Narendra Modi-phobia leads to channel censorship: BJP

NEW DELHI: BJP has alleged that the government has violated the right to free speech and resorted to censorship due to Congress' "Modi-phobia". Arun Jaitley, the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, in an article on Monday, hit out at the information and broadcasting ministry's advisory restricting channels from comparing the Prime Minister's speech with that of other political leaders and the government's directive to TV channels to restrict the maximum number of advertisements telecast in an hour.

"Any channel which shows the prime minister in competition would be liable for adverse action under the uplinking and downlinking regulations as also a penal action under section 20 of the Cable Network (Regulation) Act. This is an unconstitutional censorship order prompted by the Modi-phobia," Jaitley said.

He was referring to the ministry's October 21 circular saying it had come to its notice that "certain TV channels attempted to denigrate the Office of the Prime Minister of India by constantly trying to compare the speech of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India with the speech of other political leaders on 15th August, 2013." Ninety minutes after the PM's address, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had picked holes in it in his speech in a college in Kutch. The advisory stated that telecast of this kind of programme on a day when the nation was celebrating Independence Day was highly objectionable as Manmohan Singh spoke from Red Fort as prime minister of the country and not as leader of a political party and that to put him in an "artificial competition" with anyone was not appropriate.