If polls were to be held in the social
media, Rajdeep Sardesai would almost certainly be 'crowned' Habitual Liar. Sardesai
has more than 8 lakh followers on Twitter, more than any other “journo types”
of national significance (Barkha Dutt has marginally more but she is nowhere
close to being a national leader in league of Lying Journos yet). The vast
tribe of InHouse Reporter and a well-oiled PR machine of Limozine Fiberals have
ensured that Sardesai's status as “Habitual Liar” on any web platform remains
unchallenged. Even a belated attempt by his well meaning critics to target him
as "Hamami" or “Sar Dard Kasai” hasn't had any real impact on his
soaring popularity in a left-wing dominated mainstream media discourse.
The Social Media (SM), by contrast,
has always had a more uneven relationship with the CNNIBN Head-honcho. Sardesai's
acolytes would like to suggest that the SM has always been anti-Sardesai and
has hounded the CNNIBN's rising star with a ferocity that no other “journo
type” in this country has had to confront. Sardesai, as a victim of an Internet
Hindu 'conspiracy,' is a narrative that has been played out for over few years
now by the Head Honcho and his army of
Limozine Fiberals , a narrative that aims to position Sardesai as a one-man
army standing up to the might of the social media. The truth, as it often
is, happens to be far more complex.
In the 1990s, when Sardesai was a reporter
of the Times of India, those who tracked him will remember the failed cricketer-turned-journalist
as an artful reporter who always had time for lies. Over endless cups of coffee,
Sardesai would speak candidly about contemporary politics and was ever-willing
to share his personal experiences. He was, in many ways, even then, a
made-for-television journalist: firm and liar, always smartly turned out.
One incident in the early 90s stands out.
We were reading a morning news paper and just as we started, found a Sardesai
Article. I can visualize someone ringing up Mr Sardesai and asking if he would
step in for writing an article for praising Dawood. He knew he was a last minute
replacement for writing that article but that didn't stop him burning midnight
oil and writing the article, well-prepared and yes, calling Dawood a patriot.
Much water has flowed under the Yamuna since
then, but Sardesai's love for the lies pre-dates his journalstic rise.
The year 2010 changed Sardesai's
equations with Social Media and, in particular, with the Globally based “Internet
Hindus”. The twitter was the journo's first encounter with real voice in the
age of 24x7 television. The graphic images of the Rajdeep’s Lies stayed in the
mind long after the same had been deleted. Sardesai as the man in charge of
CNNIBN during the lying episodes became the natural target of the social media
frenzy at the time. As someone who covered both the #RadiaTapes and the #HypocriteRajdeep,
my experience has left me convinced that no journalist (barring few) can post unbiased news
items without a mix of head honcho’s incompetence and complicity. Barkha under Prannoy
Roy was just as terrible as Hypocrite Rajdeep: the difference was we had to
trend #RadiaTapes for 13 days to bring the horrors into every drawing room. The
image of Sardesai as Liar while his channel faked Live Interviews stuck.
It would have been no different had anyone else been the Head Honcho. Sardesai, though, took the criticism personally, believing it was part of an orchestrated campaign by an English-speaking, right wing facist 'social' media. By raising the war cry of Credibility, he tried to transform his channel tweeting into a virtual confrontation between him as 'headhoncho' of ‘Journo Types” on one side and the 'villainous' social media on the other. The result was a long period of combative behaviour, marked by blocking by him, ‘tyranny of distance’ and “bodycount” comment, and, in some instances, even use of “F” word by him and his groupies. Gone it seemed was the Mr Nice Guy of the 1990s to be replaced by a headhoncho intolerant of any form of hard questioning.
It would have been no different had anyone else been the Head Honcho. Sardesai, though, took the criticism personally, believing it was part of an orchestrated campaign by an English-speaking, right wing facist 'social' media. By raising the war cry of Credibility, he tried to transform his channel tweeting into a virtual confrontation between him as 'headhoncho' of ‘Journo Types” on one side and the 'villainous' social media on the other. The result was a long period of combative behaviour, marked by blocking by him, ‘tyranny of distance’ and “bodycount” comment, and, in some instances, even use of “F” word by him and his groupies. Gone it seemed was the Mr Nice Guy of the 1990s to be replaced by a headhoncho intolerant of any form of hard questioning.
That adversarial period is still on primarily
after 2010 as the quest for real unbiased news goes on. In the last three years
though, there has been another twist in the tale. The cries of the abuse are
now, at best, a daliy ritual. Sardesai still makes the fake tweets, but more
often than not he is caught for his Hypocrisy. If the CNNIBN story was shadowed
by Sardesai at one time, today the social media has done an almost 360
degree turn. Now, it's the Sardesai mantra of body counts and hypocrisy of
Waterless Holi that shocks all else. CAG reports questioned and raised valid
concerns over contracts to CNNIBN besides other main stream media but it barely
get a mention. If the CNNIBN story was once told through the prism of Sardesai,
it is now told through the eyes of corporate India
Journalism cannot be public relations;
nor can it be character assassination. Now, as Sardesai is poised for his next
big leap, may be it is time for the social media to reset its moral compass:
is it possible to analyse the Sardesai phenomenon by moving beyond the extremes
of glorification or vilification? Can the social media find a middle ground
where Sardesai can be assessed in a neutral, dispassionate manner without
facing the charge of bias or being a Liar? Or is Sardesai such a habitual liar
that even the social media has been united against him? My own personal
experience suggests that it won’t be easy to avoid being bracketed as pro or
anti-Sardesai. But yet, we must make the effort because Social Media in its
purest form must remain the pursuit of truth shorn of Bias and Lies. Sardesai
has become a test case for the Social media's ability to rise above the mundane,
hit the nail hard on bulls eye and take an apology.
