Arnab Goswami recently lost his cool at one of his guests after being branded as woke during a TV debate on Republic TV. Such was the level of his disgust on being called woke that he decided to briefly stop the debate to chide his guest as he uttered in anger, “nonsense.’ The republic TV founder also admonished his panellist for trying to teach him English.
Goswami said during the debate, “If tomorrow somebody says that I will denounce the supreme deity of another religion, you know, will it be acceptable? What’s going on in our country?”
The popular TV anchor reminded how suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma was hounded for her remarks against Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), while hurting Hindu sentiments was being deemed as ‘secular.’
Reacting to charges of hypocrisy by Goswami, one panelist replied, “The viewers of Republic (Goswami’s TV channel) are woke audience. They understand and read between the lines.”
But even before the Muslim panelist could proceed further with his argument, Goswami interrupted aggressively as he asked, “The viewers of Republic, what did you say? What did you say? One minute, One minute.”
A visibly offended Goswami continued, “Syed wait a minute, apply the brakes…. You said, the viewers of Republic are?”
The panelist repeated, “Woke audience.”
Angry Goswami asked, “Are you out of your mind? The viewers of Republic are anything but woke. You may be woke.”
When the panelist said that ‘woke’ was a good term, Goswami disagreed. The Republic TV founder explained, “It is not a good term in the sense that I look at. Apply the term elsewhere. You are woke, I am not.”
Goswami then shifted his attention to another panelist, who always agrees with him, and asked, “Are you a woke Savio? I don’t want to be woke. I am fine the way I am. You be woke. I don’t see any goodness in wokism.”
Goswami said that he was happy being a nationalist and did not wish to become woke. He also chided his guest for teaching him English saying that his English was ‘fairly ok’ as he uttered in disgust, “Nonsense.”
Goswami was discussing the controversy created by the Delhi government’s minister, Rajendra Pal Gautam, during a mass religious conversion recently. Gautam was later forced to resign after the BJP accused the AAP of insulting Hindu gods during the conversion ceremony.