NDTV’s effort to project themselves as a liberal and transparent Channel and to prove their political editor- the tainted Barkha Dutt’s innocence through a debate, yesterday fell flat. The question posed by the eminent journalists in the panel, on the Barkah Dutt’s involvement with Niira Radia in influencing the Congress leadership and the DMK chief Karunanidhi to instill A.Raja as the telecom minister in 2009 on the behest of a couple of corporates, went unanswered to the disatisfacton of the panel as well as the viewers. The question posed by Pradeep Padgaonkar, Sanjay Baru, Swapan Das Gupta and the Open Magazine Editor,Manu Joseph fell into deaf ears. Didn’t Barkha Dutt contemplate that the episode of a corporate PR person like Niira Radia, involving on the behalf of certain Corporates to the extent of deciding the minister in the UPA cabinet worth a story in her channel? That was exactly Manu Joseph wanted to know from Barkha Dutt. At first, she tried her best to shy away from the question, but on Manu Joseph’s persistence, she gave a ludicrous answer that, at that point of time she never felt that it was worth a story and continued saying that she erred in judgment. Manu Joseph again pointed out that one could err in judgment once but how about twice, indicating that Barkha Dutt was involved in the activity of lobbying in 2009 as well as 2010. Barkha Dutt with the help of NDTV’s Senior Managing editor evaded the questions and escaped temporarily. How can a journalist with a caliber of Barkha Dutt err twice on a story that could have been the greatest breaking news of the decade?
Every child in this country knows what kind of a relation Barkha Dutt has with Niira Radia after the the tapes got published, and no body in this country is foolish enough to think that Ms. Dutt was going to give a breaking story on her closest friend’s lobbying and power broking episode(which incidently she too was involved). Again, the tapes clearly showed that it was Radia who was calling up Barkha Dutt and not the vice versa. That itself disproves Barkha Dutt’s claim that she got in touch with Radiia to get information. Moreover, what about this dialogue of Barkha Dutt- Quote "Oh God. So now what? What should I tell them? Tell me what should I tell them?". Unquote. What does it mean? Why was Ms.Dutt so much nervous and anxious? Did she have some deadline? I hope one day, we will get all the answers from the horse’s mouth itself.
Some of the so-called apostles of the fourth estate have yet again proved that they are nothing less than a mafia. The only consolation to the people of the country is that we still have a few of them ethical, straightforward and true to their self.
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