A video is being shared on social media claiming that BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra had replaced Ravish Kumar and started hosting a debate program on ‘NDTV’. In the wake of senior journalist Ravish Kumar’s resignation from ‘NDTV’ after Gautam Adani bought some stake, this post claims that Gautam Adani appointed Sambit Patra as a replacement for Ravish Kumar to host the ‘Prime Time’ debate program on NDTV. This purported video of ‘NDTV’ displays the graphics related to the recent Gujarat Elections, while Sambit Patra hosts the television debate. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Latest video shows Sambit Patra hosting a debate program on ‘NDTV’.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows a four-year-old parody debate program telecast by ‘India Today’. For a weekend special debate program ‘To The Point’ on ‘India Today’, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra moderated as a guest anchor in 2018. The original video did not display any graphics related to the Gujarat Elections. And, Sambit Patra is not hosting any debate program on ‘NDTV’ following the resignation of Ravish Kumar. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra had replaced Ravish Kumar and is hosting a debate program on ‘NDTV’, we could not find any news report confirming this information on the internet. If Sambit Patra was chosen as a replacement for Ravish Kumar for the ‘Prime Time’ debate program on NDTV, it would have been widely reported.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video shared in the post, a video with similar visuals was found tweeted by ‘India Today’ senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai on 04 June 2018. Rajdeep shared the video tweeting, “Stellar show by @sambitswaraj as an @IndiaToday guest anchor; super send up/parody of prime time news debate.” In 2018, Sambit Patra moderated as a guest anchor to the ‘To The Point’ weekend special debate program on ‘India Today’.
The extended version of the video published by the India Today news channel, on 03 June 2018, did not display the graphics of the Gujarat Elections. Speaking to AFP regarding this edited video now circulating on social media, Sambit Patra said, “This video was altered and shared with a false claim.” From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post is edited and does not show the recent visuals of Sambit Patra hosting a debate program on the NDTV news channel.
To sum it up, an edited video is shared as the visuals of Sambit Patra replacing Ravish Kumar and hosting a debate program on NDTV.
