KS Muralidharan
Arnab Goswami, the Angry Young Man of Republic TV has proved yet again why he’s the most loved bulldog of India, when, shouting from inside the police van when he was arrested by the Raigad and Mumbai police, declared, ‘Uddhav Thackeray and Pram Bir, you cannot do anything to me,” and rounded off his bravado, with a typical call to the people of India “to raise your voice”.
Arnab’s dare to Uddhav Thackeray recalls to mind the legendary Ramnath Goenka of the Indian Express, who dared the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi to take on him directly, if she had the guts, instead of using her Gujarat chief minister to raid his press in Ahmedabad. Goenka’s inspired rebellion during the emergency era is now the stuff of legend.
Ramnath Goenka’s one-man army ensured Smt. Gandhi’s defeat, and there is no doubt that Arnab Goswami’s one-man army will also help ensure the downfall of the Maharashtra government.
Quite revealingly, Arnab’s mentors and understudies, and the Moghuls of the mainstream media, decided to cover the arrest of India’s most popular TV anchor, as a one-line running news ticker, brought in by a rookie hack. A few highly professional channels like NDTV covered the backstory — a conveniently reopened 2018 case of abetment to suicide against Arnab. For a backstory to this, just Google and find out how NDTV covered Pranab Roy’s troubles with the law and you will know how wonderfully professional the secular media are.
This, like it or not, is about Arnab Goswami, India’s number one TV anchor and Republic TV, one of the most popular national channels, and the whole country knows why he is being hounded by the Thackeray government.
Everyone knows why except the Moghuls of the MSM.
The Twitter handles of the FoE (freedom of expression) warriors — who erupt with deafening emoji thunderclaps and lightning on issues that rupture the country’s national interest like the CAA and the Shaheen Bagh protests — are even more eloquent on Arnab Goswami’s arrest, with their deafening silence on Twitter.
Sometimes a country pauses to write a new page in its history. This is such a time and we, the people have to recognise this time as such a moment, and rise as one.
We have to stand with Arnab because he speaks the loudest for India, and is even more loud, against the anti-nationals. They come in different shades and hues, and not all of them speak the Bharat tere tukde honge Inshah Allah language explicitly. They know how to disguise their discourse, and use nuance to seem like they are lily white and continue to milk the tired old ‘unity in diversity’ phrase to death.
We have to stand with Arnab because he spoke the loudest on the lynching of the Palghar sadhus. He speaks loud, because few if any dare to do so, on behalf of the majority community in ironically, the world’s largest democracy, and which, one has to acknowledge, is also the most open community in the world.
We have to stand with Arnab because he speaks the loudest against the tukde tukde gang that wants to break up our country.
We have to stand with Arnab because he speaks the loudest against all those in our country who have a strange love, open, hidden, or subtle, for rogue enemy, Pakistan, and now China.
We have to stand with Arnab because he speaks the loudest against all those who peddle their naked hatred against the Prime Minister of India, irrespective of what he does, to push their so-called secular agenda which invariably is at variance with the national interest.
We have to stand with Arnab because governments cannot so easily, so blatantly and so mindlessly misuse their powers to target those they want to silence.
We have to stand with Arnab because there is no Goenka in the media today, who could start a revolution in the country.
We have to stand with Arnab because the Press Council of India has become a pawn of the secular media.
We have to stand with Arnab because for the international media like the Washington Post and the New York Times, it is not a crime unless it is about Modi or Muslims.
We have to stand with Arnab not because he needs us, but we need him.
We have to stand with Arnab, otherwise, few will stand for the country in future.
We have to stand with Arnab, because this is about showing our gratitude to him.
We have to stand with Arnab, because tomorrow no one else will stand for us.