Advani’s veiled threat to DD, AIR

BANGALORE, Jan 5: Bharatiya Janata Party President L K Advani today lambasted Doordarshan and Akashvani's "patently biased political co...

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BANGALORE, Jan 5: Bharatiya Janata Party President L K Advani today lambasted Doordarshan and Akashvani’s "patently biased political coverage" and said his party was likely to review all decisions regarding the Prasar Bharati if it came to power.

Addressing a press conference here, Advani said that the DD and AIR set up was "worse than before", especially after they gained autonomy under the Prasar Bharati Act. Stating that the two agencies were "biased against us positively" he said his party’s "early task" if they came to power, would be to "review all the decisions relating to Prasar Bharati".

High on the party’s agenda, if voted to power, would also be the issuance of identity cards for all Indian citizens. These would be multi-purpose identity cards rather than just voter identity cards, he added.

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This would be part of a series of electoral reforms that the BJP would implement. De-limitation of constituencies, electronic voting machines, public funding of elections and 33 per cent reservation for women in parliament, were some of the measures on which there was unanimity within the party, he said. Many distortions in India’s polity stem from serious maladies that afflict the electoral process, Advani added.

Meanwhile, the BJP today objected to a programme on Sonia Gandhi telecast by DD on Sunday night and sought corrective steps by the Election Commission saying the government’s electronic media had "violated the model code of conduct".

In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill, party vice president K L Sharma said, "This is an instance of the glaring violation of model code of elections and also all norms of DD guidelines".

"It further indicates that the loud claims being made by the newly-formed Prasar Bharati Board to ensure an impartial and non-partisan coverage during the ensuing Lok Sabha elections are going to prove a sheer hoax," Sharma said.

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He charged Doordarshan with becoming "a propaganda channel for Sonia Gandhi and the Congress to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party".