London, June 27: Former BBC program head has blasted the BBC for featuring too many ethnic minority characters on its shows.

Dr Samir Shah, a former head of BBC current affairs, claims that politically correct telly chiefs have lost the plot in a bid to appear even-handed.

In a hard-hitting speech to senior TV industry figures, Shah, 52, claimed the BBC was guilty of "rampant tokenism".

He claimed the Beeb was doing minority groups no favours by featuring the "wrong" kind of ethnic characters.

“I think we can all agree that there is no shortage of black and Asian reporters and presenters around,” Shah said, adding that TV executives were excluding other minorities, like working-class northerners, Middle England conservatives and the disabled.

According to the Daily Star, Dr. Shah is the latest in a long line of former executives to criticise the BBC.

In 2001, then director-general Greg Dyke, now 61, described the BBC as being "hideously white".

ANI