lightoftruth
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Like him or hate him can't ignore this guy.
TV will be boring without him.
TV will be boring without him.
Arnab Goswami resigns from Times Now, says could start another venture
- Thread starter Soumitra
- Start date
Stephen Cohen
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Times Now is Finished
They dont have any Second in Command ; He is a one man Army
Arnab will take away all the talent of Times Now ;wherever he goes
They dont have any Second in Command ; He is a one man Army
Arnab will take away all the talent of Times Now ;wherever he goes
Jobless Jack
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eardrums says thanks
Soumitra
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Liberal p@nties in a twist over Arnab goswami
The phenomenon called Arnab Goswami is a caricature of our worst selves
On television, he is all of us, clamouring for more of us. He is the metaphor of the time, because he enacts the majoritarian Indian every day.
Shiv Visvanathan
A society cannot survive without symbols. It needs idols and icons who exemplify ways of life. Contemporary life has generated many idols, from Amitabh Bachchan to Narendra Modi, but none of these have had the regenerative power of myth. Our modern symbols are less of myths and more of Rorschachs, projections of our minds, our fears, our worst anxieties. Earlier, we would confess them to our therapist. Today, we flaunt our fears on television. It is the collective couch of our times. Our symptoms become our statements of our worlds. There is no other way to understand the power of Arnab Goswami.
Examine his CV and one will sense an ordinary person. Boringly average in academics. Goswami was an also-ran in early life, suffering under the arrogance of seniors, waiting for his time. Here is a man who strikes no chord of poetry, who caricatures our worst selves and becomes a hero. He is the boy next door you seldom noticed till you saw him on television.
Deep down, one realises Goswami’s biography is uninteresting. He is his own double, an invention of himself, tired of his original self. As a caricature of a middle-class self, he is successful, very successful. He enacts a catechism every night accompanied by an inquisition. Every day, someone is insulted, labelled, condemned. Television replaces the guillotine in public life.
A middle-class man suffering from daily anxieties wants the arrogance of power, the privilege of saying “off with your head”, five times a day. Not even presidents have that privilege. Instead of being constantly judged, evaluated and calibrated, we want to be the judge, lay down the rules and deliver the sentences. As inflated version of ourselves that we call Arnab, we enact that ghastly collective act of free will that we call the nation state.
The nation state is a bundle of anxieties. We police ourselves through concepts like nation state, security, and borders, and feel proud of our submissiveness. It is a collective act of vigilantism, an emotional high as inquisitors, and the power of tyranny without the fear of being overthrown, enacted every day. Oddly, we are not watching Goswami. He is a mere ventriloquist’s dummy, an inflated ego. All we watch is ourselves, content with an orgy of bloodletting every night. We consume arrogance, bullying, unfairness, project our worst fears and call that phenomenon – the nation state – the sum total of our basic instincts.
Forget the real-life man. Look behind at the more-than-real mask. He reminds one of a mid-level government official, or a scientist. But on TV, he is all of us, clamouring for more of us. He is the metaphor of the time, because he enacts the majoritarian Indian every day.
'Sign of the Times'
The French philosopher Jacques Derrida once wrote, sometimes evil likes to warn people in advance of itself. It sends a harbinger. In the age of television, Goswami is the harbinger of tyranny, an enactment of the future in the present. The irony is that what should frighten us gets fan mail. The phenomenon called Arnab shows that we are lemmings of a tyrannical future where all a demagogue needs is two hours of TV. It creates a more subtle warning that we miss out. It hints that violence is not just an act of production. Violence needs to be consumed as it consumes us. We are happy consuming Arnab because we feel that we will be part of such a tyranny. It is not his ratings that make Arnab. It is us. An Indian bored of itself, waiting for Hitlers to rise. Nothing creates tyranny more than the mediocrity of our everyday life. This is what turns the man we call Arnab Goswami from bad history to a glorious consumer myth that the media flaunts as its great creation.
Arnab Goswami was, as the pun intended, “a sign of the Times”. He realised he needed to be larger than the incubator that created him. He had to transcend the Times and become a force of his own, not a monster orchestrated by larger forces. He wants to be the conductor of his own future, the monster as soloist.
