Patna,(BiharTimes): Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday told the bureaucrats and mediapersons that Nitish Kumar would not remain as the chief minister of the state for ever, so they should change their attitude. He even called upon the crowd to switch-over to other channel if they are ignoring the interest of the Dalits and weaker section of the society.

As he was addressing the Gareeb Swabhiman Rally in Patna all the regional channels, who were relaying it live, suddenly disconnected Manjhi’s speech mid-way and started telecasting their routine programme. This was very much against the general practice. Only on April 14 these channels not only
telecast the full speech of the BJP chief Amit Shah and home minister Rajnath Singh, but of several other state-level leaders.

But why was Manjhi’s speech not fully telecast? Manjhi’s supporters suspect some foul play. They charge the state government with putting pressure on the channels to cut his speech when Manjhi started listing out the measures his government took in the last three cabinet meetings.

Not only that, in some parts of Patna electricity went off. One resident of Nehru Nagar, who sat to listen to the speech on the television, rang up the local power station to inquire as to why the power had got snapped when usually the supply power cut is infrequent in this locality. The reply came that the line has been disconnected from the ‘control’.Whether it was by chance or by design, the fact is that Manjhi’s speech could not get so much media publicity either because of the power cut or channels’ decision to cut the telecast half-way.

But the big question remains unanswered. Why the state government could not put similar pressure on the rally of the BJP or disconnected power as it is alleged?HAM supporters counter: this is simply because the state government can not do so to the BJP, which is much more resourceful as it has a good presence in the media as well as bureaucracy. In contrast Manjhi’s speech got the treatment of
a Dalit, that is, as social outcast.Secondly, they say Manjhi’s attack on Nitish was more pin-pointed and well targeted than Amit Shah’s speech, which lacked direction and penetration. As the former CM he was revealing all the misdeeds of Nitish Kumar, they alleged.

However, there is a different take. Had their been pressure on channels, they would not have given so much coverage to Manjhi’s rallies in various districts.