India Today has been pandering to the Left-liberals for a long time, more so recently. However, even that has not earned them a free pass. Now, the ‘liberals’ are cancelling India Today, Rajdeep Sardesai and even Rahul Kanwal over their coverage of the allegations levelled by the father of Shehla Rashid against her.
While discussing the allegations levelled against Shehla Rashid by her father, India Today ran a ticker that alleged that Shehla Rashid was arrested in 2016 in a sedition case.
This, however, is not true. While her comrades like Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid were arrested, Shehla Rashid has inexplicably managed to keep herself out of jail, despite all her shenanigans.
Responding to the coverage, Shehla Rashid, who is now extremely occupied with playing victim but not really responding to any of the allegations levelled by her father against her, took to Twitter to urge India Today to “stick to facts”. She said that she had never been arrested in the said case.
Dear @IndiaToday I’ve never been arrested. Facts, please! Thank you. pic.twitter.com/LrowjSZAKv
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) December 2, 2020
This tweet triggered the Left-liberals who are now trying to push the grave accusations against Shehla Rashid under the rug by painting her as the victim. The liberals are now cancelling India Today, Rajdeep Sardesai and Rahul Kanwal, even though the channel and its two anchors have been trying their hardest to pander to the Left-liberal cabal.
Not to mention that the women they are calling terrorist is actually a PhD at one of the best universities in India.
— Vidya (@VidyaKrishnan) December 2, 2020
Shame on you @sardesairajdeep. Does it feel manly & patriotic after setting your hounds on women?
@IndiaToday not cool . Disappointing . You owe @Shehla_Rashid an apology https://t.co/1A3V9legLD
— অনির Onir اونیر ओनिर (@IamOnir) December 2, 2020
It was brave of Shehla to come forward and open up about her family. She is a target because of her public profile and because outspoken women face an extra burden in our society. @sardesairajdeep @rahulkanwal https://t.co/T8kARYFOSK
— Salman Anees Soz (@SalmanSoz) December 2, 2020
Shame on @IndiaToday .. @rahulkanwal sir.. come on! U r better than this!
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) December 2, 2020
Horrendous targeting of an individual over a non issue. Tell us what’s happening with farmers pls! Stick with the news not family gossip! I’m so sorry you are going thru this @Shehla_Rashid https://t.co/N6GPpQartU
Interestingly, while the ‘liberals’ cancel India Today and shame their anchors for alleging that Shehla Rashid was arrested in the 2016 sedition case where ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’ slogans were raised and her comrades were arrested by the police, the liberals have failed to notice that even though India Today erred, they ended up giving Shehla Rashid far more respect that she deserves.
In the same show, India Today called her a ‘vocal Human Rights activist’.
Shehla Rashid is hardly a ‘human rights activist’. She is a politician who has been an equal participant is stoking fire in the nation. It should be remembered that on 16 February 2019 Shehla posted a tweet stating that a group of Kashmiri girls were trapped in a hostel in Dehradun by a mob demanding their expulsion. The Uttarakhand police subsequently filed an FIR against her for disrupting public tranquillity and intent to provoke breach of peace by spreading a rumour. Before that, she was an active participant in the JNU ‘tukde tukde controversy’. She has often spoken against the interests of India and demonised Hindus and justified terrorism on several occasions.
Even while India Today whitewashed Shehla Rashid, the ‘liberal’ ecosystem was unforgiving since they demand absolute and utter subservience to the cause. Their ire was perhaps about the debate being held at all, and not one error that was made an excuse to bash the channel since the Left is not very adverse to spreading fake news themselves.
Interestingly, while the ‘liberals’ are now going after India Today and it’s veteran liar Rajdeep Sardesai along with their baby-propagandist, Rahul Kanwal, India Today has been trying its best to pander to the break-India forces that are now after its blood.
During the Hathras Case, it was evident that India Today was a frontrunner in stoking tensions in the area when the details of the case were not even clear. Later, OpIndia had reported about an audiotape where an India Today journalist was heard trying to coach the brother of the victim.
