Never supported J&K blockade: PCI Chairman

‘Willing to resign if proved wrong’

Press Council of India chairman Chandramauli Kumar Prasad. File

The Chairman of the Press Council of India, Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, said on Wednesday that he did not support the communication blockade in Kashmir in the intervention petition of the Council in the Supreme Court.

In a letter addressed to the Chairman of The Hindu Group Publishing Private Ltd., N. Ram, he said a plain reading of the intervention application showed that he had “not supported the communication blockade”, and he would be willing to resign if he was proved wrong.

Last week, the PCI sought to intervene in the petition filed by

Kashmir Times executive editor Anuradha Bhasin, who challenged the restrictions imposed on communications in the State since August 5 when the government revoked the State’s special constitutional status.

Mr. Prasad, in his letter, a copy of which was released to reporters, said the very premise on which Mr. Ram’s comments at a meeting on Tuesday were made was a “blatant lie”. Mr. Ram, he said, was “greatly swayed by distorted media reports”.

Mr. Prasad wrote: “In case you agree that there is something called national interest, my anxiety is to know what should prevail when there is head-on collision between individual right and national interest.”