In early 2019, when the nation was mourning the Pulwama attack carried out by JeM, which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel and injured 35 others, Arnab Goswami was preparing the pitch to improve the TRP ratings of his Republic TV as revealed in his chat details. In leaked details of WhatsApp chat between Goswami and the CEO of Broadcasting Audience Research Council, Partho Dasgupta, it has been revealed that the Republic TV anchor had stated, “this attack (Pulwama) we have won like crazy”. It shows that the attack was found useful by Goswami as it was providing his channel a unique chance to boost the TRPs. In further chat stream, it was also revealed that Goswami knew that the attack would help Modi to carry out such action which would “elate people”, that too, right before the election season of Lok Sabha polls hits the nation. It is an openly known fact that the government, in the run-up to the LS polls of 2019,  had sought votes in the name of soldiers.

Partho Dasgupta is currently admitted in the JJ hospital, unsurprisingly hours after the chats had gone public. The story does not end here. In the WhatsApp conversations, names like Rajat Sharma, Prakash Javedkar, and Navika also popped up. The chats also showed that Arnab had access to information about the developments inside the PMO with regard to officials like Nripendra Mishra. The chats also showed a request by Dasgupta to Goswami to remove the regulators off the back of BARC, and also showed that Goswami was privy to sensitive information regarding the Balakot airstrike three days before it happened. This amounts to a violation of OSA. The WhatsApp conversations are part of the chargesheet submitted by Mumbai police to a court under the case related to the TRP fiasco.

Also Read: Non-issue News taking central stage- a combination of propaganda and Bandwagon effect

It seems that Karma is giving it back to Arnab in the language he understands best. In 2020, he had also whipped up the issue of Rhea using the pretext of SSR suicide at the time the nation was under lockdown and facing the Covid situation head-on, by bringing in the aspects of her personal life over the TV screen. Last year a PIL was moved in the Delhi High Court alleging that Arnab Goswami and his channel were reporting “distorted and misleading facts” on the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput resulting in the infringement of the right to a fair trial of Rhea Chakraborty.

The plea had sought directions to the Centre to frame rules, regulations, or guidelines to govern reporting or broadcasting of all news related to criminal investigations. The petition had alleged that the journalist and the TV channel were on a “witch hunt” against Rajput’s friend Chakraborty and were behaving as “judge, jury and executioner” to sway the public opinion against her. The plea had also sought initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Goswami and his channel for the alleged “prejudicial reporting” of the Rajput death case. It had also sought a direction restraining the journalist and the channel from “publishing or broadcasting any information or news related to any criminal investigation in the name of investigative journalism and/or information received from anonymous sources.”

The revelations about the WhatsApp chat of Arnab raises questions like to what extent the News Anchor was privy to sensitive information. It also shows that he was celebrating that Pulwama happened. Additionally, the conversations also point out that there were talks on possibility of buying out judges. Is there more to the story?

About 15 years ago, a movie representing an England, set in a dystopic future, showed the collusion of the self-style chancellor Adam Sutler (yes, the name had a subtle hint towards Adolf Hitler) with the Right wing News channel anchor, Lewis Prothero (rings a bell?) to keep the population of England silent by feeding them barrages of false news which showed the necessity of rule by Sutler’s party-Norsefire.  It also showed how Sutler along with his associates had planned attacks on England itself to draw ahead their right-wing agenda to the gullible masses to cement their electoral victory. The parallels of this fiction with the current Indian context cannot be unseen.

The loud-mouthed channel and its main anchor were always known for their ways of peddling one-side narrative of Jingoism which supports the current government through its multitude of failures. In such a culture perpetuated by such channels, last year, a congress leader died of heart attack, after participating in a TV debate which poked into his personal take on religion (like not wearing a Tika) and made a brouhaha over it.

Also Read: Death of congress spokesperson-Mockery of the debate discourse

The leaked conversation details show that the Republic TV and its face, Arnab Goswami use all means possible to play the second fiddle and the loud mouth-piece for the regime whose only agenda is the hold over the power, irrespective of the condition of the economy, or the people who suffered due to the unplanned lockdown. But, slowly due to the efforts of the Mumbai Police, the dirt on the hands of the person who is acting like Prothero, is coming into the public domain.