On October 1, online news portal ‘The Print’ run by Editor’s Guild chief Shekhar Gupta, carried an opinion piece written by one of its in-house correspondent who had belittled a woman journalist from Swarajya without even running a basic fact-check about the person.
This correspondent named Tarun Krishna, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication had written an article titled “You can’t talk of Hathras rape without listing other rapes – thanks to IT cell whataboutery”, in which he had targeted Swati Goel Sharma, a senior editor at Swarajya saying that Sharma ‘ran a campaign’ on ‘love jihad’ while denying caste angle in the Hathras rape incident. He said ‘people like Sharma’ saw ‘jihad’ in love and went on to accuse her of ignoring ‘caste supremacy’ in the Hathras incident where four Thakur men allegedly raped a Scheduled Caste woman.
Upon coming to know of this, Swati Goel Sharma in a series of tweets called out The Print and Shekhar Gupta for the unwarranted slander against her and called the attack on her as ‘gutter level stuff’. She said that she never uses the term ‘love jihad’ while reporting on crimes committed on Hindu women by Muslim men. She added that the writing was ‘ill-informed’ writing and asked the writer of the article to provide proof of her denying caste angle in Hathras case.
So Print has done a hit-job on me. Says I run a Twitter campaign called ‘love jihad’ even when I never use this term and report facts they can’t dispute. Lies that I disputed caste angle in Hathras.
This is filth, @ShekharGupta. Gutter-level stuff pic.twitter.com/OsGfuGKK4d— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) October 1, 2020
Your ill-read writer must provide proof of where I denied caste angle in Hathras or apologise, @ShekharGupta. Unless you approve of such hit-jobs yourself. I am not even going to other points yet.
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) October 1, 2020
Swati Goel Sharma is a ground reporter working for Swarajya who is known for bringing to light atrocities against Dalits that other mainstream media chooses to ignore. She along with Dalit activist Sanjeev Newar (aka Agniveer) runs a non-profit to support the lives of several downtrodden people.
She also came down heavy on the writer of the article by calling him a sick pervert.
Portal says I see ‘jihad’ in love. So as per @ThePrintIndia, Shamshad burying Priya in his room, Sherkhan slitting Naina’s throat, Adil raping a minor Dalit girl and asking her to take Allah’s name are signs of love.
This writer of yours seems to be a sick pervert, @ShekharGupta https://t.co/qW3RqAC8Em— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) October 1, 2020
Following the embarrassment, The Print quietly pulled down the article. Swati Goel Sharma attached the screenshot of her article being pulled down and thanked The Print and Shekhar Gupta for taking it down.
I am glad, @ShekharGupta, that the piece has been pulled down. Only hope that the writers will do a better job at fact-checking the next time. pic.twitter.com/0JTI7IWIXW
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) October 1, 2020
Realizing that they have been exposed naked, The Print apologized to Swati by replying to her thread. However this was taken down within minutes. They again posted a separate tweet apologizing to Swati but this time they did not quote her thread as they realized that doing so might bring the attention of the people in what they indulged in.
Many on Twitter came in support of Swati when she exposed The Print’s nefarious attempts to downgrade her.
The number of stories done by @swati_gs on Dalit oppression will be more than the total staff @ThePrintIndia has. Such shamelessness! https://t.co/z0QdfcUURA
— Vikas Saraswat (@VikasSaraswat) October 1, 2020
Congratulations @swati_gs
one more fake news and hit job by @ThePrintIndia busted and exposed https://t.co/p8KFKLs2du
— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) October 2, 2020
More power to you @swati_gs for your determination and courage https://t.co/zzpyqoLFWE
— Vikram Sood (@Vikram_Sood) October 2, 2020
Make the author of that third rate hit job @krishnatarun03 apologise to @swati_gs. Till then your apology has no meaning @ShekharGupta https://t.co/K3GaiAiaK0
— Shefali Vaidya. (@ShefVaidya) October 2, 2020
Great that @ThePrintIndia is pulling back at least some of their hit jobs.
Great job @Swati_gs https://t.co/rBqgaYcrEn— Anuraag Saxena (@anuraag_saxena) October 1, 2020