CPI Rajya Sabha MP and former Kerala Minister Binoy Viswam refused to record his election speech for Doordarshan after the script vetting committee of the national broadcaster asked him to cut out a paragraph referring to Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) for reportedly violating the poll code.
Mr. Viswam has accused the Doordarshan of doing the ruling party’s bidding and not giving freedom for Opposition leaders to air their views. “Doordarshan is becoming more and more his master’s voice and that is why this kind of high handedness from their side. This is not what the Election Commission meant when it gave space and time for political parties to air their views. It’s not matter of its like or dislike,” he said.
He was to record the speech on Thursday to be telecast on April 26. Mr. Viswam had submitted his speech last week but did not hear about any suggested alternations from the Prasar Bharati. According to him, he was told about it on Thursday when he reached Doordarshan to record his speech.
The said paragraph talked of NDA government being led by the “ideology of racial supremacy preached by the RSS,” which Mr. Viswam said is “borrowed from the school of Mussolini and Hitler”.
The Doordarshan Kendra Delhi said that the script vetting committee felt that this paragraph violates the poll code, which prohibits “criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion”. The committee observed that anything that “may aggravate existing differences or creates mutual hatred or causes tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic” is also to be avoided.
Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati told The Hindu that the State broadcaster had no role in editing his speech. “The committee comprises of independent citizens of eminence like former secretary general of the Lok Sabha. Prasar Bharati has no role in the script vetting process,” he said.
The script is vetted by a three-member committee with Subash Kashyap, former secretary general of Lok Sabha, and M.P. Lele, ex-additional director general of Doordarshan, as members.
