The nation wants to know, what is Arnab Goswami up to?
The ex-Editor in chief of Times Now and the voice of the nation Arnab Goswami shared his struggle story at a Jaipur event. The event ‘A New Revolution, A New India’ organized by Dainik Bhaskar saw Arnab Goswami in a rather somber mood as he delivered a talk followed by a Question-Answer session with the audience. Arnab didn’t shy away from the audience questions and answered them readily.
Here are a few questions which were asked by the audience and Arnab’s response to them:
Are you [Arnab] a poor, harassed journalist who is fighting the establishment?
Now one doesn’t get the “poor harassed journalist” vibe from Arnab but he too has faced harassment at the hands of the ones in power. Arnab recounted an incident where he went to interview the late CPM leader Jyoti Basu. His [Basu’s] supporters physically assaulted Arnab and his camera man and smashed their heads against the wall.
“The CPM goons pushed me against a wall, snatched my camera and almost smashed my head into the wall” says Arnab as he shares the details of the encounter with the audience.
It is interesting to know that a journalist like ArGo, who is known for his strong opinions and fearless approach has faced harassment too.
Arnab told the audience that he requested the members of fraternity to support him. All of them refused as said “Go, fight your own battles”.
Arnab was determined to get an apology letter from CPMs office. He said: ” I would dit on a hunger strike outside the CPMs office to get the apology letter”. He eventually did get the apology from the CPMs office”.
Here’s a video of Arnab talking about the incident.
For a while it seemed as if Arnab was channeling the pre-2011 version of Arvind Kejriwal, who often played the “victim” card to gain the sympathy of the public. But Arnab set the record straight and said:
“People ask me you what will you do. You are one person, they are big companies. You have little money, they have a lot of money. They tell me you are not a businessman. I am not a businessman”.
One can see that Arnab’s account of his struggle is not a sob story, neither is he projecting himself as a victim. It does take a lot of balls to lock horns with powerful organizations who are very influential.
While ArGo has many fans, he has several haters too. There are people who despise his brand of journalism. Arnab told the audience that he believes in all the people-the ones who like his brand of journalism and the ones who don’t as he spoke about his new venture “The Republic”:
“I have placed my belief in the people of India. I believe in this republic. There is a reason why I have named it Republic – It’s for the public, voice of the public, undiluted. And I promise you today that till my last day in this profession, I will not let down your faith in me. I am placing my belief in you”.
All in all, not all of us may agree with Arnab Goswami-esque journalism, but the man deserves the credit for being courageous and speaking the truth all these years.
More power to you Arnab.
