Complaint against Aajtak for insensitive remarks on the Indian soldiers.

In this age of importance of vast coverage of informations broadcasted by the media houses for the benefit of citizen of India,  a media house allegedly gave distasteful, insensitive coverage on the unfortunate incident that occurred in the Galwan Valley on the intervening night of June 15 and 16 where 20 Indian soldiers were killed in clash between People’s Liberation Army of China. This is disgustingly disrespectful towards the brave soldiers who laid their lives for the country, INDIA.

          Now not only the dead soldiers were disrespected by their insensitive comment, well known talented actor also a Olympiad winner in physics was also insulted, who died under mysterious circumstances yet  called suicide just to boost TRP.

          A film producer, who primarily works in Maratha film who is also National Award winner, Mr. Nilesh Navalakha  made a complaint against AAjtak channel before the Ministry of  Informations and and Broadcasting through his Learned Advocate, Mr. Rajesh g. Inamdar and Amit Pai for the  suspension of the Channel. Aajtak news anchors, Ms. Sweta Singh and her colleague, Mr. Rohit Sardana reportedly blamed the Indian Army for the clash. They stated that “this (standoff) is the responsibility of the Army, you can’t blame the government for it is the army who is patrolling the border and not the government’s duty to patrol. Firstly army who was sleeping when People Liberation Army entered our area is to be blamed and not the government”. This is so insensitive, disrespectful comment as if the lives of soldiers were invaluable.

          According to the complainant, such broadcast by the Channel has not only attacked the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, public order, decency or morality but also doesn’t fit in the realm of freedom of press in any manner. The channel and the anchors are not an authority or specialist to comment or remark on national security and national unity, and make any decisions on how to defend the nation from external aggression and internal threats. 

“Further, in a tense situation, with the broadcast reaching crores of people, this is a deliberate attempt to spread a negative emption against the Indian Armed forces, and in direct breach of the Programme Code”, the Complaint read.

          Regarding the actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, the complaint has specifically pointed out four such incidents in the reporting of the actor’s suicide which were : 

a.       Insensitive comment made by Anchor Chitra Tripathi that said “How did he ‘hit wicket’. Other such comments and news ticker like “Sushant zindagi ki pitch par hit-wicket kaise ho gaye”, and“Sushant itne ashant kaise”

b.       The channel reached Mr. Rajput’s residence in Patna, with a relentless reporter who kept trying to get a comment from his father, who was clearly too shocked by grief to say anything. The reporter however still kept bombarding the shell-shocked and traumatic father and his sisters asking them to “shed light on why Sushant took such a step”.

c.       Broadcasting photographs of Late Mr. Rajput’s corpse from his bedroom on the Channel, without even giving a requisite warning to young and sensitive viewers, was insensitive, indecent, and contrary to the good taste.

d.       The channel falsely reported on the fake tweets stating that Rajput posted three tweets which he later deleted on June 14, 2020, hours before his death, but later deleted the tweet and took down the article. The viral fake screenshots claimed that the actor tweeted about the mental health being ignored, and how he had been struggling with hardships, had him bidding goodbye and stating that he hopes people learn to communicate better.

The complaint has stated that such broadcasts are clearly in breach of journalistic ethics and an offence against public order, and show that Aaj Tak channel promotes sensationalism, fake news, an anti- national attitude disparaging of the Indian Army. The channel’s reporting, which according to the complainant is against good taste and decency, is defamatory, deliberate, with false and suggestive innuendos and half truth, and affects the integrity of the Country is clearly violative of Section 5 of the Cable Television Networks Act, 1995 , Rule 6 (a), (c), (d), (e), (h), (i), of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994 (Rules), the Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards and News Broadcasting Standards Regulations. 

Therefore, the complainant has requested the Ministry to take cognizance of the violations of programme code and suspend and cancel the downlinking license granted to Aaj Tak and impose severe penalty, while giving the Complainant and his Advocates prior notice of the hearing to enable the them to produce  additional material and evidence and make submissions in this regard.

          Now apart from the above allegations by the complaint let me remind you about the past where Aajtak news anchor reported insensitive divisive rhetoric comment on the Ayodhya Babri Masjid case in a bid to garner TRP pitting against the majority and minority community and creating religious  disharmony. Aaj Tak came with a disturbing rhetoric for a debate calling it “Janmabhoomi hamari, Ram hamare, Masjid wale kaha se padhare” (The birthplace is ours, Ram is ours, where have these ‘mosque people’ come from?) nevertheless this type of statement garners support from the masses and help to boost TRP.

So, in these circumstances Aajtak need to be taught a lesson, till then let us wait for the Order of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.