EC seeks details of PM’s NaMo TV from govt

New Delhi: Following protests from Opposition parties, incl-uding the Congress, the Election Commission on Wednesday sought details on NaMo TV from the information and broadcasting ministry.

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were among the Opposition parties that had approached the EC on Monday with objections. They wanted to know whether political parties with their own channels was violative of the model code of conduct.

The commission is learnt to have asked abo-ut details of the launch of the channel, among other things. NaMo TV is a channel that is dedicated to the live telecast of political rallies and speeches of Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi. It also streams compilations of Modi’s speeches in the Parliament. Inter-estingly, broadcasts of Mr Modi’s interaction with BJP party workers is also a regular feature.

The YouTube channel also acts as an archive for all such material related to him. BJP’s campaigns for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls like #Namumkinabmumkinhai and #Mainbhicho-wkidar are prominently featured on the channel.

The channel, also called ‘Content TV’, carries the picture of the Prime Minister as its logo. It was launched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls beginning April 11. It is available on various DTH and cable TV platforms.

The Asian Age had earlier reported that the move to broadcast NaMo TV through DTH platforms was taken by the party as it was felt that this would help enable the BJP to reach out to more people across the country. This is also expected to compensate for the lack of availability of national broadcaster, Doordarshan, for the live broadcast of all of Mr Modi’s rallies. Sources stated that due to the Election Commission of India’s model code of conduct for the general election in place the public service broadcaster can not telecast all events being attended or addressed by Modi.

The channel had over two million subscribers on YouTube, sources said.