On Republic TV, Arnab was news, news was Arnab. They never missed him

Visuals of Arnab’s arrest have been repeated day in and day out, accompanied by the commentary of little Arnabs – the anchors of Republic TV.

A screengrab of Republic TV. | YouTube

The entire country, world and the universe — or at least the Republic of Arnab Goswami — erupted in joy and applause when the Supreme Court granted him bail Wednesday afternoon in what Republic TV called a “massive victory”. By then, he had spent eight days or “nearly 150 hours”, as Republic TV anchor Rhythm calculated, away from us in prison. “Arnab Goswami, mere bhai, newsroom vaapis aa rahe hain..” declared another Republic anchor, punching the air with his fist. “We will never cow down, never cow down…” sniffed a reporter, wiping away her tears.

Was there life at Republic without Arnab? Yes, indeed, because although he may not have been with us in the flesh, he was there in the footage — and in the headlines (“Arnab Gets Bail”) and the hashtags (#ArnabIsBack) and on the lips of everyone at Republic: “We are eagerly awaiting when Arnab Goswami is back”.

Arnab was never gone

Truth be told, it was like he never went away at all. We have seen more of him, heard more about him while he was in jail than when he was amongst us. Since last Tuesday’s remand to judicial custody, we have seen his face in every commercial break with the slogan ‘No fear. No favour’. We have watched videos of the police in his apartment, just before his arrest; of his bruised arm and socked feet; of him framed behind the bars on the window of the police van taking him to Taloja jail as he cried out, “My life is under threat…”

We have seen excerpts from his speeches celebrating “my newsroom”, we have seen old footage from The Debate with Arnab Goswami, we have seen posters of him held up by protestors wearing Arnab T-shirts, in Agartala, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Patna, Ayodhya, Bhopal, Mumbai, Delhi… and we have witnessed him flashing the ‘V for Victory’ sign again and again and again — “We will not bow”.

These visuals have been repeated, day in and day out, hour upon hour. They have been accompanied by the commentary of the “beautiful team” of little Arnabs – the anchors and reporters of Republic TV and Republic Bharat who did everything they could to sound just like him: Niranjan, Aishwarya, Abhishek, Sagarika, Shivani, Rhythm, Sucharita and Pradeep Chakravarty, among others.

Since last week, Team Arnab has chanted, “Arnab, Arnab, Arnab”. They have tried to fill the void he left behind – “As his team, we came here every day and told the people of this country… we want justice…” said a reporter after the Supreme Court gave him bail.

Release Arnab, a ‘global’ campaign

The Republic newsroom pursued with single-minded devotion campaigns to ‘Release Arnab’, ignoring all other developments, barring the day’s headlines and the Bihar election.

Ironically, Republic journalists have enjoyed more screen time without Arnab than they did with him. But that doesn’t matter because it has all been for Arnab.

With every breath, they have pleaded the righteous cause of “my older brother Arnab”, “every mother’s son, Arnab…’’ They fielded panel discussions on Arnab’s continuing incarceration; they questioned, they lectured and scorned those who have dared do this to Arnab. They have tracked every single detail of “our” court cases for Arnab — on Wednesday, the Supreme Court hearing of his bail case began at sunrise and ended at sunset. They stood vigil outside the police station during his interrogation, they ran after the police vans transporting him, gasping out their reports on his “last words” as the vehicle sped away. “Arnab’s fight is Bharat’s fight,” they proclaimed every hour, adding that Arnab represented each and every Indian.

The two channels showed us “the nationwide” nay, the global “roars”, the “unrelenting… unprecedented support” for  “hero” Arnab — from San Francisco and Texas, to the UK, Australia and even South Africa, the whole world was demanding his release — they said. Some Indians in New Jersey, we were told, planned to write to the US State Department to deny visas to ministers in the Maharashtra government for this “illegal arrest’’.

“We want Arnab back safely,” said a woman at a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar; “We want our lion back”. This is the refrain of the protestors —many wearing saffron scarves — was seemingly everywhere: Rupa in London, Keinnas somewhere in the UK, tribals and coastal people in Maharashtra, or so we were told, and even villagers, said G.J. Singh, a former army officer.

When the screen wasn’t filled with anchors or protestors, there were sadhus and sants performing havans in Mumbai, and Patna, diyas were being lit in Mathura and aarti was at Vrindavan — all to help release Arnab.

From them, we moved to the newsroom where journalists were seen standing in solidarity with Arnab, speaking out against his arrest — in Assam, Odisha, Delhi and Mumbai. Channels like Prag News, OTV and Newslive, in one voice, raised the alarm — ‘today Arnab, tomorrow us’.

And what about the prime time debate at 9pm and 10pm that Arnab had made his very own? Well, after footage of Arnab’s speeches, debates and his arrest, panel discussions went on air with like-minded people to decry the arrest. There were advocates like Aman Sinha and Anuj Saxena, and a plethora of BJP leaders – Shazia Ilmi, Zafar Islam, Gaurav Bhatia leading the way. And there was, of course, Major General (retd) G.D. Bakshi on air, almost every day for  the “custodian of the poorest of the poor…who had been paraded like a terrorist…”

All of this was said and done in the name of Arnab Goswami, who is Bharat, who is all of us:  “Justice Chandrachud, on his birthday, has given India a birthday gift,” commented Rhythm. As far as Republic was concerned, Arnab is the news and the news is Arnab.

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