The outrage was swift and unrelenting, spilling across social media, office discussions and drawing room debates. At the centre of it all was an unlikely target, a 10-year-old boy whose brief moment on national television turned into a storm of criticism.
Gujarat's Ishit Bhatt, a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, was branded "arrogant" and "rude" after his confident demeanour and quick responses to host Amitabh Bachchan divided viewers across the country.
During the episode, the kid asked Amitabh Bachchan not to repeat the rules, answered before hearing full questions and interrupted mid-sentence - actions that many saw as disrespectful, while others viewed them as the unfiltered enthusiasm of a bright child under pressure. What followed was a nationwide debate: Was it poor parenting? The natural brashness of a bright child? Should it be ignored, as he is only ten, or should it be addressed?
The questions came fast and furious, pitching the fifth-grader into a trending topic.
An apology letter, purportedly written by Ishit Bhatt and shared on an Instagram account named @ishit_bhatt_official along with a video, was widely reported - before being pulled down with a message that the account no longer exists. Several fake accounts featuring the boy's photograph also surfaced across social media platforms.
Everything points to a troubling lynch-mob mentality, raising concerns that such trolling and public shaming could have a lasting impact on a child at such a formative age. Experts say the reality is far more complex, shaped by changing parenting styles, evolving school cultures, and the way children today process and express themselves.
Judging Through A Narrow Lens
"The instant two-minute verdict is that he is rude. But that may or may not be the case," family therapist Maitri Chand told PTI.
People, she said, are judging the child's tone, gestures and responses in a "unidimensional way."
"Rudeness and arrogance have a cultural basis - they are culturally normed. And I don't just mean country-wise culture. It can be a family culture, a community culture, or even a school culture," she added.
Ishit Bhatt isn't the first such case. In 2023, Virat Iyer, an eight-year-old from Chhattisgarh, played the game in a similar manner - answering before Amitabh Bachchan could finish asking a question.
Unlike Ishit Bhatt, who went home without winning anything, Virat Iyer reached the final question for Rs 1 crore but went home with Rs 3.20 lakh after answering it incorrectly.
As Maitri Chand sees it, children of this generation are growing up in an environment that actively encourages them to be vocal and opinionated.
"Schools teach critical thinking earlier and earlier, which is fantastic. In our generation, if we were lucky, we learnt it at the master's level. So the child may simply have been thinking fast, assuming things, responding quickly - not necessarily from a place of disrespect," she said.
What many adults perceive as arrogance could actually be impatience born from a faster cognitive rhythm, Maitri Chand added.
Parenting Or Overconfidence?
Ankita Verma Mehta, an HR professional and mother, holds a different view. She believes the child's behaviour should have been corrected at the right time.
"He feels this way of talking and demeaning is fine because it has been accepted in his past. Maybe he was praised for his confidence, which turned into overconfidence. It needs to be corrected. I would have taken him to a separate room and told him that the behaviour is wrong," Ankita Verma Mehta said.
Maitri Chand, however, feels humility is not a construct most ten-year-olds can meaningfully grasp.
"Humility comes later in life when experience humbles us a bit," she said.
"At his age, if you try to impose it, it can feel like stifling the child or discouraging him from voicing his thoughts," she continued.
She also pointed out that Bhatt's response to one question - "Which of these meals are generally eaten in the morning?" - may have been misread. The young contestant immediately asked Amitabh Bachchan to lock "breakfast" without hearing the options.
The options could easily have referred to different types of dishes typically served in the morning.
"There are multiple options that can come up for a question as wide as this. But a fifth-grader does not have the neurological ability for abstraction, which typically develops by the seventh grade. So you cannot simply label the child as arrogant. That would be a disservice. Other factors need to be considered as well," she said.
The Broader Picture
Is it about bad parenting? There's no absolute answer.
"It's larger than just parenting," Maitri Chand explained. "We are raising children differently - to perform, to express, to be up front and centre. And then when they do that, we come down on them for being too much. That's a contradiction."
She added that children today receive mixed signals from society. "We want them to be go-getters, confident, verbal - but just enough to sit well with us. That's an unfair ask."
For clinical psychologist Shweta Sharma, the issue wasn't confidence but gaps in social and emotional skills.
His responses, she said, reflected difficulty with "impulse control, boundary awareness and respectful communication - a pattern seen in many children today."
Shweta Sharma added that the pressure of performing on national television opposite a towering figure like Amitabh Bachchan could have magnified the child's behaviour.
"Excitement, adrenaline and the desire to prove oneself can all exacerbate boundary-crossing," she said.
"So instead of criticism and labels, this should be treated as an opportunity to teach emotional regulation, respect for social norms and adaptive assertiveness," she added.
The long-term impact could be profound, the psychologists agreed.
"Exposure to this kind of criticism can affect his self-esteem and social trust. He might even become more defensive or rude as a result," Shweta Sharma said.
Maitri Chand recommended that the family work with a therapist to help the child process the backlash and retain his confidence.
"Otherwise, the shock and hurt of being misunderstood can make a child withdraw, doubt himself, or develop anxiety," she said.
Beyond everything, he's still a child, and that is how he should be seen.
ALSO READ: Why The Viral "Rude Kid" From KBC 17 Has Brought Six-Pocket Syndrome In Focus
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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