Last week, CJP protests were raging across Indian streets as Gen Z took to the nation’s streets to ask for accountability for the NEET paper leaks. And even though the protests might have come to a halt, one of the most remembered moments was a reporter being heckled on camera as he filmed the student protests mid-chant.Reporter Kapil Raut is once again in the limelight because he recently won hearts after he was heard reassuring students instead of losing his temper.
Photo: @Amanprabhat9/ X
Who is Kapil Raut and what happened with him?
Kapil Raut, a veteran Marathi-language ground reporter for a well-known media outlet, was reporting live from the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Shivaji Park in Dadar when a group of demonstrators surrounded him, chanting “loser” while criticising what they saw as biased coverage by mainstream television channels.The visuals, of Raut standing his ground in the rain as students jeered around him, spread rapidly across social media and became one of the most talked-about symbols during the CJP protest.
But the internet apologised
Only some days later, the story took an unexpected turn. As the protests wound down, several of the same students who had heckled Raut apologised for how they had treated him. Raut accepted every apology without hesitation, explaining that he never took the mockery personally.
Raut’s humble words win hearts as he says, “No one is to blame”
Recently, a video shared in collaboration with the official Instagram page of the CJP showed Raut offering the students reassurance rather than resentment. “He further added, “the students have earned their victory, they have won, congratulations to all the students, to all those who stood in the protest.”He also applauded Genz’s efforts, saying, “what GenZ is doing is inspiring, all I want to say is that do not carry any guilt, whatever happened was an accident and its okay” Addressing the very people who had jeered him on live television just days earlier in a viral video, he had said, “There is one thing I want to say to all my students, please don’t carry any guilt. What happened was only an incident. Every student is my own, and no one is to blame”.
A father, moved by his daughter’s relief
Raut also opened up about how the episode had affected his family. When asked to share what his daughter’s experience was, he said in a conversation to a media outlet that his daughter had been visibly upset watching her father mocked online, but he explained to her that it was okay and that he is a journalist, so all these incidents are a part and parcel of the profession. Later, the wave of apologies also noticeably lifted her spirits.
