Red FM faces ban for Idol remark

NO IDOL TIMEPASS: An RJ at Red FM had passed an allegedly racist remark against Tamang.

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Keywords: Red Fm, Prashant Tamang

New Delhi: Delhi-based Red FM radio station is staring at a week-long ban for airing an allegedly racist remark against the Gorkhas after Darjeeling boy Prashant Tamang was crowned 'Indian Idol' at a reality TV show on Sony Television last week.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry had last week served a show-cause notice on the radio station following a complaint about the said racist slur on live broadcast from the Gorkha community and the West Bengal government.

The I&B notice had asked the FM station to explain why action should not initiated against it for airing racist slur against the Gorkhas after Darjeeling boy Prashant Tamang was crowned ‘Indian Idol’ earlier this week.

The RJ, Jonathan Brady, who is popularly known as Nitin after a programme called Ulta Pulta Nitin that he used to host on some other FM channel, apparently commented in a live broadcast that “shopkeepers will now have to make their own security arrangements as Gorkhas have taken to singing.” The remark was made on his new programme, Khurafati Nitin on Red FM

The issue kicked up a row and sparked off a mass movement in the Darjeeling Hills, leading to violence in Siliguri on Thursday and general strikes in several places like Kalimpong and Sukna last week.

The I&B Ministry later referred the case to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal or TDSAT with a recommendation to ban the said station for a week.

The decision is now pending with the TDSAT and the ban will come into effect as soon as the TDSAT decides to enforce it. The TDSAT is likely to take a call on it on October 4.