In your opinion were the concerns raised against the NAMO TV valid?

NaMo TV was launched on March 31, 2019 after the Model Code of Conduct of the elections had come into force. The Opposition parties had raised several questions regarding the identity and ownership of the same. The channel grossly violated the broadcasting norms and various regulations which govern the ownership of content providers. Latter come under the policies which came into force in 2005 and were about uplinking and downlinking of channels. Various DTH service providers have stated that NaMo is a VAS which is given by every DTH operator to its subscriber. Number of VAS offered by a DTH varies with the operator. VAS channels can also go live and NaMo showed rallies of PM Modi. The Opposition parties have raised their doubts about the same and said that the channel gave an unfair edge to the ruling party. Also, if NaMo is owned by BJP then the same will have to be declared election expenditure of the party. The concerns were definitely valid and made campaigning an uneven playing field.

Topics: GS-III: Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology