New Delhi, Sep 29 (Agencies) : Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai of Headlines Today news channel was heckled and roughed up, allegedly by a band of supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, outside the Madison Square Garden venue after he got a group of anti-Modi people to air their views just ahead of the prime minister's much-awaited speech to thousands of the Indian diaspora.
After the live interaction with the anti-Modi group who were outnumbered by supporters of Modi, Sardesai was heckled by Modi supporters and roughed up and pushed.
A video of the heckling was posted online as were tweets of the event.
After the incident, Sardesai tweeted, “Great crowd at Modison square garden! except a few idiots who still believe abuse is a way of proving their machismo!”
After the news and the video went viral, condemning the incident, Congress leader Ajay Maken wrote on twitter, “Attack on Rajdeep Sardesai is condemnable.Such incidents-becoming rampant-threaten the very spirit of free speech!”
Responding on the incident, Aam Aadmi Party spokesman Ashutosh said, “Rajdeep is a great patriot, great nationalist and fiercely independent journalist. Whole nation is with him except a few gunda fascists.”
Watch Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfnoAMYWplk