CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Saturday said Doordarshan runs on taxpayer money and is not the “private property” of the BJP for it to be “doing the PR” for the ruling party.

For the last few days, state-owned Doordarshan has been showing videos of people across the country thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for various schemes of the government.

“The public broadcaster runs on public money and is meant to perform public service. It is not the private property of the BJP or Modi, where it does their PR. Those in charge must be held accountable for this deliberate distortion in these critical times of a public health emergency,” Yechury said in a tweet.

The CPM leader also accused the government of helping “rich cronies” during the coronavirus crisis.

In a tweet, Yechury said: “252 buses for free for the rich: Nothing except lathis for starving migrant workers — another brutal reminder of how BJP has all along benefited rich cronies at the expense of the many who need essentials. They bailed out rich borrowers by Rs 7.76 lakh crores — Rs 0 for the poor.”

He continued: “If BJP govts can send luxury buses to get rich pilgrims from Uttarakhand and elsewhere back to Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh sends 100 buses for 7,500 students of rich families from Rajasthan, Centre must arrange for stranded starving workers: Not doing so is criminal.”