A video of suspended BJP lawmaker in Uttarakhand, Kunwar Pranav Singh ‘Champion’ has gone viral. In the video, he is seen brandishing guns in his hands and dancing on a Bollywood song. Wearing a black vest and white trousers, he is also seen taking a sip of a drink, while several other people are also seen dancing alongside him in the 1 minute 45 seconds long video. A police officer was quoted by ANI as saying, “We will look into the matter and also verify if the weapons are licensed or not.”
The lawmaker has, however, stated that the video is three-years-old and it was shot when he was in the Congress. He said, “They fished out this three-year-old video just to malign my image with a malicious, ulterior motive.” Meanwhile, the BJP has served him a show-cause notice asking why he should not be terminated from the party. Ajay Bhatt, the BJP state unit president, said, “We are going to serve him a notice asking why he should not be terminated from the party. Our party mandate is discipline and we will not allow anyone violating it.”
It must be noted here that the BJP MLA has been suspended for a period of three months by the party in the background of his being embroiled in various controversies. The suspension took place after a preliminary report prepared by the state BJP disciplinary committee found the lawmaker guilty of gross indiscipline and also took notice of his alleged threats to a journalist. A video had gone viral last month, in which Champion was seen threatening an electronic media journalist. The BJP, however, acted responsibly and took appropriate action against its MLA making it clear that it won’t tolerate indiscipline at any level.
What several media outlets have done now, is to report him as a “BJP MLA” in their headlines without mentioning in their headlines that he has been already suspended by the BJP. This does not give the full picture of the entire event and has the potential of misleading general readers. This seems more like a case of shoddy reporting due to which the readers can be misled about the entire controversy. Several mainstream media outlets have carried such headlines without mentioning that ‘Champion’ had been already been suspended by the BJP before the video went viral. This again brings to the surface, the issue of shoddy reporting and displays how mainstream media outlets make silly errors by leaving out crucial details.