After the arrest of Arnab Goswami, he has received wide support from common people across the country. But for the left-liberal media, he remains a ‘controversial’ journalist. They condemn his arrest, but with adding the caveat that they don’t agree with his ‘style of journalism’. After BJP leaders slammed the Maharashtra government for the attack on press freedom, Goswami is also being labelled as right-wing.
Amidst such condescending attacks on Arnab Goswami by the self-proclaimed ‘neutral journalists’, a social media user named Krishna Rao on Sunday took to Twitter to explain how Arnab Goswami has carried out his profession with at most integrity in the last few years touching upon all issues crossing political and ideological boundaries.
Narrating how Arnab Goswami has covered various issues over past few years, beyond any political leanings, a rare in his profession, Krishna Rao attacked the so-called foreign journalists for repeatedly referring to Modi government as “fascist” while calling Arnab Goswami as “controversial” and “Right Wing” after he was arrested by the Mumbai Police.
“Is Arnab Goswami controversial? Is Arnab Goswami Right Wing?” the social media user asked as as he mentioned how Arnab Goswami used his platform to put out so many stories in his illustrious journalistic career, which were deliberately ignored by the Lutyens media.
The social media user put out some pertinent questions asking why are not corrupt journalists who were caught brokering cabinet berths not painted as “controversial”?. The journalists, who are openly Islamist and Anti-India, why are they not referred to as “controversial”? Why are they accepted and recruited by “reputed” international media outlets? he asked.
According to Rao, the people who do not have concrete arguments are the ones who try to get away by labelling others as ‘controversial’ and people hatch on to these labels to keep up their confirmation biases. The Lutyens media can easily target and get away by calling Arnab Goswami ‘controversial’ and right-wing and get away, he said.
Being born in a Communist and Army family, he has the both left and nationalistic inclinations but people never cared to look at his work. When did being a Left leaning and Nationalistic journalist become “controversial” and “Right Wing”? Rao put a strong response against people who throw away term such as ‘controversial’ to their opponents without providing any arguments.
Citing several past coverages carried by Arnab Goswami, Rao said that how Arnab covered the news of moral police brigade who had hauled women in Mangalore pub. It is because of Arnab Goswami, the news got highlighted, he adds.
Referring to how Arnab Goswami had questioned the UPA government, Rao continued, “During UPA scams it was Arnab Goswami who was asking questions like “what about taxpayers money?”, “Why should taxpayers pay for Kingfisher Airlines?” when rest of the media bowling full tosses to Vijay Mallya & Co”.
Interestingly, Rao narrated one of his own anecdotes saying how one of his Centre-Left colleagues was very excited to see a journalist asking the right questions and how part of Indian Left saw Arnab Goswami in them.
When Arnab Goswami was with Times Now, he always had someone from Communist parties, many spokespersons of Communist parties appeared more on Times Now than NDTV, Rao highlighted on the fact regarding Arnab Goswami’s unbiased way of providing a platform to every ideological opinion in his shows.
Arnab Goswami even questioned President of India
Most importantly, Arnab Goswami did not even spare the country’s President. Arnab Goswami had even exposed the alleged land scams of Pratibha Patil and had also confronted Abhijit Mukherjee, the son of former President Pranab Mukherjee after he had made shocking statements on rape victims.
“Arnab Goswami always had the verbosity, during the IIM students agitation he highlighted the remarks made by Chhagan Bhujbal and repeated his remarks in a loop on TV. It is because of Arnab Goswami, the scams of UPA are known to every common man,” noted Krishna Rao saying how Arnab Goswami single-handedly exposed the UPA-era scams, which was very much overlooked by the Lutyens media.
“In the absence of Arnab Goswami’s aggressive coverage, the scams would have disappeared from people’s memory if he had done soft news coverage like NDTV and Co.”
Received the wrath of Right-wingers for touching cultural issues
Not just attacking the UPA, according to Rao, Arnab Goswami had even faced the wrath of Right-wing ecosystem after he had opposed beef ban by questioning the authority of the state to control food choices of people.
When Kerala decided to implement prohibition, it was Arnab Goswami who questioned the moral and religious view of many left and right-wing people who supported prohibition.
Even in the Sabarimala case, Arnab Goswami had sought for opening up of the Sabarimala temple for all women, a stand that was contrarian to Hindus, who were against judiciary’s intervention in deciding religious and cultural issues. Speaking to OpIndia, Arnab had defended his position on Sabarimala stating that he was in support of Supreme Court judgement that allowed women of all age to enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala.
The social media user also pointed out how Arnab Goswami had stood in support of Anurag Kashyap during his fight against ‘Sanskari’ Pahlaj Nihalani, during his controversial tenure at Central Board of Film Certification. During ‘Udta Punjab’ controversy, Arnab Goswami had taken a strong stand in support of Anurag Kashyap and other makers of the movie.
Ironically, the likes of Anurag Kashyap, who these days recognises with far-left ideas lately, foul-mouths and abuses Arnab Goswami on day-to-day basis.
AAP came to power, thanks to Arnab Goswami
Krishna Rao also opined that AAP would have never come to power in Delhi if not for the coverage by Arnab Goswami in Times Now.
Sharing another anecdote, Rao said a Lok Satta supporter friend of his was so frustrated, who said to him, “If only we had half Arnab Goswami in Telugu media, Lok Satta would get good number of seats in GHMC elections”.
According to Rao, the revolt against Arnab Goswami started after he questioned the corruption of journalists, when he talked about Radia Tapes and when he questioned why journalists were singing tunes of ISI agents like Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai.
He blames the likes of Shekhar Gupta, the media mafiosa of the country and other Lutyens gang for hounding Arnab Goswami by calling Times Now as Fox News of India.
“We have reached a point where so-called journalists are now issuing certificates, on who is a journalist & why Arnab Goswami isn’t one. We are okay with it because establishment journalists have dipped him in the oil of “controversial” & “Right Wing” – we do not want to touch it,” he noted.
Like everyone, Arnab Goswami is a human and has his shortcomings and that is why he did not attack everyone aggressively – which can be seen in his respect for Vinod Mehta and admiration for Prannoy Roy.
Rao explains that the hatred for Arnab Goswami from the Lutyens establishment stems from the fact that he is successful without their help. The establishment Lutyens media is making sure that corruption is made a footnote in the news bulletins and imaginary fascism propaganda is peddled on daily basis to serve their masters, it is Arnab Goswami and Republic who are on their way, Rao adds.
Ending his thread, Rao noted, “Hyenas of establishment Lutyens media are attacking a wounded Lion and part of the society is waiting like vultures to feed on the carcass. Eventually, it will be a loss to journalism and society if SILENCE is your choice.”
