On Saturday, soon after the conviction of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav in connection with the fodder scam, journalist Shekhar Gupta and whoever handles Lalu Yadav’s twitter handle, started peddling a dangerous narrative.
We reported how journalist Shekhar Gupta, most known for his coup story floated a conspiracy theory questioning caste dynamics in the fodder scam verdict where, Lalu was convicted but an ‘upper caste’ Jagannath Mishra was acquitted.
This angle was immediately welcomed with open arms by the RJD and even Lalu’s twitter handle put out a tweet to play the caste card.
Controversial journalist Rajdeep Sardesai soon decided that he didn’t want to be left behind, and went ahead to put out a casteist tweet of his own, by using the appointment of Himachal CM Jairam Thakur as a possible ‘pretext’:
As seen above, Rajddep decided to insinuate that of the total 11 chief minister of the BJP, only two are from a so called lower caste, which meant that political India was still a far way away from giving due representation to those belonging to the so called lower castes.
Such a conclusion by Rajdeep was slightly inexplicable, considering the current President and Prime Minister of India are a Dalit and OBC respectively. Irrespective of that, it was also unfortunate to see a so called senior journalist, gauging a Chief Minister appointee simply based on his caste, and not based on metrics like governance record, political experience and public history.
Rajdeep as a result managed to irk various twitter users who didn’t hold back in their responses:
Rajdeep’s tweet formats:
Jairam Thakur as CM : BJP is filled with upper caste CMs
Ramnath Kovind as President : Political Tokenism as Dalit face
Parrikar and Suresh Prabhu in cabinet : Saraswat Brahman Pride
— shilpi tewari (@shilpitewari) December 24, 2017
When convenient, evoke ‘Saraswat Pride’, when it is an order from ‘Madam’, lament that ‘Caste in India’ is here to stay! That’s Rajdeep for you, Gold Standard in hypocrisy!! pic.twitter.com/ZR2a1JlBS0
— Shefali Vaidya (@ShefVaidya) December 24, 2017
Media is 4th Pillar of Democracy. Credibility of Pillar in danger as it is weakening by few Journos who running Agendas to break & divide India in name of Caste & Religion. No doubt, they’re Selective but now they’re also threat to our Society. Shekhar and Rajdeep are one of them
— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) December 24, 2017
Because of tyranny of distance, @sardesairajdeep does not know about two ST CMs of BJP in North East, Arunachal and Assam. pic.twitter.com/1lNccPwqsp
— Raju Das | ৰাজু দাস (@rajudasonline) December 24, 2017
How many editors of ur organization are ST/SC u employed? ZERO. Morons like u will never stop dividing India. Why do u always see brahmins,dalit obc, ur mentality cannot find indianess? https://t.co/tYQDwOVUUu
— Ranveer (@Ranveer186) December 24, 2017
Bachelor’s In Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Further studies from University College, Oxford, 3 decades in journalism, Still Rajdeep Sardesai can only talk about caste and religion. Loyalty towards INC & Padma Shri over any logic & belief.
— Bhaiyyaji (@bhaiyyajispeaks) December 24, 2017
Twitter users also pointed out Rajdeep’s blatant hypocrisy on this matter:
Pic 1- When BJP selects a Rajput as CM
Pic 2- When BJP selects a Dalit as President of India
Problem isn’t Caste of the candidate, it’s the political party they belong to- BJP pic.twitter.com/BAksUxKCSg
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) December 24, 2017
All rise. Afternoon nap done and dusted, Michelangelo has entered the Sistine. Every waking day he paints a masterpiece but today’s is special. pic.twitter.com/XY44nOM6yv
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) December 24, 2017
Such a sustained backlash seems to have got to Rajdeep and he has now deleted this tweet of his:
But even though the tweet was deleted, Rajdeep didn’t care to explain his reasons for doing so, which might lead people to believe that he was subtly trying to cover up for his ‘error in judgement’, without letting anybody know.
