NEW DELHI: India Today groups, have been inviting political parties’ spokespersons as ‘guest presenter’ on certain weekends who takes the anchor seat to conduct debates on their various news platforms.
The ‘guest anchors’ from different political parties has had Congress’ Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Babul Supriyo so-called news ‘debates,’ and, of course, Sambit Patra to name a few.
Last night, Patra takes the anchor seat of the ‘To The Point’ show on India Today and graced the studio by conducting the debate on ‘Is the united opposition a real challenge to Modi.’ Patra begins with a pledge of being ‘unbiased’ and ‘neutral’ giving everyone on the panel an equal chance to speak.
The panelists included Congress party’s spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi, GVL Narasimha Rao, National spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Ghanshyam Tiwari, the National Spokesperson of Samajwadi Party and Manojit Mandal, the supporte of TMC in West Bengal.
After the pledge, Patra posing as a news anchor, question the Congress party’s spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi to ‘answer’ on the whereabouts of the Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Patra didn’t give an opportunity to Priyanka to answer and constantly kept heckling her.
When Priyanka remind him of his pledge, he went out to claim that he is the most “unbiased anchor in the world,” adding, “You don’t question a journalist… This is the problem with the politicians.”
Watch the video:
Twitterati reacted sarcastically saying that he will give Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami a stiff competition. Here are some of them:
https://twitter.com/mnk_menon/status/1002911897341972480
Sambit Patra can give Arnab Goswami a run for money if he continues such stint as anchor.
Kalli Purie can consider extending the offer, because he's so "unbiased" & "unquiet"https://t.co/hKgpoquwd6— Tanmoy Ibrahim (@La_Muckraker) June 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/mnk_menon/status/1002910299467350021