Arvind Kejriwal charges Modi’s ‘media advisor’ Hiren Joshi of abusing media editors

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, September 17:  Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday levelled a serious allegation against Hiren Joshi, whom he described as ‘media advisor’ to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of terrorizing editors of the media houses.

Addressing the first conclave of the elected representatives of the Aam Admi Party, Kejriwal claimed: “There is Hiren Joshi. He is media advisor to the Prime Minister. Editors of media houses have shown me the messages sent by Hiren Joshi where he threatens and serves filthy abuses.”

Delhi Chief Minister further asserted that if the “editors decide to release the screenshots of the abusive messages sent by Joshi he would not find place to hide his face”. Kejriwal cautioned Joshi to stop threatening the media.

No editor so far has come forth to deny the accusation of the Delhi Chief Minister. Also, Joshi too has not denied the charges made by Kejriwal.

The BJP leaders and sympathisers of the party, however, accuse Kejriwal of lying too often.

Incidentally, Joshi, who works in the Prime Minister’s Office, isn’t known to officially hold the position of the media advisor. There is no media advisor currently to the Prime Minister.

But the officers of the Press Information Bureau for several years have claimed that Joshi gives them instructions on media matters.

Kejriwal also charged that Joshi has threatened the media houses to blank out his coverage.

Journalists who cover Prime Minister’s Office in earlier days used to have access to the officially verified information through the media advisors.

Sanjaya Baru, Pankaj Pachauri and Harish Khare had been the media advisors to Manmohan Singh when he was Prime Minister during 2004-14.

Now, the scribes who cover the PMO beat get information merely on a WhatsApp group, while the PIB officials manning the PMO often feign ignorance to information playing out on Twitter and television, saying that they don’t have confirmation, and that they haven’t yet got instructions to share any such inputs.

However, Joshi is known to be an old-timer in team Modi having been with him since his Gujarat chief minister days, while being credited to have built his public image by teaming up with the Bharatiya Janata Party communication department.

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