The mounting criticism against the Aaj Tak anchor for harassing an on-duty doctor treating patients at a Muzaffarpur hospital has continued even on Wednesday with the hashtag #AnjanaOmKashyap trending nationally. The latest amongst those criticizing Anjana Om Kashyap are senior journalists including Sagarika Ghose and Bollywood and TV actress Mona Ambegaonkar. While Sagarika, (whose husband Rajdeep Sardesai is Kashyap’s colleague in the India Today Group), has called out Kashyap’s actions by terming it a ‘disgrace’; Mona, on the other hand, has asked the Aaj Tak anchor ‘to go to hell’.
Reacting to the viral video of Anjana Om Kashyap, as reported by Janta Ka Reporter, Sagarika wrote, “This lady consistently gives journalism or (what passes for it in that channel) a bad name. She is worshipful of and obsequious to political power and bullying of citizens. A disgrace.”
Not too long ago, Kashyap had launched a veiled attack on Sardesai with a cryptic tweet, which many felt was targeted at the veteran journalist, now her colleague. She had written, “There’s a journalist. He has opened a coaching center for asking questions on-air. Once, when given an opportunity, could not go beyond asking about relationships between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. Giving certificates to everyone is his job. Perhaps this is the frustration of being made to wait outside the door.”
[Support independent journalism, become our patron. For details click here]
Meanwhile, Mona too took to Twitter to express her anger on the way Kashyap tried to intimidate a doctor, who was doing his best to save as many children as possible despite the existing challenges and resource handicaps. She wrote, “Someone tell @anjanaomkashyap to go to hell. Tell her if she has half a t**d up her a**e she should ask @DrHVoffice why there are not enough doctors in the hospital & why he didn’t take required medication to with him when he visited there. This beech aurat disgraces all humanity(sic)”
And similar criticism poured in from other journalists with some even demanding an apology from India Today.
I think @IndiaToday should apologise for the disgraceful conduct of it’s star anchor with the overworked doctors. Journalists should reserve such aggression for cricket obsessed netas who are responsible for infrastructure in hospitals. Not doctors and nurses trying their best.
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) June 19, 2019
In the era of falling advertising and the desperate hunt for eyeballs, television journalists are throwing good practices, fairness, objectivity and even simple decency to the winds. With rising numbers come more revenue and perhaps increments and even job security. #Aajtak 1/2
— Sidharth Bhatia (@bombaywallah) June 19, 2019
ICU में जाकर नौटंकी एंकरिंग करने से,डॉक्टरों पर चिल्लाने से अगर बच्चे ठीक हो जाते तो यही दवाई लिखी जाती। ऐसी रिपोर्टिंग ग़लत और घटिया है।
— Kadambini Sharma (@SharmaKadambini) June 19, 2019
It was deeply distressing to watch a journalist of the @IndiaToday group barge into the ICU of a hospital in #Muzaffarpur , shove her mike into the face of a doctor trying best to cope with an overwhelming crisis, demand explanations that he does not owe her, waste his time.
— Kanchan Gupta (@KanchanGupta) June 19, 2019
Firstly, let me ask you questions in the same fervor you asked the only dedicated bunch of people working on ground zero.
1. Have u or ur corporate office @IndiaToday had the guts or basic interest to ever do a story on the socio economic indicators of ur home state, Bihar,ever?— Shubhrastha (@Shubhrastha) June 19, 2019
Anjana Om Kashyap, on her part, has defended her action with a tweet and likened the criticism of her to the propaganda of heckling.