Rajdeep Sardesai: 'Crime' And Punishment
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-01-29 07:08:08
About the Author
In the last week, those who are against the Modi government and Prime Minister Modi per se have had to delete their offensive or fake news tweets and seek places to hide after their ignorance about matters and the urgency to show the government in a bad light was thoroughly exposed. After politicians like TMC's Mahua Moitra and ex-civil servants like Jawahar Sircar were exposed in the âfake' Netaji portrait allegation, it was the turn of senior journalist and India Today anchor Rajdeep Sardesai, among others, to grab the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Sardesai jumped the gun in claiming that a farmer was killed in police firing during the tractor rally in the capital on Republic Day. He first tweeted the wrong 'report' and then made the same claim on live television. He also grandiously claimed that "Farmers tell me: the 'sacrifice' will not go in vain". What was the need to make such an inflammatory (and maybe cooked-up) remark? The India Today Group has taken him off-air for two weeks and deducted his salary for a month as part of disciplinary action over both the actions on his part. The Group claimed it was for breaching their code of conduct. Sardesai later made amends by deleting his tweet and giving out the correct information over television, but the damage had been done.
The Delhi Police has also lodged FIRs against Sardesai and Mrinal Pande, also of India Today Group, Zafar Agha of National Herald and Ananth Nath, Vinod Jose, and Paresh Nath of Caravan. The Editor's Guild has strongly condemned the police action and has said that such mistakes can happen in the thick of reporting such an event. The Guild wrote that "it must be noted that on the day of the protest and high action, several reports were emerging from eyewitnesses on the ground as well as from the police, and therefore it was only natural for journalists to report all the details as they emerged. This is in line with established norms of journalistic practice."
While the Guild's condemnation and protest are valid, two things stand out - the persons accused are responsible journalists but those who habitually take an anti-government stand even on minor issues and no other channels or journalists made similar claims. The Guild claims that "several reports were emerging from eyewitnesses on the ground as well as from the police, and therefore it was only natural for journalists to report all the details as they emerged". Yes, but without thoroughly verifying them from multiple sources? What was the urgency to make such a serious allegation about death due to police firing? Did they not realize that in this age of social media and viral posts, their unverified claim could lead to an uncontrollable situation? The responsibility of senior journalists increase manifold during such situations and they must not fall prey to the "fastest finger first" mentality.
Since Sardesai and the others have not adhered to proper journalism, they must now be ready to face the music. If they are let off, it will embolden others to make such unverified claims on social media and national television in future. They must be made to realize what they did was abominable and against all journalistic practices. They are not YouTubers. They are senior journalists. If they resort to such journalism what difference will remain between them and others who they accuse of jingoism? They will start resembling the two sides of the same coin. They should have checked the facts thoroughly before making the serious allegation against a police force that displayed exemplary restraint in the face of severe provocation and did not even fire when the mob was desecrating the Red Fort. But one feels that the sedition charge is not right since they aired the correct news on receiving later reports. They must be penalized for jumping the gun and action by the respective media houses, like India Today has done against Sardesai, will be more appropriate.
