PM Modi interview: Rahul Gandhi calls ANI editor Smita Prakash 'pliable,' Arun Jaitley responds, 'Dictator's grandson'
PM Modi interview: Rahul Gandhi calls ANI editor Smita Prakash 'pliable,' Arun Jaitley responds, 'Dictator's grandson'
Congress president Rahul Gandhi in a press conference yesterday had targeted the Prime Minister for his ‘staged interview,’ and said that the editor of ANI was a “pliable journalist.”
Although, the National Union of Journalists have criticized the Congress president for his comments upon the journalist and the BJP demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi.
Smita Prakash, the editor of news agency ANI, who had conducted the interview of PM Narendra Modi, tweeted later on saying, “Dear Mr Rahul Gandhi, cheap shot at your press conference to attack me. I was asking questions not answering. You want to attack Mr Modi, go ahead but downright absurd to ridicule me. Not expected of a president of the oldest political party in the country.”
National Union of Journalists tweeted targeting Rahul Gandhi, “Shooting the messenger!! Not done Mr @RahulGandhi, cheap stunt at your press conference to attack @smitaprakash who was asking questions not answering. Go ahead fight @narendramodi @arunjaitley @BJP4India but its unbecoming of President @INCIndia to ridicule the @ANI interviewer.”
In the press conference, Rahul Gandhi had said, “He (Modi) does not have the guts to come and sit in front of you. And I am coming here… you can ask me any question… I come here once in seven-ten days… and you saw the Prime Minister’s interview yesterday…matlab pliable journalist, woh question bi kar rahi thi, pradhan mantri ka answer bi de rahi thi, side mein (she was asking questions as well as giving answers).”
BJP’s Anil Baluni had demanded an apology from the Congress president saying, “This has been the Congress’s mindset about independent journalism. Rahul Gandhi’s DNA is of the Emergency. His party has a history of throttling journalism. He should apologise to the country’s journalists for his petty remarks.”