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Cong-led UPA throws out Doordarshan News head
over dera-related program
 WSN Network

CHANDIGARH: India’s ruling Congress party, which leads the UPA government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has felt particularly peeved at the linking of the Dera Sacha Sauda with it and shunted out the high profile Director General (News) Swagat Ghosh within hours of a programme talking about close links of Congress with the Sirsa-based dera.

Ghosh’s deputy Arvind Manjit Singh was immediately entrusted with the charge as the new DG(News).

Doordarshan is India’s state-owned channel and despite a plethora of private news channels in India, commands a larger viewership due to its penetration in hinterlands of the vast country.

Successive Indian governments have routinely kept a tight-leashed control on Doordarshan and All India Radio, also a state controlled broadcasting network, despite the creation of Prasar Bharti, the so-called autonomous body to regulate these media.

Congress’ links with the Dera Sacha Sauda are more than obvious. Congress MLA Harminder Singh Jassi’s daughter Husanmeet is married to Jasmeet, the son of Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim who is currently in the eye of the storm. The dera had openly and publicly declared its total support for the Congress party in the Assembly elections, a move which is widely believed to be responsible for the face-saving show of Congress in Malwa where the Akalis suffered many losses.

Ghosh has been made Registrar of Newspapers. Earlier, he had served as Director General DAVP, the government department tasked with releasing all official advertisements to the media. He had also served the Principal Information Officer in the Defence Ministry besides holding other important posts.

The latest move by the UPA government seems to be an over reaction and is likely to be slammed by votaries of freedom of the media.

30 May, 2007
 

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