Senior Journalists Risked And Lost Their Jobs To Tell You The Truth About Modi. Do you care?

ABP News recently aired a report which highlighted the blatant lies spread by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Next, two top journalists of the organisation — Managing Editor Milind Khandekar and anchor Punya Prasoon Bajpai —  made an exit. The channel’s flagship show ‘Masterstroke’ was also taken off air.

According to a report published in The Wire, senior news anchor Abhisar Sharma has also been pulled off air for 15 days after he reportedly questioned instructions from the channel’s management that there be no criticism of Modi on his programmes. Scroll reported that Sharma has gone on leave.

Commenting on the issue, senior journalist Swati Chaturvedi said on Twitter that BJP chief Amit Shah told media persons in Parliament that “he would fix ABP” and thundered “bahumat hamari hai” (we have the majority)  this week.

Why did Bajpai and Khandekar resign?

In the show Masterstroke, the interview of a Chhattisgarh woman was shown who had earlier interacted with Modi through a video call. While conversing with the prime minister, the woman in question, Chandramani Kaushik falsely claimed that after she switched from paddy to ‘sitafal’ farming her agriculture income had doubled. She added that Krishi Atma Proyajana, started by Modi has helped her to increase her income.

The follow-up story shown by ABP News highlighted the contradictions.

While speaking to the channel, however, the woman claimed that officials from Delhi had ‘tutored’ her before her interaction with Modi to falsely claim that her income had doubled. She asserts that a group of 12 women earn Rs 700 per day, which means they end up making around Rs 1750 per month. Moreover, other women of the group told ABP news that they do not make any profit and underlined that the question of income doubling didn’t even arise.

This report was criticised by Union ministers like Rajyavardhan Rathore and Nirmala Sitharaman. Ironically, Rathore questioned the “journalism ethics” of the show and Sitharaman tweeted saying, “Oh, why, why this unfortunate journalism?” according to a National Herald report.

This was not all. Viewers couldn’t watch the show due to blackout for weeks. Senior journalists, including Barkha Dutt pointed it out on Twitter.


A senior ABP journalist told The Wire that blackout started after the follow-up story was aired.

Watch the video of Modi interacting with the woman here. Watch the ABP News report here.

It is difficult to believe that there is no co-relation between the two exits and this report. India is under an undeclared Emergency now.

The reactions

Journalists and opposition leaders, cutting across party lines slammed the Modi government for trying to muzzle press freedom. The Editors Guild of India has not made any statement on the issue yet.

 

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