To do this will not be easy. The Times interview was a ritual the nation claimed to follow. To follow Arnab Goswami alone is a different choice. To achieve that, he has to invent himself again, as a new brand, to reclaim his place in folklore. The nation might want to know what drove him to such egotistic limits. Worse, the very Twitter that created him might chew him down. He might become cannon fodder for the very groups that created him. It might be that there is still a sense of poetic justice in the world – bloody, ruthless, but ironically satisfying. Mediocrity creates monsters so that future mediocres might bring him down.
The phenomenon called Arnab Goswami is a caricature of our worst selves
On television, he is all of us, clamouring for more of us. He is the metaphor of the time, because he enacts the majoritarian Indian every day.
Shiv Visvanathan
A society cannot survive without symbols. It needs idols and icons who exemplify ways of life. Contemporary life has generated many idols, from Amitabh Bachchan to Narendra Modi, but none of these have had the regenerative power of myth. Our modern symbols are less of myths and more of Rorschachs, projections of our minds, our fears, our worst anxieties. Earlier, we would confess them to our therapist. Today, we flaunt our fears on television. It is the collective couch of our times. Our symptoms become our statements of our worlds. There is no other way to understand the power of Arnab Goswami.
Examine his CV and one will sense an ordinary person. Boringly average in academics. Goswami was an also-ran in early life, suffering under the arrogance of seniors, waiting for his time. Here is a man who strikes no chord of poetry, who caricatures our worst selves and becomes a hero. He is the boy next door you seldom noticed till you saw him on television.
Deep down, one realises Goswami’s biography is uninteresting. He is his own double, an invention of himself, tired of his original self. As a caricature of a middle-class self, he is successful, very successful. He enacts a catechism every night accompanied by an inquisition. Every day, someone is insulted, labelled, condemned. Television replaces the guillotine in public life.
A middle-class man suffering from daily anxieties wants the arrogance of power, the privilege of saying “off with your head”, five times a day. Not even presidents have that privilege. Instead of being constantly judged, evaluated and calibrated, we want to be the judge, lay down the rules and deliver the sentences. As inflated version of ourselves that we call Arnab, we enact that ghastly collective act of free will that we call the nation state.
The nation state is a bundle of anxieties. We police ourselves through concepts like nation state, security, and borders, and feel proud of our submissiveness. It is a collective act of vigilantism, an emotional high as inquisitors, and the power of tyranny without the fear of being overthrown, enacted every day. Oddly, we are not watching Goswami. He is a mere ventriloquist’s dummy, an inflated ego. All we watch is ourselves, content with an orgy of bloodletting every night. We consume arrogance, bullying, unfairness, project our worst fears and call that phenomenon – the nation state – the sum total of our basic instincts.
Forget the real-life man. Look behind at the more-than-real mask. He reminds one of a mid-level government official, or a scientist. But on TV, he is all of us, clamouring for more of us. He is the metaphor of the time, because he enacts the majoritarian Indian every day.
'Sign of the Times'
The French philosopher Jacques Derrida once wrote, sometimes evil likes to warn people in advance of itself. It sends a harbinger. In the age of television, Goswami is the harbinger of tyranny, an enactment of the future in the present. The irony is that what should frighten us gets fan mail. The phenomenon called Arnab shows that we are lemmings of a tyrannical future where all a demagogue needs is two hours of TV. It creates a more subtle warning that we miss out. It hints that violence is not just an act of production. Violence needs to be consumed as it consumes us. We are happy consuming Arnab because we feel that we will be part of such a tyranny. It is not his ratings that make Arnab. It is us. An Indian bored of itself, waiting for Hitlers to rise. Nothing creates tyranny more than the mediocrity of our everyday life. This is what turns the man we call Arnab Goswami from bad history to a glorious consumer myth that the media flaunts as its great creation.
Arnab Goswami was, as the pun intended, “a sign of the Times”. He realised he needed to be larger than the incubator that created him. He had to transcend the Times and become a force of his own, not a monster orchestrated by larger forces. He wants to be the conductor of his own future, the monster as soloist.
To do this will not be easy. The Times interview was a ritual the nation claimed to follow. To follow Arnab Goswami alone is a different choice. To achieve that, he has to invent himself again, as a new brand, to reclaim his place in folklore. The nation might want to know what drove him to such egotistic limits. Worse, the very Twitter that created him might chew him down. He might become cannon fodder for the very groups that created him. It might be that there is still a sense of poetic justice in the world – bloody, ruthless, but ironically satisfying. Mediocrity creates monsters so that future mediocres might bring him down.
