Punya Prasun Bajpai “?”

Every year on 3rd May we celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom, to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence. But do you think journalism in India is really given Freedom? Media is called as the forth pillar of Democracy, but has media lost its credibility?

Punya Prasun Bajpai was born in Muzaffarpur, BIHAR on 18 march 1965. Bajpai started his career in electronic media with Aajtak in 1996 and worked there until 2003. He then moved to NDTV for a tenure of fourteen months. In 2007–2008, he was Editor-in-Chief of Sahara Samay. He worked at Zee News for four years as a prime-time anchor and editor before returning to Aajtak Bajpai began hosting Master stoke on ABP NEWS in April.

On 20 JUNE 2018 our Prime Minister was on a video conference with some farmer of our country. Chandramani Kaushik from Chandigarh told Modiji that her Income has doubled after she switched from cultivating paddy (धान) to growing custard apples. After two weeks ABP news decided to check the ground reality and went to Chandigarh to specifically to ask Chandramani whether her Income has doubled or not. But the reality was totally different when Chandramani was asked whether her income has doubled or not? Chandramani replied “NO”. Then the Sarpanch was asked about the reality then he said that a team from Delhi came to their village and that team selected some farmers and told them during the conference with Modiji you have to say that your income has been doubled. Then BJP minister started tweeting against the news channel and the pressure was gradually increasing. Then INB minister Rajyavardhan rathore tweeted a video of Chandramani and said that many news channels are tying to defame the Prime Minister.After that on 9 july Bajpayji sent’s his reporters to recheck the ground reality and this time not just Chandramani but also the other women of her village were asked whether their income has doubled or not ?

Click on the link : The Master Stroke: Reality Of Chandramani’s Claim Of Income Got Double In Chhattisgarh | ABP News

Then after few days The top authorities of ABP news channel pressurised ABP news Managing Director Milind kahndekar and ordered him to keep Bajpajii in control and on 30th July one of the daring and one of my favourite Journalist Abhisar Sharma presented a show on Lucknow’s daylight shooting. After that show Abhisar was declared Anti nationalist, many rumors were spreed about him.

On 1st August Milind kahndekar( Managing Director) resigns from his post and on the next day Punya Prasun Bajpai gave the his resignation too. This issue was also discussed in the Parliament by the opposition party but failed to bring any change. After few days on 6 August Puniyaji kept his views openly about this topic and wrote an exclusive blog for The Wire.

In the blog Punya Prasun Bajpai says that ‘From being told not to take Narendra Modi’s name on my show or show his image on any programme critical of the government to a sinister blacking out of my show, Masterstroke, what happened was nothing short of censorship.’ The proprietor-cum-editor-in-chief of the national news channel ABP asked Bajpaiji that can he stop Mentioning the name of Prime Minister Modi during his show, Bajpaiji replied But when Prime Minister Modi himself announces every government scheme, involves himself in the work of every ministry; and when every minister utters the name of Prime Minister Modi every time s/he mentions any scheme or government policy, how is it possible for us to not take Modi’s name?

Then after few days a new order was issued that even Modiji’s face shouldn’t been show during the show.

Bajpaiji in his blog writes that “the prime minister says that the skill development initiative has a target of training 40 crore youths by 2022. However, the truth is that as of 2018, the number of youngsters trained thus far has not even reached the 2 crore mark. Moreover, on-the-ground reports show that in all those places where skill development centres were opened, eight out of every 10 are non-functional. For the team of ‘Masterstroke’, following orders from the top would have meant showing the situation on ground through a script from which the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be erased.” ( please read the blog post in The wire)

Now can we say that the Journalist are really Free? “Freedom of the Press”,if it means anything at all, it means the freedom to criticize and oppose. Many people including me criticise Media but the reality is that we don’t have any idea of the external pressure on them. Bajpaiji Tried to bring up the issue and show the ground reality but the Power of the higher level didn’t let him to do that. One of the daring Journalists of NDTV channel Ravish Kumar who is the only journalist in main stream media who has the courage to question The Government is now called as Anti nationalist and People abuse him. But why ?

हमारी स्वतंत्रता प्रेस की स्वतंत्रता पर निर्भर करती है, और जो खोए बिना सीमित नहीं हो सकती।

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