Actor Swara Bhasker, a constant critic of the Modi government, slammed the Editors Guild of India on January 3. She noted that the Guild proved Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s point by releasing a statement after he criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ANI interview and called the interviewer “pliable”.
The actor asserted that Gandhi used a perfectly ‘civilised’ term to critique a journalist’s soft questioning of PM Modi.
In a tweet, Bhasker wrote: “I love that the Editor’s Guild woke up to the threat to press freedom & efforts to intimidate media when an opposition leader Rahul Gandhi used a perfectly ‘civilised’ term to critique a journalist’s clearly soft questioning of the PM 🙂 Proving the pliant point.”
I love that the Editor’s Guild @IndEditorsGuild woke up to the threat to press freedom & efforts to indtimidate media when an opposition leader @RahulGandhi used a perfectly ‘civilised’ term to critique a journalist’s clearly soft questioning of the PM 🙂 Proving the pliant point https://t.co/uFo1D1Qv4t
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) January 3, 2019
After Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s “pliable journalist” remark ANI editor Smita Prakash over her interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Editors Guild of India on immediately issued a statement criticising political parties and politicians, that said labelling of journalists had become a “favourite tactic” of the establishment to discredit them.
The Guild “noted with concern” that, “We have seen our political class use this for some time now. In the recent past, top BJP leaders as well as those of the AAP have used unambiguously abusive expressions such as ‘presstitute’, news-traders, ‘bazaaru’ (saleable commodities) or ‘dalals’ (pimps) for journalists.”
In an exclusive report, News Central24x7 pointed out that as soon as the EGI issued a statement against Gandhi, some members on the executive council of the Guild expressed outrage against Shekhar Gupta, the president of the Guild, who maintained a steadied silence on the matter.