Prasar Bharati not my call, says Pramod Mahajan; gets it hard

Mahajan was cornered during question hour when several Opposition members, including Sharad Pawar, Rajesh Pilot and G M Banatwala said that Prasar Bharati was bent upon killing Aaj Tak. Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee too lent her support to the members who wanted Mahajan to assure the House that this would not be done.

But the Minister chose not to oblige. Prasar Bharati, Mahajan insisted, was an autonomous body and the law of the land forbade him from interfering with its functions.

This was apparently too much for Chandra Shekhar, whoargued that Prasar Bharati, though an autonomous body, was answerable to the I&B Minister. But Mahajan too took a stab at the former PM when he retorted a few minutes later, “Chandra Shekhar has a right to say that I am not fit to be a minister, just I have a right to say that he was not fit to be the Prime Minister.”