Union MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar vs Kerala govt: A long-running saga

Chandrasekhar, who is facing non-bailable charges of promoting enmity over his remarks following the blasts, has earlier too targeted the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala earlier over “Islamic fundamentalism”.

The BJP has said that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government filed the case against Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, to “propitiate extremist elements”.

In 2006, Chandrasekhar acquired a stake in Asianet channels (Asianet, Asianet News, and Asianet Plus), months after becoming a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was an Independent member of the House till 2018, when he was re-elected from Karnataka. He was inducted into the Union Cabinet in July 2021.

However, while the CPI(M) has more than once announced a “boycott” of the channel, it has also been at the receiving end of the state BJP ire.

In July 2020, the CPI(M) announced a boycott of news debates on Asianet News, accusing the channel of not giving room to its representatives to air their views. That boycott was withdrawn in October that year.

In April 2022, there was another skirmish between the CPI(M) and Asianet. CPI(M) central committee member and Rajya Sabha MP Elamaram Kareen filed a police complaint against an Asianet News anchor, Vinu V John, for allegedly instigating mob violence against him through questions during a panel discussion on a Bharat Bandh by the party.

Various trade unions, led by CPI(M)’s CITU, then took out a march to the Asianet News office in Thiruvananthapuram in protest against John’s remarks, and the police submitted a chargesheet against him.

Even as it has now ended its boycott of the channel, the CPI(M) continues to boycott news debates on it anchored by John.

In July 2022, after BJP Yuva Morcha worker Praveen Nettaru was killed in Dakshina Kannada district, and a probe found that the assailants had used a Kerala registered bike, Chandrasekhar had accused the state of having become “a safe haven” for radical elements, who committed “brazen killings”.

Naming the now-banned PFI and its political wing, the SDPI, Chandrasekhar said outfits such as them “enjoy political protection from some quarters in the Kerala government”.

In June this year, a journalist from Asianet News and four others, including the principal of the government-run Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam, were booked on a complaint by CPI(M) students’ union leader Arsho P M, who was deemed ‘failed’ by the college after initial results showed him as having ‘passed’ an examination.

The charges invoked against the journalist, Akhila Nandakumar, included conspiracy, forgery, defamation, and nuisance and violation of public order. Last month, the police dropped the case against the journalist, citing lack of evidence.

Recently, Asianet News Executive Editor Sindhu Suryakumar, its Kozhikode regional editor Shajahan Kaliyath and Kannur reporter Noufal Bin Yousaf were booked under the POCSO Act and sections of the IPC, based on an allegation by CPI(M)-backed legislator P V Anwar that the channel had aired fake news using a minor girl last year. The channel’s Kozhikode office was raided in connection with the case, but a chargesheet is yet to be submitted.

During the same row, activists of the SFI, the student wing of the CPI(M), barged into the Kochi office of Asianet, while CPI(M) youth wing DYFI conducted conventions in all 14 district headquarters of the state in protest against “the criminal journalism’’ of the channel.

The Kerala BJP too has clashed with Asianet News on and off, including after Chandrasekhar bought his stake in the channel. In 2015, the state unit announced a boycott of Asianet News, claiming the channel was dominated by “journalists with Left background”.

This lasted a few months.

In 2021, Union minister and senior Kerala BJP leader V Muraleedharan refused to allow reporters from Asianet News at his official press meetings, saying the party was boycotting the Malayalam channel over its coverage of the post-poll violence in West Bengal.

It was only in July 2023 that the BJP decided to end its two-year-old non-cooperation with the channel. Then party state secretary K Surendran said the decision was taken against the backdrop of contemporary state politics, and that the BJP was committed to stand with the media “which is being hounded by the Left government in Kerala”.