Delhi : It was such a silence in the afternoon at Connaught Place that it seemed as if someone had sent the protesters a message saying “today is a holiday.” The ground was empty, and the policemen were smiling at one another—there was no work, so they detained a couple of cameramen so that when the boss asked for accounts in the evening, they could say: “We caught four today, sir.”
Where did the protesters go? Everyone followed Neha Bora and headed towards R.K. Ashram. On the ground, there was a ratio of one protester to three journalists. The moment the police picked someone up, forty cameramen would come running. The scene was dramatic—as if the purpose was not ground reporting, but making videos of people being arrested.
Meanwhile, at the Press Club of India, a press conference by Ashutosh Ranka, Ratna Singh and Saurabh Das was packed with journalists. All the cockerroach-supporting journalists had gathered there. Connaught Place was deserted because the real “coverage” was happening at the Press Club. Those who were detained today were not journalists, but activists.
Those whose reporting shows that they are journalists—like Comrade Srinivasan Jain. A couple of people around him were picked up, but no one laid a hand on Jain. The people with Ajit Anjum did not get protection, but when it almost came to him being beaten in Connaught Place two days earlier, the security forces saved him. He did not mention this in any video.
And the most amusing part: At today’s press conference, all the courtiers of the Gandhi family had been invited. Not a single journalist had the courage there to ask Saurabh Das about his company “Climate Action Front” and its foreign funding.
Questions were raining down at the press conference, but all the questions were further authenticating the hatred of the people present there towards PM Modi. But the question that is actually called a question—the one any journalist should ask—was not there.
Why would content creators who themselves are beneficiaries of this so-called movement ask questions? They must have gathered there to ask for their next assignment.