Sudarshan News


Sudarshan News is an Indian news channel in Hindi. It was founded in 2014. Suresh Chavhanke is the chairman as well as Editor in Chief of the channel.
Chavhanke was a long-term volunteer of a Hindu nationalist organisation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, having held multiple designations and was also associated with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of RSS.
Chavhanke asserts of practicing ideology driven journalism and prefers that the news-programs over his channel be viewed as opinionated campaigns.
The channel has been widely criticised for standing against leftists and spreading hatred against different religious communities.

Reception

Hate Speech

In April 2017, Chavhanke was arrested for inciting communal hatred through multiple episodes of a flagship program before securing a bail, two days later.
In 2020, Hemant Soren, the CM of Jharkhand, ordered state police to take action against Chavhanke for his communal hate speeches.
Chavhanke mentions of having significantly contributed towards the ochlocratic atmosphere that led to multiple police complaints against M. F. Husain, for allegedly violating Hindu sentiments and caused him to leave India, on a self-imposed exile till death.

Anti-Muslim Content

Dissemination of anti-Muslim content to manufacturing actual news with neutral overtones, has been observed. Critics have called out the channel as "Bigot" and "dangerous" for its communal-toned fake news. Hilal Ahmed, a professor of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, notes a call for extrajudicial lynching of Muslims, who refused to chant a particular slogan in praise of the motherland, whilst discussing the context of Islamophobic discourse in media and its role in creating the actual stereotypical image of Indian Muslims.
In June 2018, Delhi Minorities Commission issued a notice to the channel, after it broadcast a program that claimed a Muslim-dominated region was inhabited by illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators.

Fake News

On multiple occasions, Sudarshan News was found to be spreading fake news. In 2019, an old video was morphed with slogans calling to kill RSS workers were shown by the channel. In 2014, fake quotes were attributed to Shahrukh Khan by the news channel. During Delhi riot of 2020, the channel was found to be spreading communally charged fake news.
In March 2019, a Kozhikode district court ordered the channel to pay a compensation of to Malabar Gold in a defamation suit, after it broadcast morphed visuals alleging the company of having celebrated Pakistani Independence Day.