In an interview with author-journalist Manu Joseph, Rajdeep Sardesai, the Michelangelo of Indian journalism, who made a career out of demonising Narendra Modi for Gujarat riots seems to have finally found some remorse for his relentless campaign against Prime Minister Modi for the unfortunate incidents that followed after the train burning at Godhra that left Hindus dead.

Responding to a question asking whether Narendra Modi the then Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002 was in any way responsible for the incident, Rajdeep Sardesai admitted that he personally believed that Modi was not responsible for the 2002 riots that followed after Godhra massacre.

“It is unfair of us to say that Mr Modi or anyone was responsible for the riots. He did not ask or incite violence,” said Rajdeep Sardesai.

However, Rajdeep Sardesai claimed that Chief Minister Modi was somewhat complacent as he did not try stopping riots. He maintained that Modi was not in control of the state as he had just come to power in 2002 while VHP leader Praveen Thogadia had the real control.

- Advertisement -

According to Rajdeep Sardesai, Modi was not as powerful as people thought and he backed off during the 2002 riots by ceding space to Praveen Thogadia. However, Rajdeep went on to assume that there is always some political capital in violence, subtly hinting that Narendra Modi politically benefitted from the 2002 incident.

Expressing regret over the reporting of riots in the media, Rajdeep Sardesai confessed that Gujarat riots were sensationalised by the media. Rajdeep went on to add that there is a need for self-censorship while reporting sensitive incidents like riots. Rajdeep finally agreed to the fact that media was indeed “mea culpa” for magnifying the intensity of riots.

While this revelation by Rajdeep comes now, up until recently, Rajdeep has been saying that Modi and BJP have “blood on their hands” and has compared the 1984 Sikh Genocide where Congress leaders were directly involved and Rajiv Gandhi himself had incited violence by making the ‘when a big tree falls’ speech to 2002, where he now admits that Modi had no role and the courts have also given him a clean chit.

While Rajdeep now admits Modi was not involved, even in 2018, he was asking for BJP to apologise for 2002.

And this, in 2012.

One is bound to wonder then that if Rajdeep agrees now that Modi had no role to play in the riots and that the media sensationalised the riots, was he deliberately fanning the sensationalism further since 2002 up until recently?

As the trends of 2019 Lok Sabha elections suggest that the NDA government is returning back to power, the Congress-backed media ecosystem seems to be subtly hinting at abandoning their old masters in an attempt to find a chance to co-opt with Narendra Modi.

The left-leaning Media and its ‘journalists’ like Rajdeep Sardesai have been openly and pathologically biased against Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever since he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The ecosystem which ran a relentless campaign against PM Modi to demonise him for his ‘alleged’ complacency during the riots has finally realised that their propaganda does not work any more in the age of social media. Hence, there has been an attempt by some section of the Lutyens ecosystem to speak the truth regarding their sustained campaign against PM Modi and the BJP.