Lucknow, Oct 20 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party, assembly speaker Mata Prasad Pandey as well as the opposition appear to have closed ranks to haul up CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai for a sting operation that his television channel carried out exposing blatant corrupt practices of a state minister as well as some legislators.
Just as Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, of the Samajwadi Party, is insistent about Sardesai's appearance before the assembly on Oct 27, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as well as the Congress do not support his not showing up, saying it would amount to a "disregard" of the assembly.
The Sardesai-headed IBN had snapped at least three Uttar Pradesh legislators, including a minister, accepting bribes from a decoy in a major sting operation telecast on Feb 14. They were state Backward Classes Welfare Minister Mehboob Ali, who as an independent MLA was aligned with the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, BSP MLA Anil Kumar Maurya and BJP legislator Somaru Ram.
The IBN hidden camera had caught Mehboob going to the extent of offering to cart even narcotics in his official vehicle - for a price.
Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey was not available for comment as he is stated to have gone to his native village for Diwali.
R.P. Pandey, the assembly secretary, however told media persons "Rajdeep Sardesai was given several opportunities to make an appearance, but each time he ignored our summons. Now he must make a personal appearance and give clarifications on the issue before the house."
BJP state chief Keshrinath Tripathi sought to cleverly circumvent the issue by going on a different track altogether. Terming the whole incident "unfortunate", he said: "The issue is not whether what Rajdeep Sardesai's channel did was morally right or wrong; the key question right now is that as editor-in-chief of such a big channel, he has not cared to show the desired respect to the assembly."
Tripathi told IANS: "The least that Sardesai was expected to do was to appear before the 11-member committee of MLAs appointed by the speaker and he could have given his clarification. But if he does not even care to send a reply or make an appearance then it is naturally going to be construed as complete disregard of the highest representative body of the people."
"Such a stand-off between two important democratic institutions could have been easily avoided," he opined.
State BSP chief Swami Prasad Maurya said he totally disapproved of any kind of sting operations. "Sting operations are engineered only to create news and to make money; even the honourable Supreme Court has disapproved of the practice," Maurya told IANS.
"I see nothing wrong in the editor's appearance before the assembly. Why is he shirking away from the whole issue?" he asked.
State Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari chose to remain evasive on the issue. "We are glad that the channel dared to expose come corrupt legislators. You will note that none of them was a Congressman. However, in a democratic set-up, no one is above the house of representatives of the people, so Rajdeep Sardesai must depose before the assembly," Tiwari said.
He hastened to add: "Well, we have the highest regard for the media and specially personalities like Rajdeep Sardesai and we are against the idea of any punitive action against him. If necessary, we will oppose any such move on the floor of the house on Oct 27 when Sardesai appears before the assembly."
Tiwari has also sent a letter to the speaker urging him to "forgive and forget" the whole issue. He has suggested that instead of making him depose before the assembly, Sardesai should be called to the speaker's chamber to bring the whole issue to an amicable conclusion.
Meanwhile, according to IBN sources, Sardesai had not only sent a letter to the state assembly speaker but also sent the channel's Investigative Editor V.K. Shashi Kumar to depose before the 11-member committee of the house on May 31.
However, the speaker is stated to be insistent that Sardesai must appear in person.
