NEW DELHI: The police had to rescue an NDTV reporter and crew today after people protesting against those returning awards over “rising intolerance”, surrounded and heckled them during a march led by actor Anupam Kher and director Madhur Bhandarkar.
Angry protesters surrounded NDTV’s Bhairavi Singh, who was reporting on the march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and verbally abused her. The reporter and her crew were also pushed around and slogans were raised before a police team managed to intervene and escort her to safety.
Several other journalists also complained that some protesters misbehaved with them.
Protesters accused the media of politically motivated and biased reporting, alleging that they had encouraged the swirling national debate on intolerance after dozens of public intellectuals gave up their honours criticising the Central government.
“From day one the government has been inviting these writers and intellectuals to sit and talk but they haven’t,” said one protester.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal condemned the protesters who heckled the reporter. Earlier at the protest, actor Anupam Kher said he was going to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 6:30 pm today and claimed that the intolerance debate is an attempt to malign the image of the country.
“Nobody has the right to call our country intolerant. We are secular people and don’t believe in selective outrage,” Mr Kher said this morning.
“I have right to go to the President and say that we don’t feel India is intolerant. These talks can’t happen only on Twitter or Facebook, they need a personal presence,” the actor has said.
Courtesy:ndtv.com
