Samajwadi Party carried out a massive rally in Uttar Pradesh flouting all COVID protocols. While the party’s official Twitter handle shared videos and photographs as show of strength, friendly journalist Rohini Singh of The Wire, questioned ‘Noida channels’ for not giving enough airtime to the party led by Akhilesh Yadav.
https://twitter.com/rohini_sgh/status/1423211389099773959?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwShe wondered why the news channels based in Noida were ‘refusing’ to see the opposition ‘whenever it is on the streets’ and shared the video of the massive rally which violated all COVID-related protocols.
It must be noted that during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, when The Wire journalist was associated with Economic Times, she had come under fire from the netizens for having quite a pro-Samajwadi Party coverage and creating an atmosphere that the BJP will lose elections.
It must also be noted that Singh’s name had appeared in the infamous Niira Radia audio tapes where the current founding Editor of The Wire MK Venu had allegedly asked the lobbyist to connect Singh to some influential people since she has just joined Economic Times. These tapes were released in 2010. Singh quit ET to join The Wire run by Venu as one of the founding editors.
Interestingly, Singh had earlier condemned the political rallies in West Bengal ahead of assembly elections.
https://twitter.com/rohini_sgh/status/1395631258655367171?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Her tweets from earlier this year show how she was upset over rallies being conducted by the BJP. https://twitter.com/rohini_sgh/status/1415562536334675969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw However, the massive rally by Samajwadi Party seems to be a welcome sight to her.Amusingly, Singh had earlier condemned the Kumbh Mela in Uttarakhand and called it a ‘super spreader event’.
https://twitter.com/rohini_sgh/status/1385137416915218434?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe most populous state of India, Uttar Pradesh, goes to polls early next year.