Amidst the raging controversy over the alleged involvement of Rhea Chakraborty in the death of the 34-year-old actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Bollywood actress featured in an interview alongside controversial journalist Rajdeep Sardesai. In the interview, Rhea Chakraborty, who had till today maintained a stoic silence, presented her ‘side of the story’ in the Sushant Singh suicide case.
However, the interview of Rhea Chakraborty with Rajdeep Sardesai did not receive a good response as netizens not only pointed several discrepancies in her statements but also pointed the hypocrisy of ‘journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai for trying to whitewash the allegations against Rhea by carrying out an interview with an accused in the case.
Echoing a similar sentiment as several others, former news anchor Barkha Dutt too took a sly at the veteran ‘journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai for his hypocrisy in attacking other media groups for covering Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide case at the expense of other real issues, while he himself jumping on to the bandwagon to speak to Rhea Chakraborty, one of the main accused in the case.
In a series of tweets, taking potshots at Rajdeep Sardesai without naming him, Barkha Dutt said that TV anchors like Rajdeep Sardesai were gloating in day time about discussing ‘real issues’ on their news network and not indulging in carrying out media trials. However, at night they were indulging in a similar act like other news networks by covering the suicide case of Sushant Singh Rajput, Barkha Dutt quipped.
In a sharp attack, Barkha Dutt referred Rajdeep Sardesai as a ‘wondrous’ schizophrenic.
Continuing her attack against Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt said she would honestly take the ‘openly, defiantly, brazenly ugh channels’ than the hypocrites like Rajdeep Sardesai. According to Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, who often positions himself to be different, was entirely oblivious to his own doublespeak.
Essentially, Barkha Dutt was referring to the usual flip-flop by Rajdeep Sardesai, who has been adamantly stating that he would not conduct any media trial or discuss the issue of Sushant Singh Rajput death case. Sardesai has been constantly attacking various other channels for their coverage on the actor’s suicide case.
The supposed journalist, who has been critical of other news networks carrying out day-in-day-out coverage of the Sushant Singh case coverage, has been lamenting about the lack of media coverage over other ‘real issues’.
Here is a series of tweets posted by Rajdeep Sardesai attacking various other news networks for covering the suicide case, who according to Rajdeep is silent on the important real issues that are plaguing the country currently.
It is pertinent to note that Rajdeep Sardesai has been very critical of a police investigation into the suspicious death of the actor.
Earlier he had asserted that Sushant’s family should “mourn in peace” and had raised objections when a police investigation was initiated. However, when he was told by IPS officers that it is the law to investigate every unnatural death, he had deflected his assertions.
Ironically, Rajdeep Sardesai, who was all along averse to the idea of covering Sushant Singh Rajput case, seems to have happily agreed to interview Rhea Chakraborty, who is the prime accused in the suicide case of the 34-year-old actor.
Interestingly, Aaj Tak – the Hindi news channel owned by the same India Today group to which Rajdeep Sardesai works, has been relentless in covering the suicide case. Perhaps, Rajdeep Sardesai has turned a blind eye over Aaj Tak’s coverage on the issue. In fact, the continuous coverage of Sushant Singh case by Hindi news channels, especially the likes of Aaj Tak has also received widespread criticism from various social media users.
It is, however, pertinent to note that Barkha Dutt is essentially no different from Rajdeep Sardesai. While she attacks Sardesai today, she herself had conducted an interview with a psychologist who had breached patient confidentiality and claimed that Sushant Singh Rajput was suffering from depression. This claim has been refuted by his family and everyone close to Sushant Singh Rajput. In his interview with Rhea, Rajdeep Sardesai did exactly the same. He rather clearly insinuated that Sushant Singh Rajput was suffering from the bipolar disease when in fact, there is no evidence to that effect.
Further, he failed to call out the blatant lies of Rhea when she claimed that Sushant Singh Rajput suffered from claustrophobia, a lie since he had undergone NASA training.
