Doors of Grand Alliance shut on Nitish Kumar: Tejashwi
Patna, June 26: Setting at rest all speculation about Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar joining the Grand Alliance in the state, RJD leader and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday said there is no chance of extending him an invitation ahead of the 2019 general elections.
"Why should we offer those to join the Grand Alliance who insulted the mandate of the people? We will not allow their entry into the Grand Alliance," Tejashwi, also a former Deputy Chief Minister, told the media here.
Reporters had asked him whether the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) allies -- Congress and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) -- had invited Nitish Kumar to join the Grand Alliance with certain conditions.
Tejashwi, the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, categorically said that the doors of the Grand Alliance were closed for Nitish Kumar. "People also want this as he has proved himself a 'Paltu Ram' (a turncoat)."
He, however, said that the Grand Alliance was ready to welcome Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha. "We will welcome his (Kushwaha) entry into Grand Alliance."
It was being widely speculated that senior Congress leader Shakti Singh Gohil, who is party incharge for Bihar, has asked Nitish Kumar to join the Grand Alliance. Besides, another ally HAM chief and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi also extended an invitation on the condition that Tejashwi would be the chief ministerial candidate in the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls.
The Grand Alliance comprises the Congress, RJD and the HAM. In February this year, the HAM walked out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joined the Grand Alliance.
Last July, Nitish Kumar -- also Janata Dal-United (JD-U) president -- joined hands with the BJP and formed the government in the state after dumping the Congress and the RJD.
In the 2015 state polls, the Grand Alliance of JD-U, RJD and the Congress had defeated the BJP-led NDA.
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Union government assumes full control over TV ratings, TRAI role curtailed: Report
New Delhi: The Union government has assumed full control over television audience measurement, removing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from oversight of the ratings system that underpins the country’s ₹36,000 crore television advertising market, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report in Mint said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) now has exclusive authority over the framework governing how television ratings are measured and regulated. TRAI had been entrusted with oversight of TV ratings in 2012 during the UPA government’s tenure. TRAI is no longer mentioned in the relevant policy document, effectively vesting sole authority in the MIB.
The report said TRAI will continue to regulate other aspects of broadcasting, including channel pricing, advertising caps, interconnection and distribution norms, service quality and compliance standards. Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.
Television Rating Points (TRPs), which reflect viewership patterns, guide advertisers in deciding where to allocate spending across channels and time slots.
A government source quoted in the report said the ministry could modify TRAI’s decisions even when the regulator oversaw broadcasting.
A former CEO of Prasar Bharati told the newspaper that the MIB has historically regulated rating agencies through licensing and guidelines, and by holding them accountable under existing norms.
During its tenure overseeing ratings, TRAI had taken decisions affecting the broadcast sector, which included capping advertising time at 12 minutes per hour following complaints about excessive commercial breaks and it now remains unclear how these matters will be addressed under the revised arrangement.
Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at TRAI, was quoted as saying that merging regulatory functions with policy oversight and removing an independent regulator from the process was a retrograde step.
TRAI’s involvement in broadcasting had earlier attracted criticism as well. In 2012, its consultation paper on quantitative limits on television advertising was viewed by some as overlapping with the Advertising Standards Council of India’s code. Subsequent recommendations covering television audience measurement, ownership of news channels and issues such as paid news had also raised concerns among sections of the industry.
Television ratings have faced scrutiny in recent years, including during the controversy involving the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), where officials of the ratings body were prosecuted over allegations of manipulation of viewership data.
