(May 1, 2014) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has enunciated a clear media policy, should it come to power, which amazingly nobody is talking about.
Media companies should certainly take note. If the party means business, some drastic proposals are on the cards. It will reverse its own earlier policy on foreign investment, push for restrictions on cross-media ownership, and attempt, yet again, to give the country an independent media regulator.
It also intends to take Prasar Bharati out of government control and make it directly accountable to Parliament.
The frenetic media obsession with the BJP’s Hindu nationalism has led us to ignore other kinds of policy nationalism that it has on its agenda. Hardly any attention is being paid to the about turn the party has done on foreign investment in media. Its current position, spelt out in a document on its website called Our policy on Media, Cinema and Arts, is an amazing list of nationalistic postures, which seek to overturn some of the opening up the last BJP government did in 1999-2004.
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