The Congress on Friday alleged that three senior staffers of a prominent news channel had been forced to quit over a report that was critical of the Narendra Modi government.
Making the charge during Zero Hour, the Congress floor leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said this was the fallout of a report the channel ran denying a claim made by the Prime Minister in his Mann Ki Baat radio address on the doubling of a Chhattisgarh woman farmer’s income.
“It is unfortunate that the media is being targeted for doing its duty, for carrying out a reality check on the government’s claim... The managing editor [of the channel] was told to go. Two anchors of the channel were also asked to go,” Mr. Kharge said.
Denying the charge, Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said the government had nothing to do with the internal developments of a private television channel and the Opposition was raising the matter as it had no issues to flag in the House.