MPs blast news channels

Lawmakers on Monday came down heavily on several television channels for whipping up the communal frenzy though their prime time debates.

“I am a staunch supporter of press freedom, some recent discussions on television channels have come as a threat to the unity of the nation. Some primetime shows have attempted to divide the nation on communal lines,” Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said in the Upper House.

Rather than being rational and reflecting sanity, these shows have only fanned passions, Azad said, asking the government to rein in on such channels. The leaders, however, did not name any channel.

“They place four Hindu and four Muslim fundamentalists on their panel, who would fight each other and inflame passions among the people on communal lines,” Azad said.