I&B Ministry
Mithun Chakraborty resigns Rajya Sabha seat on grounds of ill health
NEW DELHI: Yesteryears actor and dancing star Mithun Chakraborty, who had become a Member of the Rajya Sabha on behalf of the Trimanool Congress in April 2014, has resigned on ground of sickness.
Mithun has resigned nearly one and half years before the end of his term.
After his innings as the Grand Master on the Dancing reality show Dance India Dance, Mithun has generally avoided any public appearance and there have been unconfirmed reports of him suffering from prolonged illness.
TMC leader Derek O’Brien was quoted by ANI as saying, “He resigned from RS on health grounds. We continue to share warm relationship with him and his family. We wish him speedy recovery”.
He attended only three days of Parliament in nearly two years and Deputy Chairman P J Kurien also commented on this in the house.
He has written to the Chairman that because of his health condition he is not been able to fulfil his duty in Rajya Sabha and that is why he is relinquishing his seat, sources added.
His tensure has not been without controversy as he was named for his association with Saradha group. He later said Saradha had not paid his due amount.
Mithun’s real name is Gourang Chakraborty but he is commonly referred as ‘Mithun Da’. Mithun began his career in the Indian film industry as a junior artist and went on to establish himself as a superstar.
Mithun is also known for his fusion of “Disco and Desi”. He is also recognized as one of the best “dancing-heroes” in Bollywood.
MUMBAI: When the numbers go silent, the noise on screen gets a little harder to measure. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has extended the suspension of television rating data for news channels, directing Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to withhold TRPs for another four weeks. The latest order, issued on March 31, 2026, builds on an earlier directive from March 6 that had paused ratings for a month. The ministry has clarified that the blackout will continue for four weeks or until further instructions are issued whichever comes earlier keeping the industry in a prolonged state of data drought.
The reasoning, officials suggest, lies far beyond domestic screens. With geopolitical tensions in West Asia continuing to escalate, the government has flagged concerns over how such developments could influence news consumption and presentation. The move is aimed at curbing excessive sensationalism and speculative coverage during what it describes as a sensitive global moment.
For the broadcast ecosystem, the absence of Television Rating Points (TRPs) is more than symbolic, it removes the industry’s primary scorecard. Ratings dictate advertising flows, shape editorial strategies and fuel the competitive pecking order among news channels. Without them, broadcasters are effectively operating without a public performance benchmark.
The timing only adds to the complexity. Amid a high-intensity global news cycle, channels must now navigate audience engagement without the weekly feedback loop that typically drives programming decisions. Advertisers, too, are left recalibrating, leaning on proxies such as brand strength, reach and distribution instead of hard viewership data.
While framed as a temporary regulatory intervention tied to maintaining public order, the extended suspension underscores a broader unease about the tone and direction of news coverage. For now, the ratings race is on pause but the battle for attention continues, just without a scoreboard.
