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.

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?
#RheaLieCaughtOut | @TehseenP, Political Analyst dodges Navika Kumar’s question on SSR case instead speaks on India’s GDP rate. | @thenewshour pic.twitter.com/7pkl1RopXn
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) August 31, 2020
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.
Shame on @SumanthRaman for dodging @RShivshankar’s question on Sushant Singh Rajput case and instead wasting the viewers time and the Nation's time by speaking on India’s economic condition. pic.twitter.com/S4pnZzDlHl
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) August 31, 2020
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.
Yes. RSs actually said that. 🤦🏾 pic.twitter.com/SVi69FsvKz
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) August 31, 2020
the AUDACITY to talk about GDP of the country and mention importance of other issues when the debate must not divert from Rhea https://t.co/rDnOF0qtCL
— Arushi Mathur (@ArushiMathur8) September 1, 2020
this is outrageous, who cares about GDP https://t.co/rPfQNUjB08
— S.. (@BravePineapple) September 1, 2020
The moment someone mentions gdp https://t.co/kv6NgzRefA pic.twitter.com/fVL1k6FSPG
— juju rabbit (@vingtquatre1) September 1, 2020
Yes – this is exactly what that needs to be debated about. Government resorting to post truth with the exorbitant fiscal deficit, tanking GDP, acts of god maybe, is not nearly as important as say – bhubaneshwar weed perhaps ?
— lilkonz (@TrAnirudh) September 1, 2020
journalism at its absolute zenith. https://t.co/fcCViYZ4hj
What is the God’s name! He shut the person who tried talking abt GDP. this is the integrity and the ethics of Indian media?? This has to be some version of hell we all have gone into. https://t.co/cqfYIgwMlK
— Snigdha (@JstbeingSnigdha) September 1, 2020
Are these actually news channels? They don’t want to show any issue of a common person by even mistake or conincidence. https://t.co/vfkv0CXRXu
— abrar saifi (@knowledgegain1) September 1, 2020
So According To @RShivshankar & @TimesNow Speaking On #GDP Is Waste Of Time… ??
— J☸KER (@Wh_So_Serious) September 1, 2020
Which Actually Should Be The Most Important Debate Topic Of Any Indian News Channels… https://t.co/qktp6EQJbz
The best or worst part of that was the disdain with which he mentions “go read newspapers”. it’s almost sounding like if you want news, go read newspapers, we are not here for the news. @sumanthraman @zoo_bear https://t.co/Gx6fbmXo6G
— SaintlyBeing (@SaintlyBeing) September 1, 2020
It hurts https://t.co/DjXK9euiJH
— aakash (@AkashMe1) September 1, 2020