On Thursday, September 14, the opposition group INDIA announced that it will boycott the appearances and programmes of 14 newsreaders from nine television channels because of their emphasis on “communal polarising” while ignoring matters of general interest.
The media committee of the INDIA bloc announced that its parties would not send representatives to appearances on programmes and events hosted by the news anchors Aman Chopra, Amish Devgan, and Anand Narasimhan of News18, Aditi Tyagi of Bharat Express, Ashok Shrivastav of DD News, Sudhir Chaudhary and Chitra Tripathi of Aaj Tak, Rubika Liyaquat of Bharat24, Gaurav Sawant and Shiv Aro.
Constantly polarise communal issues
Congress spokesperson Pawan Kher said, “The INDIA bloc does not want to be an alliance that promotes any attempt or debate that constantly polarises the communal issues in the country. We are not that bloc. That is why this decision has been taken to boycott these anchors.”
He continued by saying that the networks never broadcast programmes about topics of general interest, such as unemployment, education, or inflation.
According to a Newslaundry article, the INDIA bloc’s first coordination committee meeting, which was attended by 12 parties, is where the decision to boycott these news anchors’ programmes was made.
It further stated that the boycotted channels will be “observed over the next few months” and that it would be lifted “if there is improvement”
Newslaundry quoted a committee member as saying that if there was no progress, measures including a ban on advertisements on these stations might also be implemented.
“So far, there is no clear decision over this. We have to wait and watch,” Khera said.
FIR against anchor
The consulting editor of Aaj Tak, Sudhir Chaudhary, has been accused by the Karnataka police of inciting racial animosity during a programme he aired on the television news station.
On September 12, the Seshadripuram police in Bengaluru filed a complaint against the news program’s organiser and the channel Chaudhary for allegedly disseminating untrue and racially divisive information.
The channel is accused of airing a programme that made false and potentially divisive assertions concerning a programme run by the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation (KMDC).
An assistant administrative officer of the KMDC named Shivakumar filed a complaint, which led to the registration of the case.
He said that the network fostered animosity between various racial, ethnic, geographic, and linguistic groupings.
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