911
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Oh no, an intellectualLiberal p@nties in a twist over Arnab goswami
The phenomenon called Arnab Goswami is a caricature of our worst selves
On television, he is all of us, clamouring for more of us. He is the metaphor of the time, because he enacts the majoritarian Indian every day.
Shiv Visvanathan
A society cannot survive without symbols. It needs idols and icons who exemplify ways of life. Contemporary life has generated many idols, from Amitabh Bachchan to Narendra Modi, but none of these have had the regenerative power of myth. Our modern symbols are less of myths and more of Rorschachs, projections of our minds, our fears, our worst anxieties. Earlier, we would confess them to our therapist. Today, we flaunt our fears on television. It is the collective couch of our times. Our symptoms become our statements of our worlds. There is no other way to understand the power of Arnab Goswami.
Examine his CV and one will sense an ordinary person. Boringly average in academics. Goswami was an also-ran in early life, suffering under the arrogance of seniors, waiting for his time. Here is a man who strikes no chord of poetry, who caricatures our worst selves and becomes a hero. He is the boy next door you seldom noticed till you saw him on television.
Deep down, one realises Goswami’s biography is uninteresting. He is his own double, an invention of himself, tired of his original self. As a caricature of a middle-class self, he is successful, very successful. He enacts a catechism every night accompanied by an inquisition. Every day, someone is insulted, labelled, condemned. Television replaces the guillotine in public life.
A middle-class man suffering from daily anxieties wants the arrogance of power, the privilege of saying “off with your head”, five times a day. Not even presidents have that privilege. Instead of being constantly judged, evaluated and calibrated, we want to be the judge, lay down the rules and deliver the sentences. As inflated version of ourselves that we call Arnab, we enact that ghastly collective act of free will that we call the nation state.
The nation state is a bundle of anxieties. We police ourselves through concepts like nation state, security, and borders, and feel proud of our submissiveness. It is a collective act of vigilantism, an emotional high as inquisitors, and the power of tyranny without the fear of being overthrown, enacted every day. Oddly, we are not watching Goswami. He is a mere ventriloquist’s dummy, an inflated ego. All we watch is ourselves, content with an orgy of bloodletting every night. We consume arrogance, bullying, unfairness, project our worst fears and call that phenomenon – the nation state – the sum total of our basic instincts.
Forget the real-life man. Look behind at the more-than-real mask. He reminds one of a mid-level government official, or a scientist. But on TV, he is all of us, clamouring for more of us. He is the metaphor of the time, because he enacts the majoritarian Indian every day.
'Sign of the Times'
The French philosopher Jacques Derrida once wrote, sometimes evil likes to warn people in advance of itself. It sends a harbinger. In the age of television, Goswami is the harbinger of tyranny, an enactment of the future in the present. The irony is that what should frighten us gets fan mail. The phenomenon called Arnab shows that we are lemmings of a tyrannical future where all a demagogue needs is two hours of TV. It creates a more subtle warning that we miss out. It hints that violence is not just an act of production. Violence needs to be consumed as it consumes us. We are happy consuming Arnab because we feel that we will be part of such a tyranny. It is not his ratings that make Arnab. It is us. An Indian bored of itself, waiting for Hitlers to rise. Nothing creates tyranny more than the mediocrity of our everyday life. This is what turns the man we call Arnab Goswami from bad history to a glorious consumer myth that the media flaunts as its great creation.
Arnab Goswami was, as the pun intended, “a sign of the Times”. He realised he needed to be larger than the incubator that created him. He had to transcend the Times and become a force of his own, not a monster orchestrated by larger forces. He wants to be the conductor of his own future, the monster as soloist.
To do this will not be easy. The Times interview was a ritual the nation claimed to follow. To follow Arnab Goswami alone is a different choice. To achieve that, he has to invent himself again, as a new brand, to reclaim his place in folklore. The nation might want to know what drove him to such egotistic limits. Worse, the very Twitter that created him might chew him down. He might become cannon fodder for the very groups that created him. It might be that there is still a sense of poetic justice in the world – bloody, ruthless, but ironically satisfying. Mediocrity creates monsters so that future mediocres might bring him down.
