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Smriti Irani's word of caution for other journalists as Congress boycotts 14 TV anchors
On Thursday, the INDIA bloc released a list of 14 news anchors whom they will boycott for alleged bias in their coverage.
Union minister Smriti Irani on Saturday took a dig at the Opposition's INDIA bloc for boycotting 14 television news anchors, calling the Congress's Gandhi family “coward”. Addressing a rally in Madhya Pradesh's Sehore as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’, Irani alleged that the opposition is “scared of questions from the journalists”.
“I thank those journalists who are still here and recording. The Congress released a list to boycott 14 journalists. I hope they do not add your names to the list as well…We did not know that the Gandhi family was so cowardly that they would get scared of questions from journalists,” the Union minister said.
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On Thursday, the INDIA bloc released a list of 14 news anchors whom they will boycott for alleged bias in their coverage of the opposition and hate speech. The list included names of Republic Network's Arnab Goswami, Aaj Tak's Sudhir Chaudhary, News18 Hindi's Amish Devgan, TimesNow's Navika Kumar, and IndiaToday Group's Gaurav Sawant among others.
“The INDIA parties will not send their representatives on the shows and events of these anchors,” the statement read.
Irani's dig at opposition on Sanatana Dharma row
Amid the controversy over Tamil Nadu chief minister's son Udhayanidhi Stalin's remarks, the Union minister also slammed the Opposition saying, “They are not familiar with the concept of Sanatana Dharma”.
“…This is not just an election, it is a fight between Adharma and Dharma. It is a fight between Lord Ram devotees and those who file affidavits that Lord Ram does not exist. This is not an ordinary fight. They have decided to abolish Sanatana Dharma and we have vowed to protect the Dharma till our last breath,” she said.
What did Udhayanidhi Stalin say?
On September 3, Udhayanidhi Stalin invoked a controversy after he compared the ‘Sanatana Dharma’ with diseases like dengue and malaria and said it should not be merely opposed but "eradicated".
“A few things cannot be opposed, that should be abolished only. We can't oppose dengue, mosquitoes, malaria, or corona. We have to eradicate this, that's how we have to eradicate Sanatana. Rather opposing Sanatana it should be eradicated," he said.
Also read: ‘Ghamandiya alliance wants to destroy Sanatana Dharma’: PM Modi's fresh dig at INDIA bloc
An FIR was also filed against him and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's son Priyank Kharge for “hurting religious sentiments” under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different religious groups), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
