Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that Congress politician Rahul Gandhi was an intelligent individual contrary to an image created by Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami through his interview in the past.
Speaking to the Print website, Rajan said, “I think Rahul has often been depicted maybe because of that totally disfiguring interview with Arnab Goswami way back as someone who doesn’t have capabilities to think and lead.”
Rajan said that this was ‘such a wrong portrayal in the sense that he is smart, intelligent and also brave.’
“I think what people discount which they should not. This is the family which has seen the grandmother assassinated and the father blown up. To engage in politics, to be in the midst of crowd, I mean if I had that experience, I would be hiding in the bed all the time,” Rajan added.
The former RBI Governor also highlighted track record of Gandhi’s prophecies coming true whether it was his warnings on big events including the Covid pandemic.
He said, “I think he is a very reasonable leader contrary to what has been protrayed.”
Gandhi’s advisers had decided to invited Goswami, who worked for the Times Now TV channel then, for the first-ever TV interview of the Congress leader just before the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. Goswami had torn into Gandhi by exploiting his inexperience in dealing with tricky questions from TV representatives. Many believe that Goswami’s interview with Gandhi had a quite a negative impact on the latter’s public perception as the future leader of the country.
“Rahul Gandhi is a very reasonable leader, smart, intelligent and brave, contrary to what has been wrongly portrayed”
-Raghuram Rajan,
Former RBI Governor pic.twitter.com/j9VCugxNgy— 𝑪𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒚𝒂🛡 (@catale7a) May 29, 2024
Goswami later quit Times Now to launch his own channel Republic TV with the help of a BJP politician. Since then, he’s come out in the open as a fierce BJP supporter and Muslim-hater.
His decision to openly support the BJP and its divisive ideology has helped Goswami immensely as his media empire grew exponentially and he went on to launch two more TV channels in a relatively short time. They are Republic Bharat for Hindi audience and Republic Bangla to cater to the Bengali audience.