While Karnataka Assembly polls are over with Congress winning 135 seats, the debate about Mysore Pak continues.
An intense online debate about Mysore Pak has set in all over social media after the Bharatiya Janata Party IT Cell Chief accused a senior journalist of indulging in low-grade propaganda after the latter asked him why issues like the hijab and halal had not worked to secure the BJP in Karnataka.
But how did Mysore Pak come into the debate?
On Saturday evening during a debate over the BJP’s loss in the Karnataka results on live TV, the BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya accused senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai of being a propagandist of the Congress party and advised him to retire.
"This is propaganda… You should go… You should retire… You are 58...! You should go and write your third book on how BJP wins the 2024 election… You go and prostrate yourself before Sonia Gandhi and ask for a Rajya Sabha seat," Malviya told Sardesai on India Today's live debate after Rajdeep asked him about hijab. Malviya also said, "You better be careful.”
Sardesai kept cool and responded, "Please don't threaten me" and insisted Malviya to smile and offered to send him a box of Mysore pak sweets.
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Keeping his promise, Sardesai on Sunday evening tweeted, “As promised on the counting day show yesterday, a box of #MysorePak , freshly packed, is being sent to @amitmalviyaji . Elections will come and go, parties will win and lose, Mysore Pak lives forever. Hope Mr Malviya has a sweeth tooth like me! Happy Sunday everyone, time to retire!”
Malviya, however, didn’t seem pleased and called Sardesai as indulging in “low grade propaganda.”
“A box of MysorePak is what your credibility as a journalist is worth? These puerile gestures do not take away from the fact that what you do is low grade propaganda, which is brazen and in the face, and not journalism. You wouldn’t have to do all this, to look respectable, if you were honest with your profession… Ideally, one would wish, that someone at the fag end of his career, goes out with some dignity, but you are beyond redemption. Good luck nonetheless,” Malviya tweeted.
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Malviya’s earlier commentary on the TV show and his tweet have generated a debate on Twitter and other social media platforms. However, many have taken the debate to a different level saying Mysore Pak from Haldirams is not a Karnataka product.
“I object. Mysore Pak from @MyHaldirams is not a Karnataka product like Nandini or MTR . Mr @amitmalviya deserves the genuine article. On #VegBiryani I am a liberal but the purist Kannadiga occasionally pops out,” tweets senior supreme court lawyer Sanjay Hegde.
