Rajdeep Sardesai | |
|---|---|
 Sardesai at BlrLitFest 2024 | |
| Born | Rajdeep Dilip Sardesai (1965-05-24)24 May 1965 (age 60) Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India[1] |
| Education | |
| Occupations | |
| Employer | India Today Group |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Father | Dilip Sardesai |
| Relatives | Bhaskar Ghose (father-in-law) |
| Honours | Padma Shri |
Rajdeep Sardesai (born 24 May 1965) is an Indian journalist, news anchor, reporter and author. He is a consulting editor and anchor ofIndia Today Television.[3][4] He was the Editor-in-Chief ofGlobal Broadcast News, that includedCNN-IBN, IBN7 andIBN-Lokmat, before resigning in July 2014.
Sardesai was born inAhmedabad,Gujarat, to aGoan father and aGujarati mother.[1] His father,Dilip Sardesai, was a former IndianTest cricketer and his mother, Nandini, is an activist inMumbai and former head of the Department of Sociology atSt. Xavier's College, Mumbai.[1] He completed his schooling up toICSE from theCampion School,Mumbai, and did two years ofISC atThe Cathedral & John Connon School,Mumbai. Thereafter he graduated in economics fromSt. Xavier's College,Mumbai. He then went toUniversity College, Oxford, earning the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in jurisprudence (promoted toMaster of Arts by seniority) andBachelor of Civil Law.[5]
While at Oxford he made sixfirst-class cricket appearances forOxford University and one for a combined Oxford andCambridge side against the1987 Pakistani touring team.[6] He was awarded a cricketBlue at Oxford.[7]
Sardesai worked withThe Times of India for six years, after joining it in October 1988,[8] and was the city editor of its Mumbai edition. He entered television journalism in 1994 as political editor of New Delhi Television (NDTV). He was the Managing Editor of both NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India and was responsible for overseeing the news policy for both. He hosted popular shows likeThe Big Fight at NDTV.
He quit NDTV on 17 April 2005[9] to start his own company,Global Broadcast News (GBN), in collaboration with theAmerican giant CNN andRaghav Bahl'sTV18.[3] The latter broadcasts the Indian Edition (in English) ofCNBC called CNBC-TV18, the Hindi consumer channel,CNBC Awaaz and an international channel, SAW. The new channel with Sardesai as the Editor-in-Chief was namedCNN-IBN. It went on air on 17 December 2005.Channel 7 has also come under this umbrella after Sardesai's company bought a 46 per cent stake in the channel. Channel 7 was later renamed IBN7.
On 29 May 2014,Reliance Industries Ltd announced it would be acquiring control in Network 18 Media & Investments Ltd, the parent of CNN-IBN, IBN7 and CNBC-TV18.[10] The board of RIL approved funding of up to₹40 billion (US$470 million) to Independent Media Trust (IMT), of which RIL is the sole beneficiary, for acquisition of control in Network 18 and its subsidiaries.[11] Subsequently, on 1 July 2014, Sardesai, editor-in-chief of CNN-IBN, along with the entire founding team — editorial and managerial — resigned from theNetwork18 group.[12]
He is a consulting editor with theIndia Today Group and anchors a prime time show onIndia Today since 2014.[13]
He is married to journalist, author andTrinamool Congress leaderSagarika Ghose.[14] Sardesai and Ghose have two children, son Ishan who is ENT surgeon,[15] and daughter Tarini.[16]
Sardesai and others were acquitted of defamation by a Hyderabad court in November 2019 after issuing an unconditional apology toIPS officer Rajiv Trivedi for false reporting on his role in thedeath of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.[17][18]
In January 2021, Sardesai was taken off TV for two weeks byIndia Today while also cutting his monthly salary for alleging in a retracted tweet thatNavreet Singh was killed in a police shooting during2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest.Delhi Police claimed that his tweet on the cause of death was not accurate and referred to the CCTV footage of the incident of Singh's death.[19][20] Later, Sardesai was booked for sedition over the Republic Day violence and the FIR stated that they shared misinformed news and ‘instigated violence’ on 26 January.[21] Several journalists and politicians who reported about the2021 Farmers' Republic Day parade were charged withsedition by the Delhi police and 5BJP-ruled state police.[22]Siddharth Varadarajan called the police FIRs "malicious prosecution".[23][24] Press Club of India (PCI), the Editors’ Guild of India, the Press Association, the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC), the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Indian Journalists Union in a joint press conference asked the sedition law to be scrapped.[22][25] Editors Guild of India spoke against invoking of the sedition charge on journalists. The guild termed the FIRs as an "attempt to intimidate, harass, browbeat and stifle the media".[26]
In July 2024, Rajdeep Sardesai posted a video clip on X claiming thatBJP spokespersonShazia Ilmi had abused his cameraperson after his debate show. She subsequently filed a defamation suit in theDelhi High Court against Sardesai.[27]Shazia Ilmi responded, stating, "The show was over, my consent was over. Thereafter, I can't be continuously recorded in my private space without my consent."[28]Delhi High Court opined that the video was recorded byIndia Today cameraperson after Ilmi had removed herself from the show.[29] The court ordered Rajdeep Sardesai to immediately remove the video, take down the post and remarked, "You had no authority to record and no authority to use."[29][30] On 5 April, Delhi High Court imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000 on Ilmi for hiding facts with regards to her allegations against Sardesai.[31]
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