News anchor and writer, Rajdeep Sardesai recently featured in a podcast at Unfiltered By Samdish. Rajdeep attended the podcast for the promotion of his book titled 2024: The Election that Surprised India. Sardesai in the podcast opened up on various controversies and spilled the beans on some untold stories. The journalist-writer also talked about his equation with anchor Arnab Goswami and narrated a story when underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim promised to give Toyota to Team India players if they defeated Pakistan. However, what was interesting when he described India's notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi in his own way.
Sardesai was asked about Lawrence Bishnoi in the podcast when the topic of dirt in politics arrived. Explaining who is Lawrence Bishnoi, Rajdeep Sardesai explained, "Lawrence Bishnoi is a classic example of how even the underworld has been changed. Dawood and other gangs used to have loyalties back in the day. In Lawrence Bishnoi's gang, nobody knows who is where. It's a gang of freelancers."
"Here's someone sitting in Sabarmati Jail, and under his name different guys are doing different things in the world and transnational. Not even only in India, but sometimes he is doing in Canada. He is a transnational don sitting in Sabarmati jail with a gang of freelancers who are apparently paid a small amount of money to do specific hits. They don't know who they are ultimately working for. Something all of us could learn like complete deniability. It is a failure on some level of our system that such gangsters are used to settle scores," added Rajdeep Sardesai.
On Dirt in Indian Politics
Talking about dirt in politics, Rajdeep Sardesai further said, "I maintain the real dirt that comes out is complete moral depravation. In my home state Maharashtra, one in every 3 MLAs in Maharashtra switched parties in the last 10 years. One day you call that leader is an epitome of corruption, other day he becomes your ally. You say you are gonna put him in jail, the next day he is your ally. It's happening across the board and country."
"My favourite to go to as a journalist in Pakistan. It is the only country obsessed with India. I went about 10-12 times to Pakistan between 1995-2003, I have travelled to Pakistan," added Sardesai.