Bhopal: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party leader in Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Gopal Bhargav, on Sunday stirred a row when he said media coverage of love marriages in the society would instigate incidents of foeticide.
Mr Bhargav took to Twitter to take a dig at media for giving ‘extensive’ coverage to Sakshi, daughter of Uttar Pradesh BJP Member of Legislative Assembly Rajesh Mishra, after she alleged that her family intimidated her for marrying a Dalit.
He said that prominence given to such ‘modern day Laila-Majnu love stories’ particularly in the TV channels would trigger sudden spurt in incidents of foeticide.
“It is my personal view that TV channels have been giving good coverage to such incidents to increase their TRP and revenue, being oblivious of the fact that they are indulging in ‘anti-society and anti-national’ activities”, a Twitter post by him said.
In another post on the social media, he said such actions by the media would negate the impact of the ongoing social programmes like “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”, aimed at saving and educating the girl children.
He also lambasted the TV channels for “making a mockery” of the parents and families of the girls who marry against their wishes by giving good coverage to incidents of love marriages with the motive to increasing their TRP and revenue without bothering to know how it hurt the girls’ parents.
Thanks to ‘social-reformist’ media, the TV and social media have become a curse for Indian families, another Twitter post by him said.
Mr Bhargav however later explained that they were his personal views and offered his apology if they hurt anyone.
Congress spokesman here Narendra Singh Saluja condemned his posts, describing them as “regressive thinking and parochial mindset”.
The former minister ran a series of posts on Twitter to pull up the TV channels for covering Sakshi Mishra’s plight, widely.
