The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has mentioned to the court that the alleged middleman Christian Michel in his testimony has spoken about one ‘Mrs Gandhi’ and ‘italian lady’s son R’. However, the media and Congress loyalists have taken no time to confound the enormity of this reference by speculating who these personalities could be.
Congress leader RPN Singh, perhaps aware of the potential ramifications such reference to Mrs Gandhi and her son could mean to party’s fortunes in the coming Lok Sabha elections has used the tried and tested formula of blaming it as opposition antics to malign the Gandhi family. Derisively mocking the PM, he insinuated that chowkidaar is trying to pressurise the government agencies to defame the Gandhi family.
RPN Singh Congress on ED says Christian Michel has taken the name of “Mrs Gandhi”: There is pressure on Michel to name a particular family, why is the chowkidaar trying to pressurize the govt agencies to name a family? BJP script writers are working over time. #Agustawestland pic.twitter.com/qCxYeObJYN
— ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2018
Posting a sharp rejoinder to Abhijeet Majumder’s tweet, journalist Tanushree Pandey claimed that Christian Michel has mentioned only “Mrs Gandhi”, whether it’s Sonia Gandhi or someone else is yet to be clear. A section of media is still speculating who ‘Mrs Gandhi’ is and who is ‘Italian lady’s son R’.
Sir, as you tweet this, I’m sitting inside the courtroom wondering when did this happen? ED Counsel very clearly said Christian Michel made a reference of “Mrs Gandhi” during interrogation. Whether Sonia or someone else is yet to be disclosed. https://t.co/Z9Ug0MBJsx
— Tanushree Pandey (@TanushreePande) December 29, 2018
A news anchor from India Today quickly jumped to Pandey’s defence and said that Pandey was just “sticking to facts”. Perhaps she believes that Mrs Gandhi could be another Gandhi other than Sonia Gandhi who is also an Italian lady with a son ‘R’ “who could become the PM”.
Looking at the trolling against this tweet, I’m just wondering that if a journalist doesn’t stick to facts, the aspersion cast is he/she is “paid”. Hypocritical isn’t it? Shouldn’t we all just accept that we’d rather pick & ‘choose’ our ‘facts’, truth be damned? #trollbait https://t.co/qcKYzFj9Nt
— Poulomi Saha (@PoulomiMSaha) December 29, 2018
Another self-proclaimed liberal, Sanjukta Basu is trying hard to defend the indefensible. Known for purveying fake news and biased propaganda, Sanjukta is requesting everyone to not fall for fake news of Sonia Gandhi being the unknown identity Mrs Gandhi claimed by Michel.
No. Christian Michel didn’t take name of Sonia Gandhi. He didn’t take any name at all inside Courtroom. Don’t fall for fake news and strategic news. Check for inverted commas. Media is reporting what ED is claiming, “Michel said Mrs Gandhi during interrogation”
— Sanjukta (@sanjukta) December 29, 2018
Then there were others who were busy tweeting inane things to shield themselves from the trauma of these revelations. The troll masquerading as a journalist, Swati Chaturvedi, was busy discussing more important things like nationalist symbols but has not uttered a single word on the mention of ‘Mrs Gandhi’ by Michel. It’s ironic to see journalists claiming to hold the political parties accountable are conspicuously silent on gross corruption.
Agree absolutely Sadhavi plus why cede national symbols to the Sangh https://t.co/hGcrZMLzOu
— Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) December 29, 2018
The man who claims himself a scholar, Ram Guha, didn’t find it important enough to discuss the identity of Mrs Gandhi and ‘Italian lady’s son R’ who played instrumental roles in the AgustaWestland scam as purported by Michel. Guha was more interested in self-promotion than referring to Michel’s disclosures.
Pleased to report that The American Interest has chosen GANDHI: THE YEARS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD as one of their top books of 2018:https://t.co/VaRtJUVYpb
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) December 29, 2018
Shivam Vij who claims to be an unbiased conscientious journalist has occupied himself with more pressing concerns like sharing a parody about Modi’s gaffes than to debate about Michel’s revelations.
“Vanakam Puducherry” | Modi Singing About Embarrassment | Parody https://t.co/7Qfnmft1Qi
— Shivam Vij (@DilliDurAst) December 29, 2018
Finally, the Wire’s Rohini Singh is talking about the dropping Mercury while she is not bothered by the rising temperature caused by Michel’s revelations.
Another cold day… pic.twitter.com/1JCNkph7tL
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) December 29, 2018
While it is implicit who Christian Michel is referring to, it is rather amusing to see the journalists who claim to ‘speak truth to power’ are either silent on the issue or are very assiduously evading the identities of ‘Mrs Gandhi’ and ‘Italian lady’s son R’.
