Arnab Goswami and his Republic TV have always faced allegations of being the mouthpiece of the ruling BJP. His credentials came under the scanner more after he launched the Republic TV in partnership with BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Goswami, however, stunned everyone on Sunday night by launching a tirade against the BJP, accusing it of promoting jhoot politics or the politics of lies.
Attacking BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi, Goswami said, “The biggest lie is forgery, for which one is sent to jail. One can’t think of a bigger lie. It’s incomprehensible to think that a political party will resort to such petty acts. Impersonation. Your veteran leader Vasundhara Raje, who lost in the assembly elections. You lied about her signature in the Lalitgate scandal.”
Goswami’s attack did not end here. He continued to read aloud the list of BJP’s lies in front of Trivedi, who looked utterly embarrassed and shocked. Goswami added, “Every day you are lying about the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh is topping the list in custodial deaths…People go to jail and get immediately killed. This is the situation right now.”
Calling BJP a ‘master liar,’ Goswami reminded him of how in the 1996 manifesto of the party, it had said that a ‘magnificent Ram Temple will be a great tribute to Bharat mata.’ “You got 160-161 seats that year in Lok Sabha. You did absolutely nothing. Now you are peddling the same lie 22 years later.”
Accusing the BJP of peddling fake news to cause communal tension, Goswami said that the party had lied about the disrobing of a woman in West Bengal in the past. “Haryana BJP leader Vijeta Malik shared a video of a woman being disrobed and said that Hindus’ condition were so bad in West Bengal. It turned out later that the photo was taken as a still shot from a bhojpuri film.. You think about the kind of lies you are spreading. Will you take responsibility if there’s a riot later because of this lie? No. You take great pleasure in spreading lies,” he added.
Goswami then said that maximum lies were being spread by the BJP’s IT Cell adding that the party never cared to think just how professionally they repeatedly lied.
No sooner was the video of Goswami attacking the BJP for following the politics of lies shared on social media, it triggered a wave of reactions with many speculating if the Republic TV founder had jumped the ship realising a dip in the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
#JhootPolitics | In Bulandshahr violence, our government had promised the attacker will be caught, and so it happened: Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi, National spokesperson, BJP pic.twitter.com/bRUQ5sNONi
— Republic (@republic) January 6, 2019
Activist Shehla Rashid wrote, “Arnab jumps ship. The end is near!.” She later tweeted, “Actually Arnab is pissed off ki Sudhir Chaudhry, Navika-Rahul, Smita Prakash sab ko interview de diya but Republic ko nahi. Even Modi knows that Republic TV has no viewership!”
Goswami’s former colleague at Times Now, Prashant Kumar wrote, “Watch this video and you’ll accept the fact that “Hawa badal rahi hai”! Sudhanshu Trivedi seems lost!!” YouTuber Dhruv Rathee wrote, “Are we living in some alternative universe? Arnab Goswami just thrashed the BJP spokesperson by listing down many lies and hatred that BJP has spread. He even exposed the BJP IT Cell for spreading communal poison!”
Goswami’s tirade against the BJP comes days after it was reported that another media group, accused of being the mouthpiece of the BJP, Zee, had written to Congress President Rahul Gandhi to end the party’s ban on its channels. The passionate letter by Zee, signed by six top editors including Sudhir Chaudhary, had clarified that Zee was ‘nobody’s mouthpiece.’
Both these developments take place in the wake of a shocking electoral defeat of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan last month.