. People don't like how he redicules others or how shout at others, but only his stand on issues 
. This article itself reflects same emotions author is accusing of. Yes if you don't agree with the point of view of intellectuals, you are that middle-class man who is suffering from anxiety who want the power of arrogance and the privilege of saying “off with your head”, five times a day which not even Presidents have 
. Because a middle-class man is far far inferior to these superiour beings.Wonder if these jerks write these blogs for their own intellectual circle or what? Because most of their readers are those same middle-class man (unless there are two kinds of middle-class people in India
). They can simply talk among their intellectual circle and vent out their frustration behind closed doors instead.
Last edited:
baajey
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i m inclined to ask.Oh no, an intellectual
Wonder if these jerks write these blogs for their own intellectual circle or what? Because most of their readers are those same middle-class man (unless there are two kinds of middle-class people in India
how are you different from that author ?
i mean, he has a blog, n u have a post on PDF. one can hardly find any difference, right ?
911
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Thats what I thought while writing, it makes me same as the author, an intellectual
. So easy to be an intellectual these days.
Soumitra
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Another "intellectual" rant
How deep is Arnab's love for Modi: Nation wants to know
His rule for journalism in the last two-and-a-half years has been: wear the government’s appreciation as a badge of honour.
The nation didn’t sleep after learning about Arnab Goswami’s resignation from Times Now.
His fans and followers suffered climax-anxiety. His baiters, mostly of liberal and left disposition, celebrated with spasms of orgasmic pleasure.
Night after night, India’s own Bill O’Reilly has been leading the middle class, especially overly nationalistic young men and women, to an Orwellian world.
Arnab herds his zillion of viewers to George Orwell’s 1984’s two-minute hate during The Newshour. On his show, the two-minute hate stretches to more than an hour and a half.
But the viewers and the guests go through an almost similar cathartic experience. They go through the motion of collective outbursts of hate; shouting, shrieking and throwing darts at their symbols of hate, indignation and anger.
The two-minute hate has two broad purposes: One is to channelise the rage against supposed enemies of the party (read communist party). It’s to ensure that people’s dissatisfaction with their lives, their perpetual state of frustration doesn’t turn against rulers. It’s a mechanism to release pent-up emotions. The second purpose is to deify the “Big Brother” — the supreme leader. The daily ritual is a reminder that “Big Brother” is benevolent and in turn it reinforces the orchestrated belief that the enemy must be loudly hated and demonised.
Arnab recreates 1984’s surreal scene night after night. Enemies and hate figures are identified with care, and with a shrewd process of political selection. One night the enemy is Rahul Gandhi and his Congress party. The other night it’s Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP, Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party or even Nitish Kumar and the Janata Dal (U).
That’s fine. Millions of people wait for politicians to be publicly guillotined in TV studios. Politicians, big corporates, the police and members of the executive who escape unscathed even after being accused of serious crimes, deservedly have to face Arnab — playing investigator, prosecutor and jury.
The Newshour identifies the issues, the personalities, the symbols of authority, greed and cronyism we wish to rebel against but can’t because we find ourselves powerless. Arnab choreographs people’s rage against them with his tirades, harangues and tongue-lashing.
However, in this truly Orwellian world of 1984, our “Big Brother”- the Prime Minister Narendra Modi - escapes unscathed night after night. He is beyond Arnab Goswami’s reproach. One doesn’t recall when was the last The Newshour host uttered Modi’s name, criticised him, let alone censured him.
He doesn’t even openly complement Modi. Why is Arnab shy of taking Modi’s name? Why does he behave like shy Indian brides of the bygone era, who were taught not to utter their husband’s name in public, not ever to speak a word of ill of him?
Does he find the government’s performance in the government so extraordinary that he has never ever criticised him?
Is he pursuing a policy as many media houses do? That is: leave the most powerful, prime minister for instance, aside, treat him and few others on the top such as BJP president Amit Shah as holy cows, and make easy meat of the rest?
Arnab fails on this simple test as well. He hasn’t taken on any senior front-ranking Cabinet ministers in the Modi government. Opposition parties’ spokespersons on his show have often accused him of pro-BJP bias. Arnab has often responded with a sheepish grin or grim silence.
One doesn’t recall any prime minister who has courted so many controversies in such a short time. Who evokes so much adulation from his followers — who invites so much anger, disappointment and even hatred from his detractors and political opponents?
But Arnab doesn’t question Modi or his actions. That makes the The Newshour anchor an establishment apologist. As an influential journalist, he is unique in mastering the art of channelising people’s anger away from the government. He has changed the rules of the game.
