Remember how a while ago a publication was slammed by Twitterati for misrepresenting a viral picture of Virat Kohli allegedly oogling at Archana Vijaya’s knees? Yeah, that one! After two long weeks, Archana Vijaya — the chirpy cricket presenter — finally opened up about it. And, she’s not taking shit from anybody.
Speaking to India Today, Archana said she didn’t react earlier because it was really inconsequential, according to her.
“My first thought was: Oh my God, are people trying that hard to make headlines? Are people so starved to bring people down? Virat has had such a remarkable growth as a cricketer. We all admire his amazing discipline. He has such clarity of thought and look at what people did.”
Citing what had actually happened, Vijaya said,
“We were playing a round of rapid fire and the poor guy was just trying to cheat by looking at the cue card. It was the cue card he was looking at. The most disappointing thing about the whole episode was that serious news outlets covered it. It trivialises journalism.”
She was fuming upon the baseless reports and recounted how Virat and she have shared a brilliant rapport since his debut. And finally, when she made her comeback this year, after being amiss for a year, Virat welcomed her back with glee.
But what triggered that kind of reaction from people or media outlets? Archana pinpoints the age-old objectification of women in our country.
“In India, women are kind of objectified so you have to make your work load harder. It’s a constant challenge and the mindset needs to change. And the change needs to start at the top.”
Hopefully, some day that mindset would change and such “trivial” newsmaking would get a grip.
Source: India Today