Zee News’ exclusive ‘interview’ that wasn’t

On November 27, Zee News hosted an election-special conclave in Ahmedabad called “Game of Gujarat” to give viewers an “accurate analysis” of politics in the poll-bound state.

The channel organised “exclusive interviews” with political leaders including Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, rail minister Piyush Goyal, Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, former Gujarat CM and Congress rebel Shankersinh Vaghela, OBC leader Alpesh Thakor and Patidar leader Hardik Patel.

However, among the long list of leaders – mainly from the BJP – attending the conclave, Zee News managed to invite only four Congress representatives, including spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and former Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modwadia (nope, no one from the Congress parivar was in attendance.)

Never mind the other attendees, the star of the show with a prime-time slot was BJP chief Amit Shah (“maharathi, baazigar, shehenshah” – in Zee News’ words).

Why did the channel’s star anchor Sudhir Chaudhary not make waves, you may ask, even after securing an “exclusive” with BJP’s Chanakya – umm, that is because the election special gave the miss to all hard-hitting questions.

While the Sudhir Chaudhary and Amit Shah combo did not forget to address Rahul Gandhi’s possible Congress presidency, his “international” social media following or his political campaign strategy, it skipped the beef between The Wire and Shah Junior, suspicions raised by judge Loya’s family over his death, anti-incumbency in Gujarat, Dalit land rights as well as caste-based violence.

Some of Chaudhary’s most pressing questions were about the “unique” relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party chief, and of course, how the governing party’s president “handled the pressure”!

Here, we have put together a highlight of Zee News’ election special for you.

Zee News also isn’t the only TV news media to have hosted Shah in recent days. In October, Aaj Tak organised “Panchayat Gujarat” where India Today’s Rahul Kanwal interviewed Shah. Where Chaudhary had missed the questions, Kanwal seized the opportunity and questioned Shah about his son’s alleged business malpractices, anti-incumbency in Gujarat, dissatisfaction among the state’s Patidar voters, deaths in Gorakhpur, Dalit rights as well as traders’ discomfort post demonetisation and GST.

So, why did Zee News skip the crucial questions in its “exclusive”?