Sudhir Chaudhary (journalist)

Sudhir Chaudhary is an Indian journalist, who serves as the editor-in-chief of Hindi news channel Zee News and hosts the prime-time show Daily News And Analysis (DNA).

Quotes

• Here is an illustrative example of how every word that Modi uttered following the Godhra incident was twisted and distorted by the well-oiled misinformation machinery set up by the Congress and the Left. One of the early charges against Modi was that when post-Godhra riots broke out, he justified and legitimised violence against Muslims thus proving his complicity. This mischief started with an incomplete statement telecast on Zee TV based on an interview conducted by Zee correspondent Sudhir Chaudhary. Modi’s exact words were: “Kriya pratikriya ki chain chal rahi hai. Hum chahte hain ki na kriya ho aur na pratikriya.” (A chain of action-reaction is going on. We want that there should be neither ‘action’ nor ‘reaction’). But Zee TV deliberately left out the second sentence and presented the mischievously clipped first half of the statement to build a case that Modi had justified the post-Godhra riots as a legitimate reaction of Hindus against the killings of karsevaks at Godhra.... When Chaudhary questioned the CM about the Gulberg Society massacre in which the former Congress MP, Ehsan Jafri, was killed along with more than 50 others, the chief minister in his reply referred to the reports that Jafri had first fired at the violent mob, which apparently infuriated the crowd further. Thereafter, the mob stormed the Gulberg Society and set it on fire. According to Chaudhary, Narendra Modi referred to Jafri’s firing as “action” and the massacre that followed as “reaction”.... However, he could not provide a satisfactory explanation why in the Zee TV telecast, the last line—“Hum chahte hai ki na kriya ho aur na pratikriya”—was deliberately omitted. ...
  • Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. Voices from Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, Manushi Publications, Delhi 2014.

• During investigations, the SIT sent formal requisitions to Zee TV to make available a copy of the CD of the television interview of Narendra Modi conducted by Sudhir Chaudhary on March 1, 2002. Despite two reminders and a notice u/s 91 Cr.P.C. sent to Zee TV, the CD was not made available to the SIT. Sudhir Chaudhary said in his testimony to the SIT that the chief minister was of the view that he wanted neither action nor reaction. But this admission, coming years later, was not telecast and propagated the way the mischievous half-statement had been. What is worse, Sudhir Chaudhary continues to reiterate even today that Modi had justified the 2002 riots. ...Since the newspapers and TV channel that misquoted Modi refused to rectify their mistake, the mischievous misquote acquired a life of its own and has been continually used as part of a smear campaign even after the SIT established that there was deliberate distortion by the media in this matter. Even today, the website of Teesta Setalvad’s Communalism Combat carries the allegation.
  • Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. Voices from Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, Manushi Publications, Delhi 2014.