CPI(M) accuses Modi govt of censorship over Tripura CM speech broadcast row

Prasar Bharti denies it censored Tripura CM's I-Day speech

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday accused the Narendra Modi government at the Centre of imposing the worst kind of censorship. It said the Agartala centres of Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) blacked out Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's Independence Day address to the people of the state.

The CPI (M) also furnished an internal letter of AIR as evidence that the state broadcasters were unwilling to broadcast the speech unless the "CM agrees to reshape the content (of his speech) making it suitable to the solemnity of the occasion and sentiments of the people of India at large".

It is customary for AIR and Doordarshan centres of respective states to broadcast the speech of the chief minister. The Tripura chief minister's pre-recorded speech was to be telecast on August 15 around 9 am, after the Governor's address, but was not aired.

In its response, Doordarshan said it has given "wide coverage" to the Tripura chief minister's Independent Day programme. The Doordarshan, however, was silent on Sarkar's complaint that his recorded speech was blacked out by both Doordarshan and AIR.

"On August 15, 2017, Doordarshan gave wide coverage to the chief minister's Independence day programme and telecast report running to 29 minutes and 45 seconds. Out of which, the chief minister's speech coverage was for 12 minutes," U K Sahoo, head of Doordarshan Kendra, said in a letter to the media.

"The allegation that Doordarshan Kendra, Agartala blacked out the chief minister on Independence day is totally incorrect and is vehemently refuted," Sahoo said. But, Doordarshan did not clarify Sarkar's complaint that the public broadcasters had refused to air his Independence Day address unless he "reshaped" it.

Sarkar, who has been the chief minister of Tripura for 19 years, had also termed it as an "undemocratic, autocratic and intolerant step". A Tripura government press statement said Doordarshan and AIR had recorded Sarkar's speech on August 12. However, the Chief Minister's Office was informed through a letter that his speech would not be broadcast unless he "reshaped it".

The internal AIR email states that Prasar Bharati CEO was "also consulted and the collective decision taken at Delhi" advised Agartala centre "that the broadcast may not go with its existing content." His speech was not broadcast when Sarkar insisted that the speech should be shown without any editing.

CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury asked why Doordarshan telecasted the Vijayadashami speech of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, who doesn't hold a public office, but blacked out the speech of an elected chief minister of a state.

"This government has gone further than the censorship of the Emergency years. It is a precursor for a very big authoritarian onslaught that this government is embarking upon," Yechury said. The CPI (M) chief said the Centre's move is an attack on the constitutional rights of the states and smacked of fascistic tendencies.

Sarkar, in his blacked out speech, had said that spirit of secularism is under attack today. He said attempts are being made to "convert India into a particular religious country and in the name of protecting the cow."

The Tripura chief minister said people of minorities and Dalit communities are under attack. Sarkar said, "The followers of those who were not associated with the independence movement, rather sabotaged the freedom movement, were servile to the atrocious, plunderer and merciless British, aligned with the anti-national forces having decorated themselves today in different names and colours, are striking at the root of unity and integrity of India."

Tripura is scheduled for Assembly polls in March, and Yechury said blacking out of the speech by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre was an attempt to silence CPI (M) leaders from pointing out the failures of the Modi government. "No amount of blacking out of chief minister's speech will make people forget Modi's failures. No jobs, no justice, no growth, no peace and no harmony," Yechury said.