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Rahul Gandhi calling a journalist 'pliable' exposes his real take on press freedom

Does Rahul Gandhi really believe in the supremacy of the fourth pillar of democracy?

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Congress president Rahul Gandhi recently launched a diatribe against a journalist who took PM Modi’s interview on Tuesday. In a dig at the prime minister for his one-and-a-half-hour interview on Tuesday, Gandhi said: "Did you see the prime minister's interview yesterday, he was laughing. Pliable journalist (was interviewing). She was questioning and also giving prime minister's answers." Gandhi said he found it very interesting that the prime minister said that there is no question against him in the Rafale deal.

This led to a sharp reaction from ANI editor-in-chief Smita Prakash, who hit out at the Congress president.

She wrote on Twitter: “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.”

Rahul Gandhi’s reaction, his brazen mocking of a member of the press, suggests that his oft-repeated maxim for press freedom is simply an eye-wash. Of course, it would have been optimism to the point of foolishness to expect a member of the so-called First Family to respect journalists with dissenting views. 

Rahul Gandhi’s brazen undermining of a member of the press that he disagrees with suggests a hint of megalomania lies behind the image that he’s trying to project to the country – a liberal leader who stands for your freedom of expression.

Zee News editor-in-chief Sudhir Chaudhary also stood in solidarity with his fellow professional and slammed Rahul Gandhi for ‘shooting the messenger’.

 He said it was ironic that Rahul Gandhi always claimed he stood for freedom of expression and press freedom but when someone interviewed his political rival, he was so keen to shoot the messenger.

As he also astutely pointed out, not one journalist stood for their fellow chief who was being ridiculed and vilified for simply doing her job.

Rahul’s behaviour portends to bad tidings for journalists who disagree with his worldview. While there’s a tendency to call every interview of PM Modi, or for that matter BJP chief Amit Shah ‘soft’, one would be hard-pressed to come up with ‘hard interviews’ given either by Congress president Sonia Gandhi or former PM Manmohan Singh.

Gandhi’s ridiculing of those he disagrees with fits into the belief of cocooned privilege that the denizens of his party hold themselves in, believing that the country is theirs to govern by birth-right, that one who isn’t from that particular group doesn’t deserve to be the Prime Minister, irrespective of electoral results. 

Rahul Gandhi constantly harps about the government ‘destroying’ institutions, but his one remark suggests how deeply he cares about the fourth pillar of democracy.

The hubris appeared to have receded after numerous electoral reverses but it appears to be back with a vengeance of recent electoral victories. 

As FM Arun Jaitley pointed out, the grandson of the ‘Emergency dictator’ 'displayed his real DNA by intimidating an independent editor'. It would appear Rahul lives by the absolutist Sith-like maxim of his grandmother, "You are either with me, or against me." 

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