Envoy tried to micro-manage questions to Pranab: DN editor

NEW DELHI: Even as the foreign ministry allayed fears over the President Pranab Mukherjee’s impending visit to Sweden, saying the row over his interview to Swedish national daily ‘Dagens Nyheter’ would have no bearing on it, the paper insisted that the Indian envoy had said the visit would be at risk if it did not delete references to Bofors. The paper said it refused to do so.
DN editor-in-chief Peter Wolodarski said on Wednesday, “In a telephone conversation with DN prior to the publication of the article, the ambassador (Banashri Bose Harrison) made a direct request that DN was to retract sections of the interview mentioning Bofors. She also warned that the planned state visit was at risk of being cancelled.’’
“I find the ambassador’s reactions regretful. It is surprising that someone representing the world’s largest democracy is trying to micro-manage which questions we should ask a head of state, and which answers should be published,’’ Wolodarski added.
In her letter, Harrison said the paper had neglected to show the President the “courtesy and respect’’ that he deserves as head of state.
Later in the day, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “The visit is very much on and we look forward to an all-round consolidation of our bilateral ties with Sweden.”
Ambassador Harrison in her letter dated May 25 said it was “unprofessional and unethical’’ of the paper to report an off-the-record conversation after the interview had ended about a slip of tongue during the interview. (The paper had reported that the President had accidentally repeatedly referred to Swedish as Swiss and had asked for it to be corrected.) ``After that to include the same in your report in a most condescending manner as you have done does not befit the high standards normally expected from a leading newspaper or a professional journalist,’’ she said.
She also said the video interview on the website shows Bofors as the first question when it was the third question that was asked by the paper. “I hope you will forgive me for being frank enough to say that this is taking journalistic licence to a point of misleading the viewers. This is all the more inexplicable since you told me that Bofors is not of interest to your readers,’’ Harrison said.
In response to the letter, Wolodarski said, “I told the ambassador that we couldn’t accept her demands (about retracting the Bofors comments). The President became engaged and was upset when Bofors was mentioned during a question regarding how we can avoid corruption today. Of course, we had to tell our readers about his reaction.”
“DN published four pages in our Sunday edition, containing almost every answer from the Indian President. We have conducted the interview in the same manner as we do whenever we interview other heads of state and government,’’ he added.
The scandal of procurement of 155mm howitzer field Bofors guns plagued the Rajiv Gandhi government in the late 1980s and became a big election issue in 1989 in which the former Prime Minister had to face defeat.