New Delhi: As the US presidential election go down to the wire, with no clear winner even now, prime time debates Wednesday night were consumed with the possible final outcome.
And in the midst of this election hullabaloo, Republic TV Founder and Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami’s arrest found its way onto news channels.
His ex-work place, Times Now gave a rundown of his arrest.
“Republic TV promoter Arnab Goswami was arrested this morning in connection to the 2018 abetment to suicide case. His arrest was affected after a tense stand-off in his own living room,” said anchor and former colleague Rahul Shivshankar.
“Obviously, this entire episode has led to a polarised pitch battle in the public domain between the Maharashtra police, Maharashtra government and Arnab Goswami,” Shivshankar added.
Fellow anchor Madhavdas G. explained the ‘game of charges’ — “It has been charge vs counter charge. Goswami’s most important charge is that he has not been served with any summons. Raigad police comes out and says that in this particular case of section 360 of IPC, there is no need for summons, arrests can be made directly.”
Republic TV and Republic Bharat repeatedly telecasted visuals of Goswami’s arrest Wednesday morning and also the tweets of support by the Union ministers.
The channel slammed the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra and in one clip, BJP leader Sadhvi Pragya said that one who “voiced the truth” had been arrested.
In the clips, Goswami accused the Maharashtra Police of manhandling and assaulting him, he even showed an injury on camera. He also pointed out how he was brought out of his house without shoes.
The channels ran a petition with the hashtag #IndiaWithArnab, with updated numbers of people signing it.
On India Today, Rahul Kanwal was more concerned with whether US President Donald Trump would go to the Supreme Court after the election results.
Trump had declared himself winner and threatened to approach the US Supreme Court to stop the counting of votes in key swing states Wednesday.
Kanwal asked, “Is that your sense that Donald Trump will approach the Supreme Court? And we know that in the US, the ideological moorings of Supreme Court judges are clearly known. Is that how they may vote?”
Richard Rossow, senior advisor with US-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, didn’t see this as a crisis.
Rossow said, “I wouldn’t put it in the crisis category. Just a bit frustrating that it takes a bit longer than other countries to figure out who is going to be running the place for the next four years.”
Nidhi Razdan, associate professor, Harvard University talked about the situation on NDTV 24×7’s discussion.
“What is interesting is that the last update I saw showed that Donald Trump has actually won a bigger popular vote this time than he did in 2016. That is astounding when you look at all the controversies.”
She pointed out, “It is quite a telling commentary on where America is headed regardless of who becomes the President.”
ABP News anchor Rubika Liyaquat was in Bihar but her topic of discussion was — ‘Who is more beneficial for India, Trump or Biden?
“Elections are on in the world’s most powerful country. Trump says that he is the sikandar (winner). Biden has thanked people for voting him,” Liyaquat said. The anchor then discussed the “swing states” that could affect the election results.
“This election has crossed all levels of excitement,” Liyaquat said.
The anchor kept asking the panelists and the reporter in the US about the winner. “Please someone clear it, who has won and who has lost?,” she asked, laughing.
Liyaquat then discussed Trump’s body language in an attempt to figure out the results. “He looks very tired his body language seems like it.”
News Nation was completely uninterested in Arnab or the US elections and instead discussed, “radical Islam” in India—yet again.
Anchor Deepak Chaurasia, in his characteristic manner, asked, “Is Deoband triggering radical Islam in India?”
This was in reference to Darul Uloom Deoband, a renowned Islamic seminary in North India, which had expressed outrage against French President Emmanuel Macron for “insulting” Prophet Muhammad.
“Deoband isn’t with PM Modi, it’s with the same radical Islam that cuts off the neck on making a cartoon,” Chaurasia said.
“Islam is a religion of peace and carries the message of peace and harmony,” said political analyst and advocate Ehthesam Hashmi.
Soon after war of words broke out between the panelist and the anchor. Some things never change.
Valuerable govt of maharastra with the support of 2 idiots taking a despicable action aginst our most talented editor in chief of Republic TV Mr Arnab Goswami.
Having done this becoming foolish and stolid
All the best.