Rajdeep Sardesai (born 24 May 1965) is an Indian journalist, news anchor, reporter and author. He is a consulting editor and anchor of India Today Television.
As a journalist, Sardesai has faced numerous accusations of false reporting, and has since been asked to issue multiple apologies and retractions. He is married to journalist and Trinamool Congress leader Sagarika Ghose, and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2008.
Biography
Early Life
Sardesai was born in
Ahmedabad,
Gujarat, to a
Goans father and a
Gujarati people mother.
His father,
Dilip Sardesai, was a former Indian
and his mother, Nandini, is an activist in
Mumbai and former head of the Department of Sociology at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.
He completed his schooling up to ICSE from the Campion School,
Mumbai, and did two years of ISC at The Cathedral & John Connon School,
Mumbai. Thereafter he graduated in economics from St. Xavier's College,
Mumbai. He then went to University College, Oxford, earning the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in jurisprudence (promoted to Master of Arts by seniority) and Bachelor of Civil Law.
[ Cached version of Indus View 2.1 (January 2006) The degree of Bachelor of Laws (LLB) is not awarded by Oxford University and here is a mistake for Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), a postgraduate degree in law. All Bachelors of Arts and of Fine Art upon commencing their twenty-first term from matriculation may supplicate for the degree of Master of Arts Rajdeep Gupta]
While at Oxford he made six first-class cricket appearances for Oxford University and one for a combined Oxford and Cambridge side against the 1987 Pakistani touring team.
Career
Sardesai worked with
The Times of India for six years, after joining it in October 1988,
and was the city editor of its Mumbai edition. He entered television journalism in 1994 as political editor of New Delhi Television (
NDTV). He was the Managing Editor of both NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India and was responsible for overseeing the news policy for both. He hosted popular shows like
The Big Fight at NDTV.
He quit NDTV on 17 April 2005
On 29 May 2014, Reliance Industries Ltd announced it would be acquiring control in Network 18 Media & Investments Ltd, the parent of CNN-IBN, IBN7 and CNBC-TV18.
Legal Issues and False Reporting
Sohrabuddin Case
Sardesai issued an unconditional apology in November 2019 for his 2007 CNN-IBN program titled
30 Minutes – Sohrabuddin: The Inside Story.
The broadcast had falsely implicated IPS officer Rajiv Trivedi in the abduction of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife, Kauserbi, by alleging that Trivedi provided vehicles with fake number plates for the operation. These allegations were later proven to be untrue. In response, Trivedi filed a criminal defamation case against Sardesai and others involved. After prolonged legal proceedings, including rejections of their petitions by the Andhra Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court, Sardesai and his colleagues submitted an affidavit in 2019 admitting the allegations were false and offered an unconditional apology. The Hyderabad sessions court accepted the apology and dismissed the case.
False claim of death
In January 2021, Sardesai was taken off TV for two weeks by
India Today while also cutting his monthly salary for alleging in a retracted tweet that
Navreet Singh was killed in a police shooting during 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest.
Delhi Police claimed that his tweet on the cause of death was not accurate and referred to the CCTV footage of the incident of Singh's death.
Later, Sardesai was booked for sedition over the Republic Day violence and the FIR stated that they shared misinformed news and ‘instigated violence’ on 26 January.
Several journalists and politicians who reported about the 2021 Farmers' Republic Day parade were charged with
sedition by the Delhi police and 5
BJP-ruled state police.
Siddharth Varadarajan called the police FIRs "malicious prosecution".
Press Club of India (PCI), the Editors’ Guild of India, the Press Association, the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC), the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Indian Journalists Union in a joint press conference asked the sedition law to be scrapped.
Editors Guild of India spoke against invoking of the sedition charge on journalists. The guild termed the FIRs as an "attempt to intimidate, harass, browbeat and stifle the media".
Ajit Tokas report
Sardesai also publicly apologised to former BJP councillor Ajit Singh Tokas for broadcasting false corruption allegations in 2011. The
Lokayukta had previously cleared Tokas, finding no evidence of wrongdoing, and Sardesai released an apology, claiming the sting was conducted by an 'external agency.'
Amit Malviya criticised Sardesai, calling him a "serial fake news peddler" and referencing previous instances of false reporting.
Filming Without Consent
In July 2024, Rajdeep Sardesai posted a video clip on X claiming that BJP spokesperson
Shazia Ilmi had abused his cameraperson after his debate show. She subsequently filed a defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against Sardesai.
responded, stating, "The show was over, my consent was over. Thereafter, I can't be continuously recorded in my private space without my consent."
Delhi High Court opined that the video was recorded by India Today cameraperson after Ilmi had removed herself from the show.
The court ordered Rajdeep Sardesai to immediately remove the video, take down the post and remarked, "You had no authority to record and no authority to use."
On 5 April, Delhi High Court imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000 on Ilmi for hiding facts with regards to her allegations against Sardesai.
Awards
-
The Padma Shri, awarded by the Govt of India, in 2008
-
The International Broadcasters award for coverage of the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism award for 2006
-
In ENBA award 2020 Rajdeep Sardesai received lifetime achievement award.
Books
-
2024: The Election that Surprised India,
-
2019: How Modi Won India
-
Newsman: Tracking India in the Modi Era, published by Rupa Publications India, 6 August 2018
-
,
-
Democracy's XI: The Great Indian Cricket Story, published by Juggernaut Books
-
Co-authored chapter "The Truth Hurts: Gujarat and the Role of the Media" in the book , edited by Siddharth Varadarajan and published by Penguin (). The book is about the 2002 Gujarat riots.
-
Real Heroes: Ordinary People Extraordinary Service,
External links
