Minister Babul Supriyo allegedly calls & threatens The Telegraph editor over news report

“The call shows how a representative of the govt was employing intimidation tactics, cloaked as a request for an “amicable small apology”, to make a newspaper fall in line,” The Telegraph said.
Minister Babul Supriyo allegedly calls & threatens The Telegraph editor over news report
Minister Babul Supriyo allegedly calls & threatens The Telegraph editor over news report
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Union Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo called and allegedly threatened the editor of a newspaper on Saturday, over a photograph of him manhandling a student at Jadavpur University, published on Friday; the accompanying caption; and the headline of the news report on the same subject. The Telegraph and its editor R Rajagopal have taken a stand on the issue and exposed the alleged threats by the minister to the editor in a piece in the newspaper on Sunday. 

On Saturday evening, during The Telegraph’s evening news meeting, Rajagopal got a call from Babul Supriyo, where the minister demanded an ‘amicable apology’ from the editor and the newspaper. That he – a minister – made such a call to an editor of a newspaper was declared by Babul Supriyo himself in his tweets. “MrRajagopal, the arrogant editor of @ttindia jst abused me in filthy lingo on the Telephone when I called him asking him 2 print an amicable small apology for falsely publishing a first page report accusing me of grabbing the shirt of a JU student when it’s the other way round (sic),” the junior union minister tweeted on Saturday.

The article in The Telegraph says that Babul Supriyo demanded an apology from The Telegraph. When the editor, R Rajagopal, asked him why, Babul reiterated a tweet he had put out earlier in the day, in which the minister said, “1. I WASN’T elbowing anyone rather I ws being pushed & manhandled with my shirt torn. 2. It wasn’t a girl either-it was BEARDED GUY as clearly seen in the VDO. If Telegraph doesn’t apologise tomorrow for their false biased reporting, I’ll sue them (sic).” 

At one point in the conversation, Babul Supriyo allegedly reminded the editor that he was speaking to a central minister, and asked Rajagopalan, “Aren’t you a gentleman?” The editor reportedly replied: “I am not a gentleman, I am a journalist…. You may be a central minister but I am also a citizen of this country.”

According to The Telegraph, at another point, the minster allegedly asked Rajagopal, “Are you sold out? Are you f***ing sold out?” The editor then disconnected the call before stating that the publication would put out an article about their conversation.

The Telegraph said it was publishing the article as the conversation went beyond an exchange between two persons. “The call shows how a representative of the government was employing intimidation tactics, cloaked as a request for an “amicable small apology”, to make a newspaper fall in line,” it said.

During the phone call, The Telegraph said the editor also clarified to the minister that there was no such article in the paper that made any mention of him elbowing anyone. “Asked where the newspaper had said the minister had elbowed anyone, Supriyo said it was mentioned along with a front-page picture. The editor said the picture showed the minister grabbing a student by his shirt and that was what the caption had said. The minister changed his stand and said he was offended by the headline “Babull at JU”. The editor asked the minister what made him assume the headline was referring to him as the line below also spoke of “untamed protesters",” The Telegraph report on Sunday said.

“The editor made it clear no apology would be forthcoming until the minister established what mistake the newspaper had made. In keeping with the established tradition in journalism, the newspaper does apologise when it makes mistakes,” the report said. 

With the minister making a public threat to sue the newspaper, the editor has asked the minister to send a letter or legal notice.

When the editor refused to apologise until the minister pointed out the mistake in the article, Babul Supriyo allegedly then threatened to upload the conversation between the two – which was, according to the minister, being recorded – and let the public know “who said what”. 

The Telegraph said: “The editor said he did not use a single “filthy” word as alleged by the minister. Several journalists in the newsroom could hear what the editor was saying to the minister. Since Supriyo said he was recording the conversation, the minister can easily prove – or disprove – his charge by making the entire and unedited recording public.” 


The front page of The Telegraph's Friday edition

Babul also tweeted that the extra L in ‘Babull’ was “purposely done with an agenda to malign. The joker of the editor asks “why I am ASSUMING that BaBuLL meant me?”

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