INDIA parties to blacklist some TV news anchors, not send representatives to their shows

At first meeting of INDIA’s coordination committee, parties also decided to start seat-sharing talks & hold joint public meetings across country, with first slated to be held in Bhopal.

Congress's K.C. Venugopal, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader T.R. Baalu addressed the media after a meeting of the INDIA bloc's coordination committee meeting | ANI

New Delhi: Opposition INDIA bloc has decided to blacklist some news anchors — a development that comes at a time when Opposition parties have been accusing several media houses of having a “pro-Bharatiya Janata Party” prejudice. 

In the first meeting of the opposition INDIA bloc’s coordination committee Wednesday, 12 participating parties authorised the media sub-group of the bloc to prepare a list of anchors to be blacklisted.

Speaking at a press conference after the meeting in Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar’s residence here, Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal said that the media subcommittee will decide on a list of anchors on whose shows none of 26 parties in the bloc will send their representatives. 

The decision comes at a time when opposition leaders have been consistently accusing the BJP of capturing narrative by controlling the media, with some parties even referring to such “biased” media houses and anchors as “Modia”. Some parties, such as the Congress, have already blacklisted some TV channels.  

The opposition’s move is being seen as a means to counter the BJP’s narrative propagation.

Besides Venugopal, Gurdeep Sappal from the Congress, T.R.Balu from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Tejashwi Yadav from the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Sanjay Jha from the Janata Dal (United), Raghav Chadha from the Aam Aadmi Party, Sanjay Raut from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Mehbooba Mufti from the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Omar Abdullah from the National Conference, Javed Ali Khan from the Samajwadi Party and D. Raja from the Communist Party of India attended Wednesday’s meeting.

The coordination committee was one of five panels that the INDIA bloc had decided to set up at their meeting held in Mumbai on 31 August and 1 September.  The committees are aimed at deciding on the various modalities of a joint opposition campaign for next year’s General Election. 

Joint public meetings, seat sharing talks — what lies ahead

At the press conference, Venugopal also termed the ED summons of Trinamool Congress Abhishek Banerjee, who’s also a part of the coordination committee, as part of “vendetta politics’”. The ED had summoned Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, before it in connection with a recruitment scam Wednesday.   

“Shri Abhishek Banerjee could not attend the meeting due to summons by ED, arising out of the vendetta politics of BJP and the prime minister,” Venugopal said.

He announced that all parties in the INDIA bloc have decided to start holding seat-sharing talks. The coordination committee has also decided to hold joint public meetings across the country, Venugopal said. The first such meeting is slated to be held in Bhopal in the first week of October.

After the meeting, AAP MP Raghav Chadha said that all parties present had decided to raise the issue of the caste census. However, when Venugopal was asked about it at the press conference, he indicated that the TMC — which was not present at the meeting — was not on board with the idea. In the earlier meetings of the INDIA alliance, the TMC had shown resistance to raising the issue.

“Those (parties) who were present have decided these things. We will talk to them (TMC)”, said Venugopal.

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)