Journalist Sagarika Ghose's First Reaction After Being Trolled Over Her Old Tweets

Journalist Sagarika Ghose, who is one of the Rajya Sabha candidates from the TMC from West Bengal, has responded to the criticism over her old tweets related to joining politics.

As the TMC announced her name, a section of netizens targeted her on social media sites. In her first reaction to the criticism, she said, "My tweet from 6 years ago ( 2018) is being widely circulated. At the time I was a working journalist and yes it would have been inappropriate for me at that time to switch overnight to party politics. However in 2020 I ceased to be a full time journalist and for the last 3 years have been a freelance columnist for different newspapers."

She further said that she has not been a full-time journalist for three years now and her decision to enter the Rajya Sabha is her commitment to constitutional democracy when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has "no institutional restraints."

She wrote, "I have therefore had a 3 year cooling off period from full time journalism before taking the plunge into public life. Today when an increasingly authoritarian Modi government recognises no institutional restraints and has almost entirely captured the media, my commitment to constitutional democracy has led me to join the courageous fight of @AITCofficial
to keep alive democratic spaces and democratic contestation."

Earlier, the noted journalist had claimed on her social media account that she would never enter politics.

She had said, "I will never accept any RS ticket or PS ticket or CS ticket from any political party, sir. That I can give you in writing and you can save this tweet 😁"

The TMC on Sunday announced the names of journalist Sagarika Ghose, party leader Sushmita Dev and two others for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls from the state.

Elections to the five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal will be held on February 27.