In the telephonic conversation between India Today journalist Tanushree Pandey and the brother of the deceased, Sandeep, Tanushree Pandey can be heard trying hard to convince Sandeep to send her a video statement of his father alleging that he was under immense pressure from the administration.
Throughout the conversation, Tanushree Pandey appears insistent on coaxing out a very specific statement from Sandeep while the latter remains non-committal on his statement and appears hesitant to toe the line that the journalist wants him to toe. He confirms the journalist’s allegations of pressure and on other occasions, he says that his father was not very clear on whether he was pressurised or not.
Tanushree Pandey tells Sandeep that she has learnt from somewhere, she does not specify where that an attempt is being made to blame the death of the sister on her family. It does appear to be an incendiary piece of information that has not been reported anywhere in the media. This bit of false information appears entirely fake and seems to have been invented solely to take advantage of the family’s misery to peddle a particular political agenda.
India Today had admitted that these tapes were authentic and had continued to stoke tensions in Hathras.
Apart from the Hathras Case, one also recalls their coverage of the recent case against Arnab Goswami where India Today was seen almost colluding with the Maharashtra government to implicate Arnab in a case where they themselves were the accused. Further, even during the Sushant Singh Rajput investigation, it should be recalled that Sardesai had specially flown to Mumbai to take the interview of Rhea Chakravarty, which was purportedly an exercise to prove her innocence and paint her as the victim, which is what the Left-Liberal ecosystem wanted.
Aside from the recent events, Rajdeep Sardesai has been a veteran propagandist and a senior-member of the coterie that often whitewashes terrorism, peddles fake news, shields Islamists, maligns Hindus on fictitious charges and even spreads propaganda when the need arises. He has also done several softball interviews with Congress leaders to prove his undying allegiance to the party and its ecosystem.
Allegations against Shehla Rashid by her father – terrorism
Abdul Rashid Shora, the father of ex-JNU student leader and former general secretary Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Movement, Shehla Rashid, has approached the office of DGP, Jammu and Kashmir Police with a written complaint that he is facing death threats from his own daughter. In his letter to the DGP Shora throws light on her daughter’s “notorious activities” and urges the Jammu and Kashmir police to investigate her bank accounts, the property acquired by her at New Delhi, her email accounts and her mysterious financial dealings.
Shora furthered that at the time when he was called by Zahoor Watali and Rasheed Engineer, Shehla was in the last semester of her PhD in Sociology. He said that in the meeting, the duo revealed their plans to launch the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM) party and urged him to ask Shehla to join them. He confirms in his letter that he was offered Rs 3 crores to partake in their game plans.
In 2019, the former IAS officer Shah Faesal, had launched his political party the ‘Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Movement’ and freelance protestor, Shehla Rashid had also joined Faesal’s party.
“As I felt that the money is coming from illegal channels and shall be used for unlawful activities I did not take the money and later asked my daughter to not indulge in any such transactions with these people”, said Shora, furthering that though he resisted Shehla found support in her mother Zubeida Shora and elder sister Asma Rashid. He said that Shehla was joined by a local boy named Sakib Ahmad, whom she introduced to him as her bodyguard as he carried a pistol.
“She also told me that she has accepted the money and much more is about to come in future and so I need to shut up my mouth. As a concerned father, I strongly objected to my daughter’s decision for joining these notorious people as I felt the money coming will be used for unlawful activities”, wrote Shehla’s father in his letter to the DGP.
“I have a strong belief that there are anti-national activities going on in my house, the characters involved in this plan are my daughters, my wife and Shehla’s security guard namely Sakib Ahmad who lately threatened me with his pistol for my resistance posted to Shehla for her activities”, alleged Shora furthering that irked by his decision to oppose Shehla’s nefarious activities, she along with her mother, sister and her alleged bodyguard hatched a ploy to throw him out of his own house. They implicated him under the provisions of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act in the court of 3rd Additional Munsiff, Srinagar.
Shehla has refuted these allegations and instead, accused her father of being involved in domestic abuse. During an interview with ABP, however, she refused to answer specific questions and ran away.
