Watch: After LS security breach, journalists squabble over who gets to hold ‘smoke bomb’

After a security breach in the Lok Sabha, media personnel crowded outside the Parliament complex to report the incident of two alleged “protesters” trespassing and hurling canisters in the House chambers. 

TV9 Bharatvarsh executive editor Manish Jha waved a yellow can of “smoke bomb” – which he claimed was purportedly used by the trespassers. “Yehi wo smoke bomb hain. This is that smoke bomb.”

Jha ostensibly attempted to give a sense of the security breach’s severity. He flashed the canister in front of the camera, struggling to conjure up plots of where it could be hidden – “Joote mein le kar jaye, pant mein le kar jaye, kaise le ja sakte hain (Can be hidden inside the shoes, or the pants. How can one take it)?”

Other journalists, meanwhile, rallied behind him, desperately trying to snatch the alleged canister for their piece-to-camera. 

News18 journalist Pallavi Ghosh was among those who tried to get the can. But Jha held on to it, and said: “Pallaviji, please, promise. Just 30 seconds.”

A News Nation reporter too kept reaching for the can: “You have shown it too much.”

But Jha continued, “Isko instemal karne ke liye bhi machis chahiye, kitni badi suraksha mein chuk hain (Even to use it, we need matchsticks. What a big security breach this is).” 

During the security breach, two people reportedly opened smoke canisters, jumped into the well of the House and shouted slogans. Journalists alleged that the two shouted “Taanashahi nahi chalegi” – dictatorship will not work. The Hindu reported that the two persons, who were held by security personnel, are “said to have received their passes from BJP MP from Mysore, Pratap Simha, as learnt from some Lok Sabha MPs”.

What exactly happened? Read here.