DD ‘refuses’ to air Tripura CM’s speech
Unemployment, poverty are prevailing while the government (at Centre) is not taking any step to change the economic policy of the corporate.
CPI(M) on Tuesday condemned Doordarshan’s alleged refusal to broadcast a prerecorded Independence Day speech of Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar after he refused to change parts of the message that Prasar Bharati found “inappropriate” for the occasion.
Doordarshan withheld the speech having references to “gau raksha” and “attacks on minorities”, but aired a live speech of the chief minister given at the Independence Day ceremony held at the Assam Rifles ground in state capital Agartala on Tuesday morning which the CPI(M) claimed was packed in the news bulletin.
Like every year, DD and All India Radio (AIR) had sought permission to record the chief minisCondemning ter’s message, which was done at the secretariat on August 12 for the August 14 broadcast.
But the DD’s Agartala centre on Monday said it would not be able to telecast the pre-recorded message because Prasar Bharati, found parts of the content inappropriate for Independence Day.
Sarkar, however, refused to change the content of his message and condemned the broadcasting agency’s decision as “undemocratic and intolerable”.
In the pre-recorded speech, Sarkar said that a conspiracy was going on to create a division by “trying to transform India into a state believing in a particular religion and spreading message of gau raksha”.
He also said the minority and Dalit communities were being attacked , and the Centre’s antipeople policy was affecting peace and tranquillity. “Unemployment, poverty are prevailing while the government is not taking any step to change the economic policy of the corporate.”
the action, the CPI(M) took to Twitter to vent anger. “Doordarshan refuses to broadcast Tripura CM Manik Sarkar’s speech. Is this the cooperative federalism that PM Modi talks about? Shame!”
DD’s Agartala centre station director, Shankar Prasad Mondal, however, refuted the allegation and said the CM’s programme was aired on Tuesday at 6.15 pm. The centre every day broadcasts Bengali news from 6:15 to 6:30 pm.
CPI(M) leaders said DD only packed in parts of Sarkar’s live speech in their news bulletin, and not the pre-recorded speech.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said Doordarshan was “not the private property” of BJP-RSS and accused Modi of “instructing his cronies to black out voices” of the Opposition, including that of an elected CM.