By IANS,
Kolkata : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Sunday accused the West Bengal government of attempting to gag the opposition and slammed assembly Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay’s ban on press meets in the house premises when it is not in session.
An editorial carried in the CPI-M mouthpiece Ganashakti not only accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of undermining the opposition’s presence but also of attacking sections in the media which dared to stand up against her.
The piece titled ‘Unprecedented prohibition’ charged the Banerjee government with attempts to dry up government advertisement revenue to these sections of media to make them fall in line.
Bandyopadhyay Friday announced the curbs on media meets which drew criticism from political parties, including the Congress which is a partner in the ruling alliance.
The speaker defended his decision citing security reasons.
He referred to CPI-M leader Surjya Kanta Mishra’s repeated failure to stick to the allotted time for media meets as the trigger behind the decision.
Criticising the move, Mishra accused the speaker of being vindictive and the government of attempting to muzzle the voice of the opposition which believed in constructive criticism.
The editorial in the morninger described the government as autocratic and said it was resorting to such methods because it did not want people to know about its failure on issues like farmer suicides and the financial crisis.