New Delhi was yesterday convulsed with a horrifying spate of violence and vandalism when the protesters participating in the farmers’ tractor rally ran riot on the streets of the national capital. Scores of demonstrators veered away from the agreed-upon route and created mayhem across the city. A large section of the unruly mob broke barricades and stormed the grounds of the venerable Red Fort, casting a shadow on the country’s 71st Republic Day celebrations. The protesters also scaled the Fort and hoisted a religious flag alongside the Indian flag at the historic monument.
While the lumpen demonstrators went about rampaging the streets of Delhi and the iconic monuments, their abettors in form of the left-liberal ‘intellectuals’ and journalists appeared to make light of the unprecedented pandemonium that gripped the national capital. One such was NDTV journalist Sreenivasan Jain.
Jain, a quintessential NDTV journalist, seemed to give a pass to the protesters for the violence and incidents of vandalism that were witnessed yesterday. In fact, NDTV had yesterday ran a news piece in which it attempted to paint the riotous mob as ‘humanitarian‘ by claiming that they had made way for an ambulance which had stuck in traffic caused by their tractor rally.
In his report, Jain continued to harp upon the peaceful nature of the protests up until then while defending the protesters by citing that there were conflicting accounts of the events that transpired on the Republic Day in the national capital.
.@OnReality_Check | Amidst the chaos and violence that marred the #FarmersProtest, listen to the voices of the farmers who took part in the #TractorRally #RepublicDay pic.twitter.com/ttHHLOcedp
— NDTV (@ndtv) January 26, 2021
In a report broadcasted from the Red Fort, Jain said that some security forces were attacked by the protesters but he also added that other groups of protesters had protected the security forces, and escorted them to a safe place.
Jain also provided his platform to the vandals at the Red Fort, allowing them to defend their act of vandalism and desecration of the hallowed Red Fort. The report mentioned that the protesters did not mean disrespect to the tricolour even as some of them scaled up the ramparts of the Fort and hoisted religious flags beside the Indian flag.
.@OnReality_Check | Isn’t it wrong to hoist a religious flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort?
— NDTV (@ndtv) January 26, 2021
Listen to how the protesters responded #RepublicDay #TractorRally #FarmersProtest pic.twitter.com/aqEYc5mj8u
When Jain asked one of the protesters why did he come to Red Fort since it was not on the route decided by the farmers’ union and the Delhi Police, the person responded that they had decided to unfurl the ‘Kisan’ flag at the Red Fort and which is why they stormed into Delhi.
Sreenivasan Jain downplayed terror attack against Guj CM Narendra Modi as “chhota mota blast”
Though Jain allowed protesters to use his platform to rationalise their anarchic behaviour, this is not the first time that Sreenivasan has downplayed a serious issue. In fact, it is par for the course for the NDTV journalists to take contentious stands if it’s against the current dispensation.
Earlier too, Jain trivialised a terror attack planned against then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as “chhota mota blast”. During one of his shows on NDTV, Sreenivasan Jain tried to played down a terrorist attack to peddle his anti-Modi narrative. He had claimed that terrorists such as Ishrat Jahan, gunned down by the Gujarat Police during an encounter, did not come to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister but to do a ‘chota-mota‘ (small-time) bomb blast.
Under the garb of informing the viewers about the CBI investigation into the encounter, the NDTV journalist had insinuated that since Ishrat Jahan had come to only execute a small-time terror attack, therefore, she ought to have been treated well by the Gujarat police. Conveying that the terrorist deserved a ‘fair trial’, he tried to paint terrorism as a ‘no-big-deal’ issue. It is, therefore, surprising that a journalist who was once at the forefront of providing intellectual cover fire to a slain terrorist is today incensed about the government’s alleged defence of a news channel, with views and opinions contrary to his.
