Accepted Congress offer of Rajya Sabha seat as I believe in Gandhi and Nehru's ideology: Kumar Ketkar

Amid questions over impropriety of journalists joining politics, Kumar Ketkar, who was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha today, said he joined the Congress because he believed in the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Ketkar, a veteran journalist who is among the six candidates who are now set to enter the Upper House from Maharashtra, said journalists are not free from political biases.

"I intentionally choose the Congress party because I believe and follow the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru,” Ketkar, who is the latest journalist to enter the political arena, said. 

Ketkar, who worked as a journalist for 45 years, said he was not "technically" a journalist for the last four years after his last assignment in 2013 so he was free to join any political party. 

He said his personal political leanings never reflected in his professional conduct.

“I started as a reporter and worked as an editor for various Marathi dailies. As a journalist, I had no agenda. I placed stories on the basis of its content and read connect,” he said.

Ketkar revealed that he was also offered the Rajya Sabha seat by Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray in 1998. “But I declined the offer because of the ideology issue. So that seat was given to another journalist Pritish Nandi."

He said that journalists should be open-minded and unbiased but they have a political stand. 

“There is always politics and bias in newsrooms over the placement of stories. Sometimes, in absence of the editor, the incharge of the newsroom takes the decisions while placing and dropping the stories. Next day, we have no option but only ask for clarifications," he said. 

"Journalists do have a political stand and they do follow their own ideology. When I was an editor, I never tried to suppress any sort of voice including RSS ideology write up as well,” he added.

On the question of whether journalists should join a political party, Ketkar said that he was unnecessarily trolled on social media over joining politics. 

He said journalist joining politics is an irrelevant argument.

“I got the Rajya Sabha offer that matches to my ideology, therefore, I happily accepted it. Last Sunday only, the Congress party approached me with the offer of Rajya Sabha seat. Congress president Rahul Gandhi was in Singapore so there was a delay in the decision. However, Congress ex-president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi chose my name for the Rajya Sabha. I am grateful to them, including Maharashtra President Ashok Chavan," Ketkar said.

While narrating his experience of filing the nominations paper for the Rajya Sabha, Ketkar said that it is a really complicated task to obtain all documents and fill the nominations papers. 

“At one point, I was fed up and felt that I should not file the nominations. We have to run pillar to post to get all the documents. However, I had already switched from journalism to politics on Thursday. But it will take time to get the experience and adopt the conduct of politicians,” Ketkar candidly said.

Six Rajya Sabha candidates were today elected unopposed from Maharashtra. Besides Ketkar, who is from the Congress, three are from the BJP, and one each from the Shiv Sena and the NCP.  The candidates were declared unopposed after the seventh nominee -- Vijaya Rahatkar of the BJP -- withdrew her candidature today.