Sharma suspension postponed in order to remove Opposition excuses for ‘massive defeat’

President Bharrat Jagdeo, in a shock move yesterday, announced that the ban he instituted against CNS TV 6 will not commence until December 1, 2011, just after the November 28, 2011 elections.

He was speaking at the PPP/C grand campaign rally in Alexander Street Kitty. He had also announced that he made a proclamation earlier yesterday that the date for elections will be November 28, 2011.
“Last week, I suspended CN Sharma on the basis of a report that came to me from the ACB – and the ACB is made up of a member of the PNC, a member from the private sector, and one from the government. They recommended six months suspension. He came to me crying. He begged me to lower it and I did. I made it clear what he was being suspended for,” the President said.
According to Jagdeo, Sharma’s licence was being suspended not because he criticized Edghill, but because the broadcast on his station spread enmity and race and religious hate between Hindus and Christians, and between Pentecostals and Catholics.
“We said that we are not going to allow that anymore. We are not going to allow them to spread racism or disparage people’s religion. That is what we fight for in the PPP. Not a word from the vulture media. They made it as though it is a personal issue, as if somehow we are afraid of Sharma’s station,” the President said.
“The others (opposition parties) have seen a chance to back away from the elections. They have seen the writing on the wall, that it is going to be another overwhelming PPP/C victory, so they are talking about a boycott and they are saying that the results might be tainted,” he said.
“Some time ago I said I wanted to remove any excuse these people have for another resounding defeat, because they will be defeated, all of them combined, by this PPP/C government. So what I have decided to do is that I will allow Sharma to broadcast for the next two months and start the suspension on December 1, so that they don’t have any excuse for another defeat. I want to remove any excuse that they would have to create violence or enmity or to boycott the elections. We want them to participate so that we could thrash them massively,” said the President.
According to the President, he is doing this so as to remove any excuse from the Opposition as to the reason for their defeat, as he predicted, at the upcoming polls.
The President said that the Alliance For Change and A Partnership for National Unity will put political expediency above religious unity in supporting CN Sharma. “You would never find the PPP doing that,” he said.