Mayawati juggernauts media

Media humiliated by UP chief minister after invitations to her birthday celebrations were asked to be returned by information department.

Pradeep Kapoor Lucknow.                                                                                                                  

Journalists in Lucknow were humiliated when they were asked to return the invitation cards given to them for the coverage of birthday celebrations of Chief Minister Mayawati at her official residence on January 15.

Cards had been issued to scribes by the information department two days prior to Mayawati's birthday. But within no time they were recalled by the media center. In some cases, officials even went to the residences of senior journalists and demanded they return the cards.

Shocked by the treatment meted out to them, some journalists said that they had 30 years of experience in the profession but never were they humiliated by any government in such a rude manner. Interestingly, the invitation cards were withdrawn from only those journalists who were considered inconvenient because of their writings.

Commenting on the situation, senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon said, "Mayawati's government is systematically demolishing all the four pillars of democracy. Recently, the editor of a prominent English daily was forced to quit because he wrote against the misdeeds of the government. Similarly, one reporter of a channel was transferred after the government pressurised the news organisation."