INDIA Bloc to Boycott #GodiMedia Anchors, Releases List of 14 Names

New Delhi: The opposition INDIA bloc on Thursday released a list of national television anchors, termed #GodiMedia for their proximity to the ruling dispensation and hounding of Opposition parties and dissenters. 

At a coordination meeting held at Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar’s Delhi Residence, the INDIA bloc said it would not send its leaders for television debates anchored by some mediapersons, saying they were “hounds” of the BJP-RSS.

“The coordination committee authorised the sub-group on media to decide upon the names of the (TV) anchors on whose shows none of the INDIA parties will send their representatives,’ said a joint statement released after the meeting. 

Later the media sub-group of the Opposition alliance released a list of 14 TV anchors who are known to be “pro-BJP” and “agents of power”.

The names are: Aditi Tyagi (Bharat Express), Aman Chopra (News18), Amid Devgan (News18), Anand Narasimhan (News18), Arnab Goswami (Republic TV), Ashok Shrivastav (DD News), Chitra Tripathi (Aaj Tak), Gaurav Sawant (India Today), Navika Kumar (Times Now), Prachi Parashar (India TV), Rubika Liaquat (Bharat24), Shiv Aroor (India Today), Sudhir Chaudhary (Aaj Tak) and Sushant Sinha (Times Now Navbharat).

#INDIA’s decision to boycott bloodthirsty, biased &baying anchors is great. We all know who is in that Hall of Shame, hindi or english.These names are a blot on 4th pillar of freedom &damage 2democracy by them is incalculable. #pressfreedom #journalists

— Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) September 14, 2023

After the list was released, many INDIA supporters took to social media listing out more names and hailing the decision to not send leaders to these programmes as they largely whipped up “Hindu-Muslim” frenzy and had no space for burning issues, such as unemployment, price rise, Manipur violence, among others.

The following decision was taken by the INDIA media committee in a virtual meeting held this afternoon. #JudegaBharatJeetegaIndia #जुड़ेगा_भारत_जीतेगा_इण्डिया pic.twitter.com/561bteyyti

— Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 (@Pawankhera) September 14, 2023

The announcement was made by Congress leader K C Venugopal, who also said that the coordination committee had decided to soon begin the process of fixing seat-sharing arrangements among the 28-party Opposition alliance. 

“The committee decided to hold joint public meetings in different parts of the country,” he said, adding that “The first public meeting will be held in Bhopal in the first week of October. We will raise the issue of rising prices, unemployment and corruption under BJP rule.”

The BJP reacted by terming the INDIA bloc’s boycott decision as “bullying of media”. BJP president JP Nadda, in an X post, trained guns at Congress, pointing out instances of the party “silencing” those with “differing views”.