Relentless Questioning By Some Reporters And Anchors Left Megha Singh Traumatised

By now the image of Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Ashutosh bawling for a good 10 minutes while apologising to farmer Gajendra Singh’s daughter on live television has gone “viral”.

What is not known, however, is the impact the Aaj Tak interview and subsequent media interactions have had on Megha Singh, Gajendra’s teenaged daughter who was at the receiving end of relentless media questioning within two days of losing her father.

Newslaundry was not present at Dausa in Rajasthan at Gajendra Singh’s house but has spoken to print and television journalists who were witness to Megha’s interaction with the media, namely Hindi news channels, on the day.

A journalist with a print paper stated that Megha was visibly upset and traumatised after her interaction with Aaj Tak and that she was crying for quite some time afterwards. “There was tremendous pressure on reporters after Ashutosh crying on television to get something equally sensational and some reporters bullied the girl to give a byte even though she was not quite up to it after the Aaj Tak interview,” a journalist claimed on condition of anonymity.

Another reporter with an English TV channel who was present at Ganjendra’s house stated that it was quite pathetic to see some reporters coax Megha into giving bytes even though it was clear she did not want to do so. “Some Hindi channels managed to get a byte from her and we [reporters with English news channels] refused to get a byte from her for our respective channels because we could see what it was doing to her,” says the reporter, adding that soon after the Aaj Tak interview the girl seemed distraught but that didn’t stop others from getting her live.

“I along with my editors took a call to not interview Megha. She is a minor and we have no right to grill her,” says Aditya Raj Kaul, journalist with Times Now, who was also present at the family’s residence.

The three Hindi channels that have uploaded their interview with Megha are Aaj Tak, ABP News and India News. Journalists told us that while Aaj Tak got the first byte that went on for more than 20 minutes, the other two Hindi channels followed next.

Megha in the Aaj Tak interview is seen putting up a brave front in the beginning and consoles Ashutosh, even as it should have been the other way around. By the end of the 36-minute long live panel discussion, Megha is visibly shaken. This after she was made to sit through and listen to three politicians and a probing anchor, Anjana Om Kashyap, dissect her father’s death and repeatedly ask her for her comments to the point of rank insensitivity. Remember it had been less 48 hours to her father’s death.

Towards the end, Megha states that she is not able to speak and she does not know what to say. To this Kashyap asks her to compose herself.

Yes, a girl in her early teens was expected to remain composed within hours of her father’s death, even as the news anchor showed not an iota of poise in her ruthless questioning. Some eye witnesses claim that Aaj Tak’s video journalists had asked Megha for a five-minute byte but continued to question her for almost an hour once she was on air.

India News’ anchor was no better. His first question to Megha was simply who she thought was responsible for her father’s death. After which he barrages her with questions: Who killed her father? How is she remembering her father? What her father called her with love? Who wrote the fabricated suicide note? What about the compensation…

He asks her then if she has forgiven the AAP leader who cried in front of her to which she wonders irritated why everyone was asking her forgiveness and that it would not bring her father back.

The third interview by ABP News has the reporter again questioning her whether she knew if her father would commit suicide. “Was he happy when you last saw him? Would you like to talk about the suicide note?” he asks, looking into the camera after the byte and stating that she still can’t believe her father had committed suicide. Megha is in tears by now and abruptly gets up to leave.

While news channels can argue that getting Megha live was important in highlighting the pain of the family, should it have been at the cost of traumatising her? If accounts of some of the journalists present at the time is true, then Megha was not keen on speaking with the media but was forced nevertheless. It is also not clear what the channels achieved by constantly questioning her about things like who was responsible for the death and who wrote the suicide note. Moreover, if reporters and anchors thought Megha’s reactions were imperative to the story on Gajendra Singh’s death, would it not have been sufficient to get a short byte from her instead of questioning her endlessly for as long as they did? After going to town with the story of Ashutosh crying on live television, maybe it is time to look into what certain sections of the media achieved by driving Megha to the point of tears.

(The story has been updated.)