(Ashutosh joined the Aam Aadmi Party in January 2014. The former journalist took on former Union minister Kapil Sibal and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in the national election from Chandni Chowk in Delhi.)
Sting operations as a potent tool for investigative journalism are in vogue once again for the last few days but not for good reasons. The last week has seen many so-called sting operations that created a stir in political corridors and each one rubbed AAP the wrong way. The funny part is that none of these was carried out by a journalist. It was carried out by political actors who were/are part of the political slugfest.
The third sting never saw the light of the day. In fact it was a classic case of media manipulation in an era of competitive TV journalism. Congress leader Asif Khan made a sensational allegation that he had an audio recording with senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh in which he was seen to be making some deals with him for government formation. All the TV channels scrambled to get him on air without bothering to review the so-called audio tape. He was on all the channels but none had his audio tape. It was a curious case of irresponsible journalism.
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This was rather startling as the Supreme Court guidelines are very clear. No audio tape purporting to have voices of two individuals can be aired if the recording was not authorised by a designated senior official of the Home Ministry or police official. Secondly, it can only be done if there is public interest and, finally, the authenticity of the tape is proved beyond doubt. Here was a curious case. Broadcasters were openly saying that they could not vouch for the authenticity of the tape but they were having a vociferous debate about the content of the tape and were making all kinds of allegations against AAP.
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The case of third non-existent tape was more perplexing. For a good two days, Asif Khan claimed that he had an audio clip which would prove that Sanjay Singh was doing a deal with him to form the government in Delhi with the support of Congress MLAs. This story ran for two full days. It was also said that Asif would produce the tape either that evening or sometime the next day, but that never happened. On the third day, when he was confronted, he just showed a pen drive claiming it might have a few clips. He refused to share that also. I am still waiting for that non-existent audio tape to surface. It was a clear case of media being manipulated. The media ran a story based on his claims without verifying if he had a tape or not. Sanjay Singh was traumatised. He vehemently denied it all and said if such tapes surfaced, he would leave politics. His version was not taken seriously. Asif's words were taken as gospel truth.
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When I asked one of the most high-profile anchors of an English Channel why 'snoopgate' and 'bank scam' tapes were not run, I was told that it was the editor's right to choose which story he/she wanted to run. Agreed, but is it justified to run a tape without verifying the authenticity of the sting and reaching conclusions on the basis of claims whose veracity is not proved? Can I ask the question that if a tape of a similar nature had surfaced involving Mr. Modi or senior cabinet minister of the BJP, would the media have behaved the same way? The 'Snoopgate' case suggests it would not have.
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