New Delhi: If a political party has its own TV channel, is it a violation of the Model Code of conduct? The poll panel will be answering this question in the backdrop of the complaint by the Congress and the Aam Admi Party against Namo TV. The Election Commission has accordingly sought details of launch of Namo TV from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
A dead give-away of its partisan approach is that the channel, also called ‘Content TV’, carries a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its logo. It was launched with fanfare on April 11 and is available on various DTH and cable TV platforms. It mostly shows speeches of the PM and interviews of BJP leaders.
NDTV cited the Information and Broadcasting Ministry as saying that NaMo TV is an “advertising platform” that does not need the government’s approval. Also, it is “not a normal channel” and does not figure in its official list. It is not on the list of permitted private satellite TV channels on ministry’s website either.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, asked about the channel, told NDTV: “Let the appropriate authorities answer. Let the Information and Broadcasting and EC (Election Commission) comment on it. You and I should not get into it.”
One of the complaints is that the channel deprives all other parties of a “level-playing field”. The EC is also learnt to have written separately to Dordarshan for airing live the ‘Main bhi chowkidar’ programme of Modi on March 31 evening for one hour.
