Oppn bloc INDIA to boycott shows of 14 TV news anchors
New Delhi: A day after the INDIA bloc’s Coordination Committee meeting, the Opposition alliance’s Working Group on Media on Thursday released a list of 14 TV anchors on whose shows the constituents of Opposition bloc would not send their representatives.
“The coordination committee authorised the sub-group on media to decide upon the names of the anchors on whose shows none of the INDIA parties will send their representatives,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said after the meeting on Wednesday.
The list, shared by several member parties of INDIA coalition, contains the names of Republic Network’s Arnab Goswami, Aaj Tak’s Sudhir Chaudhary and Chitra Tripathi, News18 Hindi’s Amish Devgan, TimesNow’s Navika Kumar, IndiaToday Group’s Gaurav Sawant, among 14 news anchors.
Other anchors that would be boycotted by the INDIA bloc parties include Aditi Tyagi, Aman Chopra, Anand Narasimhan, Ashok Shrivastav, Prachi Parashar, Rubika Liaquat and Shiv Aroor.
The objective behind boycotting specific anchors is to sway public opinion, which is believed to be captured by BJP through mainstream media houses. The Oppositon parties have been ‘highly dependent’ on social media and independent journalists to disseminate their message.
On the issue, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, who posted the list on X, said, “The INDIA bloc does not want to be an alliance that promotes any attempt or debate that constantly polarises the communal issues in the country. We are not that bloc. That is why this decision has been taken to boycott these anchors.”
Opposition parties have been accusing certain sections of the media of being biased towards the government. After the Coordination Committee meeting, AAP MP Raghav Chadha said, “There are some anchors who conduct provocative debates. We’ll make a list of them and INDIA alliance partners will stop going to their shows.”
The Congress had made a similar decision back in 2019, when it decided to boycott television shows for a month. “All media channels/editors are requested to not place Congress representatives on their shows,” the party had said.
Moreover, the coordination committee meeting, which was held on Wednesday, also held discussions on matters related to seat sharing in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, forming state-level committees to discuss with INDIA bloc in states.
