Video Producer: Shohini Bose
Video Editor: Vivek Gupta, Puneet Bhatia
Camera: Shiv Kumar Maurya
Yeh Jo India Hai Na… On 14 June 2020, it lost the talented Sushant Singh Rajput. He was just 34 years old. 'Kai Po Che', 'Dhoni', 'Sonchiriya', 'Chichhore' – some great work in a short career.
But sadly, what Sushant may be remembered equally for – is the disgraceful media drama and circus that followed his tragic death.
Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakravorty was hounded, abused and demonised – TV studio juries accused her of murder, drug-dealing, siphoning off Sushant’s money – it was distasteful to watch.
Audiences too were glued to the drama, gripped by every spun out hashtag:
and there were many many more...
The day Sushant died – 14 June 2020, India saw 321 COVID deaths, 11,000 new cases. The total death toll was nearing 10,000. We had almost 3.5 lakh total cases.
Tough questions were about to be asked and so, a distraction was needed. And what better than a cooked up murder mystery featuring:
It was the perfect DISTRACTION from the really bad news in the real world of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crash.
And then, what happened a day after Sushant’s death?
On 15 June 2020, 20 of our soldiers were killed by the Chinese on Indian soil, on India’s side of the LAC, at the Galwan valley in Ladakh. In a planned operation, the Chinese occupied Indian territory at the Galwan Valley, and between Finger 4 and Finger 8, north of Pangong Lake and most crucially at Depsang – threatening supply lines to Indian troops at Siachin Glacier.
When we look back today, we realise that the Rhea Chakravarty witch-hunt ensured that many other important questions were also not asked.
On 15 August 2020, PM said that the roadmap for vaccine production and delivery to the public in the shortest time, is ready, about India’s vaccine plans.
So, what was being done to raise vaccine production capacity? Would Serum Institute, and more importantly, Bharat Biotech, which had a very low production capacity, get immediate financial support? How much? By when? And when this was not done right through 2020, we didn’t ask why.
Also, why were we putting national ego above saving lives and relying only on the ‘Made In India’ vaccines? Were we pre-booking vaccines from pharma companies in the West? When nothing was being done about that, again, we did not ask why.
Yeh Jo India Hai Na… it wants to know why so many prime time TV anchors and journalists compromised their objectivity and became supari journalists?
Their daily newsroom-lynching of Rhea Chakravorty, manufactured specifically to distract India’s public, made sure that for months, no crucial questions were asked.
Do they accept today, that if questions had been asked on time, resulting in government action well in time, thousands of Indian lives would have been saved?
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