A collage of Sumanth Raman and Rahul Shivshankar
A collage of Sumanth Raman and Rahul Shivshankar
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Panelist on TV debate says let's discuss economy not Sushant Singh, gets shut down

"I want to place on record, my deep disgust, that on a day that our GDP has contracted to 23.9%, we are discussing this issue," the panelist said.

A guest on a TV debate who asked that the panel discuss the 'collapsing' economy of India rather than the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput was shut down immediately. The verbal confrontation took place on Times Now on Monday night when political analyst Sumanth C Raman was part of a debate moderated by Rahul Shivshankar on the programme 'India upfront'.

Responding to a question by Rahul, Sumanth said, "Before we start, I want to place on record, my deep disgust, that on a day that our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has contracted 23.9% and on a day that China has intruded into our territory, we are discussing this issue."

Reacting to this, Rahul Shivshankar said, "You don't need to be part of this debate if you find it so disgusting." He also took a personal jibe at Sumanth calling him a "jack of all trades and a master of none."

Rahul Shivshankar further said, "You don't have to place anything on record except for the answer to the question I'm asking you. When the debate is on the economy, we will ask you for your answer on record, and I certainly won't be calling you for a debate on the economy Dr Sumanth, because you don't know GDP from..." before he is cut off by Sumanth, who objects to the comment.

The journalist went on to ask Sumanth not to "waste the nation's time" by speaking about the economy, and instead focus on Sushant's case.

Watch the video below.

Sumanth Raman is a well-known television anchor and commentator and the latest incident took place even as many have criticised the media for sensationalising the death of the actor.

For almost three weeks most Hindi news channels and a few English channels have only been discussing Sushant Singh's death on primetime. Others too have demanded coverage of other issues.

When a video of the heated exchange was posted on Twitter, many people were quick to back Sumanth, while others backed the media outlet.

"Sumanth Raman is anti national..how can he dodge an important question on SSR ...and instead is focusing on trivial issues like GDP contraction. (sic)," one user wrote sarcastically.

India's economy suffered its worst slump on record in April-June, with the GDP contracting by 23.9% as the coronavirus-related lockdowns weighed on the already-declining consumer demand and investment. This is the sharpest contraction since quarterly figures started being published in 1996 and worse than what was expected by most analysts. While the pandemic caused historic GDP contractions in economies around the world, the situation in India has been made worse by more than 78,000 new infections a day and total cases topping 35 lakh -- behind only the US and Brazil.

Meanwhile, Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty was questioned by a Special Investigation Team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for nine hours in Mumbai on Monday. The CBI team had arrived in Mumbai along with the forensic team last Thursday, a day after the Supreme Court gave the nod for a probe by the federal agency. The CBI has registered a case on the orders of the central government on the basis of a request from the Bihar government. Sushant's father KK Singh had filed a case with the Bihar Police against Rhea and her family besides others.

With IANS inputs

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