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PRASAR BHARATI: THE SPAT CONTINUES
The spat over Prasar Bharati's autonomy continues,
with former I&B minister Jaipal Reddy throwing his hat into
the ring. Reddy who during his term a year and a half ago,
was instrumental in the setting up of the Prasar Bharati,
says that the BJP-led government wants to bury two proposals
which he had mooted, that of a Broadcast Authority of India
and the Prasar Bharati. He alleged that Mahajan is trying
to do away with autonomy of DD and All India Radio, which
fall under the Prasar Bharati.
He told a local newspaper: "The BJP government is misusing
the Prasar Bharati for surpressing unpleasant news and propagating
its own interests. It is saffronising it. All this is meant
to kill the Prasar Bharati."
The BJP has retaliated by stating that the Prasar Bharati
was no longer a Prachar Bharati (Propaganda agency) which
Reddy had set up. It alleged that the United Front (UF) government
had during its term converted the government media (AIR and
DD) into instruments of party propaganda. It did this under
the guise of granting them autonomy.
The BJP spokesperson J.P. Mathur added that the UF had relaxed
the age limit of the Prasar Bharati CEO to accommodate the
"Janata Dal pamphleteer" S.S. Gill. He opined that both DD
and AIR were dependent on public funds and hence were automatically
answerable to Parliament and the public not only on their
functioning, but also on promotion of public service broadcasting..
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