'Vendetta Politics,' says Sirsa over breach of privilege notice to Arnab by Maha assembly

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) spokesperson Manjinder Singh Sirsa strongly condemned the brazen attempt by the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government to block Republic TV's reporting yet again. Sirsa called it vendetta politics and slammed Maharashtra government's latest move of misusing the state's assembly to send a breach of privilege notice to Republic Media Network's Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami.

"Breach of Privilege notice summoned to Arnab Goswami in the Maharashtra Assembly is very unfortunate. I condemn this move. Earlier also a case was filed on Arnab Goswami for no reason and the Mumbai Police tortured and kept him in the police station for hours," Sirsa said in a video he posted on Twitter.

"They used BMC and demolished Kangana Ranaut's office and now the state assembly is being misused, which is very shameful. I appeal to honourable speak of the state assembly, please do not allow the misuse of your assembly," he added while appealing the speak of the Maharashtra Assembly Nana Patole to not allow the brazen misuse of the Assembly. 

"If the privilege committee starts summoning somebody in such a manner, that too for just raising the voice, then it will go against the dignity of the assembly. We have never heard of this before that an Assembly's dignity is brought down to such low level by using it for personal vendetta and to muzzle the voices of others. Hence I strongly condemn the notice and appeal to take it back," Sirsa said.

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Several political leaders have condemned the brazzen attempts by the Maharashtra government to block Republic TV as the media network raised voice against the lackadaisical investigation of Mumbai Police in the Sushant Singh Rajput and Disha Salian death case. Republic's continuous and relentless independent probe in the case led to several revelations giving a tough time to the state government which was suspiciously quick to declare the deaths as mere suicides without even conducting a thorough investigation in the high profile deaths.

The state government did not hold back from misusing the state machineries to demolish Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut's office, because she too raised voice against the government's autocratic behaviour and the Mumbai Police' eagerness to close the Sushant Singh case even as Republic continued to throw proofs that pointed the possibility of homicides.

Maharashtra Police on September 9 also arrested Republic TV's reporter Anuj Kumar along with Video Journalist Yashpaljit Singh and their Ola driver Pradeep Dilip Dhanavade who had travelled to Karjat following a lead of an investigative story. Maharashtra police detained all three to four-day custody. Initially, Republic was not even given a remand copy by the police, which delayed in procuring bail. Anuj was being interrogated in police custody at Karjat - asking him to reveal his sources, lead and the story he was pursuing, while denying him legal representation.

Moreover, Shiv Sena wing also tried to threaten cable operators in Maharashtra to stop telecasting Republic Media Network's channels Republic TV and Republic Bharat - the two most-watched English and Hindi news channels in the country. However, Bombay High Court foiled Shiv Sena's attempt to stop Republic TV's broadcast.

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