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| Arun Jaitley and his deputy Rajyavardhan Rathore, have reportedly conveyed their displeasure to Nihalani. |
November 26, 2015, NewsCrunch
The Modi government has reportedly decided to get rid of Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani for the fiasco over the Modi propaganda video.
The tacky video tried to pass off International accomplishments such as International Space Station as contributions of Make in
Mumbai daily Mid Day reported on Thursday that I&B Ministry had decided to oust Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani after his video embarrassed the government.
Quoting an unnamed ministry official, Mid Day said an official announcement would be made soon.
The daily also said Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley and his deputy Rajyavardhan Rathore, had conveyed their displeasure to Nihalani.
If the report is confirmed, the Ministers may have given a chance to Nihalani to step down gracefully. It is unlikely that the I & B Ministry would have acted without Modi’s approval, given that Nihalani was reportedly an RSS candidate.
In a recent interview Nihalani had sought to defend his actions including the propaganda video. He said though the video had not been produced with Modi’s approval, he had sent a copy to his office. Modi was yet to respond, he had noted.
After the propaganda video fiasco, Nihalani triggered a new controversy by editing kissing scenes in Spectre triggering a tsunami of ridicule on social media.
These were just two of latest gaffes of Nihalani, who took over as Censor Board chief, in January this year. For the image conscious Modi government the lapses may have proved to be intolerable.