Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami could not stop himself from reacting to a spin-off video on the Rafale controversy by a London-based child. The boy, identified as Suhruth, recorded his video while reproducing the monologue of Goswami from one of his recent shows. Suhruth’s video, after shared on Twitter, has gone viral, receiving more than 6,000 likes, nearly 3,000 retweets and hundreds of comments.
Whiling seemingly reading from a script, the boy in the video goes on to mock Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his sustained attack on the Narendra Modi government over the controversial Rafale deal. He says, “Guys, many of you believe that Nirmala Sitharaman, the Defence Minister of India, that she was too ruthless while systematically destroying the totally unprepared, unresearched and unaware Rahul Gandhi yesterday. Some people feel that out of sympathy if nothing else she could have let him off without pinning him to the ground and literally beating him up factually forcing Rahul Gandhi for a second consecutive day to run away from parliament that too on an issue that he created which is Rafale. I don’t think so.” This appeared to have been borrowed from the opening monologue of Goswami in his show broadcast on 5 January.
The young child, who may perhaps not even truly understand the nuances of Indian politics, then resorts to name-calling against Gandhi. Addressing Gandhi, he says, “You are a fake Gandhi, Mr. Rahul.”
My close friend young son Master Suhruth from london is more mature then @RahulGandhi pls listen wht he is saying about rafale. Hope Mr Gandhi u will learn something and stop lie to the people of India. @narendramodi @AmitShah @vikasbha @rahulkanwal @BJP4India pic.twitter.com/rb45o01pIX
— Nirmal Naik (@nirmalnaik) January 5, 2019
This is what Goswami had said in his show, broadcast on 5 January.
As #RafaleDramaFlops, here’s why Arnab Goswami thinks that ‘Rafale scam’ was the biggest fake news story of the Decade- pic.twitter.com/wbfXLdR95l
— Republic (@republic) January 5, 2019
Impressed by the boy’s performance, Goswami declared him a star. The Republic website quoted Goswami as saying, “Suhruth, you’re a star and have done the intro far better than I did. I loved your ending line: Jai Hind – Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Your patriotism shines through and hope we meet some day.”
But social media users did not appear impressed with the kind of adulation he has received from Goswami and other right-wing supporters. Many slammed Suhruth’s parents for dragging a child into a vicious political controversy, while others mocked the child’s parents for hypocrisy on nationalism. User Richa Sharma wrote, “First ask him to come and live in India then talk about India.” “Bring him to India. Mould him into a Gau Rahkshak… & Take care of the stray cows,” commented user Indrajit. User India First wrote, “He is speaking what he has been taught, sad that BJP goes even to extend of polluting the young minds… never mind all this only shows efforts being put to suppress Truth. Very Defensive approach, PM should answer not a child.”
In fairness, even though Goswami had called Gandhi’s allegations on the Rafale deal as the ‘biggest fake story,’ he was seen giving grief to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during his recent interview. The Indian defence minister was seen struggling to find suitable answers to several key questions over the controversy.