Arnab Goswami was seen raising the pitch inside his studio as the crisis in Karnataka politics deepened over the desertions of Congress and JDS MLAs. His provocation prompted a Trinamool guest to insult Goswami’s late father leading to the eviction of the guest. But Goswami wasn’t done yet.
Slamming a Congress supporting guest, Goswami called Congress leaders who complained about the BJP’s attempts to poach its MLAs hypocrites. Addressing the guest, the Republic TV founder said, “Listen to me you Congress leech, listen to me…I want to ask you one thing. Forgot Eagleton Resort. You are saying to me that BJP is poaching your MLAs. What was Eagleton Resort, where you were throwing whiskey and liquor bottles at each other like uncouth vandals? Shame on you.”
Referring to how the Congress had approached the Supreme Court in May 2018 when the BJP formed the government in Karnataka for a few days. Goswami said, “When you do it, it’s ok, but when they do it, it’s a crime. You hypocrite. You classified hypocrite.”
The same show had seen two of Goswami’s guests leave the show after full-blown altercations with the channel’s owner. They included Trinamool’s Garga Chatterjee and a Kashmiri guest.
The Supreme Court is likely to examine the constitutional issues into the resignations of 15 rebel Karnataka MLAs. In a new development, the top court has also agreed to hear the pleas of five more MLAs namely Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, N Nagaraj, Munirathna and Roshan Baig. This has taken the number of total rebel MLAs moving the Supreme Court to 15.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Assembly Speaker has called for a floor test on Thursday, when Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy will be expected to prove the majority of his government. The BJP has said that it was confident that Kumaraswamy will fail the floor test. “As the new halfway mark will be 103 for a simple majority, the ruling combine with 100, including one from the supporting party BSP will fall 3 short off it (halfway mark) to win the trust vote and certain to be defeated,” BJP spokesman G Madhusudana was quoted as saying by IANS.