News18 ordered to remove Bageshwar Baba interview over hate, superstitions

The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) have ordered News18 India to take down an interview with a controversial self-proclaimed godman Dhirendra Shastri popularly known as Bageshwar Baba cited as a “violation of its code of ethics and advisories on religious harmony and superstition”.

Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate Reliance Industries owned channel conducted the exclusive



interview on July 10, 2023, which the NBDSA described as a “spread of superstition and religious intolerance.”

The decision came in response to a complaint from Indrajeet Ghorpade, a resident activist of Pune who accused Shastri of making several objectionable remarks during the interview, including statements about the formation of a “Hindu Nation” and his supernatural power to predict political results.