Does he find the government’s performance in the government so extraordinary that he has never ever criticised him? Credit: Times Now/YouTube
The rule of the game in journalism is: wear the government’s criticism as a badge of honour, as the Indian Express chief editor Raj Kamal Jha said in the PM's presence at the Ramnath Goenka Awards on November 2.
Arnab’s rule for journalism in the last two-and-a-half years has been: wear the government’s appreciation as a badge of honour.
His resignation speech at the Times Now office, where he says independent journalism will not die, is a lie.
The question is: can he continue for long with his current eyeball- grabbing strategy? That’s being an apologist for the government and demonising those out of power?
What Arnab didn’t tell his staff but he knows well is that a fatigue has set in in his approach, the fatigue over his choice of issues. The repeated Congress, SP, JD(U) and Left bashing has become boring. His routine Pakistan bashing too has become tiresome.
Even more boring is The Newshour’s guest list. The news show has been losing gravitas in terms of the quality of panellists.
With Congress and AAP virtually boycotting The Newshour, Arnab’s choice of panellists has become seriously limited. He is forced to debate with second and third-rung politicians from the non-BJP stable.
Respectable names in academia, civil society groups as well as journalists have turned away from his show. It’s inconceivable for a channel or news anchor of national repute to retain gravitas with declining acceptability among peer groups, leading members of the academia and almost all but one political party.
Arnab as well as Times Now have been in a bind. He had started looking out to get out of the untenable situation he has created for himself.
Arnab will have to reinvent himself wherever he goes. He can’t restart a credible news show by treating the prime minister and the government as holy cows. That’s done in autocracy, not democracy.
How deep is Arnab's love for Modi: Nation wants to know
His rule for journalism in the last two-and-a-half years has been: wear the government’s appreciation as a badge of honour.
The nation didn’t sleep after learning about Arnab Goswami’s resignation from Times Now.
His fans and followers suffered climax-anxiety. His baiters, mostly of liberal and left disposition, celebrated with spasms of orgasmic pleasure.
Night after night, India’s own Bill O’Reilly has been leading the middle class, especially overly nationalistic young men and women, to an Orwellian world.
Arnab herds his zillion of viewers to George Orwell’s 1984’s two-minute hate during The Newshour. On his show, the two-minute hate stretches to more than an hour and a half.
But the viewers and the guests go through an almost similar cathartic experience. They go through the motion of collective outbursts of hate; shouting, shrieking and throwing darts at their symbols of hate, indignation and anger.
The two-minute hate has two broad purposes: One is to channelise the rage against supposed enemies of the party (read communist party). It’s to ensure that people’s dissatisfaction with their lives, their perpetual state of frustration doesn’t turn against rulers. It’s a mechanism to release pent-up emotions. The second purpose is to deify the “Big Brother” — the supreme leader. The daily ritual is a reminder that “Big Brother” is benevolent and in turn it reinforces the orchestrated belief that the enemy must be loudly hated and demonised.
Arnab recreates 1984’s surreal scene night after night. Enemies and hate figures are identified with care, and with a shrewd process of political selection. One night the enemy is Rahul Gandhi and his Congress party. The other night it’s Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP, Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party or even Nitish Kumar and the Janata Dal (U).
That’s fine. Millions of people wait for politicians to be publicly guillotined in TV studios. Politicians, big corporates, the police and members of the executive who escape unscathed even after being accused of serious crimes, deservedly have to face Arnab — playing investigator, prosecutor and jury.
The Newshour identifies the issues, the personalities, the symbols of authority, greed and cronyism we wish to rebel against but can’t because we find ourselves powerless. Arnab choreographs people’s rage against them with his tirades, harangues and tongue-lashing.
However, in this truly Orwellian world of 1984, our “Big Brother”- the Prime Minister Narendra Modi - escapes unscathed night after night. He is beyond Arnab Goswami’s reproach. One doesn’t recall when was the last The Newshour host uttered Modi’s name, criticised him, let alone censured him.
He doesn’t even openly complement Modi. Why is Arnab shy of taking Modi’s name? Why does he behave like shy Indian brides of the bygone era, who were taught not to utter their husband’s name in public, not ever to speak a word of ill of him?
Does he find the government’s performance in the government so extraordinary that he has never ever criticised him?
Is he pursuing a policy as many media houses do? That is: leave the most powerful, prime minister for instance, aside, treat him and few others on the top such as BJP president Amit Shah as holy cows, and make easy meat of the rest?
