Modi versus media: Rajdeep on new crop of anchors, why some may be wearing ‘Bajrang Dal shorts’

2 months ago 30

There’s a sense nowadays that people have “election fatigue”, amidst the relentless cycle of elections and their coverage by the media. But Rajdeep Sardesai, despite being in the business of TV news for 30 years, still gets an “adrenaline rush” from elections. “It’s a moment when you can actually talk to people who otherwise seem to be completely out of your news gaze,” he says. “...There is no bigger event in this country than an election.” Rajdeep, consulting editor at India Today, was in the Newslaundry studio to talk to Manisha Pande about his new bk 2024: The Election That Surprised India. On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s perceived disdain for the media, Rajdeep says, “2002 was a turning point, and he [Modi] believes to this day that the media was hostile to him…that sense of media being unfair continued right throughout the decade when he was in power in Gujarat.” After walking out of the Karan Thapar interview in 2007, Modi had decided not to be put in the same position ever again. “While, you could argue that there is an element of contempt or disdain for the media, it is also a strategic move by Modi – that I will not allow any interviewer to embarrass me publicly ever again,” says Rajdeep who was Thapar’s editor at the time. He adds that the “classical political interview” is “becoming increasingly an endangered species”, while also explaining why India Today agreed to publish interviews that had been edited by the Prime Minister’s Office. “Your fear is [if] you say no, your competitor will say ‘okay, I will do it’.” Rajdeep explains how “freedom” for journalists is now replaced by “fear” with media owners “feeling pressurised or fear even when they have done no wrong”. On journalists today, he says: “There are careerists, who have chosen it as a career option, and there are others who genuinely feel they are proud flag bearers of Hindutva. I sometimes fear that some of these journalists, under their jackets and trousers, would be wearing Bajrang Dal shorts. They could well be one day in a TV studio and next day at a Bajrang Dal rally.” He also talks about Indian media’s new “obsession with numbers” and why we may never see him dancing on our screens again. Watch the full interview. Subscribe to Newslaundry: https://www.newslaundry.com/subscription?ref=social Join the #FightToBreathe: https://rzp.io/rzp/T4Ob0FCb Contribute to our Sena project: https://www.newslaundry.com/nl-sena/the-hindu-rashtra-project Download the accessible Newslaundry app: https://www.newslaundry.com/download-app Join us on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va61PEo0QeacOqU9vr2k Follow and engage with us on social media: Facebook: https://facebook.com/newslaundry Twitter: https://twitter.com/newslaundry Instagram: https://instagram.com/newslaundry

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