On Friday, NDTV aired snippets of an exclusive interview with former Union Minister P Chidambaram, who has been critical of the surgical strikes India conducted on Pakistan, saying that India has over-publicised them.
However, at 9 pm, when the interview had to be aired, the channel put out a graphic plate on social media, saying it would not be airing the interview in interest of "national security" which it does not wish to compromise on.
It stated that the current political debate in the country threatens to do just that, but did not elaborate if Chidambaram had said anything in his interview, that would put national security at stake.
This came on the day that Amit Shah was critical of Rahul Gandhi's questioning of the validity of the surgical strike. News channels like Times Now, News X and India Today have taken an editorial position to question those who have raised doubts over the authenticity of the surgical strikes that took place on the intervening night of 28-29 September.
Chidambaram questioned the channel which has so far been seen to have a more balanced approach towards the surgical strikes, even allowing room for doubt over the surgical strike in its prime time debate shows, asking what was so contentious in his interview that would:
- Compromise national security
- Add to bizzare political bickering
Channels have taken to officially call Pakistan as the "Terror State of Pakistan" and transformed their newsrooms into "war rooms", with the journalists in military garb, talking about the strikes.
NDTV which was always dissenting in its opinion from the government, now seems to have fallen in line with other media houses.
(With inputs from The Wire.)
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