In what can only be described as a shameless attempt by the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at a journalist for petty political gains as he termed Prime Minister Modi’s interview a staged one and also said that it was conducted by a “pliable journalist”. The interview had cleared the air over several lies that the opposition had been spreading over a range of issues. It seems that when the Congress president found no other way of negating what PM Modi said during the interview and thus, Rahul Gandhi found it convenient to call the interview a staged one and took a jibe at the journalist who took PM Modi’s interview.
Earlier in the Parliament, Rahul Gandhi had said, “The entire nation is asking why the Prime Minister can speak for a one-and-a-half hour in a staged interview and not answer the fundamental questions of Rafale.” However, this was a blatant lie. PM Modi had been asked a question about the Rafale issue during the interview and the Prime Minister gave an elaborate reply about how the Congress has been making wild allegations without any evidence and also said, “The matter has been cleared even by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court scrutinised it threadbare. The French president has spoken…The media should have the courage to ask [the Congress] where is the evidence for these allegations? Don’t throw muck and run away…They [Congress] are not able to give any real evidence.”
Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists (India) and the BJP have severely criticised Rahul Gandhi for his irresponsible and unacceptable remarks. The BJP has demanded an apology from the Congress president over this statement while the NUJ (India) said that it was unbecoming of the Congress president to mock the interview. Smita Prakash, the editor of news agency ANI who came under attack out of Rahul Gandhi’s cheap attempt to make political gains, also took to Twitter and said, “Dear Mr Rahul Gandhi, cheap shot at your press conference to attack me. I was asking questions not answering. You want to attack Mr Modi, go ahead but downright absurd to ridicule me. Not expected of a president of the oldest political party in the country.” It is clear that the Congress president has no right whatsoever to defame a journalist only because he did not have anything substantial to criticise PM Modi and the government of the day. Smita Prakash has done the right thing by not remaining silent and exposing how the Congress president unnecessarily took a jibe at her in order to set a political narrative.
Despite this vicious attack by the Congress president against a respected media professional, the Editor’s Guild which pretends to be the guardian of media freedom has remained conspicuously silent. The Editor’s Guild has not issued any statement in this regard yet. This hypocrisy of the Guild was highlighted by the FM Arun Jaitley.
Why are the pseudo liberals silent? Waiting for the Editors guild’s response.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) January 3, 2019
The Grandson of the ‘Emergency dictator’ displays his real DNA – attacks and intimidates an independent Editor.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) January 3, 2019
The Congress is in the habit of living in an illusion that all journalists and the media fraternity should, directly or indirectly, support the Congress. Therefore, every time an independent journalist comes in the limelight, Congress goes after such journalist. What the Congress president said about Smita Prakash corroborates the fact that the Congress lives in such an illusion. It is particularly flummoxing that the liberal brigade which always claims to be the champion of free speech and media freedom, is silent about how Rahul Gandhi shamelessly attacked the media and a journalist. In fact, some of the left liberals are actually celebrating it and making attempts to defame Smita Prakash. It is clear that the entire left-liberal cabal is trying to paint Smita Prakash in a bad light in order to undermine PM Modi’s interview.