Arnab fails on this simple test as well. He hasn’t taken on any senior front-ranking Cabinet ministers in the Modi government. Opposition parties’ spokespersons on his show have often accused him of pro-BJP bias. Arnab has often responded with a sheepish grin or grim silence.
One doesn’t recall any prime minister who has courted so many controversies in such a short time. Who evokes so much adulation from his followers — who invites so much anger, disappointment and even hatred from his detractors and political opponents?
But Arnab doesn’t question Modi or his actions. That makes the The Newshour anchor an establishment apologist. As an influential journalist, he is unique in mastering the art of channelising people’s anger away from the government. He has changed the rules of the game.
Does he find the government’s performance in the government so extraordinary that he has never ever criticised him? Credit: Times Now/YouTube
The rule of the game in journalism is: wear the government’s criticism as a badge of honour, as the Indian Express chief editor Raj Kamal Jha said in the PM's presence at the Ramnath Goenka Awards on November 2.
Arnab’s rule for journalism in the last two-and-a-half years has been: wear the government’s appreciation as a badge of honour.
His resignation speech at the Times Now office, where he says independent journalism will not die, is a lie.
The question is: can he continue for long with his current eyeball- grabbing strategy? That’s being an apologist for the government and demonising those out of power?
What Arnab didn’t tell his staff but he knows well is that a fatigue has set in in his approach, the fatigue over his choice of issues. The repeated Congress, SP, JD(U) and Left bashing has become boring. His routine Pakistan bashing too has become tiresome.
Even more boring is The Newshour’s guest list. The news show has been losing gravitas in terms of the quality of panellists.
With Congress and AAP virtually boycotting The Newshour, Arnab’s choice of panellists has become seriously limited. He is forced to debate with second and third-rung politicians from the non-BJP stable.
Respectable names in academia, civil society groups as well as journalists have turned away from his show. It’s inconceivable for a channel or news anchor of national repute to retain gravitas with declining acceptability among peer groups, leading members of the academia and almost all but one political party.
Arnab as well as Times Now have been in a bind. He had started looking out to get out of the untenable situation he has created for himself.
Arnab will have to reinvent himself wherever he goes. He can’t restart a credible news show by treating the prime minister and the government as holy cows. That’s done in autocracy, not democracy.
Hassan Guy
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911
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Criticizing government is fine when its really needed, but these people have made this criticizing or questioning of government on whatever position it takes on any issue so much common that even neutral people are pushing towards ultra nationalism. Why people don't trust these thugs? Their hate for Modi (now government) is not new. They opposed him even before he became Prime Minister, only the reasons for opposing has changed.Another "intellectual" rant
How deep is Arnab's love for Modi: Nation wants to know
His rule for journalism in the last two-and-a-half years has been: wear the government’s appreciation as a badge of honour.
The nation didn’t sleep after learning about Arnab Goswami’s resignation from Times Now.
His fans and followers suffered climax-anxiety. His baiters, mostly of liberal and left disposition, celebrated with spasms of orgasmic pleasure.
Night after night, India’s own Bill O’Reilly has been leading the middle class, especially overly nationalistic young men and women, to an Orwellian world.
Arnab herds his zillion of viewers to George Orwell’s 1984’s two-minute hate during The Newshour. On his show, the two-minute hate stretches to more than an hour and a half.
But the viewers and the guests go through an almost similar cathartic experience. They go through the motion of collective outbursts of hate; shouting, shrieking and throwing darts at their symbols of hate, indignation and anger.
The two-minute hate has two broad purposes: One is to channelise the rage against supposed enemies of the party (read communist party). It’s to ensure that people’s dissatisfaction with their lives, their perpetual state of frustration doesn’t turn against rulers. It’s a mechanism to release pent-up emotions. The second purpose is to deify the “Big Brother” — the supreme leader. The daily ritual is a reminder that “Big Brother” is benevolent and in turn it reinforces the orchestrated belief that the enemy must be loudly hated and demonised.
Arnab recreates 1984’s surreal scene night after night. Enemies and hate figures are identified with care, and with a shrewd process of political selection. One night the enemy is Rahul Gandhi and his Congress party. The other night it’s Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP, Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party or even Nitish Kumar and the Janata Dal (U).
