Obit: Senior journalist Rohit Sardana succumbs to COVID-19

Rohit Sardana, a well-known anchor and senior journalist with Aaj Tak, passed away today due to COVID-19. This was informed by Sudhir Chaudhary, Editor-in-Chief, Zee News, in his tweet. 

Sardana was admitted to the Metro Hospital on Thursday as he had tested positive for COVID-19. He suffered a heart attack today and passed away a short while back. 

Sardana had joined Aaj Tak in 2017, where he was hosting ‘Dangal’, a debate show. 

Prior to that, he had a long association with Zee News, where he used to host ‘Taal Thok Ke’, a popular debate programme on contemporary issues in India.

From his Twitter feed, one can see that till April 29, 2021, Sardana was tweeting about COVID-19 patients in urgent need of Remdesivir injections, plasma, and oxygen. Therefore, his passing away has come as a shock to his peers.

Tributes are pouring in for Sardana on social media. India Today Group’s Rahul Kanwal tweeted, “Rohit Sardana was the sharpest young anchor I have met. Superb command over Hindi, brilliant with his turn of the phrase, precise questions, clear in his thinking, loved by the masses, warm and humble off the screen, he was destined for great things. Our newsroom is in deep shock.”

While offering his “deep condolences” to Sardana’s family, Rajdeep Sardesai recalled, “Rohit and I had differing political views, but always enjoyed debating without any rancour. We did a show one night that finished at 3 am (think it was SC verdict on Karnataka) after which he said, ‘boss aaj maza aa gaya!’ He was a passionate anchor journalist. RIP Rohit Sardana.”