Three months after quitting Delhi-based digital media company ScoopWhoop, journalist Samdish Bhatia spoke out about his ex-employer’s indifference to an alleged incident of assault that resulted in a traumatic experience.
On Friday (January 14), Bhatia took to Instagram to narrate his ordeal. He stated, “For over 3 months now, my loved ones have helped me deal with and get over the trauma of what led to my exit from the place that I, along with my team, so passionately built.” The face behind the ‘ScoopWhoop Unscripted’ show lamented about not being given the opportunity to bid adieu to the space where he had worked for 6 years.
In his own words, Bhatia described ScoopWhoop as “the place which eventually treated me with such utter disdain that this post is how I have to say goodbye and try and find some closure.” In his social media post, the journalist narrated that he was assaulted. “I do not wish to take names in public forums. This is not my disagreement with the policy of taking names publicly. It is simply the path that I have chosen for myself for now,” he said.
Bhatia spoke out against the indifference meted out to him by ScoopWhoop. “After the trauma of what happened came the other traumatic experience of how the organization chose to deal with it and how they continue to do so since they have made a clear choice to side with one of the senior-most people in the organisation.”
He added, “I have been infantilised, disrespected, gaslighted and till date denied my truth. There is a very big chance that they will come at me after this.” The journalist emphasised that it took him 3 months to put behind the traumatic experience, look ahead in life and open up about it to his supporters.
“The low point that I experienced after the incident was unimaginable. I refuse to go there again just to be able to articulate what I felt then. Let’s just say – I was down and out, did not want to work or face the camera anymore, did not want to exhibit any kind of energy and I did not see any hope of getting out of there. It is at this point that my one true partner stood up and took complete care of me,” Bhatia pointed out.
The man behind the ‘ScoopWhoop Unscripted’ show also lamented about the space he created at the company, besides the unfinished projects that now lie in hard disks. In October last year, Bhatia had informed about his decision to quit the company through an Instagram story. “I am no longer a part of ScoopWhoop Unscripted. I am telling the truth. Even though the resignation has not been accepted, I am out for good. This is what I want to say at this point.”
Former ScoopWhoop journalist was mocked for not objecting to sexual innunedos of Kanhaiya Kumar, biased coverage of West Bengal polls
He has now started a new venture named ‘Unfiltered By Samdish’ and has enmassed 2.19 lakh subscribers already on his Youtube channel. Bhatia had recently interviewed Congress leader and former JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar during which the latter made sexual innuendos against Sonia Gandhi.
When asked about his “Khwaahish” (Desire) of meeting Sonia Gandhi, Kumar had said “Iss tarah ke sawal aap humari umar dekh ke puchiye” (You must ask such questions considering my age). “Humari khwaahish bhi utni hi jawan hai jitni ek ordinary naujawan ki iss desh mein hai” (My desire is as young as that of an ordinary youth in this country),” he had asserted.
The former ScoopWhoop journalist was mocked for his biased coverage of West Bengal polls. Popular Twitter user (@HashTagCricket) stated, “Scoopwhoop’s “unscripted” West Bengal video looks more scripted than the interview Rhea Chakraborty gave to Rajdeep Sardesai.” Another Twitter user pointed out the obnoxious analogies drawn in the video to suggest that BJP was weak and fragile in Bengal.
The guy is literally comparing Mamata banarjee’s rally with A local Candidates road show to Make people believe that BJP is a flop show in WB.
— Ashutosh Vashishtha (@iashutosh23) April 1, 2021
Matlab hadd ki bhi hadd hai.
Samidsh Bhatia was criticised for problematic portrayal of marital rape
It must be mentioned that Samdish Bhatia came under fierce criticism from feminist groups over the ‘shocking’ and ‘satirical’ portrayal of marital rape in a video titled, ‘Delhi on Marital Rape’. An article by Feminism in India stated, “In the first 20 seconds of the video, Producer Samdish Bhatia attempts to satirise the sensational news coverage format. Bhatia also seems to be in character through the video, not objecting to or reacting with disgust to any of the egregious comments made by his subjects. He is good at interviews. But that does not defend the editing which also seems to take on that misogynistic character.”
