The Hindu : National : 'Centre will help EC implement Supreme Court directive on surrogate ads'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 07, 2004

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National

'Centre will help EC implement Supreme Court directive on surrogate ads'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, APRIL 6. The Centre would assist the Election Commission in implementing the Supreme Court's directive on "surrogate political advertisements" on television channels and cable television networks, said the Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Ravi Shankar Prasad, here today.

(The Supreme Court has given time till Thursday to the Election Commission for framing broad guidelines in this regard.)

Once the Supreme Court gave directions, the Government would help the Commission implement them, Mr. Prasad told presspersons.

Dos and don'ts must be formulated for television channels and cable operators and there should be broad guidelines for telecasting political advertisements through the channels.

He said the BJP would follow the Supreme Court's guidelines and would not indulge in personalised attacks.

The party's campaign would be conducted in a dignified and civilised manner.

However, the BJP would raise the foreign origin of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, as it was a political issue and not a personal one. It would not accept her as a prime ministerial candidate.

Mr. Prasad said he was against banning pre-poll and exit poll surveys as long as they were conducted scientifically and were not motivated. However, surveys by amateurs should be banned.

Repudiating the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's claim that the former Union Minister, Murasoli Maran, was responsible for the Doha resolution in support of the developing countries in the World Trade Organisation meeting, he said that it was the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had directed him to do so.

The NDA Government had secured justice at Doha while the previous Government led by Narasimha Rao virtually "sold out" the interest of the developing countries at the WTO conference at Marrakesh.

Our Pondicherry reporter writes:

Mr. Prasad said that the Opposition, which lacked proper leadership, had been raising irrelevant issues.

While the NDA was focussing on developmental works it carried out in the last five years, the Opposition had no relevant issue to talk about.

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