Should I Rejoice Arrest Of Arnab Goswami?
The recent rage of Republic TV on Maharashtra Government ended in arrest of the editor in chief Arnab Goswami. The trouble was brewing right from the non-BJP government formation in the state and escalated during recent political drama played out after a Bollywood celebrity committed suicide. Where there was no love lost between Arnab and the ruling coalition in the state, the consequence is undesirable and worrisome. This incident is neither uncommon nor unpredictable as we saw many such patterns in the past decades. Yet the incident shows us the mirror in which we see ourselves in the democracy that built the nation. I took this incident to make two specific observations, one on the instrumentation of democracy and another on the media. In the end, I urged Arnab to introspect on both the aspects.
Authority Against Individual
The vindictive nature of government is highly condemnable and equally worrying for common people.The excessive use of state power to suppress voice of dissent is not only against democracy, it creates domino effect and weakens the state instrumentations. I don’t know how much merit the suicide abatement case against Arnab carries, but I do know such abuse of power by party in power from my many past observations. That happened across party-line to suppress whistleblowers, to negotiate political deals, to intimidate individuals for decades. The aftereffect, the integrity and credibility of law enforcement agencies hit rock bottom. You may not like the radical journalism Arnab runs, or his political and nationalistic stance, but please don’t rejoice Arnab’s arrest, as it shows the darker side of our democracy. If Arnab, Kanhaiya Kumar or Dr Kafeel Khan can go to jail, if sitting PM Arvind Kejriwal’s office and his principal secretary’s home can be raided, if ED can dig up 10-year old closed case against Dr Prannoy Roy to intimidate media, you are me are even more vulnerable. Our justice system system is slow, and state agencies are political pawns, so fight for the right cause and rejoice only when the democracy is strengthened.
When Hunter Becomes Hunted
I found a striking similarity between the arrest of Arnab and Rhea Chakraborty. Right before Bihar election, a political party sitting on piles of black money suddenly smelt political opportunity in tragic death of a celebrity. Suddenly that death became the political slugfest between two states and center(completely ignoring the federal structure of the country) , B-grade media like Republic saw TRP opportunity and went bloodthirsty and found easy pray in Rhea Chakraborty. The murder theory, drug peddling all spread like dope to common people, and got some relief from their sufferings due to poor economy and pandemic. We love seeing celebrities going to jail and suffering like common man, what a relief! The arrest of Rhea Chakraborty was inevitable for many reasons, but once political value redeemed, she was spared. What about us who wanted the entire Bollywood fraternity in jail? No worries, we have Arnab now, didn’t we already forget Rhea Chakraborty? Similarly, political messaging is very clear in Arnab’s arrest too. Once redeemed, he will be spared and unleashed behind the screen again, perhaps with double decibel, we will move to new issue, who cares?
Role Of A Media
I expect there broad roles of media in a well-functioning democracy. One, ask right question to the authority and present the untampered response of authority to the people. In a way, media should play a role of an opposition and constantly challenge the authority. Even the media represent common people, so questioning keep the authority mindful of their jobs, and exposes the deficiency rightfully. Questions on intelligence failure in Pulwama terror attack or educational degree of Prime Minister were conveniently portrayed by authority as against national interest. Two, bring up various facts and policies which matter to people. Media play a huge role in presenting complex societal, political, economic and governance issues in simplified packages for consumption of people at large. This is probably the best yet hardest part of a media, and unfortunately most of them fail here. In one hand, simplication of certain complex issues without tampering the truth is not easy, often such complex issues are packaged with the goal “what people want to hear” as opposed to “what people should know”. On the other hand, they can’t draw a line where to stop, i. e. where the facts end and judgements start. A non-partisan media can’t be judgmental, rather leaves the judgements to the audience. One great example of simplification of complex issue and presenting facts is “Cut The Clutter” run by Shekhar Gupta. Lastly, media plays a vital role in social harmony. Due to its greater reach to common people, it can unite people where there is a deep division or where there are attempts to divide people for vested interests. It can prevent running propaganda, stops spreading lies and misinformation, carries message of humanity across cast, creed, religion or political belief. Unfortunately certain section of media do exactly the opposite, they become the pawn of authority and help them creating deeper division in the society. The classic example of this year is by Republic TV coverage of Palghar lynching. Rather than assuming responsibility to maintain social harmony, they painted the incident with religious brush and created social unrest. I would have been supportive of Arnab’s arrest on such provocation, but alas, there was no political price attached on such arrest.
Introspection
Once the political negotiations are over, the value is redeemed, Arnab will go back to his comfort zone. Not many people are spared so easily and so soon. Dr. Kafeel Khan was haunted and treated like criminal, sustained torture and spent many nights with fear of encounter killing. I sincerely hope and pray Arnab will be spared soon, without any more mental and physical harm. Meanwhile, I do have a suggestion for him though. Once he comes out of jail, he has two options. The first option, he goes back to his den and double down the attack on selective individuals, run more propaganda on behalf of his patrons, start shouting even more louder and create more division to the society. But he should have realized by now that such patronage and protection is weak and temporary, political patronage is never a substitute of a strong democracy. So the second option in front of him is to create a media for stronger democracy. He has the opportunity to build a media which questions authority, make authority accountable to people, simplify and present only the facts without being judgmental, stops spreading misinformation, protects individual rights and carry the message of peace, harmony and universal brotherhood. Such media will make him even more stronger as a journalist, serve the purpose of the nation which he often quotes. He needs to choose between TRP, Politics and Democracy. Perhaps this secluded prison room gave him much needed break to take a step back and introspect. Perhaps we will see the metamorphosis which will bring about the positive change in Indian media with him. We have very few media houses which actually serve the purpose today, more the merrier.
