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Sukhbir under fire for vice like
grip on cable channels
WSN Network
 CHANDIGARH:
Across Punjab's cities and towns, TV viewing public can now predict
at ten minutes notice when a particular Punjabi news channel will go
off the air. Any news that shows CM Prakash Singh Badal or his
family members -- wife Surinder, son Sukhbir, daughter-in-law
Harsimrat, or close kin Bikramjeet Majithia -- in poor light is
taken off the cable channels within less than ten minutes, clearly
not a coincidence everytime.
After
months of Chinese whispers that the Badals, led by the brash Akali
Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, have adopted former CM Amarinder
Singh's Punjab Today TV channel model as their own role model,
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has now directly accused Sukhbir
"forcefully taking over the cable TV business in
Punjab".
Khaira not only
has demanded a CBI probe into the matter, he has also written to the
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, claiming Sukhbir and his
henchmen have taken over the cable network business in the state
"through frontal cable companies such as DIGI Cable and Fastway
Cable, which have 'benami' shares of the Chief Minister's family."
Khaira alleged
that this take-over had resulted in complete black-out of the
Congress viewpoint from the electronic media when the Lok Sabha
polls were round the corner, he asserted, adding that it had
compromised freedom of the Press in the state.
People of Punjab
only get to see those political news that suit the present SAD-BJP
regime or the Badal family, which put all other political parties to
major disadvantage particularly keeping in view the ensuing Lok
Sabha elections, he said.
Khaira added
that there was complete control of TV relay programmes through cable
network business by Sukhbir Badal who has vested interest in the
companies mentioned above.
To support his
contention, Khaira has forwarded a complaint from Dish TV to joint
secretary minister of I&B. And the ministry has urged
Punjab chief
secretary to take necessary action to enforce the provisions of the
Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act-1995.
Khaira asserted
that when he had raised this issue, ETC Punjabi channel was targeted
for showing press conference and was blacked out from the state till
the channel apologized and took action against an executive
responsible for its telecast. Besides, he said small cable operators
had been threatened, coerced and criminal cases registered against
some.
In December
2008, Mohinder Singh Kaypee, working president, Punjab Pradesh
Congress Committee (PPCC), has alleged that the cable network in the
Punjab
state was being forcibly taken over by Parkash Singh Badal and
Sukhbir Singh Badal to stifle the voice of the people.
7 January 2009
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