The following article was written for RightLog. Pasting it here for reference:
Because the entire universe is
conspiring to expose the “in-depth” interview of Rahul Gandhi with the India
Today group, we all missed out on the awesome opportunity to soak in the
mammoth 15-minute
interview that Rahul Gandhi gave to alleged in house channel, NDTV!
We have all been witness to how
“sources” kept on telling us that Priyanka Gandhi will contest against Prime
Minister Modi in Varanasi. Taking cue, the entire Lutyens media cabal started
telling us how this is the mother of all
battles; how Priyanka has come off age, etc! And when the moment came, the
Congress party simply announced that Mr. Ajay Rai will be contesting against
the PM and not Priyanka Gandhi! The disappointment
and meltdown in the entire Lutyens was to be seen to be believed!
Naturally, NDTV put
out the question to Rahul:
Sreenivasan Jain: Two
more questions I wanted to ask you: One question was on Priyanka pulling out of
Varanasi, why was that?
For brevity sake (and because I
don’t want you to go through the torture of reading Rahul’s long winding
replies), I will paste only relevant portions (emphasis mine):
Rahul Gandhi:
I told you the decision has been made already and that was a decision made
long before... Priyanka was not going to fight from
Varanasi. …. I said I will hold you in suspense and that is what we
did.
Let this soak in folks! Brother
and sister decided long ago that sister will not contest elections. But then
they also decided to hold us all in “suspense” and therefore let the rumours
fly thick. Whilst their entire cabal was elated with these rumours, looks the
family was happily sipping away mocktails while simultaneously mocking their
support base! I mean, who does childish stuff like this?
In the interview, NDTV also
endorses Rahul Gandhi’s lie that the PM is not “able to talk about jobs”.
Sreenivasan Jain endorses this with a “fair enough” comment.
Sreenivasan Jain: Rahul
you are saying Prime Minister is no longer able to talk about jobs and so on
fair enough... But don't you believe that the narrative he is going to the
people with is also working for him...? Whether it is to do with Pakistan,
Balakot, surgical strikes...
Dear Sreenivasan Jain – the Prime
Minister has been speaking about jobs since a long time. He spoke about it in
interviews to ZEE News (in 2018), Times NOW, Hindustan Times etc. I don’t have
to tell you that in 2018 there were no parliamentary general elections in the
corner too. And then in every interview since the election was announced, he
has been asked to respond to this repetitive lie, and yet he has responded in detail.
In an interview to India Today, he has even explained as to how we need new
methodologies to calculate jobs.
The PM’s narrative has been
multi-fold. Well, you would have known this if you had spent time watching or
reading his speeches. Instead you endorse Rahul Gandhi’s lie that the PM is not
talking about jobs! You have zero counter questions to his long rant on jobs. What
explains this soft peddling of Rahul Gandhi, especially when you had him for
only 15 minutes?
Dear Sreenivasan Jain – on
your shows (or for that matter any NDTV show), you are prompt in cutting off
speakers when you feel they are lying. Why couldn’t you do that to Rahul
Gandhi? Why couldn’t you stop him right when he said “Over a 100 million
euros paid to Anil Ambani by the French government on the taxes, two days after
the Rafale contract has been signed.”? Why couldn’t you point out to
him how blatant he is lying? How can Rahul Gandhi casually say that the French
government paid money to Anil Ambani?!
Instead, NDTV kept prodding Rahul
Gandhi on how he is not able to counter PM Modi’s campaign effectively. To me,
this sounded more like a conversation where NDTV was conveying the displeasure
of their ilk as to how could Rahul let go of an opportunity to have an alliance
with the awesome (p)AAP, the respected BSP and the friendly SP, thereby
conceding votes that will help the BJP in turn!
The interview was just for 15
minutes. Would one want to focus on his repeated lies or would you pull him up
for not being mature enough with alliances? Would you focus on tough questions
or would you soft-ball him with questions on if he is willing to be Prime
Minister. NDTV’s choice was clear. Thankfully, the voter’s choice also seems to
be very clear!
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