The Inter-Ministerial Committee recommendation of banning Al Jazeera and NDTV has been blocked. Who did this and why?

The Inter-Ministerial Committee of the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has recommended the ban of Qatar Sheik-owned Television channel Al Jazeera for anti-India reporting and peddling fake stories against India and for initiating action against NDTV for tax evasion and money laundering cases. The decision was taken in the previous week by the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) consisting of top officials from the Ministries of I&B, Home, External Affairs, Health, Defence and Women & Child Welfare.

It is worth noting that Al Jazeera started operations in the United States on August 20, 2013, and was shut down on April 12, 2016[1]. Many Islamic countries also have banned Al Jazeera[2].

The IMC termed the Qatar Sheik’s owned channel Al Jazeera a repeat offender in creating fake stories against India. There are allegations that this channel has funding from organizations that also fund terrorism. The pro-Islamic channel’s reporting about Kashmir was totally fake and mischievous. Many fake videos were used to tarnish the image of India, said IMC, recommending the closure of Al-Jazeera’s operations in India, as well as down-linking of its signals in India. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has already reported that many Indian journalists were funded by Al Jazeera to peddle anti-Indian reports to malign the image of the country.

It is worth noting that Al Jazeera started operations in the United States on August 20, 2013, and was shut down on April 12, 2016[1]. Many Islamic countries also have banned Al Jazeera[2].

The IMC also recommended initiating action against New Delhi Television (NDTV) citing a series of tax evasion cases, money laundering and bank cheating cases against its promoters. The Inter-Ministerial Committee also pointed out that the promoters of the TV channels are facing charges of tax evasion, stock exchange manipulations, bank cheating and money laundering and routing money through tax havens[3].

Apart from these violations, the NDTV has not yet filed any information to I&B Ministry about this series of change of ownership from 20094. As per the I&B Rules, every channel is mandated to get clearance from the Ministry about any change in the shareholding pattern. Recently the TV channel’s minority shareholder Sanjay Dutt has filed a complaint with the I&B Ministry for gross violation of shareholding pattern change and hiding the information from the Ministry[4].

On Sunday afternoon BJP leader Subramanian Swamy tweeted that some powerful person stopped the implementation of the IMC’s recommendations against Al Jazeera and NDTV:

A high level Govt committee decided Al Jazeera for recklessness & NDTV for huge tax evasion and fraud be closed. Who stopped that happening? — Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 4, 2018

Who is this person? Is it the same person that Swamy always refers to as Shakuni?

References:

[1] Al Jazeera America – Wikipedia.org

[2] Why Saudi Arabia hates Al Jazeera so much – Jun 23, 2017, Washington Post

[3] Have CBI, ED probes on NDTV frauds slowed down? Is SEBI hushing up the probe against Prannoy Roy? Jan 28, 2018, PGurus.com

[4] Top Congress Leader and UPA Minister a secret investor in NDTV? Nov 6, 2017, PGurus.com