Despite threats to their lives and to their families, three TV anchors -Ravish Kumar of NDTV, Punya Prasun Bajpai and Abhishar Sharma -formerly of ABP, before and during the general elections, stood tall and became the conscience-keepers of the country. WSN salutes them for their work, grit and determination to keep the flag of honesty and integrity flying in the face of Indian PM Modi’s opinion manufacturing machine. 

Ravish Kumar has the distinction of being the first journalist who has been boycotted by the Bharatiya Janata Party.  Without mincing words, he mocks political leaders and places the true agenda that confronts the people of India. Ravish Kumar reads more than the combined monitoring panel of hundreds of right-wing activists who are desperately trying their hardest to troll him down. Speaking chaste Hindi, Ravish Kumar is the rage of the discerning youth whose ideals are far from the madding crowd. He can easily be credited with inspiring a plethora of YouTube news and views channels -some amateurish and some very professional, who attempt to follow his genre of journalism.

Punya Prasun Bajpayee hit a masterstroke in his Masterstroke programme on ABP by exposing the lies of the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister’s Office. The ‘whole system’ struck back, pressurised ABP and unable to work honestly, Punya Prasun Bajpai resigned. His narration of how the whole Goebellsian machinery of the Narendra Modi government works round the clock, monitoring news channels and newspapers throughout the country, is a lesson in fascism.  Within a few weeks, his news channel on YouTube already has thousands of hits, putting ABP and the government of India to shame.

The handsome Abhishar Sharma has also taken to YouTube after resigning from ABP.  The relentless manner in which he has taken on the Election Commission of India for all its acts of commission and omission speaks of his commitment to journalism.  His smiling mannerism and the stinging truth talk easily endear him to viewers.

When the role of the Indian media before and during, general elections  2019 is written, these three conscience-keepers -Ravish Kumar, Punya Prasun Bajpai and Abhishar Sharma will undoubtedly be heroes and the Press Council of India and other bodies will be villains for their conspiratorial silence.

Whichever which way India goes after the election results, The World Sikh News stands committed to fight fascism and raising the bar of journalistic ethics.