Supreme Court should take notice of 'blatant misuse' of DD, AIR: Congress

NEW DELHIL: Congress today made a strong pitch for Supreme Court to take notice of "blatant misuse" of Doordarshan and AIR by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government to help BJP-led NDA in Bihar elections.

"They are blatantly misusing the instrument of state for propaganda purposes. There should be proper monitoring by the Election Commission which has been constitutionally mandated. Modi is the face of the BJP in the polls... The Supreme Court should take notice of this," senior party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters.

He suggested that concerns of the people needed to be taken note of by the apex court as the Prime Minister spoke on policy issues in his 'Maan ki baat' radio programme yesterday which could influence the voters.

Noting that it was the job of the EC to see that the government of the day does not adversely influence so as to give it undue advantage, he said that the Commission should "explain" how it also allowed the public broadcaster to air/broadcast RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's Vijaya Dashami address.

Yesterday, Bihar's grand alliance partners JD(U) and Congress had charged Modi with violating the model code of conduct by announcing abolition of interviews for Group D, C, and B non-gazetted posts in central government from January 1, claiming it was intended to put an end to the reservation policy.