Prasar Bharti refuses to broadcast Tripura CM Manik Sarkar’s speech on Independence Day

CM asked by India’s largest broadcasting agency to reshape the speech it was supposed to air at 6:30 on Independence Day; said content not suitable to the solemnity of the occasion and sentiments of the people at large




Photo source: Wikipedia

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar who has been the state chief for four terms since March 1998 alleged that Prasar Bharti refused to broadcast his speech on Doordarshan and All India Radio on 71st Independence Day. In its response to letter from Smt Datta, head of the program at Agartalla AIR, Sanjiv Dosajh, Assistant Director of Programmes (Policy) on behalf of Prasar Bharti wrote that “The matter cited above has been considered and keeping in view the sanctity and solemnity attached with the occasion the broadcast is meant for, the CEO, Prasar Bharti was also consulted and the collective decision taken at Delhi advises that the broadcast may not go with its existing content. AIR/Prasar Bharati will however be more than happy if the Hon’ble Chief Minister agrees to reshape the content making it suitable to the solemnity of the occasion and sentiments of the people at large.”

Here is the full text of the speech of Tripura Chief Minister not delivered by the Prasar Bharti on its television and radio network:

Dear People of Tripura

On the occasion of Independence Day, I convey my greetings and best wishes to you all. I pay my homage to the great memory of martyrs of India’s freedom struggle. I would also like to offer my profound regards to those freedom fighters who are amongst us today.

Celebraton of Independence Day is not just a ceremonial occasion. Keeping in view the historical significance and tremendous emotional attachment to this day for Indians, it has to be treated as an important ceremonial occasion for national introspection.

Before us on this years’s Independence Day are quite a few very relevant, important and contemporary issues.

Unity in diversity is India’s traditional heritage. Great values of secularism have helped in keeping Indians together as a nation. But today, this spirit of secularism is under attack. Conspiracies and attempts are underway to create an undesirable complexity and divisions in our society; to invade our national consciousness in the name of religion, caste and community, by inciting passions to convert India into a particular religious country and in he name of protecting the cow. Because of all these people of Minority and Dalit communities are under severe attack. Their sense of security is being shattered. Their life is under peril. These unholy tendencies cannot be harboured or tolerated. These disruptive attempts are contrary to the goals, dreams and ideals of our freedom struggle. The followers of those who were not associated with the Independence movement, rather sabotaged the freedom movement, were servile to the attrocious, plunderer and merciless British, aligned with the anti-national forces having decorated themselves today in different names and colours are striking at the root of unity and integrity of India. Every loyal and patriotic Indian must take the pledge today to remain committed to the ideal of a united India and to counter the attempts towards such destructive conspiracies and attacks. We must all work and collectively strive to ensure security of the Minorities, Dalits and preserve the unity and integrity of our country.

Today, the gulf between the have and have nots is speedily widening. Nation’s vast resources and wealth are being concentrated in the hands of a very few. A large majority of our people are suffering from poverty. These people are the victims of inhuman exploitation. They are being deprived of food, shelter, clothing, education, health care and security of job for assured income. This is contrary to the aims and objectives of our Independence struggle. Our current national policies are squarely responsible for this state of affairs. Such anti-people policies shall have to be reversed. But words alone will not achieve this. For this, we need the deprived and the suffereing Indians to arise, become vocal and to protest fearlessly, collectively in a ceaseless manner. We definitely need an alternative policy that serves the interests of the vast majority of Indians. To bring this alternative policy into reality, the deprived and suffering Indians need to take a pledge on this Independence Day to launch an economic, political and social movement unitedly in a broadway.

The mounting problem of unemployment has created a sense of despondency and gloom in our national psyche. On one hand, lakhs of emplyed are losing their jobs, on the other hand, crores of unemployed youth are waiting for jobs, which is nothing but like a mirage to them. It is not possible to solve this gigantic national problem without resersing the national economic policies which work to strengthen the very small group of profiteering corporates, and without increasing the purchasing power of the common people of India. Hence, the students, youth and working classes will have to take a pledge on this Independence Day to launch a collective and continuous movement to reverse these destructive policies.

Twitter elite and politicians thronged to their favourite social networking site and started reproaching the central government. In his tweet, Sitaram Yechuri wrote, “Neither Modi’s cronies at Prasar Bharti nor BJP or RSS, have any locus standi to decide on what an elected CM of a state speaks on August 15”

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