TV presenter Rajdeep Sardesai is on the ground with “elections on his plate” to follow the campaign trail, which looks more like the Congress trail, or safe to say, the ‘any party but BJP’ trail. The only questions that Rajdeep Sardesai managed to ask in his on-the-go interviews with leaders of Opposition parties and sometimes, the people, were based on what the BJP said and on songs. Yes, songs.
In a video from one such interview now going viral on social media, Sardesai is seen sitting with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and singing a song while asking the latter a question.
For the first time since its inception when the Congress is facing scrutiny from the country at large with demands for accountability, Rajdeep Sardesai towards the end of his interview with Gehlot asked that he has heard that the CM takes interest in Hindi songs.
“When Ashok ji is alone with family at home, not surrounded by anyone, What does he like to listen to?” Sardesai asked critically. Gehlot said he likes listening to old songs. Dissatisfied with a half-hearted answer, Sardesai tweaked his question. He asked, “I am trying to know that there must be something about Ashok Gehlot that the people don’t know.”
Gehlot said it is the same thing about music. Still unable to prove his bonhomie with the Congress, Sardesai rephrased the question, again, as he asked, “Your journey has been very…You have come from a small family in Jodhpur and you have reached to this point today. What has been the biggest challenge before you in all these years?
The Rajasthan CM replied saying, “Nothing, just wanted to work and all priorities were left behind and political activity and the desire to serve was there since childhood.” Naturally, Sardesai’s emo questions appeared as a cue for the Congress leader to paint an image for himself ahead of voting day.
“So 24×7 neta (politician)? You will be a politician for life? No tired, no retired?” Sardesai asked with a broad smile. When Gehlot replied saying that he intends to do service till his last breath, Rajdeep Sardesai broke into an old Hindi song, perhaps to Gehlot’s liking, out of nowhere.
Sardesai recited the tunes of the song “Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hain” from the 1974 movie “Aap ki kasam” and asked Gehlot whether he remembers that song. Gehlot shrugged with a grin when Sardesai cracked another tune of the song “Musafir hoon yaaron” from the movie “Parichay.
The bonhomie was finally revealed when Sardesai said that India Today is travelling with Ashok Gehlot because the election is being fought by Congress in his name. He said, “Ashok ji you spoke to us, you are travelling across Rajasthan. The election is being contested in your name which is why we are with you because wherever are going, we can see your face. So Congress has given all its eggs to you for hatching.”
The wide smile on Ashok Gehlot’s face put a stamp on just the kind of validation the Congress seeks from its footmen in the mainstream media. Although the Rajasthan CM did not need the flattery coming from Sardesai, he was full of it himself.
This saga lasted only a few minutes towards the end of the interview. The first 30-plus minutes of the conversation were based on Sardesai’s questions about the political statements made by the BJP, the accusations made by the BJP, and the statements made by PM Modi. If Gehlot’s advisors had failed to brief him about the headlines, Sardesai was there to fill in the gaps.
In the interview with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the second last question that Sardesai asked the Congress leader was what change has she seen in herself in the 20 years of her political career. “Learned about the realities of politics,” Priyanka replied.
प्रियंका गांधी ने किया बड़ा दावा, कहा "राजस्थान में कांग्रेस की जीत होगी"#PriyankaGandhi #Congress #MadhyaPradesh #Chhattisgarh #Rajasthan #ATVideo | @priyankagandhi |@sardesairajdeep pic.twitter.com/Abet1Dj0VZ
— AajTak (@aajtak) November 17, 2023
Finally, in the last question, Sardesai went back to a question about his favourite person, PM Modi. He pointed at the camera and told Priyanka that Modi ji is there (as if he is seeing her live from the India Today camera). “What will you say to BJP who say that you are only seen during elections?” he asked.
Priyanka said that that is their perception and not hers.
Sardesai also visited the campus of Rajasthan University where he assembled a bunch of students outside the Central Library. Speaking to them about the paper leak controversy that has gripped Rajasthan, Sardesai was faced with stark criticism against the Gehlot government and the entire administration.
No issue seems to agitate the young in Rajasthan as much as repeated government exam paper leaks. More than a dozen paper leaks in last 5 years during Cong rule , another 10 in previous tenure of BJP .. ‘we will vote for only those who stop this menace.. else we will enter… pic.twitter.com/RjITzJVq5U
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) November 18, 2023
To balance the equation for the sake of balanced journalism, Sardesai crafted a question, asking, “So you are saying the entire system has been captured. Are the Congress, BJP both responsible because paper leaks also happened when there was Vasundhara Raje’s government and it is happening in the Ashok Gehlot government too?”
While some students said both are responsible, others said the paper leak cases have risen under the Congress government. “Those in the system themselves are leaking papers,” a student said.
Another student, who appeared to have seen through Sardesai’s motivated question, replied saying that let’s talk about who is responsible for the present situation, no point talking about the past and the future.
“It is the government of the day that is responsible, there is nothing aage and peeche (ahead and behind). We will talk about the present-day government under which the paper leaks happened in this state, we will hold this state’s government responsible. What happened before, what happened in the neighbourhood, what have we got to do with that?” said the student.
Whether Rajdeep Sardesai captured the pulse of the nation from his armchair to ground election reportage is not for anyone to say, but he must surely have gotten the pulse of the nation, both on social media and on the ground, about the nature of his journalism for sure.
This is not the first time that the veteran journalist has pulled off such stunts. His soft corner for Congress is a widely known fact. In an interview with Sonia Gandhi in 2016, Sardesai’s questions bore less resemblence to the nature of a news interview and more to Simi Garewal’s talk-show “Rendezvous”.
Sardesai’s questions seemed directed not towards Congress leader Sonia Gandhi but towards Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law. This was a perfect PR set up for the party two years after its abysmal loss to the BJP in 2014…alas it did nothing to help the Congress in 2019. Albeit, the current Congress trail of Rajdeep Sardesai proves that he is continuing on the same path with utmost loyalty.
