Barkha Dutt, the left liberal journalist, who has arguably absorbed the greatest amount of backlash from the Indian audience, is also the cleverest among the propagandist lot. Her experience with the nationalist wave in India may have dented her career significantly, but in order to spring back up she may have cracked the code. The former NDTV anchor who has been reduced to twitter troll in last few years, with her propaganda on Kashmir peaking, has suddenly turned ‘Nationalist’ and ‘PM Modi fan’. “I think @narendramodi hug of a heart broken @isro chairman was a group hug of a billion plus people. A very fine gesture. And just what was needed. To criticise and politicise even this as some are doing is to deny any transcendental moments for the country to unite as one #ISRO,” tweeted Dutt.
I think @narendramodi hug of a heart broken @isro chairman was a group hug of a billion plus people. A very fine gesture. And just what was needed. To criticise and politicise even this as some are doing is to deny any transcendental moments for the country to unite as one #ISRO
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) September 7, 2019
The sudden 180 degree turn of Dutt, has surprised the people across the political spectrum. However, those who are aware of 2 decade long career of Dutt, know very well that she is an ‘opportunist’ and will keep her propaganda on Kashmir rolling.
I never use words like unpatriotic but @dhume this tone? The reporter is shouting and how is this journalistic when there is no public accountability issue at stake at all or some scam or any corruption or anything. Tone is horrible, crass & disrespectful of v humble men & women https://t.co/13dHoWSqV1
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) September 7, 2019
She also criticized NDTV journalist Pallava Bagla for the tone of his question to ISRO scientist-over the floss the connection to Vikram lander. “Tone is horrible, crass & disrespectful of v humble men & women,” said Barkha Dutt in her tweet.
She also praised PM Modi ‘s remark to ISRO scientist. “Not sure shouting in this manner was called for. Why? A heartbroken team of scientists, everyone saw what happened. It wasn’t some scam. Or corruption or public accountability moment. Pretty crass and insulting of ISRO in their moment of heart break IMHO,” tweeted Dutt.
"Be courageous" @narendramodi to Team @isro. And you know what, it still was history in the making… Onwards and upwards. Respect from a grateful nation
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) September 6, 2019
Not sure shouting in this manner was called for. Why? A heartbroken team of scientists, everyone saw what happened. It wasn't some scam. Or corruption or public accountability moment. Pretty crass and insulting of ISRO in their moment of heart break IMHO
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) September 7, 2019
Barkha Dutt is taking a Nationalist stance to become relevant in ‘New India’. Being anti-national was appreciated in the corridors of power, and intellectual community for decades. And Dutt rose to fame and power during these years.
Barkha Dutt started her career with NDTV. Her family is deeply entrenched in Lutyen’s Delhi like other prominent figures associated with the leftist media house. She was educated from St. Stephen’s College with a degree in English literature and did her Master’s in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia’s Mass Communication Research Centre.
In the 21 years career with NDTV, she hosted the daily prime-time show ‘The Buck Stops Here’ and talk-show ‘We The People’. She became a role model for the left-liberal journalistic community and was actively supported by the UPA government. Barkha Dutt along with Rajdeep Sardesai and Vinod Dua was awarded Padma Shri by the Congress UPA government in 2008.
Interestingly, these three journalists are well-known supporters of Congress party and well-established members of Lutyen’s gang. Her family and relatives were in top managerial positions in PSUs and bureaucracy since independence. Barkha Dutt openly took a pro-Congress line despite the fact that as a journalist and a moderator she was expected to be neutral.
The career of Barkha Dutt was on upward trajectory during UPA government at center. But the change of guard in 2014 put break on her flourishing career. Her fame grew during the era of ‘access journalism’, with NDA government in power in 2014, the era of access journalism ended, and so did the career of Barkha Dutt.
It is in public knowledge that Barkha Dutt is close to Congress party leadership and her name had also appeared in the Radia Tapes controversy. “Dutt’s role in the Radia Tapes did not seem to point to an individual act but an institutional malaise,” said Hartosh Singh Bal, the then editor of Open Magazine which brought the tapes in public.
But once the Congress government was ousted from power after 2014, her association with NDTV management started deteriorating. She was close to Congress and bad electoral performance of the party did not go well with the career of Barkha Dutt.
In 2016, she changed her role at NDTV to Consulting Editor. She collaborated with veteran journalist and former editor in chief of Indian Express to launch web-based portal ThePrint. However, her association with Shekhar Gupta did not go very well as initially she was listed as co-founder on the website then later her name was removed. Later she was again listed as co-founder and was removed again. When finally the ThePrint was launched she hosted a show named NewskaJuice which was later shut down after a few episodes.
In 2017, she permanently resigned from NDTV and joined Washington Post as contributing columnist in January 2017. In July 2017, she had a Twitter spat with former colleague Nidhi Razdan over ‘MoJo’ which has registered presence on YouTube since Apr 20, 2017.
“Ndtv finance woes apart isn’t it wrong to appropriate someone’s brand name & new form of journalism as yours ? Thoughts in this thread,” she tweeted in a series on Tweets. On this Razdan replied, “’Mojo’ widely used term for Mobile Journalism world over for some years, NDTV India launched show called ‘Mojo’ on Dec 19, 2016.”
'Mojo' widely used term for Mobile Journalism world over for some years, NDTV India launched show called 'Mojo' on Dec 19, 2016 https://t.co/hdP9VjnRXw
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) July 25, 2017
The career of Barkha Dutt is almost finished; her new venture- MoJo has been huge disappointment so far. The videos and interviews, uploaded on YouTube channel, do not receive more than 10-15 thousand views.
Dutt wants to revive her waning career by changing her ideological positions. The ‘New India’ is very nationalist, and loves PM Modi. She wants to ride on the Nationalist wave, and PM Modi’s popularity to increase the reach of MoJo story- the two year old venture which proved massive failure so far. Her agenda involves to woo the audience, spread positivity, go viral, and when she receives enough attention from all quarters, she shall drop the propaganda bomb on unsuspecting viewers and readers. Barkha builds on this capital, only to spend it amply, later and in this case it will be spent on her Kashmir propaganda and the MoJo enterprise.
