Kannur: CPM State Secretary M V Govindan has threatened to sue media channels if they “continue to indulge in anti-government, anti-SFI campaign”. He was responding to queries in connection with the lodging of a case against Asianet News Chief Reporter Akhila Nandakumar after she reported the Students Federation of India (SFI) State Secretary P M Arsho was declared ‘pass’ on the website of Maharaja's College though he had not sat for any of the examinations.
“Cases in this direction were registered on earlier occasions as well. Media houses should confine themselves within their defined areas,” he said.
“The case (against Asianet reporter) is for hatching a conspiracy to declare that a student has passed an examination though the mark scored was recorded as zero. The case against the reporter is for being involved in this conspiracy. You don’t need to look at the FIR for this,” he added.
'No parallels to Centre's witch-hunt'
However, Govindan sought to dismiss the comparisons between this episode and the alleged witch-hunt of media houses being carried out by the Union Government. “Whoever is involved in the conspiracy should be dealt with a case. You were the ones who had actually sought this action the other day? In fact, you should all be supporting the government for initiating this,” he stated.
Holding that the report against Arsho was part of a conspiracy, Govindan warned that all who had been involved in the “conspiracy” would be brought before the law. “You can’t grant exemptions to any particular person,” he added.
Govindan reiterated the allegations of hatching a conspiracy to entrap an “innocent” Arsho while addressing the P K Kunjanandan commemoration meeting later. He also accused the media in general of terming Kunjanandan, who had been admired by everyone, as an extremist.
Responding to Govindan’s statement, Opposition leader V D Satheesan said his words indeed reflected the “audacity and temerity of the CPM as it is in power.”
“Who are you, mister? Who are you to intimidate us? The task to administer lies with the Chief Minister and not the party secretary. This is nothing but a government witch-hunt against the media,” he noted.
