DD asks CPI to remove references to RSS, Hitler, Mussolini, fascist ideology

Rajya Sabha MP and CPI secretary Binoy Viswam was to record the message for which five minutes had been allocated. Viswam said the party had submitted the transcript in advance but Prasar Bharati officials asked him to revise a paragraph and remove a line from the speech when he went to the studio Thursday.

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Viswam said he insisted that the public broadcaster gave the objection in writing. A letter given to him by Prasar Bharati said “the script vetting committee of Doordarshan observed” that the paragraph was “violative of the model code of conduct which prohibits criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion”.

The paragraph which met with objection reads, “Dalits, adivasis, minorities and women were tortured and suppressed by the NDA government which was led by the ideology of racial supremacy preached by RSS. They borrowed it from the school of Mussolini and Hitler. Their doctrine was always subservient to the interests of the rich and casteist communal forces. If these same forces recapture power once again it will be the end of India’s cultural diversity.”

Other sentence the panel objected to read, “the very class character of the BJP government made it a rule of ultra rightist s wedded to the finance capital guided by fascist ideology”.

“The script vetting committee observed that anything that ‘may aggravate existing differences or creates mutual hatred or causes tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic’ is also to be avoided…,” the Prasar Bharati letter said.

Viswam said the CPI would take the matter to the Election Commission. “The Modi government is proving that it is authoritarian, autocratic and fascist and the Doordarshan is proving that they are his master’s voice”.

Tweeting on the issue, Prasar Bharati CEO Vempati said, “Script vetting committee comprises of independent citizens of eminence like the former Secy Gen of Lok Sabha. Prasar Bharati has no role in the script vetting process”.