Rajdeep Sardesai’s colleague Rahul Kanwal calls out the veteran ‘journalist’ for calling accused Er of separatist and terror financing. Rashid’s ‘friend’

Posted on by Vaseline

In a rather embarrassing moment on national television, IndiaToday ‘Journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai was scolded by his colleague Rahul Kanwal for calling separatist engineer Rashid his ‘friend’. On the 6e of October, during the live coverage of the elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the IndiaToday anchors and the guests were discussing the possible political outcomes of the J&K Assembly elections and subsequent scenarios when Rajdeep Sardesai named engineer Rashid as his friend.

“Out of 6 to 11, my engineer friend Rashid has 8. He is also…” said Rajdeep Sardesai before being interrupted by Rahul Kanwal who asked him why someone who spews venom against India is Sardesai’s friend.

‘Why is he your friend? He spits venom against India. Why should he be your friend,” Kanwal asked.

Living up to his character of a shamelessly biased ‘journalist’, Rajdeep Sardesai justified his statement about engineer Rashid by saying, “If I use the word political friend, I have not invited him home for dinner, but he has been very cordial to me in terms of explaining….”

Meanwhile, Rahul Kanwal said, “Jo khila pilade wo dost (the one who feeds you is your friend).”

Desperate to defend his ‘friend’ comment, Rajdeep Sardesai resorted to praising engineer Rashid’s ‘humility’ and how he was impressed with the way Rashid won elections in the past and managed to reach out with the people.

“I have known him (engineer Rashid) for 20-25 years, going back to the late 90s when he knocked on my door at 9pm in Kashmir… he was for me someone who never hid who he was… .you could call him soft separatist or separatist is up to you. He would contest elections within the constitution of this country. He has won two elections as an independent and we know that is not easy in this country. He won the elections against a former prime minister and Sajjad Lone, again not easily. I was impressed by his connection with people and that is what politicians are about. And when I say friends, I find friends in politicians who connect with people because through them I learn about the people… and engineer Rashid has shown that he has stayed the course…” Sardesai said.

Historically, if all politicians who have a good relationship with people were actually Rajdeep’s friends, he would not have been anti-Modi as Narendra Modi remains the most successful and popular political leader even in the current political landscape.

Another point to consider is that Rajdeep Sardesai is impressed by engineer Rashid’s connections with people over the years, but he does not find it problematic if people from Kashmir, especially Baramulla voters, interact with someone who India despises and advocates the separation of Kashmir from India.

If a separatist, who challenges India’s sovereignty, has managed to find a place in the hearts of Kashmiris, it may be because he is tapping into the prevailing anti-India sentiments, or because he is instilling such poisonous sentiments in the hearts and raises spirits of the local Kashmiris. . However, Rajdeep Sardesai believes that engineer Rashid’s political victories are ‘impressive’ and do not necessarily explore how an anti-Indian element, accused of terror financing, has gained ground in Kashmir.

Abdul Rashid Sheikh, commonly known as Engineer Rashid, is notably the founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Awami Ittehad Party. He previously contested and won parliamentary elections in 2008 and 2014. He also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but could not win. Before entering politics, he was a construction engineer, hence the name Engineer Rashid. In 2019, he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency on charges of terrorist financing activities, becoming the first recognized leader to be arrested under the UAPA. It is alarming that Rajdeep Sardesai chooses to call a terror funding fraudster his ‘friend’ and gets excited about the chances of Rashid’s party winning six to eleven seats just because he has given him a warm welcome or perhaps given him free food .

Why wouldn’t a separatist, a terrorist financing accused like engineer Rashid, warm up to someone like Rajdeep Sardesai, who often panders to them and follows their story? Remember, even Hafiz Saeed Barkha praised Dutt as “acche log”, perhaps the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks will offer a platter of Nihari or Haleem to devour and Sardesai will humanize him too.

When Rajdeep Sardesai called mafias Atiq Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari ‘gentlemen’ for offering him tandoori chicken

However, this is not the first time that Rajdeep Sardesai has defended or expressed admiration for someone who offered him free food and heart-warming hospitality or has been ‘impressed’ by him. In March 2023, Rajdeep Sardesai praised the late mafias Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmed on his debate show, calling them “gentlemen”.

As OpIndia reported earlier, Rajdeep Sardesai said, “Mukhtar Ansari’s mustache makes him look distinctive in the pictures shown on television. But they both gave me a wonderful dinner.”

Rajdeep also talked about the tandoori chicken he had at Mukhtar Ansari’s dinner. “Very good tandoori chicken. I told Mukhtar Ansari that he makes delicious food,” he said at the time.

Imagine: a mafia like Mukhtar Ansari with more than fifty cases against him, including those of murder and riots, and Atiq Ahmed with more than 160 criminal cases against him, are ‘lords’ for Rajdeep Sardesai just because they show him warm hospitality and tandoori chicken offered. .

When Rajdeep Sardesai chose to eat Rasgulla instead of questioning the West Bengal CM about the post-election violence

In 2021, Rajdeep Sardesai brazenly admitted that he had not asked questions about the post-election violence in West Bengal to CM Mamata Banerjee, otherwise she would have denied him Rasgulla. During a program on TheLallantop, Radjeep Sardesai was asked whether he questioned Banerjee about the post-election violence in West Bengal. He chuckled and said, “I wasn’t there to conduct her interview. I went there casually on ‘chai pe charcha’. If I had asked her about the post-election violence, I should not have eaten Rasgullas.”

People were killed, women raped and houses looted in the post-2021 election violence in West Bengal, but Rajdeep Sardesai preferred to satiate his desire to eat Rasgulla than question CM Banerjee about the anarchy under her supervision prevails in the state.

Rajdeep Sardesai and shame go hand in hand

While Rahul Kanwal’s statement “Jo khila pila de wo dost” has embarrassed Rajdeep Sardesai and divided netizens, this is not the first time Sardesai has been publicly embarrassed.

In March 2017, India Today Conclave shared a six-minute interview of Rajdeep Sardesai with business magnate Mukesh Ambani. Sardesai introduced him as the most powerful person in the country. When he asked Ambani how he felt when he introduced him the way he did, Ambani said, “I don’t believe that. I don’t take you seriously.” Sardesai, humiliated by the ‘most powerful person in India’, could only say: “Are yeh kya baat hui (What are you saying).”

Rajdeep Sardesai once faced immense shame after protesters confronted him and called him a ‘Dalal’ or a broker and accused him of being part of the ‘Godi media’.

From being reprimanded by former President Pranab Mukherjee, to being trained by current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to being dismissed by business leader Mukesh Ambani as frivolous, to numerous incidents of guests on his TV show educating him, Rajdeep Sardesai has become quite accustomed to it to face public shame. . And who can forget when AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi refused to let Rajdeep thank his wife for cooking a delicious meal for Sardesai and his wife Sagarika Ghose because he believed Muslim women should not meet other men? This was probably the only time Sardesai was dissatisfied, despite receiving free and delicious food from a political figure.

It is pertinent to note that there is nothing wrong with eating with politicians or receiving their hospitality; Nevertheless, as a journalist, one should not forget or ignore their journalistic ethics. Furthermore, in public life there should be a limit to who can be called a friend and who cannot. You have no moral right to call yourself a journalist and shame is your only constant companion when anti-Indian elements become your friends, when you easily choose to stuff your face with food and sing melodies for a political leader in instead of questioning him about his actions and policies.

Avatar for Vaseline
Vaseline https://newspowergreen.biz.id

You May Also Like

More From Author