New Delhi: The national Vividh Bharati programme in Hindi which was proposed to be broadcast for four hours from 12 noon to 4 pm through local AIR stations in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has been withdrawn following a representation made to the Union minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar.
Union information and broadcasting ministry has asked All India Radio (AIR) officials to stop the four hours of Hindi commercial programme in the regional stations, the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit said Monday.
In a statement issued here, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the ministry ordered AIR officials to stop such programmes on a request from Tamil Nadu BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan.
According to Soundararajan, the party will not impose Hindi on anybody. The BJP is of the view that people should accept a language on their own. I told Jawadekar that Tamil sentiments would be hurt if AIR broadcast the Hindi programme and advertisements and he immediately asked his officials to stop it, she said.
The AIR’s decision to air four hours of commercial programmes in Hindi daily from its local stations – Nagercoil, Dharmapuri and Puducherry – is being opposed to by political parties in the state.
The PMK, an ally of the NDA in TN, had last week charged the Centre with trying to “impose Hindi” through local radio broadcasts. PMK founder S Ramadoss had said that Centre planned to impose Hindi through local broadcast by regional radio stations in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the name of commercial broadcast.
