Amidst ongoing farmer protests against Agriculture Laws in and around Delhi, several leaders are trying to take political advantage of the situation. Some Congress leaders are currently lodged at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to support the farmers’ protests. One such leader, Congress MP Jasbir Dimpa, was caught on camera while manhandling a woman journalist Chandanpreet Kaur of Raonuk Punjab Dee TV (RPD 24).
In the video uploaded by RPD 24, it was visible that a slightly tough question irked the legislator, who then tried to snatch the camera from the cameraman and manhandled the female journalist. Kaur, who narrated the ordeal towards the second half of the video, said that Dimpa’s team did not allow them to leave the site without getting access to the recorded video.
What exactly happened at Jantar Mantar?
On December 22, RPD 24 reporter Chandanpreet Kaur went to Jantar Mantar to interview Congress leader Ravneet Bittu, MP from Ludhiana. When she reached the location, Bittu was not available. Kaur said that she asked MP Jasbir Dimpa about Bittu’s whereabouts, to which he replied that she should talk to him first.
Kaur asked Dimpa a straightforward question that could have been answered easily. She asked him that the farmers say that they have no trust left in any political party and everyone is just doing vote politics. According to Dimpa, who is responsible for such mistrust among farmers, she asked. For some reason, Dimpa got irked by the question and asked Kaur to question those who are responsible for the mistrust and not him. Interestingly Kaur did not even allege that Dimpa is anywhere accountable for the mistrust.
Some miscommunication between the reporter and the MP led to a heated argument between them. It got out of hand when Dimpa asked her to lower her volume, to which she countered to use decent language while talking to her. Dimpa got so angry that he got up and snatched the camera from the cameraman. During the incident, a woman supposedly from Dimpa’s team was heard calling the cops. After a few seconds, the camera was cut-off while Dimpa was trying to delete the video.
Kaur has alleged that Dimpa’s team took away the memory card of the camera that had the video and other belongings. She said, “His [Dimpa] team forgot that we are living in 2020 and we might have two cards in the camera.” The cameraman was wise enough to handover one card and kept another that had the video with him to show the world the true colours of Congress leaders.
Interestingly, both Dimpa and Chandanpreet Kaur were cursing the BJP-led central government and abused mainstream media by calling them ‘sold-out’ and ‘godi-media’ but ended up having a heated argument themselves.
MP Dimpa should apologize, says Electronic Media Association
Electronic Media Association took cognizance of the incident and demanded that MP Dimpa apologizes for his behaviour immediately. President of the association Narendra Nandan said that the association would not tolerate such behaviour against the media. He further added that if Dimpa does not apologize, the association would file a complaint at Chief Minister Amrinder Singh’s office.
