Taking a jab at Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national convener of the IT cell Amit Malviya, senior India Today journalist Rajdeep Sardesai shared a picture of a box of Mysore Pak, a popular sweet from Karnataka, on Twitter and said, “Elections will come and go, parties will win and lose, Mysore Pak lives forever. Hope Mr Malviya has a sweet tooth like me!”
This tweet comes one day after Malviya insulted Rajdeep on live television amid the counting of votes for the Karnataka Assembly elections. The journalist had asked Malviya if his party had gotten its election strategy of “religious polarisation” wrong. “Last year, whether on social media which you handled or the national media, what were the stories coming out of Karnataka? Halal, Hijab, Azaan, Tipu, Savarkar yatra, when it is clear as the election results are showing, poorer parts of Karnataka were hurting post COVID. Did you get your strategy wrong that instead of focusing on religious polarisation, you should have focused on bread and butter issues?” Sardesai had asked.
The BJP spokesperson lost his cool and defended their strategy saying that halal and hijab are equally important issues, and women and daughters of India need to be protected from “love jihad”. He further said, “For you to suggest that issues like hijab and halal and others are responsible for it [BJP’S loss] is your propaganda. You should focus on writing your third book on how BJP wins in 2024.” Malviya went on to say that Rajdeep must “prostrate before Sonia Gandhi.”
As promised on the counting day show yesterday, a box of #MysorePak , freshly packed, is being sent to @amitmalviya ji . Elections will come and go, parties will win and lose, Mysore Pak lives forever. Hope Mr Malviya has a sweeth tooth like me! Happy Sunday everyone, time to… pic.twitter.com/6HSdDY3EH7
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) May 14, 2023
Despite this tirade, Rajdeep replied with a hint of sarcasm and thanked Malviya for promoting his book on air. The journalist added, “Don’t give me so much importance sir, I am a simple man. Why don’t you smile? We can send some Mysore Pak.”
Further angered by Rajdeep’s cool response, Malviya accused the senior journalist of being a propagandist. He said, “You should retire, You are a propagandist and you should go. I told this before every election but you refuse to go. Ask Sonia Gandhi to give you a Rajya Sabha seat for the services you have done for the Congress.”
Once again Rajdeep responded to these insults without losing his cool and said that the lower Malviya goes, the higher he will climb and respond with a smile. He said, “This [BJP] is the party of Vajpayee and Advani. Please don’t reduce it to personal jibes. They used to lose elections and sport a smile. Don’t intimidate me sir, please. I am going to send you Mysore Pak, I promise you. And you please send me some ladoo from Uttar Pradesh.”