MESSAGE BOARD
NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

CPI-M 'exploits' cadres to start TV channel

George Iype in Thiruvananthapuram

The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist has decided to issue shares of Rs 10 each to the party cadres to raise a Rs 500 million capital base needed to launch its proposed television channel for spreading the party ideology and views to the masses in electronic form.

The new satellite channel will be absolutely red in character, as the majority shareholders of the venture will be party cardholders.

While a public limited company is being floated to run the television channel, the CPI-M leadership has written to its district committees insisting that each committee should sell a fixed number of shares to the party cadres.

According to a party circular, the moneyed party cadres should purchase at least 100 shares each and the poor working cadres should buy at least one share. The party leadership has promised to share the profits of the television channel with the shareholders - the party members - through payment of dividends.

While it will be for the first time that the Marxists will be entering into a profit-sharing arrangement with the working classes, opposition parties have termed the CPI-M move as "further exploitation of the party workers".

"Only the CPI-M has the guts to come out with such political gimmicks like television channels to exploit the party workers," former Kerala chief minister and senior Congress leader K Karunakaran told rediff.com.

He said the CPI-M should disclose the source of the funds being collected to start its electronic venture. "Our information is that it is not the Marxist party but their government which is taking active interest in starting the television," he said.

Karunakaran said a satellite channel requires massive investment and therefore the people should know how and where the CPI-M is collecting the money to start "the business in television."

Asked if the Congress has similar plans to launch a television channel, Karunakaran said, "The Congress does not have the kind of funds that Marxists possess."

But the CPI-M leadership has insisted that the satellite channel will not be a party outfit, but will be controlled by a public limited company in which the party will have a majority stake. The CPI-M leaders are first waiting to see how the mobilisation of funds from the party cadres progresses. "If we are unable to mobilise the required funds from the public, the party will part-finance the project from its internal funds," a CPI-M leader disclosed.

Though political propaganda will be the core theme of the Marxist satellite channel - the first one to be started by a political party in India -- the party leaders are working hard to ensure that its television does not look reddish for obvious commercial reasons.

Therefore, the CPI-M sources said, that the party has decided to appoint the Left-leaning television celebrity Sasi Kumar, who founded the leading Malayalam channel Asianet, to head the party's television venture. CPI-M leaders are confident that a professional like Kumar will be able to make the channel to a commercial success.

Kumar, who left Asianet last year after he fell out with his Moscow-based non-resident Indian uncle Raji Menon, is these days busy setting up a media school in Madras.

CPI-M leaders allege after the exit of Kumar, Asianet has become pro-Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties are not being given due news and views coverage. The party says this does not augur well for it especially when the state is preparing to go for assembly elections early next year.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report