Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the political party led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has defended India Today against Piyush Goyal on the matter of proof of airstrike by Indian Air Force. Rahul Kanwal, anchor with the media house asked the Piyush Goyal to clarify on the two narratives going on global media on airstrikes. Goyal responded to Kanwal’s confrontational and accusatory tones, in a firm but appropriate way. Pulwama is an emotive issue for the whole nation and for the Union Minister too, so the reaction was coming from the point of view of deep anguish and concern that every Indian felt after the Pulwama attacks.
PTI used its Twitter handle to accuse BJP and Piyush Goyal of being anti-free speech and anti-media freedom. “Business as usual in Modi’s govt. Lost for an answer on details of Indian air incursion and after dismissal of big claims by international media & experts,sitting Minister resorts to anti nationalist & anti army slurs. Press freedom does not exist.Dangerous for all of South Asia,” tweeted PTI.
Business as usual in Modi’s govt. Lost for an answer on details of Indian air incursion and after dismissal of big claims by international media & experts,sitting Minister resorts to anti nationalist & anti army slurs. Press freedom does not exist.Dangerous for all of South Asia. pic.twitter.com/Ysh34KlYBO
— PTI (@PTIofficial) March 5, 2019
However, India Today group decided to defame the minister for this ‘slight’ against one of its ‘star journalists’. Soon, it came out with an article titled “Twitter slams Piyush Goyal”. During the speech, Rahul Kanwal asked Goyal that if there was pressure on India to convince the international media, the Opposition and public that its mission was successful. On which, in a sane and generous way, the minister asked, “Are you convinced first? Are you a part of this narrative that is trying to belittle our armed forces?”
First of all, Goyal’s response was very much keeping in tone with Rahul Kanwal’s question and there was nothing wrong in his demeanor or stance especially considering he was speaking on an issue of emotive value. Secondly, while India Today claims ‘Twitterati slammed Goyal’ implying that the minister was criticized by one and all, however, India Today added tweets of known BJP-baiters and even Congress Social Media head Divya Spandana.
The other twitter users that India Today quoted as ‘slamming Piyush Goyal’ included Rupa Subramanya, Akash Banerjee, and Tony Joseph, all of whom have a well-established anti-BJP stance.
However, this kind of potshot at the Modi government is not new for the media group. In the interview, Piyush Goyal narrated an earlier incident where the government had to change the wording of one of the beneficiary scheme related to electrification because of India Today’s selective journalism. Union Minister trolled Rajdeep Sardesai that too without taking his name, stating that government had to add ‘100% electrification of all willing consumers’ which was earlier mentioned as ‘100% electrification’ due to biased reporting by India Today.
It is highly questionable practice by the media portal to deliberately portray a speaker in a bad light. It was they who had invited the Union Minister in the first place and when he refused to yield to Kanwal’s accusatory tone, India Today resorted to defaming him on flimsy grounds This is journalism at its worst.
