Newslaundry also spoke with Bhupendra Chaubey who was doing his live stand-up report right next to where Rajdeep was doing his when the first altercation broke out. Bhupendra said he could hear the sloganeering and anti-Rajdeep curses flying around, but was live on air at the time, so he didn’t go into the crowd. This was when the scuffle started. Bhupendra wound up his report and rushed into the crowd to diffuse the situation. But Bhupendra was unable to clarify who hit who first, since that part was over when he got into the crowd. When we asked if it were Rajdeep’s questions that provoked Modi supporters, Bhupendra said that even he had asked Modi supporters questions like “Is this myth-making at its peak?” and other questions about Modi’s bombast. Bhupendra got straight answers and no one got abusive or violent with him. But that there was pushing and jostling happening next to him in the crowd around Rajdeep was fairly obvious to him. This was before Modi made his speech at Madison Square Garden.