Rajdeep Sardesai, in an interview given to Santia Gora at St Pauls Institute of Communication Education (SPICE) said that it was a great day when the temple of democracy that is Indian Parliament was attacked in the winter of 2001. He narrates that moments before the parliament attack happened, his crew was planning to have a picnic in the garden near the parliament. Rajdeep said, “We entered parliament. Within five minutes of us entering we heard gunshots, and parliament had been attacked by the terrorists. My cameraman asked me to leave but I declined, and I said we have to stay here and I told him to close the gate of the parliament.” He joyfully explains the reason behind issuing such diktat. Rajdeep said he ordered his cameraman to do so in order to prevent other channels from entering. Rajdeep further jubilantly said that in those days there were fewer news channels and he wanted to do the story of Parliament attack. With profound happiness on his face, Rajdeep said, “It was a great day.” He further accepted, “We (journalists) are like vultures, we feed on these moments.” His eyes were shining with happiness when he made this shocking and shameful statement. The way he is speaking clearly shows that he gets satisfaction by feeding on ‘these moments’.
This is the height of shamelessness. In no other country, a journalist would have ever managed to carry on with his profession after saying something as nauseating as that. While narrating the sequence of events of the parliament attack, there was no remorse on Rajdeep’s face. He showed complete disregard to the security personnel who were martyred while protecting the temple of democracy. It was not a great day for the family members of the martyred souls. A total of six Delhi police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel, and a gardener lost their lives in the deadly parliament attack. In the video, he talked about how he told the security guards to close the gate. He took that call when a trained security personnel should have, and this raises serious concerns because one wrong step that day could have had serious national security ramifications. In addition to those nearby, this could have affected the entire country and its democracy.
It might have been a great day for Rajdeep and his journalistic career but not for the nation and those who have even an iota of respect for the parliament. Such an act of vulturism shows that the person has no shred of any duty as an Indian citizen. Maybe this is one of the reasons why journalists like Rajdeep Sardesai are invited by Pakistan, the very same terrorist nation that plotted the attack on the Indian parliament. Such journalists are more popular and respected in a terrorist nation rather than in the world’s largest democracy.
During the December 2001 Parliament attack, Rajdeep Sardesai was working with NDTV and at present, he is associated with the India Today group. Any institution which employs such irresponsible and insensitive people must be boycotted by one and all.
