'Why Is This Billboard Even Allowed To Exist?'

Kicking and, well mostly screaming, Arnab Goswami has somehow needled his way into every Indians’ peace of mind. Over the past few months we’ve all been witness to the massive coverage of his departure from Times Now, his announcement of the launch of his own news channel, Republic, and most recently, his face splashed across billboards as a part of the channel’s upcoming launch campaign.

While most of us have enjoyed the end of his screaming matches during his kangaroo court of a show, ‘The News Hour,’ which was anything but news, we have to say, the man really knows how to market himself. But honestly, some part of us always wondered, and hoped, that there was more to him than what we saw on TV - maybe it was all for the show? A TV persona driven and enhanced by growing need for TRPs, fame and money. It wouldn’t be the first time an on-camera personality is completely different in person - it’s all a part of the ‘entertainment’ industry after all.

The never-ending race for popularity and ratings is an issue that plagues most nations’ news stations. India, in particular, is currently in a rather heated state of inter-station competion. One stark and humourous example being India Today’s still-stinging slam of Arnab’s billboard with their very own version of it nestled right next to his.

While these we see as fun and games, there is one Republic billboard that, for us, has crossed a line - featuring Arnab’s face with the tagline ‘Pakistan’s Migraine.’ When the ‘need to please’ goes hand-in-hand with politics and religion, there is little room left for free speech,free press, and most importantly objective news delivery. Moreover, when that ‘need’ is fuelled by spite, this so-called advertisement for news becomes an advertisement for propaganda.

In our current ultra-nationalist political climate, things have only grown more toxic. Arnab’s latest billboard should be considered hate speech and slander, right? However, this doesn’t seem the case; instead people laud criticism of Pakistan [see: India’s ultimate enemy and root cause of every problem to rid this nation from female infanticide to terrorism and poverty] and call Arnab a brave representative of the Indian people who “says what needs to be said, but people fear to speak about.” Give us a break! This is not what any senior journalist in any part of the country, or the world, should be doing. He’s not just Pakistan’s migraine, but has grown to be the entire country’s, or at least to people open-minded enough to see the larger political picture and not the distractions presented to the people. It seems proclaiming “JAI JAWAN! JAI KISAN! JAI BHARAT/GAU MATA!” can help you get away with doing anything. And of course, praising demonetization only helps.

All this has us wondering just how far people are willing to go to get those ratings? Where have the healthy journalistic debates gone? When does journalism become driven by crowd pleasing and politics? Do people have the freedom to express their true opinions anymore?

Well, Pakistani journalist Wajahat Saeed Khan seems to have answered, intentionally or unintentionally, some of these questions in a recent Facebook post, detailing his interaction with the man of the hour.

The post reads as follows:

“I worked with this man when I was on assignment in India. We got along. He was a sensible, affable, switched on chap in person.

But on TV, Arnab Goswami was a different animal. He was venomous. He was not fair or balanced. And he rigged debates.

Our last conversation was when he actually called me to pitch positions on a show we were going to do together (he suggested ‘Wajahat, you will say X, and I will say Y...).

By the way, I didn’t want to say X.

X was a stupid thing to say from a Pakistani perspective. Meanwhile, Y was a more sensible position. But he wanted to say Y, and reserve that rational sensibility for strictly an Indian perspective.

He wanted to push the us versus them narrative: That the Indian perspective was rather sane, and the Pakistani perspective was, actually, quite mad.

That ended our relationship, as well as my status as a once in a while co-debater on his show.

Now, after his own ups and downs in the Indian industry, Arnab seems to be back. Or so this poster would tell us.

But this poster begs another debate.

Should an otherwise sensible, affable man put on a jingoistic, even pathologically hyper-nationalist persona just to get great TV-ratings?

Should a rational man act - actually put on a show - of a crazed ‘sevak’ just because it will sell to India’s teeming masses?

Won’t that have an affect on India’s great national conversation? Her likes and dislikes? Her dinner table and drawing room and mess hall and dhaba debates? Her voting patterns and politics?

Forget Pakistan, or Pakistanis. Let’s assume they don’t matter, for the sake of this argument.

But Goswami matters. As possibly the most popular journalist in India, is Goswami’s Pakistan-basher behaviour and virulently anti-Pakistan persona fair to the millions in India who watch him and believe him, considering it’s an act?

Is that fair to his profession?

Is that fair for South Asian peace?

I’m not quite sure.”

Mr. Khan comes to the same conclusion that we find ourselves at, one of uncertainty and frustration. At a time when pretty much every news outlet is accused of being controlled or funded by some big corporation or political party, where do citizens turn to for the truth? This is what the nation wants to know Arnab. Where is your responsibility towards the people? A megalomaniac hungry to be at #1 at any cost is a short-sighted goal with massive, negative repercussions. When one holds the power to possibly influence the minds of over a billion people, should you not cater to reality and the truth? A true spokesperson ‘of the people’ would look at the long term betterment of a nation’s wellbeing and citizens, call for peace and stability in times of trouble, not spew hatred and create further divisions based on what the current dominant political narrative is preaching. I guess we’ll know soon enough as Republic’s launch draws near.

He’s a smart businessman, his audience of critics and haters may even be larger than his supporters, but they all tune in - whether to love or hate - to his show to find a basis for our own perception of him. Can we boycott him already? Well, we won’t be tuning in, but we are pretty sure he’ll find a way to let us know what HE thinks, not the people of the country.