Skip to main content

Was it freedom of expression when Arnab Goswami called activists anti-national?

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*

India’s prime time 'hyper entertainer', Arnab Goswami, was arrested by the Maharashtra police for charges of 'abetment of suicide' of an architect and his mother, who has worked for the so-called 'number one' channel, but did not get paid. Distressed, it has been alleged, the mother-and-son duo committed suicide in 2018.
The police at that time 'investigated' the matter and found no foul play and closed the case. The distraught family was running from pillar to post, yet the then chief minister Devendra Fednavis and his administration protected Arnab, the person accused of abetment, of all the allegations.
In fact, Fadnavis should face an independent commission for upturning the entire Bhima Koregaon violence case into a conspiracy theory and then putting so many intellectuals in jail. A chargesheet has just been filed after nearly one-and-a-half years against Anand Teltumbde, Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Stan Swamy, Sudha Bhardwaj and others who are not the persons who would ever spread hatred.
One may disagree with the political views of these intellectuals, with but nothing can be found in their writings which could be termed as anti-national or inciting hatred. Most of the time they have been speaking of the Constitution and the rule of law, and yet they face the tyranny of the state.
No doubt, none can or should justify police action to intimidate journalists. But as for Arnab, I am sure, police appears to have done its homework pretty well. It went to his home to arrest him in the morning. Perhaps that was not a great time as far as Arnab was concerned, as he wanted to make everything a public spectacle, as his channel had done it with Rhea Chakraborty, sought to be accused of abetting actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide, when she was arrested.
The police requested Arnab to cooperate while he was accusing them of 'beating' him up. Perhaps, even in his arrest, Arnab was thinking of TRP for his channel and wanted his wife and son to broadcast live the 'entire' event with him as an 'anchor' on the live show. A clip spread around by his Republic TV showed the reporter virtually crying that his boss was being taken away in a police van.
Most of the time activists have been speaking of the Constitution and the rule of law, yet they face the tyranny of the state and Arnab's channel
The news of Arnab’s arrest spread like wildfire on social media. ‘Bhakts' and patrons of the ruling party, as also senior ministers of the Modi government, spoke for him in order to pressure and embarrass the Maharashtra government -- though it wasn’t the best of the time, as most in the media, especially TV channels, were busy with 'experts' on US elections.
An interesting part of Arnab's 'power' was prompt statements made by his 'rivals' as well as various associations. The Editors Guild condemned the Maharashtra government's act and many channels suggested that they differed with Arnab's style but condemned the 'assault on the freedom of expression'.
The argument about freedom of expression was soon questioned. Critics called it hollow, as in Arnab’s definition of the term, anyone who disagreed with him could be subjected to his bullying tactics and was anti-national, corrupt and a Naxal, and those who agreed with him won accolades, as they fitted in his narrative of legitimizing the Sangh Parivar.
Indeed, Arnab's show is not really news. It is actually hate campaign. One may argue that he has, after all, the right to speak. Freedom of expression is fine, but under the guise of freedom one cannot run fake news propaganda of the ruling party to discredit opponents, including activists. Indeed, Arnab's show is not meant for free and frank discussion on different issues, but to create an atmosphere of hate towards those who disagree with the ruling party.
Those who speak for Arnab should see how how anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters have been treated and charged with sedition, how a reporter faced FIR for reporting on hunger, how a journalist was arrested under various charges for a tweet against a BJP chief minister, how a Kerala journalist was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) just because he was going to report on Hathras.
Indeed, Arnab is not Ramnath Goenka who fought against Indira Gandhi’s authoritarian ways. Arnab's hate campaign is not 'freedom'. If he had stood for freedom, he should have used his medium to decry all forms of fascism, suppression and religious hatred. Just promoting one kind of narrative and creating false narrative about others, insulting people on the show and carrying out sinister and planned propaganda, is not journalism.
It is time Arnab listened to his own arguments on Sushant Singh Rajput's case to keep Rhea Chakbarborty in jail. He considered word of the 'investigating agencies' as gospel truth. With with his arrest, will Arnab have a change of heart that all that the investigators say is not the final truth and people have the right to get legal aid, and let the process of law take its own course?
---
*Human rights defender

Comments

TRENDING

Campaign group urges INDIA alliance to release Jharkhand manifesto to counter BJP’s 'divisive' agenda

By Our Representative  The Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan, an advocacy group, has issued a press release urging the INDIA alliance to release a Jharkhand-specific manifesto to counter the BJP’s "divisive" electoral agenda. With just two weeks remaining before the assembly elections, the INDIA coalition has yet to announce its plans and priorities for the state. Meanwhile, the BJP's campaign, according to the press release, is centered around communalism, divisiveness, and distraction from Jharkhand's core issues.

Tributes paid to pioneer of Naxalism in Punjab, who 'dodged' police for 60 yrs

By Harsh Thakor*  Jagjit Singh Sohal, known as Comrade Sharma, a pioneer of Naxalism in Punjab, passed away on October 20 at the age of 96. Committed to the Naxalite cause and a prominent Maoist leader, Sohal, who succeeded Charu Majumdar, played hide and seek with the police for almost six decades. He was cremated in Patiala.

Israel's 'war crime': 18,000 children died not just from bomb explosions but also starvation

By Sandeep Pandey*  Last year 6 years old Madiha was a guest during Diwali at our home in Lucknow. Listening to the sound of fire crackers bursting outside she remarked, ‘It appears as if we’re in Gaza.’ She has probably no idea of the extent of damage and loss of life that has taken place in Palestine but can relate to sound of crackers as bombs exploding over Gaza.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Will Left victory in Sri Lanka deliver economic sovereignty plan, go beyond 'tired' IMF agenda?

By Atul Chandra, Vijay Prashad*  On September 22, 2024, the Sri Lankan election authority announced that Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) alliance won the presidential election. Dissanayake, who has been the leader of the left-wing JVP since 2014, defeated 37 other candidates, including the incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP) and his closest challenger Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya. 

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Will Bangladesh go Egypt way, where military ruler is in power for a decade?

By Vijay Prashad*  The day after former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka, I was on the phone with a friend who had spent some time on the streets that day. He told me about the atmosphere in Dhaka, how people with little previous political experience had joined in the large protests alongside the students—who seemed to be leading the agitation. I asked him about the political infrastructure of the students and about their political orientation. He said that the protests seemed well-organized and that the students had escalated their demands from an end to certain quotas for government jobs to an end to the government of Sheikh Hasina. Even hours before she left the country, it did not seem that this would be the outcome.

How pseudo-liberals 'went wrong' in judging DY Chandrachud as Chief Justice India

By Shamsul Islam*  DY Chandrachud took charge as Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court (SC) on November 09, 2022. On this occasion many of the pseudo-liberals who claimed to be defenders of the democratic-secular polity of India manifested great happiness. They declared that the time of SC being an appendage of the RSS-BJP government headed by PM Modi was over as Justice Chandrachud was a liberal judge committed to the democratic-secular polity of India. 

Why Han Kang refused to celebrate her personal accomplishment: Nobel Prize in literature

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  South Korean Nobel laureate Han Kang has declined to celebrate and refused to address a press conference after winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, citing the deaths, destitution, pain, and suffering of people affected by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. As reported by the Korea Times, Han Kang’s father Han Seung a renowned Korean writer conveyed her daughter’s message that “with the war intensifying and people being carried out dead every day, how can we have a celebration or a press conference?” She said that “she won’t hold a press conference”.