Earlier on Monday evening, Venkaiah Naidu defended the one-day ban imposed on NDTV India for allegedly airing sensitive content while the anti-terror operation was on in January. Among the things he said in his defence of the blackout on November 9 was:
21 channels were banned during UPA regime, some were banned for airing midnight masala: Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu
— ScoopWhoop News (@scoopwhoopnews) November 7, 2016
But soon afterwards a journalist tweeted:
Spotted Prannoy Roy and Vishnu Som outside Venkaiah Naidu’s office. Will the ban on NDTV be lifted. .?
— Vasudha Venugopal (@sanjivanibooty) November 7, 2016
After the meeting there was an announcement that the one-day blackout was on hold for now.
The only reason given for the sudden turnaround was that the channel had filed an appeal. The government had earlier maintained that the channel’s coverage had been against national interest.
The Information and Broadcasting Minister tweeted:
NDTV leadership presented an appeal to me, which I said I will have a look & decided, till the process, the ban will be on hold.
— M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) November 7, 2016
Another official explained what had taken place at the meeting:
Dr Prannoy Roy requests minister @ndtv view not adequately heard in IMC. Requests for reconsideration. Says won’t happen again….#NDTVBan
— smita mishra (@missartola) November 7, 2016
NDTV had challenged the day-long blackout in the Supreme Court and the plea was to be heard by the apex court on Tuesday. There was also a protest at the Press Club of India by journalists against the blackout.
Given it’s sudden turnaround on the issue, it was little surprise that the government was trolled relentlessly on the issue and many congratulated the channel:
Prannoy Roy: Hello Mr. Naidu, I’ve come to talk about the NDTV ban.
Venkaiah Naidu: You had me at ‘Hello’— Ram Prasad (@ramprasad_c) November 7, 2016
Kudos to the media for standing united to force the Govt to put NDTV ban on hold. Govt realised it rang alarm bellshttps://t.co/NH4euhQBnS
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) November 7, 2016
Thats people’s power. Govt forced due to strong public uproar. Never take injustice lying down. Shout, scream, resist, fight. Congrats NDTV https://t.co/DySJvU7t1l
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 7, 2016
Ban on NDTV put on hold after Ravish, Barkha & Shekhar sang & danced before IB minister on ‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti’ & 10 other patriotic songs
— Ra_Bies (@Ra_Bies) November 7, 2016
Pic 1: After Imposing #NDTVBan
Pic 2: After putting a hold on the same pic.twitter.com/JypornVfHx— The-Lying-Lama (@KyaUkhaadLega) November 7, 2016
And some felt there was more to do:
Suspended means nothing either the #ban should be withdrawn or @ndtv should make SC tell GOI #emergency won’t work!
— Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) November 7, 2016
Hurrah!! Two cheers. Third when the govt decides to make NBSA the statutory authority for future. https://t.co/4jNGpuEJxA
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) November 7, 2016