Anjana Om Kashyap is an Indian journalist and anchor. She is an executive editor of the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak.
Early life and education
Anjana was born to Omprakash Tiwari, in the Bhumihar caste, at Ranchi. Omprakash was a doctor on short-service-commission with the Indian Army, and served during the Bangladesh War of Independence. She had her initial schooling at Loreto Convent, a local Catholic school and then, from Delhi Public School, Ranchi. She went on to pursue a honours in botany, from under University of Delhi, despite having no natural inclination for science; Anjana went on to appeared for the All India Pre Medical Test but failed to pass. She was a prolific debater and exhibited strong leadership qualities since childhood, having become the head-girl in both the schools and the president of her college hostel. After a few years, she enrolled at the Delhi School of Social Work, for her post-graduation; Anjana mentions of the curricula and field-visits inculcating a spirit of public activism in her.
Career
Anjana's first job was as a counselor at the Daewoo Motors; however, she did not like the job and resigned after about a year. She then joined an NGO in the roles of a legal counselor, for slum-dwellers.
Journalism
In the early 2000s, Anjana opted for a diploma in journalism, from Jamia Millia Islamia, primarily on the insistence of her husband. Upon graduation, she was inducted in Doordarshan with some aid from acquaintances; she was assigned to the news-desk of Aankhon Dekhi, an investigative show but was allotted infrequent reporting duties, as well. Within an year, she moved to Zee News. Whilst she wanted to be an anchor all through-out; the channel found her lacking in speaking finesse and employed her in producing roles. In her later years at Zee, she successfully passed the auditions and were occasionally used as an anchor for special features. In 2007, she joined News 24, where she was, for the first time, assigned a mainstream role at anchoring in the form of moderating an evening debate show. She left the venture in early 2012 and moved to Star News; however, it was shut down months later. Anjana thus became one of the several journalists, to follow her immediate ex-boss at News24 – Supriya Prasad from News 24 to Aaj Tak, around late 2012.
Views
Anjana has been noted to be a strong voice against reservations in India for socially oppressed classes and likewise affirmative actions; in a media-panel discussion, she had once described the system to be infested by 'termites', which brought neither social mobility nor economic affluence for the target-populace. She mentions her Brahminical upbringing and the social tensions prevalent in the aftermath of enacting Mandal Commission recommendations, as contributing factors.
A long-form piece over The Caravan, has been highly critical of Anjana's journalism, noting the aggressive propagation of Hindutva centered ideologies and biased reporting in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party, across a variety of situations. Scroll.in has noted her to be an establishment friendly news anchor. Kashyap was one of the few reporters, who were allowed an interview by Modi, in the run-up to the 2019 National Elections; Saxena notes that Kashyap refused to pose any challenging question to him. A self-delivered monologue about Modi, in the immediate aftermath of the 2014 elections was basically a hagiographic sketch, that carefully omitted any and all criticisms including his questionable roles in the 2002 Gujarat riots. In late August 2019, when released data shew that the national GDP was growing at the slowest rate in about a decade, and generated widespread concerns about Indian economy under the premiership of Modi, Anjana's daily flagship show Halla Bol did not raise the issue a single time across the entire month of September. Kashyap's reporting of the 2019 Supreme Court proceedings on Ayodhya title dispute heavily toed a pro-BJP line with numerous debates and special shows, that spanned avast avenue from seeking the reasons behind a routine deferment of the case to inquiring about why the Muslims were unable to compromise with a mere 5 acre land, and the timeline of Ram Mandir construction, all along with provocative headlines and audience-polls; it ended with welcoming the final verdict in favour of the Hindus, as a sacred occasion. Topics of her flagship shows had ranged from debating whether goats should be sacrificed on the Islamic occasion of Eid al-Adha to dog-whistle commentary on the issue of Muslim population growth and usage of fringe religious figureheads, to point out conservatism in Islam.
Muzaffarpur Hospital incident
While reporting about the 2019 Bihar encephalitis outbreak, Anjana entered the neonatal ICU at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital and started haranguing the on-duty paediatrician. She was widely criticised for her inappropriate behaviour. The Indian Medical Association subsequently filed a complaint against her, for "endangering the lives of children", in an attempt to gain "publicity". She has also been documented to have misreported news on certain occasions according to fact checking organisations such as Alt News.
