Government strangling media, says AAP

The AAP on Friday accused the government of strangling the media and said through the one-day ban on NDTV India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking the country back to the days of the Emergency.

"We would like to remind the Bharatiya Janata Party that the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gagged the media in 1975 and the country's people cleaned up the Congress in 1977," AAP leader Sanjay Singh said at a press conference here.

"We want to request the BJP and the Prime Minister not to encourage politics of hate," Singh said.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has directed NDTV India to go off air for 24 hours from the midnight of November 8-9 for allegedly breaching broadcast norms in its coverage of the attack on an Indian Air Force base in Punjab in January.

Attacking the Centre for "creating an Emergency-like situation" in Delhi, Singh said: "A Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) is not allowed to meet the grieving family of a deceased soldier. A son is not allowed to grieve over his father's death and is beaten up by (Delhi) police. What is it if not Emergency?"

He was referring to Kejriwal's detention on Thursday while on way to meet the family of ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal who committed suicide on Tuesday over the implementation of One Rank One Pension scheme.

Grewal's family members, including his son, were also detained by Delhi Police and allegedly beaten up.

The AAP leader also asked the BJP-Shiromani Akali Dal government in Punjab to apologise to AAP MLA Naresh Yadav for alleged false implication in a Quran desecration case.

The AAP lawmaker was booked as a "mastermind" in the case after main accused Vijay Kumar claimed he was paid Rs 1 crore by Yadav.

Kumar on Thursday claimed he was forced by Punjab Police to name Yadav.

--IANS

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