Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy has said that there are two channels which are the saffron party’s puppets. He even said that these channels run any news report as per the BJP’s instructions.
“Media mein humare chamche log bhi bahut hai. Acha nahi hoga agar mein naam bolu. Media mein, television mein do station aise hai jaha jo bhi hum karwana chahta hai, karwa sakta hai. Ye kaho ki media humare khilaf hai ye main nahi manta. (In media, we have many pupetts too. It won’t be nice if I name them. In media, in television, there are two channels, which run any news as per our instructions. I don’t believe that media is against us,” Swamy said at an event in Mumbai.
A video clip was shared by a reporter on Twitter where the Rajya Sabha MP can be heard making the statement.
"We too have our puppets in media. There are two channels which runs any news as per our instructions. So we can't say that Media is against us," BJP MP @Swamy39 in Mumbai pic.twitter.com/fsYzo6ebjE
— Vivek Kulkarni विवेक कुलकर्णी (@Vivekjkulkarni) February 10, 2019
Last month, the Editors Guild of India issued a statement against Congress president Rahul Gandhi after he called private news agency ANI’s head Smita Prakash “pliable” post her interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, the EGI’s stand on the issue was criticised by different sections of the media and some executive members of the guild had opposed the move.