LF govt not to go to court on Sarkar speech issue

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar today said the Left Front government has no plans to go to court against Doordarshan and All India Radio for allegedly not airing his Independence Day recorded speech.
"We are not thinking of going to the court on the issue of censorship on my recorded Independence Day speech," he told reporters here.
However, Sarkar added that the issue would be taken before the people.
"We are not going to the court, but we would go to the people and tell them about the undemocratic, autocratic and intolerant steps of Prasar Bharati," he said.
Sarkar, also a Politburo member of CPI-M, said "as a political activist I expressed my political statement in my Independence Day speech, because I think the day is a political event."

Doordarshan had said it gave "wide coverage" to Sarkar's Independence day programme though it did not tell anything on his complaint that his recorded speech was blacked out.

"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.

CPI(M) MP Sankar Prasad Datta said the issue would be raised in the Parliament's winter session.
Meanwhile, CPI-M activists demonstrated before the Doordarshan Kendra Agartala.
CPI-M Central Committee member Gautam Das said "people of the state would not tolerate this undemocratic step of Prasar Bharati, which is controlled by Modi government".
Opposition Congress MLA and former Leader of the opposition, Ratan Lal Nath said, the CPI-M was trying to "politicise" the issue before the assembly elections due in February next.
"They have no issue, so they are trying to politicise it and making a issue because they know that they are going loose in the elections," he said.