BJP leaders’ protest over Arnab Goswami’s arrest is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black

The BJP’s protest over TV anchor Arnab Goswami’s arrest is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. No one else but Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself is calling Arnab’s arrest an ‘attack on freedom of press’. He even talked of ‘return of emergency days’ in Maharashtra. Almost all the Modi Cabinet ministers echoed a similar sentiment on the development through their respective Twitter handles.

It is, indeed, a classic case of double standards. Indian journalism has been in the pits over the past six years during Modi’s rule. The rule of the game under the BJP raj is, ‘stay with us or face the music’. Look at all the major news channels or big newspapers, and you would find all of them singing praises for the Modi government.

If anyone like the NDTV dares to be neutral, its offices are raided by the ED and the CBI to send the message: fall in line or face the music. If any anchor like Prasun Vajpayee still tries to speak the truth, he is thrown out of job under the PMO’s pressure. Those trying to still survive through the digital medium or alternative platforms like Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire and celebrated TV anchor Vinod Dua, are served FIR notices by BJP-ruled states. Dozens of not so well-known journalists are being

sent behind bars for an ‘anti-government’ tweet or attempting to report from the ground.

Frankly, journalists never had it so bad and journalism never suffered such a body blow as it has under the BJP’s rule. You have to be an Arnab Goswami in these times to thrive in journalism. Scream in support of the BJP, humiliate Opposition leaders on screen, spread hatred and create divide through jingoist lectures from the studio or peddle BJP’s brand of nationalism through your evening shows to keep the nation’s focus away from basic issues. No matter even if you peddle half-truths or fake news through your shows like Arnab Goswami does on Republic TV.

What else did Arnab do recently when he hooked the nation’s attention to his TV shows on Sushant Singh Rajput suicide? Arnab indulged in downright character assassination of Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakarborty, who was virtually named as murderer of her partner and accused of peddling drugs to Bollywood on his shows. It turned out to be a charade based on half-truths as government agencies finally said that Sushant’s death was a case of suicide and not murder at all.

Despite all his sins of commission and omission, Arnab Goswami’s brand of journalism is Amit Shah’s icon because it manages to keep the nation’s attention away from basic issues like the grave economic crisis and unemployment etc.

The BJP has no love lost either for journalism or for that matter any other democratic institution at all. Look what they did to Parliament during the last session when farm laws were passed in the Upper House under dubious majority vote. Judiciary is under a cloud for its pro-government pronouncements. The credibility of autonomous bodies like

the Election Commission is at its lowest ebb for its tilt towards the BJP in any case of electoral complaint by the Opposition parties. The Executive is being driven by the dictates of the PMO. The state of the media, which can speak up the truth to power, is already described as pits.

It is all happening not just under the BJP’s watch but under its directions. Frankly, all democratic institutions are being hijacked for fulfilling the RSS’ Hindutva agenda and journalism is no exception to that under BJP’s rule. Arnab Goswami is being shamelessly defended by the BJP in a suicide case where he has been named for abetting suicide. Two years back when the BJP was in power in Maharashtra, Republic TV had set up a studio at a cost of Rs. 80 lakhs for which Arnab Goswami and his partner allegedly did not pay.

The two persons who set up the studio later committed suicide naming Arnab Goswami and two other persons for forcing them to kill themselves. Mumbai police has arrested Goswami in this criminal case which is now being investigated. He has not been arrested for any of his journalistic offences that he commits day in and day out from his studio. Yet for Amit Shah and his BJP colleagues, Arnab’s case is an issue of ‘assault on freedom of press’.

It is a case of sheer double standards because the BJP that sends scores of journalists behind bars is now crying wolf over freedom of press in the case of Arnab Goswami. It would be better if the BJP first released all those journalists whom they have arrested for speaking up the truth and then demand Arnab’s release.