Congress mulls national TV channel to reach out to masses

New Delhi: The Congress is seriously considering the idea of launching a national TV channel to reach out to the masses after realising that it is “lagging behind” in its use of “new-age communication systems”.

Indications in this regard came from senior Congress leader and former Union minister A.K. Antony, who said here on Tuesday that discussions are on to convert Jaihind TV to a national channel. Jaihind TV was promoted by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee some time back. Mr Antony was speaking at the inauguration of the new office of Jaihind TV’s national bureau here, the channel said in a release. Acknowledging that the party is lagging behind in utilising the possibilities of new-age media, Mr Antony underlined the need to effectively take the Congress ideology to the masses through the medium of television. “Despite being the oldest democratic force, Congress is lagging behind in new-age communication systems and is not able to catch the limelight in comparison to other parties,” he said. “We are not able to counter false propaganda” at a time when people no longer vote just by looking at a party’s symbol, he added. The Kerala Congress has been successfully running Jaihind TV for the last eight years; it was launched in 2007 by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Meanwhile, hitting back, the Congress alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “insincerity” and “obduracy” were responsible for the logjam in Parliament and demanded that the BJP apologise for “damaging” India’s growth story by opposing progressive legislation during UPA rule.

It was reacting after Mr Modi accused the main Opposition of “misusing” Parliament to stop the country’s growth as several important bills remain pending due to disruption of proceedings in the two Houses. “It is the BJP and Prime Minister Modi who are responsible for the logjam in Parliament,” Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said and alleged that the Opposition has not been engaged in any meaningful dialogue to end the impasse. “PM speaks on everything but he has not engaged the Opposition in meaningful dialogue to break the logjam. The PM is neither sincere nor serious regarding the Parliament functioning,” he said.