Don’t participate in TV debates on Pulwama, communal issues: Kushwaha tells opposition

The former union minister, who broke away from the NDA, alleges TV channels are deviating from real issues and promoting RSS, BJP agenda.

Upendra Kushwaha | Manvender Vashist/PTI

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha, who has now joined the grand opposition alliance in Bihar, has written to his current allies, urging them to not participate in TV debates on the Pulwama terror attack and religious issues such as Ram temple in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.

Kushwaha, who was the minister of state (MoS) for Human Resource Development in the Modi government, has addressed his letter to opposition parties including the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

“Television news is trying to distract people from real issues and divert their attention to communal issues and issues of nationalism,” reads the letter by Kushwaha, who is also the MP from Karakat in Bihar. “There is a constant attempt to deviate the opposition as well from real issues and make them join in communal discussions.”

TV channels deviating from real issues

In his letter, Kushwaha states that communal debates on television news have brought down the credibility of news channels and appear to be only trying to promote the BJP and RSS agenda.

“We should not deviate from real issues like talking about the youth, farmers, backward castes and minorities. But the TV channels are constantly trying to engage people on communal issues instead of talking about the real issues ahead of elections,” the letter reads. “This is the reason we have decided that RLSP leaders will boycott all kinds of TV debates on Pulwama, communal issues and Hindu-Muslim debates. I urge others also to boycott such debates and not send representatives from their parties to participate.”

The RLSP broke away from NDA government in November 2018 in which Kushwaha had served as a union minister for four and a half years. In his resignation letter, he had expressed unhappiness at the way he said PM Modi works.