Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday hit back at BJP national president JP Nadda who alleged that the opposition INDIA alliance was bullying media by boycotting 14 news anchors across nine channels, citing attacks on journalists and India's decline on the Press Freedom Index over the past nine years.
“Mr J P Nadda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has boycotted every Indian journalist by not addressing even a single press conference in the last 10 years,” Siddaramaiah said in a social media post.
“How is it wrong to boycott 14 journalists who have compromised media ethics by acting as mouthpiece of one political party?” the Congress leader added.
A war of words between the ruling BJP and the opposition bloc has erupted over the latter's decision to release a list of television news anchors that it will boycott over allegations of spreading fake news and bias in their coverage. The decision effectively means that INDIA will neither send representatives to these shows nor invite them to any political events of the coalition.
The list of journalists includes Arnab Goswami of Republic TV, Navika Kumar and Sushant Sinha of Times Now Navbharat, Sudhir Chaudhary and Chitra Tripathi of Aaj Tak, Aman Chopra, Amish Devgan and Anand Narasimhan of News18, Rubika Liyaquat of Bharat24, Gaurav Sawant and Shiv Aroor of India Today, Prachi Parashar of India TV, Aditi Tyagi of Bharat Express, and Ashok Shrivastav of DD News.
{{/usCountry}}The list of journalists includes Arnab Goswami of Republic TV, Navika Kumar and Sushant Sinha of Times Now Navbharat, Sudhir Chaudhary and Chitra Tripathi of Aaj Tak, Aman Chopra, Amish Devgan and Anand Narasimhan of News18, Rubika Liyaquat of Bharat24, Gaurav Sawant and Shiv Aroor of India Today, Prachi Parashar of India TV, Aditi Tyagi of Bharat Express, and Ashok Shrivastav of DD News.
{{/usCountry}}Nadda termed the list “nazi style” and drew a parallel between INDIA’s decision and the Emergency.
“These days, INDIA is ONLY doing 2 things: BASHING SANATANA SANSKRITI - each party is competing to outdo the other in hurling the choicest abuses towards Sanatana Sanskriti. BULLYING THE MEDIA- filing FIRs, threatening individual journalists, making “lists” in true Nazi style of who to target. The Emergency era Mindset is alive among these parties,” he said.
Responding to Nadda's criticism, the Karnataka chief minister said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), “We will give you the data on the actual attack on the media. You may have forgotten this, but INDIA still remembers it,” listing the name of journalists who were arrested or killed during the BJP's rule.
Siddaramaiah also posted India's rank on the World Press Freedom Index showing the country's decline in the last nine years.