New Delhi: The Hindu College of Delhi University organized an event ‘Compass-2023’ on Tuesday (April 18) where India TV President and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma was invited as the chief guest. The program was named ‘Learning with Legends’. In this program, he narrated many heard-unheard stories about India TV’s iconic show ‘Aap Ki Adalat’. During this, Rajat Sharma shared some anecdotes related to his life during the Emergency imposed by the Congress government headed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Watch the video here:
‘Started newspaper at the age of 16-17…’
While addressing the students, Mr Sharma revealed a story related to the Emergency, which he claimed he does not share often. When Emergency was imposed in 1975, I was part of the student movement fighting for freedom of expression. Usually I do not share these things, but during that time all the leaders were put in jail. Newspapers were censored… sloganeering was not allowed on the streets and all student leaders were arrested and put in jails. ‘Mashal’ which was in the form of a pamphlet,” Mr. Sharma said.
‘Spent 10 months in jail during emergency’
Speaking at the event, Rajat Sharma further said that he along with Vijay Kumar Goel (now BJP leader) used to distribute those pamphlets to people’s homes. “One day the police raided, I was caught and tortured for three days. So we know what freedom of the press is… newspapers were censored. Then I started a newspaper; police beat me and Spent 10 months in jail… so no one should tell me about freedom of expression.”