THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP leader V Muraleedharan MP has urged the government to revoke the order selecting Kairali TV to produce Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s weekly TV show “Naam Munnottu”.
‘Express’ had earlier reported that the government had replaced the state-run Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-Dit) with the CPM-controlled Kairali TV channel to produce the show through an arbitrary selection process.
Muraleedharan said the Chief Minister has now deemed the government as a sub-centre of the party. “Even classified documents can be accessed by the production agency. The Kairali TV is now given an opportunity to misuse the government machinery,” he said in a statement.
Former Chief Ministers V S Achuthanandan and Oommen Chandy had aired similar programmes through the Doordarshan, he said. “But those programmes were produced by the PRD with the technical assistance of C-Dit,” he said. Muraleedharan said LDF Government has set a wrong precedent by assigning the party channel to air an important government programme. This will be emulated by the UDF when they come to power, he opined. According to the BJP leader, the selection process was totally arbitrary and corrupt. Though PRD invited EoI for the selection in December last, the decision was delayed till the polling.
“The programme can be produced only by utilising the government machinery. There is conspiracy and vested interest behind the decision to replace C-Dit with Kariali. This is highly condemnable,” he said.
“The move will also lead to the fall of C-Dit, which already faces a host of problems including financial constraints,” he told Express.