Jansatta, a Hindi newspaper from the Indian Express group stooped to publishing lies to support leftist agenda of discrediting and maligning people who disagree. It published a report bashing filmmaker Ashoke Pandit for his tweet to a lady named Shehla Rashid, who is the former Vice President of the JNU Students Union.
The whole affair started when Shehla Rashid blamed Ashok Pandit for the deeds of Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani. Not just leftist lady tried to make Mr. Pandit guilty by association, she called him names:
CBFC banned a movie because it was too “lady-oriented” 😀
CBFC is staffed by Sanghi idiots like @NihalaniPahlaj & @ashokepandit https://t.co/7OhKJNrMim— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) March 6, 2017
This was a clear case character assassination because Mr. Pandit is known to be a vocal critic of Pahlaj Nihalani. So much so that he had termed Nihalani a “tyrant” and has disassociated himself with Censor Board chief’s actions many times, such as this one:
Nihalani’s action should not be a reflection of my choices. I feel it’s a mockery of the freedom of a filmmaker. #JamesBond #Spectre #CBFC
— Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) November 18, 2015
However, since Ashoke Pandit is a Kashmiri Pandit – a community hated by the ‘bharat tere tukde honge‘ gang – he is often targeted by groups that support separatist elements in Kashmir valley. Mr. Pandit has made a movie titled Sheen, which captures the atrocities Kashmiri pandits had to suffer at the hands of Islamic terrorists.
Knowing that he is targeted by JNU groups that support characters like Umar Khalid, Mr. Pandit tried to convey the same in his reply, though his choice of using the phrase “sleeping around” was not the finest when taken in literal sense:
It’s better to be a Sanghi than sleeping around with terrorists and raising #antiIndia slogans in JNU.#ProudSanghi https://t.co/lKsKnB068D
— Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) March 6, 2017
As expected, Mr. Pandit was accused of being abusive by using the term in literal sense. However, the leftists didn’t stop there and decided to drag his daughter into this. This comes close to the incident where a Samajwadi Party spokesperson had dragged children of a columnist when losing a debate.
The leftists created a fake tweet of Ashoke Pandit’s daughter and circulated the same. The fact that the tweet was fake was acknowledged by the account that created it in first place:
And when I respond in their language – they photoshop tweets, harass my daughter, abuse my family, to “make me realize how it feels”. (2/n) pic.twitter.com/A4522M6TTU
— Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) March 7, 2017
But despite being known that it was a fake tweet, Jansatta carried a whole report and published the fake tweet as a genuine comment by the daughter of Mr. Pandit.
So for the leftists and their supporters in the mainstream media, targeting Ashoke Pandit’s daughter is a fair game. Unfortunately, no Barkha Dutt or Rajdeep Sardesai will condemn it or call it misogyny or bullying.
Meanwhile Mr. Pandit and his daughter are fighting a lonely battle against this harassment and character assassination. While no support from the media was expected (as media itself was a party in this harassment), they have received no support from Twitter as well:
2 days since a detailed email with reports has been shared with @Support, about targeted harassment against me. Zero response! @TwitterIndia
— shaarika pandit (@shaarikapandit) March 8, 2017
