New Delhi: The big news on prime time Monday was Times Now and Republic TV at war over Arnab Goswami’s WhatsApp chat leaks—although not necessarily with each other.
On Times Now, anchor Navika Kumar may have surprised viewers by her emotional monologue on Goswami and how she wished he had maintained his values: “I worked with him for 12 years, learnt a lot from him and had respect for him as a TV professional… Today, I have to say this from a heavy heart that this man, who followed commercial success to such an extent, is someone I don’t know at all”, she proclaimed. This was a reference to alleged What’sApp message exchanges between Goswami and former Chief Executive Officer of the Broadcast Audience Research Council Partho Dasgupta, leaked from the Mumbai Police chargesheet in the alleged TRP scam.
Meanwhile, in a heated one-sided debate on Republic Bharat, the man in question announced with great fanfare: “From today Republic Network is at war with Pakistan.” This was in response to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s comment that the What’sApp leaks confirmed what he had said earlier – that the Balakot strike by India was for electoral gains. Goswami justified his purported knowledge of India’s surgical strike plan against Pakistan in 2019 before the attack, as revealed in the What’sApp chats, by saying, “Every child in India knew that the Indian Army would answer back after the Pulwama terror strike.”
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia backed Goswami: “Just for their benefit, the opposition can even patch things up with our enemy (Pakistan).”
G.D. Bakshi, Retd. Major General added, “Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is content because there has been a case registered against Republic media network,”
On the other side of the table, political analyst Sanjay Gupta could only say that he disagreed with most of the points being made to defend the sensitive information leaked by Goswami.
On CNN News 18 anchor Anand Narasimhan shifted focus to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement Monday that she will contest elections from Nandigram in the forthcoming assembly polls. BJP’S Suvendhu Adhikari, who is the sitting MLA, responded, “She’ll lose by half a lakh votes or I’ll quit.”
“Today Mamata Banerjee wants to start afresh. But her moves showed desperation, I feel she will fight in more than two seats in this election,’’ commented Debjani Bhattacharyya, political analyst. Bhattacharyya hinted that this is an ‘all out attack’ from Mamata.
On Monday, Banerjee called BJP ‘a washing powder party’. BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma was outraged: “If BJP is a washing powder, then Mamata Banerjee meant that her party had stains. I see a rattled TMC today…”
On India Today, BJP’s Gaurav Bhatia also lashed out at the Bengal CM: “People are calling Mamata Banerjee’s decision to contest from Nandigram a ‘masterstroke’, but I think it is a ‘plaster stroke’ as she is trying to repair cracks in the TMC,” he quipped.
TMC spokesperson Omprakaash Mishra defended Banerjee: “Nandigram is one area from where one of the biggest movements and a successful movement was crafted by Mamata Banerjee’s leadership… also, the entire country is now watching the spectacle of the Modi government trying to suppress the farmers and so, therefore, it is significant that Mamata Banerjee has announced this decision.”
ABP News had an opinion poll – the ABP News-C-Voter Bengal opinion poll – which, according to anchor Rubika Liyaqat, hinted that Bengal might see the return of TMC and Mamata Banerjee. But the polls also had something big in store for BJP.
The poll gives TMS 158 seats, 53 less than its tally of 211 in the 2016 elections while BJP will make huge gains_ 102 seats as against just 3 earlier.
Kakoli Ghosh, TMC leader commented, “Mamta Banerjee has dedicated her life to work for the people of Bengal, these people only know her and no one else—they will only vote for Mamta Banerjee.”
Congress leader Supriya Shrinate responded to the opinion poll results saying, “This is your opinion poll but the ground reality is very different.” Shrinate added that the BJP cannot win an election just by shouting `Shonar Bangla’.
Atul Kumar Anjan, CPI leader added, “BJP leaders are using government resources to campaign and their efforts will prove to be unsuccessful.”
(With inputs from Angana Chakrabarti)