In a strongly worded letter to the India Today Group, the Office of the President of India lashed out at the channel and its consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai over the unwarranted controversy on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s portrait that was unveiled by President Ram Nath Kovind recently.
The letter written by the President’s Press Secretary Ajay Kumar Singh and addressed to Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India Today Group Aroon Purie, came down heavy for not verifying the facts and throwing wild accusations for political gains.
“I am writing to you with reference to a needless and avoidable – rather shameful – controversy in which a section of journalists, including some from the India Today group, dragged the Rashtrapati Bhavan for motives that are not clear to us.”, the letter read.
It further stated that how a section of journalists including Rajdeep Sardesai had peddled that the portrait was not that of Netaji’s but a Bengali actor named Prosenjit Chatterjee without verifying the facts.
“The regrettable part is that senior journalists of your Group did not bother to check the facts. Before making a serious claim like this, they could have checked with any member of Netaji’s family (for example Mr. C.K. Bose, who clarified on Twitter that the portrait was indeed of the great leader himself), or with the actor himself (who too put the record straight) as well as with the Rashtrapati Bhavan itself. They did not do any of the fact checks do any of the basic fact checks and joined the ranks with those who were throwing wild accusations for political gains. In gleefully ridiculing this high Constitutional office, they not only discredited their professional ethics but also cast a shadow on the office of the President of India.” the letter stated.
The letter further stated that this was not a momentary lapse of judgement or a forgivable slip of the pen and added that these journalists merely deleted their tweets without owning up to the blunder.
“I believe this is unpardonable conduct for the individuals involved as well as for the platform from which they seek to draw legitimacy. This episode has caused deep distress at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and we are forced to review our engagements with the India Today group.”, the letter concluded.
On January 23, the President of India Ram Nath Kovind unveiled a portrait of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at Rashtrapati Bhavan to commemorate his 125th birth anniversary celebrations.
Soon, a section of journalists and several leaders from the opposition jumped in to say that the person in the portrait was that of a Bengali actor named Prosenjit Chatterjee who had played Bose in his biopic.
Trinamool Congress MP who is known for her loud speeches in Parliament, criticized about how the President donated ₹5 lakh to the construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya but ‘honoured Netaji’ by unveiling a portrait of actor Prosenjit.
“God save India (because this government certainly can’t)” she wrote.
However, she later deleted this tweet.
Many other ‘journalists’ too took a dig at the portrait of the freedom fighter unveiled by the President. Sagarika Ghose, wife of another ‘journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai called the portait as ‘fake Netaji’. Just like his wife, Rajdeep Sardesai too tweeted saying that the President could have put up an original portrait of Netaji adding that the one unveiled by President was the picture of actor Prosenjit.
Barkha Dutt, Swati Chaturvedi, and Roshini Singh who are known for being against the BJP too took at dig at the Hon’ble President of India.
However, their joy was short lived as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose, busted the lies peddled by these personalities.
Chandra Kumar Bose posted the picture original photograph of Netaji based on which portrait was drawn by Paresh Maity.
Following this, many on social media lashed out at these ‘journalists’ and leaders for doing unwarranted politics over Netaji. Some alleged that the misinformation was peddled by the Congress IT Cell.
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