How to deal with Sudarshan News 'reporters': Learn from Haldiram’s store manager

Food chain Haldiram’s has become the latest target of another Sudarshan News “Hindu khatre mein hain” conspiracy theory over its “Navratri special” namkeen mixture called ‘Falahari’ – literally translating to frugivore.

In a show on Tuesday, Sudarshan News reporter Shivani Thakur ostensibly went bananas as she found the description behind a namkeen packet in a Haldiram’s store to be in “Urdu”. Her boss Suresh Chavhanke, meanwhile, also wanted a bite of the cherry as he lined up Haldiram’s products on a table and asked on Twitter why Hindus have been betrayed with an “Urdu” description and a green cover on the only product that is Navratri special.

In the store, however, the manager seemed to not give a fig about the Sudarshan News reporter’s angry questions – who insinuated that something was being “hidden” and there was something more to the use of “Urdu” on the namkeen packet. At one point, the outlet asked the channel to leave the outlet but the reporter appeared adamant to pluck the low-hanging fruits of hollow reportage.

The language on the packet, after all, was Arabic, not Urdu – a common fixture on products meant for export to the Gulf.

“Hindus, who fast, don’t know this language. Those who do know this language don’t keep fast,” Chavhanke said in the Sudarshan News office, in a display of ignorance about the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramzan.

But it wasn’t just Sudarshan News staffers who couldn’t tell apples from oranges. The Haldiram’s store executive told the reporter, “I have three people coming from such communities who know English, Hindi and Urdu; if I have given a description for them, why do you have to read the one in the language you don't prefer?”

Hinting that something was being “hidden”, the reporter asked if the packet had animal oil or “beef oil” – Haldiram’s is known as a chain of vegetarian outlets – but the executive shot back: “this is your thinking”. She insisted that there were no health hazard concerns when it came to Haldiram’s products. “How do I believe it? Why have you written this in Urdu?” said Thakur.

The executive asked Thakur to leave the outlet. The episode took place at an outlet in Noida, seemingly in the presence of the police.