Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami faced incessant trolling on social media on Saturday after a clip of him allegedly calling the victims of Kerala floods ‘shameless’ went viral.
Angry Twitter users launched a hashtag #ShamelessMalayali to target Goswami for allegedly ridiculing the victims of nature’s fury in the God’s own country. The natural calamity has left close to 400 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.
In the viral video, which was a part of his Friday night’s debate show, Goswami was heard shouting, “This group is shameless, is the most shameless bunch of Indians I have ever seen. They’ve gone around spreading the lie religiously. I don’t know what they get for it. Whether they get paid for. Do they get paid money for abusing their own country..point is there is a conspiracy to malign India.”
No sooner had he the clip surfaced on Twitter, users began to target Goswami and the Malayali co-founder of Republic TV, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, with the hashtag #ShamelessMalayali. Goswami’s critics called anyone who had association with his channel shameless in response to the former’s ‘shameless’ jibe.
#Arnab Goswami with one of the “shameless Malayalis” ,his boss Rajeev Chandrasekhar MP . #ShamelessMalayali pic.twitter.com/Ov93xxxUPB
— N.Madhavan Kutty (@nandeilath) August 25, 2018
Dear Arnab cowsami, this would be how you happened to Know about #ShamelessMalayali .But we are the exact opposite of what ever he stands for #OMKVArnab pic.twitter.com/kbF5LMdKCx
— SHARAF (@Onlysharaf) August 25, 2018
As a #Malayali , I was initially very angry with Arnab on the “viral clip” of him.
Checked Twitter to find @RahulEaswar photo with himArnab was only talking about the people of Kerala he has interacted with,the likes of Rahul and other sanghis.#ShamelessMalayali https://t.co/6TSgPFzkj1
— Shibin (@Madsoul54) August 25, 2018
Is that a #ShamelessMalayali with Arnab? pic.twitter.com/IjC1xlMAp8
— The Last Caveman #RebuildKerala (@CarDroidusMax) August 25, 2018
The viral video was taken from Goswami’s Friday night debate, which was broadcast after the UAE ambassador reportedly contradicted Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s claims that the gulf kingdom will help flood victims with Rs 700 crore financial assistance. Even though the claim was first made by Vijayan after his telephonic conversation with the Dubai crown prince, Goswami concluded that the ‘lie’ was spread by “shameless’ people to malign India.
Since Vijayan, a Malayali himself, was the one who first made the claim of UAE extending Rs 700 crore help to rebuild flood-ravaged Kerala, Goswami’s ‘shameless’ jibe was instantly interpreted as an insult for Malayalis.
Chandrasekhar, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, took to Twitter to defend his business associate. He wrote, “Theres a few clowns on social media trying to build a fake narrative abt @republic ‘s editor #Arnab calling Malayalis “shameless” Its a LIE (watch video) n smells of usual Congress style nonsense ? Im respndng bcoz some of u asking me abt this ! (sic).”
Theres a few clowns on social media trying to build a fake narrative abt @republic ‘s editor #Arnab calling Malayalis “shameless”
Its a LIE (watch video) n smells of usual Congress style nonsense ?
Im respndng bcoz some of u asking me abt this !#RebuildIngKerala pic.twitter.com/sx9K941CWt
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@rajeev_mp) August 25, 2018
UAE, which has a considerably large population, has not officially contradicted the claims made by Vijayan. Its ambassador to India had said that the gulf kingdom had not finalised the figure, which was under consideration.
Soon after the tragedy struck Kerala and the extent of damages began to unfold, UAE had announced that it was forming a committee to decide on its help to rebuild the state. In his heartfelt social media post, UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed had said that the people of Kerala were ‘part of our success story.”
The UAE government had also published a full-page advertisement in the country’s newspapers urging people to donate towards the victims of the natural calamity.