UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has said that the media houses in the country have now become the business houses. Chief Minister intervening in the debate over the report of the house committee on sting operation by a TV news channel indicting his cabinet colleague Azam Khan.
“The sting operation against Azam Khan was deliberate projection of negative image of the minister. It was a deliberate attempt by the TV channel to malign the image of Azam Khan by airing the sting operation. Communal riots in Shamli and Muzafarnagar was a very sensitive issue while media was playing with the image of Azam Khan by fairing a fake sting operation’’, said the Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in the state assembly on Tuesday. CM said for the action against the journalists of the TV channel, the house should proceed as per the recommendations made by the probe committee and as per the wish of the members of the house.
Terming the TV as idiot box, chief minister said `` TV channels have lots of time as they have to run their show round the clock and the sting operation conducted and aired by a TV channel was also aired for several days which caused immense damage to the state, it could have further stoked the fire of violence in the towns already reeling under the communal violence’’. He added TV channels are a new phenomenon hardly 25 years old.
“Azam Khan, has served with my father Mulayam Singh Yadav also who has over four decade long standing in the public life with a spotless record of probity and integrity. It took minutes for the TV channel to malign the image of Azam Khan. The media should realise that they should not play with the image of the people’s representatives as it takes decades of trials and tribulations for the persons in public life to attain some position in a political institution’’, said the Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Specifically pointing to the partisan conduct of the electronic media Chief minister said “Haryana for a week is burning over the agitation by the jats demanding reservation but you will never find the photo of the chief minister of that state on the TV screen, but in UP most of the TV channels covering a small incident will always show my picture’’. CM added that `` I have pointed out this incident since the Samajwadi Party will form the next government in the state after the 2017 assembly elections’’.
He said in Tamilnadu TV channels owned by political parties’ present one news event in four different ways. ``They together perform all roles of giving news, views and judgment at the same time’’, said the CM. Training his guns at the Congress Chief Minister said `` licenses to the TV channels were granted during the Congress regime nearly 25 years ago. Congress had promoted the electronic media in the belief they would serve its purpose and be an asset for the party, they might have served that purpose also, but now the control of electronic media has gone into different hands’’.
Earlier all the parties including the BSP, Congress and the Rashtriya lok Dal demanded stern action against the journalists of the TV channel indicted by the house committee. leader of opposition and senior BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya also lashed out at the TV channel terming the sting operation as an irresponsible act which could have serious consequences for the state. The SP members said the sting operation was a well planned conspiracy to malign the state government. The committee was headed by Satish Kumar Nigam of the Samajwadi Party.