CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechuri on Wednesday again ducked questions posed by the media on the case against a TV journalist in Kerala for her report on a mark list controversy.
When media persons in Trissur asked about the case filed by the Kerala Police under the Pinarayi Vijayan Government, for her story regarding the controversy of the mark list of SFI state secretary P M Arsho, Sitaram Yechuri refused to respond. He ducked the questions on the plea that he doesn’t know the details of the case.
“In fact, I don’t know the details of the case. Party state secretary has already explained the position on it, I have nothing more to add on it,” he said, adding “Isn’t there anything else to ask?”
When asked as to whether media persons in Kerala don’t have interest in matters related to India, he said, “Don’t you have questions on India?”
Earlier on Monday, the CPM leader parried a question on the case against TV journalist Akhila Nandakumar. When media persons in New Delhi asked about the case against the journalist for filing a report as part of her duty, he said, “I don’t know anything about the case.”
In contrast, Yechuri was quick to respond to the revelations made by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey against the Centre government. Jack Dorsey disclosed that the Narendra Modi Government had threatened the social media company with a ban and raid of its employees in India if certain tweets about the farmers’ protest were not suppressed.
He had said, “The outrageous manner in which the media ecosystem is being manipulated dissent is intimidated, journalists threatened, abused and jailed on false pretext. No amount of denial by the Modi Government can obfuscate the truth of doctoring media content.”
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan on Tuesday took a dig at Yechury, asking whether his remarks accusing the BJP-led Central Government of media manipulation were also applicable to his party comrade and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The Congress leader said that the CPM leader appeared to be blissfully unaware that Vijayan was also allegedly involved in media manipulation. Sharing Yechuri’s tweet, he asked him, whether this is applicable to Comrade Pinarayi Vijayan and his Government, “Mr.Yachuri, is this applicable to Com.Pinarayi and his government too?”
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has questioned the double standards of the CPI-M on press freedom. Terming the case filed against Asianet News Kochi Chief Reporter Akhila Nandakumar as an example of CPI-M’s hypocrisy on press freedom, he said they (the CPI-M) are vocal about freedom of expression when the BBC documentary issue came out. However, when a fake mark list story was reported by a journalist in Kerala, the government under the CPI-M filed a case against her with conspiracy charges.
The Kerala Police on Saturday booked Akhila Nandakumar, a reporter with Malayalam news channel Asianet News, on a complaint filed by PM Arsho, state secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI, the student wing of the CPI-M. The complaint was against a news report by Akhila alleging that Arsho, an MA Archaeology student at Maharaja’s College Ernakulam, had passed all his exams without appearing for them. Akhila, who is chief reporter of Asianet News Kochi, has been named the fifth accused in the case.
The police have booked her with 120B (criminal conspiracy), 465 (forgery), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.