That’s fine. Millions of people wait for politicians to be publicly guillotined in TV studios. Politicians, big corporates, the police and members of the executive who escape unscathed even after being accused of serious crimes, deservedly have to face Arnab — playing investigator, prosecutor and jury.
The Newshour identifies the issues, the personalities, the symbols of authority, greed and cronyism we wish to rebel against but can’t because we find ourselves powerless. Arnab choreographs people’s rage against them with his tirades, harangues and tongue-lashing.
However, in this truly Orwellian world of 1984, our “Big Brother”- the Prime Minister Narendra Modi - escapes unscathed night after night. He is beyond Arnab Goswami’s reproach. One doesn’t recall when was the last The Newshour host uttered Modi’s name, criticised him, let alone censured him.
He doesn’t even openly complement Modi. Why is Arnab shy of taking Modi’s name? Why does he behave like shy Indian brides of the bygone era, who were taught not to utter their husband’s name in public, not ever to speak a word of ill of him?
Does he find the government’s performance in the government so extraordinary that he has never ever criticised him?
Is he pursuing a policy as many media houses do? That is: leave the most powerful, prime minister for instance, aside, treat him and few others on the top such as BJP president Amit Shah as holy cows, and make easy meat of the rest?
Arnab fails on this simple test as well. He hasn’t taken on any senior front-ranking Cabinet ministers in the Modi government. Opposition parties’ spokespersons on his show have often accused him of pro-BJP bias. Arnab has often responded with a sheepish grin or grim silence.
One doesn’t recall any prime minister who has courted so many controversies in such a short time. Who evokes so much adulation from his followers — who invites so much anger, disappointment and even hatred from his detractors and political opponents?
But Arnab doesn’t question Modi or his actions. That makes the The Newshour anchor an establishment apologist. As an influential journalist, he is unique in mastering the art of channelising people’s anger away from the government. He has changed the rules of the game.
Does he find the government’s performance in the government so extraordinary that he has never ever criticised him? Credit: Times Now/YouTube
The rule of the game in journalism is: wear the government’s criticism as a badge of honour, as the Indian Express chief editor Raj Kamal Jha said in the PM's presence at the Ramnath Goenka Awards on November 2.
Arnab’s rule for journalism in the last two-and-a-half years has been: wear the government’s appreciation as a badge of honour.
His resignation speech at the Times Now office, where he says independent journalism will not die, is a lie.
The question is: can he continue for long with his current eyeball- grabbing strategy? That’s being an apologist for the government and demonising those out of power?
What Arnab didn’t tell his staff but he knows well is that a fatigue has set in in his approach, the fatigue over his choice of issues. The repeated Congress, SP, JD(U) and Left bashing has become boring. His routine Pakistan bashing too has become tiresome.
Even more boring is The Newshour’s guest list. The news show has been losing gravitas in terms of the quality of panellists.
With Congress and AAP virtually boycotting The Newshour, Arnab’s choice of panellists has become seriously limited. He is forced to debate with second and third-rung politicians from the non-BJP stable.
Respectable names in academia, civil society groups as well as journalists have turned away from his show. It’s inconceivable for a channel or news anchor of national repute to retain gravitas with declining acceptability among peer groups, leading members of the academia and almost all but one political party.
Arnab as well as Times Now have been in a bind. He had started looking out to get out of the untenable situation he has created for himself.
Arnab will have to reinvent himself wherever he goes. He can’t restart a credible news show by treating the prime minister and the government as holy cows. That’s done in autocracy, not democracy.
Indian civil society is extremely corrupt and politicized. All they care about is funds they recieve not the problems people (specially poor) face in this country and thier business will keep shinning till there are problems. They will never doubt intentions of the donor whom with the collected information they share but will surely doubt the intentions of Prime Minister of their own country. They are the watchdogs, they criticize government, middle class, bureaucracy, courts but no one can be their watchdog, because its an attack on democracy. They are the superior beings who are never wrong. Their hate is based on a single man who is now a Prime Minister and every single moment is like a slap on their intellectualism. The more people like Modi, the more they will hate him, as well as hate those who like him. And if a person hates Modi, for them he becomes a sane, unbiased, rare intelligent middle-class man, even if he has regressive views on other social issues. The predictions of doom and chaos come true by any means, and that's why for 5 years every news is a bad news for this country. The more they push people to right and ultra nationalism, the more politically correct they appear and they know it very well.
Old video of JNUSU elections when BJP barely came into power.
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