A satire by kids as part of their performance in a reality show telecast on a popular Tamil entertainment channel has the Tamil Nadu BJP fuming with its leaders taking objection to the content saying they “belittle” Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the show telecast on Zee Tamil, two kids acting as a King and minister talk about an imaginary country ‘Sindhia’, where its ruler had declared a war on black money which ended in failure, which the BJP interprets as a direct attack on demonetisation.
The minister also talks about how unpopular the King is in some parts of his country, especially the Southern region, and that people would have been happier if he had never attained the throne. Video clippings of the satire have now gone viral on social media, especially on the micro-blogging site, Twitter, since Sunday.
Several leaders of the Tamil Nadu BJP demanded action against Zee Tamil, the judges on the show and others who were involved in directing and producing the show. As a result, the Union Ministry for Information and Broadcasting on Monday evening issued a notice to Zee Entertainment based on a complaint with regard to the show and asked the channel to respond by seven days.
It was Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai who first took objection to the satire, saying the content had insulted Prime Minister Modi. He said in a tweet on Sunday night that Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan had assured necessary action on the matter as the satire show “belittled” Modi.
Soon, Twitter was dotted with messages attacking Annamalai and BJP for taking satire “too seriously.” Many Twitter users wanted to know why the BJP was insinuating that the satire was targeted at Modi when the kids did not mention his name in the show.
They also attacked the BJP for its “double-standards” on freedom of speech, pointing to the party’s criticism of the ruling DMK when it arrested YouTuber Maridhas for his comments on the crash of the Indian Air Force’s chopper in Tamil Nadu on December 8.
“I thought these were fictional characters... @annamalai_k says this is @narendramodi ji and @nsitharaman ji (the characters in the video).
What makes him think so?” Tamil Nadu Congress Committee General Secretary Lakshmi Ramachandran asked and shared the video clip.
In a letter to Zee Entertainment, C T R Nirmal Kumar, President of Tamil Nadu BJP IT Wing, demanded a public apology from the channel, producer of the show and mentors of the children for “deliberately making obnoxious comments” about the Prime Minister and sacking of the person responsible for the content. He also said young children cannot be used to push “someone’s political agenda.”
“It is evident that the channel made no effort to curtail this blatant misinformation passed casually and that too through young children. In an effort to outrun their fellow participants, these children just do what is told to them,” Nirmal Kumar said.
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