New Delhi: Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan stirred a controversy and invited trouble for airing a fake news or misleading item on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in his show on July 1. Congress leaders and party workers were irked by the doctored video of Rahul Gandhi that showed him taking a soft stand on the killers of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur.
Rohit Ranjan issued an apology on July 2: “Yesterday, in our show DNA, Rahul Gandhi’s statement was taken in the wrong context by linking it to the Udaipur incident, it was a human error for which our team is apologetic, we apologise for it.”
However, the apology did not put the matter to rest and an FIR was lodged against the TV anchor by the Chhattisgarh police. On Tuesday, the Chhattisgarh police arrived at Rohit Ranjan’s residence in Ghaziabad to arrest him. Meanwhile, Ghaziabad and Noida police also reached the residence of Ranjan and this led to heated arguments, and a scuffle, between the police officials of two states.
CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a nationwide survey on behalf of IANS to know people’s views about the police action against the TV journalist, despite issuing an apology. During the survey, Indians were divided in their opinion about Chhattisgarh police being adamant to arrest Rohit Ranjan even after apologizing publicly for the wrongful content about Rahul Gandhi that was shown in his show.
According to the survey data, while 55 per cent respondents supported the action of Chhattisgarh police, 45 per cent respondents disagreed with the sentiment.
Predictably, political polarisation was evident in the views of NDA voters and opposition supporters on the issue. During the survey, while 66 per cent opposition voters expressed their opinion in favour of the action of Chhattisgarh police against the Zee News anchor, 61 per cent of NDA voters expressed completely different views on the issue.
Social groups were divided on the issue. During the survey, while majority of Scheduled Tribes (ST) – 64 per cent and Muslims – 74 per cent backed the action of Chhattisgarh police, views of Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Upper Caste Hindu (UCH) were divided on the issue.
According to the survey data, while 58 per cent SC, 53 per cent ST supported the action of Chhattisgarh police, 58 per cent UCH opposed it.
–IANS