With India’s GDP seeing the biggest slump in decades, one would expect it to become a national topic of discussion. 

Because the employment, livelihood of millions is on the line and what could potentially be more important?

For our news channels, it’s whether Rhea Chakraborty lied or not.

I am referring to a clip from Times Now’s Newshour, where anchor Navika Kumar shut down a panelist for talking about GDP.

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When Navika raised a question about Rhea’s lies, the panelist smartly said that ‘lies do catch up’, hinting at the government’s false promises and our poor economy.

To which Navika said that she hasn’t forced him to be on the show – and added:

When we’re talking about why Rhea lied, why is the GDP stuck in your mind?

Exactly. Why? It’s not like economy is more important than declaring someone a criminal without any legit proof.

Similarly, another big Times Now anchor Rahul Shivshankar told a panelist, “You don’t need to be a part of the debate”, after he said that he finds it ‘disgusting’ that there would be another discussion on the Sushant Singh Rajput case, on such a crucial night for the country.

Further ridiculing the panelist, he said:

Go read the morning newspapers. Don’t waste your time. Don’t waste the nation’s time. Don’t waste the viewers’ time… You don’t know anything about GDP. You are jack of all trades, master of none.

The clips of the same are now doing rounds on the internet as people can’t believe something like this could happen. Even though our collective expectations from TV news are quite low at this point. 

It’s a moment of shame for the anchors and everyone who watches, and gives them the strength to do these things.