On Saturday, September 7, I arrived in Dallas, Texas to cover the much-anticipated visit of Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi. Since his last US visit, Rahul Gandhi has become the leader of the opposition after his party won an unexpected 99 Lok Sabha seats in the recent general elections.
There was a lot of interest in the US and India about his upcoming meetings with the Indian diaspora, students, media and leaders on Capitol Hill. As part of my preparation, I contacted Sam Pitroda, president of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC), whom I had interviewed earlier. Our previous interactions have always been good, and I was sure he would agree to give an interview about Rahul’s visit.
Sam agreed. As per schedule, I reached the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Irving, Texas around 7:30 pm. After meeting a few IOC members there, I was taken to Sam’s villa – a cozy place where there were about 30 people, some from India and some from IOC USA, all of whom were anxiously waiting for Rahul Gandhi to arrive at DFW International Airport.
Despite the commotion, Sam recognised me immediately and asked everyone to keep quiet for the interview. I set my phone to record and we began talking about Rahul Gandhi’s visit. Sam answered my four questions brilliantly, raising hopes for Rahul’s visit, comparing it to PM Narendra Modi’s upcoming US visit, and talking about issues related to the NRI community.
But then everything changed after my last question. ‘Will Rahul Gandhi discuss with US lawmakers about the Hindus being killed in Bangladesh?’ Sam had just started to answer, ‘It depends on Rahul and the lawmakers what issues they raise, I cannot speak on their behalf…’ Then the atmosphere changed. One person shouted that the question was ‘controversial’, and others joined in. Then a member of Rahul Gandhi’s advance team snatched my phone and started shouting, ‘Stop it! Stop it!’
Both Sam and I were shocked, but Rahul’s team and supporters had already made up their mind. One person tried to snatch my mic, but I did not give it to him. They somehow managed to stop the recording and forcibly took my phone. Sam was hurriedly sent to the airport to meet Rahul Gandhi.
What happened next was a nightmare. At least 15 people remained in the room and demanded that I delete the last question of the interview. I explained that there was nothing controversial in the question and that their actions were unethical. But they did not listen to me and started tampering with my phone, trying to delete the interview. Though they deleted it from the photo library, they could not go to the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder because it required my face ID.
One of them cleverly brought my phone close to my face and unlocked it, and also deleted the interview from the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder. After this, they also started checking iCloud, but my phone was on airplane mode, due to which the video could not be synced.
After 30 minutes of violating my privacy and every journalistic norm, they calmed down. Some even argued about keeping my phone for four days. I somehow forced them to return the phone and got out of there. I at one point thought of calling 911, but I didn’t have a phone. After coming out of the hotel, I texted Sam and told him what happened. He said we could do the interview again the next day, but that didn’t happen.
The irony is that Rahul Gandhi spoke to the US media about the declining media freedom in India and his team was busy silencing me. He has raised this issue on every US visit, but it seems that the value of press freedom does not reach his own camp.
Interestingly, a colleague of mine, who was moderating a Press Club event, asked Rahul the same question – ‘Will he raise the issue of killing of Hindus in Bangladesh?’ – which was later tweeted from the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of the INC.
(Rohit Sharma is an award-winning journalist based in Washington).
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