By Sushil Kutty
The Mumbai Police has wound a complicated path in its quest to discipline Republic TV, struggling to get a foothold, gaining it and then, inexplicably, losing it at that exact time when it looked like the cops were on top and the journalist was down in the dumps with his face in the mud! And now, in the unending Republic TV-Mumbai Police saga, with yet another twist to the narrative, it clouds the mind to fully comprehend that, at the end of the day, it all boiled down to what – an ugly war for supremacy between two media outlets – one established and hoary in age, the other way considerably younger and on the go with whatever it takes.
And the Mumbai Police says Republic TV has been doing exactly that, engaging in “whatever it takes, legal and illegal” to stay ahead of every news channel in TRP. The police and a whole lot of other people call it the ‘Fake TRP Case.’ TRP, as everybody would know is which TV news channel/TV show gets watched for the most part of the day. And, according to the Mumbai Police, Republic TV allegedly used illegal and wily ways to “suppress” Times Now’s TRP to second spot to perch itself on top!
To that Goswami says “bollocks, how can that be possible?” If anybody makes any news channel “tops”, says Goswami, it’s the viewer, the audience, the “diehard fans” of the anchor who won hearts and eyeballs with his manner of presenting news. “It isn’t my fault if people like my style,” boasts Goswami, much to the disgust of his peers in other channels including the ones in Times Now.
In fact, Times Now has called out Republic TV’s unvarnished and blatant takeover of TRP supremacy using all means classified ‘hook or crook.’ “It’s the ultimate disgrace, blatant cheating of humanity,” said a Times Now news anchor the day the Mumbai Police held its second press conference to let the Republic’s cat out of the bag and expecting Goswami to blanch in a meek meowwww. But, instead, the cat snarled!
Goswami retaliated with the #CantTouchRepublic hashtag and “17 points” on why so? According to the Republic TV Network, 1) the Mumbai Police have no jurisdiction on TRP; 2) a thorough probe of ‘Barc’ will reveal how hollow the Mumbai Police claims/allegations of Republic TV using unfair means are and 3) Republic TV will take on everyone in court, “you just wait and see.”
The Mumbai Police are not talking after its second presser on the ‘Fake TRP Case.’ The first one boomeranged with the Supreme Court taking the Mumbai Police to task for calling the presser. That did not pierce Mumbai Police armour. So, the 2nd presser came along. The Mumbai Police has filed a charge-sheet and might do an addendum shortly, fueling talk that “it’s a witch-hunt” and that the Mumbai Police, especially Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh, will not stop at anything till Arnab Goswami’s goose is thoroughly cooked.
The rest of the mainstream media are steering clear of the case. Minus Times Now and the Times of India of course. Recall that Arnab Goswami was Times Now’s star anchor from 2006 to 2016 and Goswami now claims that if Times Now slipped to “2nd or 3rd or 4th” spot on the TRP totem it was because he, Arnab Goswami, quit Times Now and with him moved out a huge-huge chunk of the Times Now audience to the Republic TV news channel he launched.
“My popularity, my popularity,” says Goswami and, to tell the truth, Times Now’s star anchor Navika Kumar and star reporter Nikunj Garg, both of whom worked under Goswami, have no answer forthcoming. Navika Kumar called Republic TV’s manoeuvre to claim top-spot the ploy of a beaten adversary, the last resort in the face of continuous defeat. Nikunj Garg went a step further and branded Goswami’s Republic TV a “propaganda channel of a party.”
That is rather cute. Funny! If Republic TV is the “propaganda arm” of a particular political party, what is Times Now? Both are equally wedded and sworn to pitching the ruling party’s propaganda into every home and hearth that both are beamed into. Times Now anchors take the BJP line hook, line and sinker and spread it far and wide. Ditto Republic TV.
Times Now’s Navika Kumar and Rahul Shivshankar are no less BJP moles in the media than Arnab Goswami is. When it comes to covering politics – which is what they do on weekdays, primetime, night after night – they toe the BJP line and do everything in their command to suppress and flay the voices of the opposition parties, whether it’s the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the BSP, CPM, CPI, DMK, TMC, Shiv Sena…
For both Times Now and Republic TV, their day begins and ends with singing hosannas for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party BJP. Both channels know what’s good for them and they are shameless, unabashedly so, in being totally under the thumb of the BJP and the Modi Government.
In fact, that is partly why I&B minister Prakash Javadekar does not appear fully on Arnab Goswami’s side when it comes to the ‘fake TRP case.’ He has to look out for the other vassal channel, Times Now! And Navika Kumar is as powerful and needed in the Centre’s corridors of power as Arnab Goswami is. So, Javedekar and the Modi Government did not jump to the Republic TV’s rescue as most would have expected.
What we are witnessing is a series of power struggles, all over-lapping each other. It began with the BJP losing power in Maharashtra and the Shiv Sena-led MVA forming government. if the Palghar lynching had happened under a BJP dispensation, Arnab Goswami wouldn’t have gone hammer and tongs after the Maharashtra Government and the Mumbai Police wouldn’t have lost its head. And Times Now wouldn’t have made an issue of TRP, taken the issue of who’s ‘No.1’ and who’s ‘No.2’ to the Mumbai Police. The funniest part is India Today TV made a clean getaway!! (IPA Service)