'India TV Is Anti-Hindu, Boycott Rajat Sharma': Trolls Target Veteran Journalist For Calling-Out Rape Accused Asaram

Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, on February 15, was on the popular interactive show 'Aap Ki Adalat' anchored by Rajat Sharma, India TV's Editor-In-Chief.

The Spiritual guru was put on the witness box, where during the course of the interview Rajat Sharma quizzed him on the ways people can distinguish a saint from an impostor.

Referring to Asaram Bapu, the journalist asked how such a man could become a self-proclaimed godman with millions of followers worshipping him as a saint.

Asaram Bapu was arrested in 2013 on the complaint filed by a teenage girl from Uttar Pradesh's Shahajahanpur. The girl had accused him of raping her at his Jodhpur ashram.

The victim was a student at Asaram's ashram.

Sharma asserted that Asaram was actually running his business disguising his activities as religious, also acquiring lands forcibly to build ashrams in several cities to pursue his unlawful interests.

Asaram had tried illegal methods to get a clean chit. The 'godmen' was accused of threatening and intimidating witnesses which led to the rejection of his bail several times.

However, with the airing of the interview, people took to social media to express resentment against such accusations on the saint.

Twitteratis stormed the platform, labelling the journalist as an anti-Hindu and calling out to boycott the show.

The Logical Indian Take

Rajat Sharma's Aap Ki Adalat is known for putting eminent and powerful personalities on the stand and asking them tough questions. The veteran journalist has done so, for people from all political ideologies and a spectrum of professions.

A sound democracy can only function when all its pillars, including the media, are free, fair, unbiased and accountable.

To target a journalist doing his job and asking tough questions, is therefore detrimental to the country, as much as the free press.