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"Every industry has some sort of representation Parliament
and state legislative assemblies, except the cable industry. With
the (outgoing) government handing us totally step-motherly treatment,
we are now thinking of allying ourselves with non-BJP parties to
contest elections," Roop Sharma, head of the Cable Operators
Federation of India (COFI), said today.
Sharma's political dreams for the cable operators stems from the
fact that since operators are already active in politics at the
local level, it's time for them to emerge at the national level
too.
As per tentative plans, the cable operators plan to contest five
parliamentary seats. One of the seats that the cable fraternity
is angling for is Machchlipatnam in Andhra Pradesh where cable operator
Srinivasa Rao is said to hold a sway over the voting population.
The party being sounded out is Congress, which has not sent positive
vibes up till now, at least.
Another place where the cable operators are upbeat at contesting
elections from is Gujarat where cable operator Pramod Pandya is
capable of mobilizing support, Roop Sharma points out. The two seats
that are being targeted there would be chosen from Gandhinagar,
Vadodra and Ahmedabad.
But here again no political party has come forward to offer their
support to the cable ops or agree to their request of somebody from
their fraternity be made a candidate.
Quizzed on the issue, senior Congress leader and one of the spokespersons
for the party Anand Sharma said, "At least I am not aware of
any move on the part of the party to have local cable operators
as candidates as of now. Maybe the local units have some plans,
which are yet to be communicated to the central leadership."
But, according to Roop Sharma, even if cable operators are rebuffed
by political parties, a nation-wide campaign would be started from
next week against the outgoing government and especially their overt
leanings towards the broadcasters while framing policy guidelines.
"The India Shining campaign has to be neutralized with India
Fading and the cable operators would undertake door-to-door campaigning
too, if necessary to highlight the deficiencies in the government
and of a certain set of politicians," Roop Sharma said.
Asked for a comment on the cable operators proposed move, a close
aide of the information and broadcasting minister Ravi Shankar Prasad
retorted, "If the cable operators feel the government has been
unjust to them, they are most welcome to contest elections. Once
they are part of the government machinery, they'll realize how difficult
it is to please everybody."
Still, Roop Sharma and company are quite gung-ho about their proposed
campaign that would be announced next week, even though some of
the big multi-system operators are in the dark about any such awareness
campaigns.
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