Rajdeep Sardesai, who is often hailed as the ‘Michelangelo of the Indian Journalism’, on Saturday shared an image on Twitter to narrate a personal incident. Thanking his daughter for the gift, Rajdeep Sardesai posted an image in which he was seen holding a black T-shirt that reads, “This T-Shirt is White: Indian Media”.
Apparently, Rajdeep Sardesai, who thinks of himself as some sort of an outlier in the country’s media establishment, insinuated that the Indian media was not doing objective and honest journalism currently, but resorting to false propaganda. Rajdeep Sardesai, ignoring the fact he is one of the most important members of the same media ecosystem that has successfully destroyed journalism in the country, was mocking the other independent journalists in the country who have successfully broken the status-quo to revolutionise journalism.
With the dwindling TRP of India Today, Rajdeep Sardesai and his side-kick Rahul Kanwal have been mocking every journalist or media organisation that does not toe their line, which often slants towards leftists, Islamists and trouble-makers.
One recalls how hours after psephologist and republic TV journalist Pradeep Bhandari was manhandled and slapped by a fellow ABP journalist, Rajdeep Sardesai wasted no time in downplaying the assault and engaging in victim-blaming. Referring to the security provided to Bhandari, he ranted, “An image which perhaps defines the Tv media in ‘Banana Republic’ times.” While casting aspersions about the integrity of Pradeep Bhandari, Sardesai indirectly justified the attack as a ‘sign of lost respect’.
He claimed, “When a ‘noise’ channel hires private security to ‘protect’ their so-called reporter from fellow journalists: it’s a sign of the channel having lost the most precious TRP: TV RESPECT POINTS of your peers!”
Rajdeep and Rahul Kanwal have repeatedly taken potshots at Arnab Goswami and Republic TV. It is therefore safe to assume that Rajdeep Sardesai’s tweet meant to refer to those journalists who don’t agree with his stands, however, given his own history of fake news peddling, the tweet backfired on Rajdeep massively.
Netizens mock Rajdeep Sardesai, says his daughter understood him better
As Rajdeep Sardesai shared that image, social media users picked up the irony in the image and mocked Rajdeep Sardesai by saying that his daughter was extremely honest about her parents. Several social media users, taking a dig at Rajdeep Sardesai, said that his daughter understood his style of journalism and has nicely defined Rajdeep’s journalism in one line.
It shows how good she understands you, the journalist of convenience.
— Vilas Devkar (@vilas_devkar) January 2, 2021
Hats off to her 👏👏👏
Wow ,how nicely she defines your journalism in One line ,kudos to your daughter for actually showing you the mirror Atleast listen to her now 😂😂
— निशान्त (@watchnishwin) January 2, 2021
Another user said that Rajdeep Sardesai’s daughter had a good sense of sarcasm. One social media user, for some weird reason referring to Rajdeep Sardesai by the name of the American city of ‘Dallas’, compared him with other ‘journalists’ like Ravish Kumar, Rahul Kanwal and controversial Youtuber Abhisar Sharma.
The sarcasm by your daughter is on you pic.twitter.com/wH4tF4Ia33
— HINDU Manish Jain (@PalrechaManish) January 2, 2021
One Dhruvit Makwana asked Rajdeep Sardesai whether he was selling Pakodas instead of doing journalism after the alleged ‘journalist’ took to Twitter on Saturday to make a sly on the Indian media.
tum kya pakode bechte ho fir??
— dhruvit makwana (@dhruvitmakwana) January 2, 2021
Senior ‘journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai, is arguably the country’s most notorious fake news peddler. Rajdeep Sardesai, along with his wife Sagarika Ghose, are known for not only peddling misinformation on social media but also for openly taking political sides in favour of Gandhis and Congress party despite claiming to be ‘neutral’ journalists.
Rajdeep Sardesai and his notorious history of peddling ‘fake news’
Sardesai also has a rare distinction of being held accountable by the courts for spreading fake news. In 2020, Rajdeep Sardesai had issued an unconditional apology for airing a fake news item in 2007. The former NDTV and CNN-News18 journalist was accused of spreading fake news on Sohrabuddin encounter case, and a case was filed against him at the Metropolitan Sessions Court in Hyderabad.
The original case was filed in November 2007, and it was still going on. But in November last year, Rajdeep Sardesai and few others named in the case submitted an unconditional apology to an IPS officer, after which the case against them was dismissed by the court.
During the coronavirus lockdown, Rajdeep Sardesai had yet again caught peddling fake news after he had claimed a man had died due to starvation in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda. However, the DM had rejected the allegations and exposed Rajdeep’s lies by giving the list of foodgrains provided to the family in the last two months.
Veteran ‘journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai had also spread misinformation about the Statue of Unity. Rajdeep Sardesai had tried to be cheeky recently and tried to take a dig at Modi government by asking what will they do against ‘Made in China’ Statue of Unity. However, it is a known fact that the Statue of Unity in Gujarat in entirely made by Indian entities and not the Chinese.
Further, in April, Rajdeep Sardesai had also falsely claimed that the Punjab government has got only Rs 71 crore from the Modi government to fight the Chinese pandemic coronavirus. However, the state government had received Rs 247.50 crores from the centre from the Disaster Management fund to tackle the pandemic.
These are just a few instances where Rajdeep Sardesai had indulged in acts of peddling blatant misinformation. Despite all his unethical journalism, Rajdeep Sardesai seems to be audacious to point fingers at the other journalists in the country by mocking their integrity.