I am not a big fan of Hindi TV serials however do get my daily dose of drama from the one and only Republic Channel. As expected, Arnab Goswami is back with his bag of so called ‘exposes’ unscrupulously discrediting the Opposition but chooses to be ‘dove eyed’ when it comes to the current ruling dispensation. Of course, the theatrics only last for a day or two and in Arnab’s court, they have already been declared ‘guilty’ – he does proudly acknowledge about conducting a daily media trial. Guess the channel pursues the Talibani style where Arnab is the judge, jury and executioner.
And if they run out of their so called ‘Breaking News’, we do have the Pakistani panelists to face the brickbats.
Needless to say, anyone who does not tow the channel’s agenda is set for abuses from the rest of the panel. Wonder why they call it ‘The Newshour Debate’ – a more suitable title for the show could be ‘My way or the highway’.
Of course, as most sane minded Indians, we could dismiss his usual idiocracies and obnoxious behavior; however the channel in recent times has not left a single opportunity to stoke the communal angle. For instance, the ongoing West Bengal situation is being portrayed as a threat to Hindus thereby igniting tensions in an already vulnerable area. And it is conveniently silent on the BJP leader Nupur Sharma misleading people by posting photos of the 2002 Gujarat riots to depict Bengal and another BJP Haryana leader sharing a Bhojpuri movie picture scene as a situation in Bengal. Also in the recent Amarnath incident, the channel has been spewing wrath on the ‘Not in my name’ protesters with allegations of being pseudo secular and selective in their protests. And not so much as to why the government has not been able to answer for the increasing tension in Kashmir since 2014 be it injuring, killing and maiming hundreds of Kashmiri children and youths with pellet guns. Wonder which is a bigger issue – the BJP government’s inability to manage the Kashmir situation (among other things) or that we do not have citizen protests for the Amarnath yatra tragedy???
And it is appalling to see the 16 year old Junaid’s killing has been trivialized by equating it with RSS workers losing their lives in Kerala because of CPM workers. Can an innocent boy’s inhuman and gruesome lynching be equated to a political power struggle which has been ongoing for years in Kerala???
It is one thing to act as the government’s stooge however it definitely not ethical to portray a picture that 80% of the Hindu population is under threat – we do know that the channel is tirelessly working to prove to the majority of Hindus to believe that BJP is the ideal option for India however it is utterly unacceptable to act as a catalyst in endangering the already fragile secular fabric of our nation. Infact I was aghast to see the Republic correspondent walk with the members of the deceased as they were carrying the dead body of the Amarnath yatri to perform last rites and asking one of the relatives as to how he ‘feels’ – this is the ultimate degradation of journalistic reporting. It kind of brings back memories of the 2002 Gujarat riots where the bodies of Godra victims were displayed publicly in Ahmadabad.
Seriously Mr. Arnab Goswami where do you draw the line? The nation definitely wants to know…
We unfortunately live in times where the social media is being used or rather misused indiscriminately due to which there is a danger of our secular foundation getting eroded. And Republic TV is leaving no stone unturned to contribute to this phenomenon. Hence it is time that we as Indians (Hindus and Muslims) do not fall into this trap and continue to ask the ‘right’ questions – about our jobs, employment, rising prices, economic growth and development etc… No matter how much of diversionary tactics the existing government sponsored channels try to mislead us with, we need to be able to recognize and separate fact from fiction.
As Katharine Graham rightly quotes ‘Truth and News are not the same thing’!!!