It could have been the old school journalism approach towards understanding voter concerns while dissecting poll results. But for Sudhir Chaudhary, the consecutive electoral victories of the Aam Aadmi Party in the national capital appear to be opportunities to either demonise the Delhi voter or accuse her of indifference towards corruption.
Two years after the exit polls predicted the AAP’s landslide victory in the Delhi assembly election, when the then Zee News editor called the capital’s residents lazy, smartphone addicts who only want free stuff and don’t care about his pet issues of Pakistan and Shaheen Bagh, Chaudhary, on his new show Black and White on Aaj Tak, came up with another theory following the MCD election result on Wednesday.
BJP spokesperson @sudhirchaudhary is deeply hurt by AAP win in MCD Polls pic.twitter.com/I9EJLzR2rJ
— Nimo Tai (@Cryptic_Miind) December 7, 2022
The anchor came up with three explanations. “First, we had told you that the AAP doesn’t have an ideology.”
“But a major point is that all the allegations of corruption, and all the charges are similar. Either the people of Delhi feel that the allegations and cases are false, or they are so pleased by freebies that they think you indulge in corruption as much as you want, pocket as much money as you want, just don’t ask us for anything and keep clearing our bills. Let’s accept this for both of us.”
Chaudhary referred to the Delhi excise policy case arrests and other allegations against leaders associated with the AAP and said the people of Delhi “don’t care about this at all”. No matter how much the ED or CBI investigate, or how many people they arrest. Even if Satyender Jain’s videos from jail emerge everyday. Even then the people of Delhi stand behind the AAP.”
Throughout the election campaign in 2020, pro-BJP journalists such as Chaudhary constantly talked about Shaheen Bagh, connecting the protest against the citizenship law to Pakistan, misleading their audiences, inventing enemies, deriding students, and forcing Kashmir and Balakot into the conversation. Every single day.
Anchors insulted the intelligence of their viewers by not talking about Delhi’s pressing issues during the campaign. And when the exit polls weren’t exciting for them, they started blaming their audiences. Chaudhary’s snarky tone, telling Delhi’s voters then that they didn’t know any better, was infuriating to say the least.
Chaudhary had said that even Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan's PTI would win in Delhi if they offered to pay EMI for Dilliwallahs.
Watch Chaudhary express his pain in this TV Newsance episode.
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