A day after announcing that they will boycott shows hosted by some news anchors, the INDIA bloc on Thursday released the list of the news anchors, who are perceived to be close to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The list of news anchors include:
- Aman Chopra
- Prachi Parashar
- Rubika Liaquat
- Chitra Tripathi
- Sudhir Chaudhry
- Amish Devgan
- Arnab Goswami
- Navika Kumar
- Anand Narasimhan
- Gaurav Sawant
- Aditi Tyagi
- Sushant Sinha
- Ashok Shrivastav
- Shiv Aroor
After the meeting of the alliance’s coordination committee at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar, Congress general secretary, organisation in-charge, KC Venugopal made the announcement at a press briefing.
“The coordination committee authorised the sub-group on media to decide upon the names of the anchors on whose shows none of the INDIA parties will send their representatives,” he said.
On the boycott of news anchors, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti said that the journalists speak against the INDIA bloc.
“I am talking particularly about godi media…There are some anchors who constantly speak against the INDIA alliance. It was decided that our representatives would not go there,” she said, as quoted by news agency ANI.
The term “godi media” loosely translates to lapdog media, that is used by several Opposition leaders to refer to journalists and TV channels that are perceived to be biased towards the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha on Wednesday said that the media sub-group of the alliance had recommended that its leaders should not participate in shows conducted by anchors who hold “inflammatory debates”, ANI reported.
A total of 28 Opposition parties have come together and formed the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc to take on the BJP-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.