Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 2, 2015

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a digital version of the musical epic Ramcharitmanas on Monday with much fanfare but a similar proposal had been shot down some years back over concerns that it may open the floodgates of requests for other religious recordings.
Sources said that the issue came up in a meeting of the Prasar Bharati Board but was turned down due to paucity of resources.

“The issue was discussed in the Board and the concern among the members was that religious texts could not be digitized selectively. It would be unfair to accept some and not others keeping in view our limited resources,'' the source said.

The board had decided to set up a committee of experts to prioritize those records that were perishable.

“The AIR archives has priceless recordings so the reasoning was that those works that were in danger of being damaged should be salvaged and a holistic approach be adopted towards digitization,'' the source said adding there was no protest on ideological grounds.

Describing 'Ram charitmanas' as a great work which im bibes the “essence of India“, Modi released the digital version of a musical production on the epic recorded by All India Radio.