When journalists jump ship

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The case of Chandan Mitra who has jumped ship by moving from the BJP to the TMC is indeed curious. It is indeed intriguing that someone who has spent the best part of his life in Chandigarh as the editor of The Pioneer, been two-time Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, and could not win a Lok Sabha seat from West Bengal in 2014, has resigned because he was not able to do much for his state (West Bengal), as mentioned by him. This is political opportunism, and nothing else.

We have had prior examples of journalists jumping into politics like M J Akbar, who first joined the Congress and then the BJP; Rajiv Shukla, who first joined the Congress and then moved to the BCCI and the IPL, and whose example is being partly emulated by Rajat Sharma who had the BJP's backing in the recent DDCA elections; Arun Shourie, who was a vehement champion of Hindutva in his initial days in the BJP, and is now a vociferous critic of the present dispensation; to name a few.

What is worrying that each one of the illustrious scribes has tried to pull wool over the eyes of the readers by resorting to hypocrisy so typical to politicians.

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