TV show critical of Sonia Gandhi very serious issue: Moily

NEW DELHI - The Congress Monday termed as a “very serious issue” a TV programme criticising party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh aired on a channel owned by Kadapa MP Jaganmohan Reddy.

Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily, who is Congress incharge of Andhra Pradesh, said the party had received the report from its Andhra Pradesh unit on the telecast of the programme on Sakshi TV channel.

Moily told reporters here that he had received reports from the state unit and Chief Minister K. Rosaiah.

“It is a very serious issue… I have received the reports from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah and the PCC,” Moily said.

The Congress had Sunday sought a report from the Andhra Pradesh unit on the programme.

Party sources said that Rosaiah is expected to arrive in the capital Tuesday to meet the central leaders.

The programme, telecast Friday and repeated Saturday, blamed Gandhi for the “sorry state of affairs in the Congress” and called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a “rubber stamp”.

The channel has said the programme was not against top Congress leaders and Jaganmohan, the son of former chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, does not interfere in the content telecast of the TV channel.