it is the same colour that the logo of Doordarshan India was changed to six to seven months ago, ahead of the G20 summit.

Political parties and netizens opposed to the BJP, however, have termed this change as saffronisation of the public broadcaster, and that too, just ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, when the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct is in place, and hence, a changed aimed at influencing voters.

It is worth noting that the first logo of Doordarshan, chosen by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, inaugurated on April 1, 1976 and accompanied by a theme music composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain Khan, sported an orange emblem against a green backdrop.

Jawhar Sircar, who served as CEO of Prasar Bharati, the parent body of Doordarshan, from 2012 to 2016 and presently represents the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha, labelled this rebranding as another instance of “saffronisation,” dubbing Prasar Bharati as “Prachar Bharati”.