If you spend all your time spreading leftist propaganda, it’s only a matter of time before you get called out on it.
Leftist propaganda portal The Print, run by former NDTV staffer Shekhar Gupta, today got to learn this first-hand when it tried to get an interview with BJP’s Kapil Mishra. “Good evening Kapil ji. This is [redacted] from ThePrint,” a Print journalist messaged Kapil Mishra on WhatsApp. “I was trying to call you. Wanted to meet you regarding something. Request you to kindly revert and we can accordingly fix up. There’s actually a lot of support for you. I met some people who were defending you. I was thinking of doing a story so I wanted to speak to you first. Will you be willing?” the message went on.
The journalist was trying to get an interview with Mishra, who has been dragged into a controversy over his speech in which he’d requested the police to clear the Jafrabad metro station area which had been illegally occupied by CAA protesters. The reporter even tried sweet talking Mishra by saying that “some people” were defending him. But Mishra wasn’t going to fall into the trap.
“[redacted] ji, this is my official quote for you,” Mishra wrote in response, as per a screenshot he shared on his Twitter. “Please use it word by word in your story,” he went on. “Print is one of the most biased and a fake news factory. There is support for me despite your fake agenda and constant hate campaign against me. Everyone you will meet on the ground will support me other than fake news factories like The Print,” he said.
“I don’t actually need your story to establish that. People of Delhi have rejected your propaganda outrightly (sic). You should better be doing a story on how cute (Delhi shooter) Shahrukh was cute in his childhood or how ‘Bad Hindus’ have forced Tahir Hussain to become a terrorist.”
It was a devastating put down, and came the same day when The Print had run a story which had attempted to paint Delhi shooter Shahrukh as a misguided young man. ” He is an aspiring model, a TikTok buff and loves fast bikes. He always aspired for fame and dreamed to see his picture on the cover of a fashion magazine,” The Print’s profile on Shahrukh, who’d shot 8 rounds from his gun on Delhi’s crowded streets, and had intimidated a policeman by pointing his gun at him, had begun. The Print has also been critical of Mishra, running an article around how he was being blamed for the Delhi riots.
But Mishra’s gave it back to The Print, telling them in no uncertain terms what he thought of them. For years, India’s leftist media outlets have had an iron grip on political and cultural narratives, and have run agendas which suit their purposes. India’s nationalists, though, are finally standing up for themselves. The Print will likely go ahead and run its hit piece on Mishra anyway, but it will be interesting to see if they carry his official statement, which he has shared for the world to see.
