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Shekhar Gupta and His Agenda-Driven Journalism

Author: Arvind Singh
Publication: Hindupost.in
Date: July 25, 2018
URL:      https://www.hindupost.in/media/shekhar-gupta-and-his-agenda-driven-journalism/

Lets take a look at this tweet of Shekhar Gupta:
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Shekhar Gupta @ShekharGupta
 Shocking & shameful the manhandling of Swami Agnivesh. He’s a decent man who never meant or did harm to anybody. And he is 80, for heaven’s sake. Is there any decency left?
7:58 PM - Jul 17, 2018
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Shekhar Gupta followed this up, some three and a half hours later, with another tweet:
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Shekhar Gupta @ShekharGupta
 In 40+ yrs of knowing him since he was Haryana Edu Min & Sushma Swaraj his deputy, I have never seen the elegant arya samaji without his turban. This is heart-breaking. To do this to a man because you disagree with him. Never mind that he’s also saffron-clad
11:26 PM - Jul 17, 2018
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However, social media is a merciless medium. It has frequently exposed those who wish to use events for a political agenda and not for the purpose of making an informed analysis.  As is said: “A drunkard uses an electric pole on the street not for illumination but for support.”  The following tweet from three years ago surfaced:
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Shekhar Gupta @ShekharGupta
I've known him since1977 & Swami Agnivesh hasn't changed. You'll always find him where a cause and cameras are avbl, only to dump & move on
4.47 PM -18 Apr 2015
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So, from being some sort of charlatan, over a three year period, Swami Agnivesh turns into a decent man who never harmed anyone. And from being a charlatan, Gupta finds Swami Agnivesh to be an elegant person, and that it was heart breaking to see the latter without a saffron turban.

His agenda having been exposed, Gupta entangles himself in knots by indulging in straw-man type of arguments to try and divert attention from his own terrible inconsistencies.  So, we have the following tweets from him:
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Shekhar Gupta @ShekharGupta
 I do hope however that you are also distraught by this manhandling of Swami Agnivesh. Whatever our disagreements with him (I’ve had many), he’s a decent soul. Nobody has any business to assault a person like that anyway

Sushma Swaraj @SushmaSwaraj
Replying to @ShekharGupta
Shekhar : I was always a Cabinet Minister. I was never a deputy to anybody.
11:58 PM - Jul 17, 2018
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Shekhar Gupta @ShekharGupta
 My criticisms of Swami Agnivesh’s shifting politics & headline-hunting activism are avbl in my writings. But if we justify assaults on those we disagree with, there’ll be nobody left to speak for us when lynch-mobs come for us. Disagreements are no licence for violence

Ratan Sharda @RatanSharda55
Though I am strictly against violence, that too against an 80 year old bigot, don't try to create a halo around #Agnivesh @ShekharGupta ji. He is disowned by #Aryasamaj, has insulted Hindu beliefs unnecessarily, uses this Swami tag to fool people and enjoy international patronage https://twitter.com/communalsandeep/status/1019287424956915713 …
11:28 AM - Jul 18, 2018
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In bringing to his notice his three-year-old tweet, the objective was not to justify the assault, but to expose the shifting position of Gupta.  And, more importantly, how he puts out opinion based on contemporary exigencies and not an informed discourse. Thus, a charlatan earlier becomes a person to be admired.  Gupta thought he would put those who he has defined as his political opponents on the back-foot and instead found himself to be on the back-foot.

But, being incorrigible is a prime requirement of those who call themselves as intellectuals in Bharat. And so, he tweets promoting an article written by a fellow ‘intellectual’, on a web-portal that he has founded with funds from what are called High Networth Individuals in Bharat:
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Shekhar Gupta @ShekharGupta
 Swami Agnivesh: First they came for Muslims. Now, they’re going after Hindu Arya Samajis
Jyoti Malhotra @jomalhotra writes: http://bit.ly/2Nq1twG
1:10 PM - Jul 18, 2018
Swami Agnivesh: First they came for Muslims. Now, they’re going after Hindu Arya Samajis
The 80-year-old Arya Samaji was assaulted because another group of Hindu men believed his version of Hinduism was too soft, too forgiving.
theprint.in
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An attack on ONE self-proclaimed Arya Samaji becomes an attack on ALL Arya Samajis. In this tweet, Gupta pretends not to realise that he has once again exposed his agenda-based journalism. Expressing his appreciation of this tweet by a politician with an anti-Modi agenda, Gupta tells the world what his agenda is:
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Kamal Morarka @KamalMorarka
 Country has lost 4 years. But BJP is finished for ever. All their legacy of principled politics, minimum fund collection, decent language, informed debates have been replaced by buying MLAs, unlimited fund use,abusive language,shouting instead of debating
8:12 PM - Jul 22, 2018 · Mumbai, India
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Some political and social observers of Bharat have commented about the distress of what is called the darbaris of Lutyen’s Delhi, and what they are doing to keep themselves relevant. One such observer is Surjit Bhalla, and he wrote in The Indian Express:

“The Indian people are asking more questions and demanding greater accountability from dynastic political leaders. But the old elite — politicians, corporates, left-intellectuals, academics — cannot be expected to give up their privileges so easily. They will try to derail the transformation and object at every turn: If that means fake analysis, they will do so. If that means intellectual gymnastics, they will do so. The key point is that they MUST do so.”

Fake analysis and intellectual gymnastics fits the bill with respect to not just Gupta and Malhotra but many, many others. It is time to realise that it is not the politicians who are a danger to our society, but most of those who occupy the intellectual space. Unless they are cleansed (metaphysically, not physically) there will be no informed discussions in our society.

Footnote:

In this article, I have not mentioned how Swami Agnivesh has deviated from the message of the founder of Arya Samaj, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, and that he is indeed a charlatan.  This article is about Shekhar Gupta.

– Arvind Singh
 
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