New Delhi: As the Information and Broadcasting Ministry banned two Malayalam language channels, including Media One and Asianet News, for 48 hours, Congress attacked the BJP government by calling it an "atrocious order" of putting an "emergency" on media.
While speaking to the media, Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said, "The reason is atrocious, the ban is even more atrocious. Thankfully, YSR council prevailed and they lifted the ban in the morning."
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "Now it has become a crime to question or depict the truth on the crime that was done in Delhi. The death of the 53 people, thousands of crores of the property has lost due to the provocative statements made by the BJP leaders. To hold the government accountable is the role of the media."
The ban got lifted on Saturday morning and both the news channels got back on the air. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry accused the channels of "biased" reportage of the Delhi violence.
"We are confident that the better sense prevailed overnight to a dictatorial government on account of widespread condemnation of such an intemperate act of the government. Hopefully, they will not repeat such obnoxious act of putting emergency on media," he further added.
On the other side, the Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "Press freedom is absolutely essential for the democratic setup" and hence when the Ministry "found out what actually happened", it immediately restored the channels."
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Reacting to his statement, Surjewala said, "Such a comment from the side of the Union Minister is more shameful. Does he not know what is happening in the ministry? The ban on both the channels was done after a direction came from the very top. We all know that under the rule of BJP government, nothing happens without the prior concurrence and consent of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah."
