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| Govt gagging media: Prof Gupta | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 26: BJP leader and former Union Minister of State for Defence, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, today accused Omar Abdullah government of gagging media and using government advertisements as a tool to promote friendly newspapers and damage those who did not toe the official line.
During Zero Hour in Legislative Assembly, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta sought Speaker's attention towards the coalition governments practice of using advertisements as a tool to settle personal scores with the newspapers refusing to toe the official line. Deputy Speaker, Mohammad Sartaj Madni, who was in the Chair in absence of Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone, listened to the senior most BJP leader but he did not ask the Government to respond to the MLA's allegation.
A number of Ministers listened to Prof Gupta but none of them chose to respond to the MLA's charge.
Prof Gupta said that media was the fourth pillar of the Indian democratic system in practice in Jammu & Kashmir. "It's a matter of high concern that the state government has been patronizing certain newspapers with deluge of advertisements while as others, particularly Early Times, are being gagged and damaged", Gupta said. He added that criminal matters were being fabricated against Early Times to crush the Jammu-based newspaper. "This discriminatory policy is unacceptable", he asserted and asked the government why advertisement support had been completely withdrawn to Early Times.
Prof Gupta castigated the state Information Department over its "total blockade" of issuing press releases of the BJP legislators. He complained that the department had been releasing press statements on the question, resolutions and other business moved by different political parties but none of these press releases covered any of the BJP legislators.
Gupta registered his strong protest against government's discriminatory policy vis-à-vis different newspapers and asked the government to take up necessary remedial measures to restore faith of the fourth estate into the democratic system in Jammu and Kashmir. |
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