India-Bharat Row: Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik Accuses India Today Of Using His Pre-Recorded Video For Live Debate

As the discussion over the origin of India's other name Bharat intensifies, mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik accused India Today of using his pre-recorded video for a live debate. Pattanaik made the allegations on Thursday to counter historian Sanjeev Sanyal's argument made on the alleged live debate on Wednesday.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Pattanaik accused India Today of editing his pre-recorded video, using it during the debate with Sanyal and calling it a live debate.

"India Today’s Kanwal sent me questions to which I sent replies as short videos, yesterday. India Today’s Lallantop also sent me questions to which I sent replies as short videos, also yesterday. This is standard practice to make interview content," Pattanaik said on X.

The 'My Gita' author also accused India Today's News Director Rahul Kanwal of using "editing tricks" to make it look like Pattanaik was present during the live debate.

Calling the debate 'pseudo,' Pattanaik said, "Lallantop used it the way it is usually used. Kanwal chose an unethical path. Pretending to be transparent, he used editing tricks (see visual) to project it as a combat, a debate, a panel – with Sanjeev Sanyal to 'counter' my points. Debate involves two living people – not one person and a video."

India Today also allegedly deleted the debate from its YouTube channel. However, it replaced it with another video that showed Pattanaik and Sanyal separately as part of the discussion, moderated by Kanwal, on the Bharat name origin. The original video of the alleged live debate was circulated on X.