New Delhi, December 29: The Editors Guild of India on Saturday evening lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party informantion technology cell chief Amit Malviya for running a 'poll' on veteran journalist and anchor Rajdeep Sardesai. The Guild called the action of Malviya as 'offensive, tasteless and deplorable' in which the BJP IT cell chief had asked if the veteran journalist -- Sardesai -- should handle public relations for the ISIS.

Expressing deep dismay and concern, the Editors Guild questioned Malviya's act. Asking the ruling party to be cautious, the Guild called the act as 'tasteless' and stated that the Twitter 'poll' questioned "integrity and patriotism of Rajdeep Sardesai, who is a journalist of standing". Sardesai is a former president of the Editors Guild of India and currently, it is headed by another veteran journalist Shekhar Gupta. CAB Protests: Editors Guild of India Seeks I&B Ministry's Advisory to TV Channels Be Withdrawn.

Here's the EGI's tweet:

Here's the full statement of EGI:

The Editors Guild of India has noted with deep dismay and concern the deplorable act of Amit Malviya, the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party's IT cell, in which he conducted an offensive, McCarthyist social media 'poll' on noted journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.

 

The poll on Twitter was not only tasteless, it also questioned the integrity and patriotism of Mr Sardesai, who is a journalist of standing and a former president of the Editors Guild of India.

 

The Twitter poll by a national head of the BJP also raised questions on the party's commitment to healthy debate and dissent without allowing disagreement to degenerate into abuse. The Guild urges Mr Malviya to immediately withdraw the so-called Twitter poll, and the BJP to caution him strongly.

in the meanwhile, Sardesai thanked the EGI and said that he would gift his book to Malviya as a new year gift. Sardesai took to Twitter and wrote, "I am grateful to the @IndEditorsGuild and journalists for their support. I will continue to report and opine without fear or favour. Will not be bullied by the toxic use of social media by Mr @amitmalviya and co. Can only hope better sense will prevail."

Here's Rajdeep Sardesai's tweet:

It is to be known that Malviya's 'Twitter poll received 1,44,287 votes which gave the options for 'agree', 'strongly agree', 'disagree', and 'he is irrelevant'. Until this report was filed, Malviya had not removed the poll from his Twitter account.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 29, 2019 08:37 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).