Earlier this week the sudden outbreak of chikungunya in Delhi dominated the news agenda of all Delhi-based channels. Channels competed with each other to launch attacks against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party.
Blame game started and Delhi’s elected government was equally quick to remind people how the the High Court had transferred the absolute administrative power to run the national capital to LG Najeeb Jung.
Jung, as it emerged, wasn’t in the city when Delhites were forced to bear the brunt of the mosquito-borne diseases. He was in America.
An over-zealous journalist of one channel went a step further to flash the mobile numbers of all Delhi ministers on live TV.
Deepak Chaurasia, put out the numbers of all Delhi ministers on a TV show in which he was discussing the issue of rising dengue and chikungunya cases in the capital.
Angered over this ‘irresponsible’ act, one Delhi minister, Kapil Mishra decided to return the ‘love’ by tweeting Chaurasia’s personal mobile number.
Mishra tweet, which was later deleted, said, “Dear Deepak Chaurasia, you just flashed my personal number on your television channel. I thought the love should not be one-sided. So I am sharing both your numbers. Enjoy.”
Chaurasia’s wife Anusuiya Roy later complained that her husband was being flooded with threat calls.
Delhi Police has registered a complaint and started an investigation to identify the people who threatened Chaurasia.
Justifying his action, Mishra said, “I was busy with the fogging drive when they were calling me. I was not able to pick my phone, but they flashed my number on their show. After some hours, I started receiving calls from all over India and some of the callers were abusing me. I tweeted his phone numbers to ensure he gets a taste of his own medicine.”
He later tweeted;
नया दिन नयी शुरुआत deleting my tweet On Dipak Chaurasiya, hopefully he hs realized by now wht was he trying to do & why I made him realize.
— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) September 14, 2016
Indian Express quoted him as saying, “If people should know the phone numbers of their leaders, they should also know the phone numbers of their journalists. My family is also scared. If they are receiving threatening calls, they should immediately report this to police.” Mishra said he deleted his tweet Wednesday morning, “thinking that he (Chaurasia) must have realised his mistake by now.”
