The spat over Prasar Bharati‘s autonomy continues, with former I&B minister Jaipal Reddy throwing his hat into the ring. Reddy who during his term a year and a half ago, was instrumental in the setting up of the Prasar Bharati, says that the BJP-led government wants to bury two proposals which he had mooted, that of a Broadcast Authority of India and the Prasar Bharati. He alleged that Mahajan is trying to do away with autonomy of DD and All India Radio, which fall under the Prasar Bharati.He told a local newspaper: "The BJP government is misusing the Prasar Bharati for surpressing unpleasant news and propagating its own interests. It is saffronising it. All this is meant to kill the Prasar Bharati."

The BJP has retaliated by stating that the Prasar Bharati was no longer a Prachar Bharati (Propaganda agency) which Reddy had set up. It alleged that the United Front (UF) government had during its term converted the government media (AIR and DD) into instruments of party propaganda. It did this under the guise of granting them autonomy.

The BJP spokesperson J.P. Mathur added that the UF had relaxed the age limit of the Prasar Bharati CEO to accommodate the "Janata Dal pamphleteer" S.S. Gill. He opined that both DD and AIR were dependent on public funds and hence were automatically answerable to Parliament and the public not only on their functioning, but also on promotion of public service broadcasting..