Republic vs the Rest — Aaj Tak calls out ‘TRP chor’, NDTV on madaari, ABP says people betrayed

A quick take on what prime time TV news talked about.

File photo of Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami | Commons

New Delhi: It was a prime time like no other: Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami was seen driving his car, flashing the ‘V for victory’ sign as the tagline ‘Rok Sako Toh Rok Lo’ flashed across Republic Bharat. 

On his prime time show, Goswami launched a virulent attack on Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, after the latter announced at a press conference Thursday that Republic and two other channels were allegedly involved in a television rating points (TRP) fixing scam.

An enraged Goswami attacked everyone — other news channels, Congress and Sonia Gandhi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Mumbai Police even as Republic claimed “global support” for its cause.

In what eventually descended to a vicious street brawl, the channel claimed that the report from the rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), which the Mumbai Police had cited, did not mention Republic TV and that there was an alleged conspiracy between ‘Tak’ and Mumbai Police (referring to Aaj Tak).

It claimed it had a copy of the FIR where India Today’s name was allegedly “clearly” mentioned.

“Tonight viewers, me and my entire team, we just have one message for these liars. Brace yourselves for more exposes, more deep investigations, more fearless reporting and for you Param Bir Singh, more court cases,” warned Goswami.

With visuals from Singh’s Thursday press conference in the background, he recited a poem in Hindi for the police chief and the Mumbai CM that loosely translates to — “I haven’t learnt defeat, I don’t know how to stop, We are born to sacrifice ourselves for the truth… I am the son of an Army man…”

Meanwhile, rival news channels reveled in the opportunity to attack Goswami and his news channels. His former colleague at Times Now, Rahul Shivshankar said “…it pains me…because the accused was a colleague…’’ but added that, if true, this was a “massive scandal” that involved the loss of revenue and jobs at news channels.

Times Now reporter Nikunj Garg was less kind: “…let’s not confuse him with a journalist, he is a businessman’’. At 9 pm, anchor Navika Kumar, another former colleague of Goswami, insisted that the TRP scam must be debated. “It must be looked squarely in the eye or else you will blame me that I am not looking within… a scam is a scam is a scam.”

At India Today, anchor Rahul Kanwal interviewed Param Bir Singh as did almost all other news channels, including NDTV 24×7, CNN News 18. However, he said the channel would not pronounce judgment on the alleged scam:  “(This) is a newsroom, not a courtroom..’’

“Arnab Goswami (will be) judged by a real judge… the law must prevail,” Kanwal added.

When academic Madhu Kishwar harked back to previous scams like “NDTV’s hawala scam” and accused India Today of being a “kangaroo court” for pointing fingers at Goswami “within minutes” of the Mumbai Police’s press conference, Kanwal quickly responded,  “…this would be a kangaroo court if we had already decided that Arnab Goswami was guilty — as he often does on his television shows — and be hanged in a public town square — as he often does on his television shows — or to be whipped and caned — as he often does on his television shows. We’re not saying that.”

Aaj Tak’s Anjana Om Kashyap was biting in her criticism, calling Republic TV “TRP Chor”, Zee’s Sudhir Chaudhary called it a “threat to democracy” while NDTV India’s elder statesman Ravish Kumar compared news channels with a ‘madaari’  (street performer with a monkey).

“You never know when the TV anchors will start performing”, Kumar said without naming any specific anchor. NDTV 24×7 anchor Sreenivasan Jain boasted about how they had been flagging the issue of faulty ratings for many years.

CNN-News18 displayed huge runners with ‘REPUBLIC CHEATED INDIA’. Anchor Zakka Jacob called the alleged TRP racket and scandal one of the “worst kept secrets in this industry”.

News channels also used the opportunity to boast of their own spotless journalistic credentials: News18 India’s Amish Devgan was heard yelling during his debate on China, “This is not a nautanki channel”.

“We don’t do farzi things, we don’t believe in tamasha. There might be other channels who might believe in doing so, but Amish Devgan and his channel doesn’t do it,” he yelled out.

Kashyap, on Aaj Tak’s ‘Halla Bol’ came down heavily on Republic TV for the alleged ‘farjiwada’ (falsification). “The way this channel used to create false news, it would have never imagined it would become the news one day”, she said. “302 maang rahe the, 420 nikle,” (they were demanding Section 302 [for actor Rhea Chakraborty], they themselves turned out to be tricksters) proclaimed Kashyap.

On Zee News, Sudhir Chaudhary compared the issue with the electronic voting machine (EVM) hacking. “The way box office collection matters for a Bollywood star, and votes for politicians, TRPs matter to a news channel likewise,” he explained.

ABP News’ Rubika Liyaquat took the high road: “For the first time in the history of Indian television, such a huge betrayal has taken place, the people of Hindustan have been betrayed but good news is Mumbai Police has busted the TRP scandal very quickly,” she said.

With inputs from Angana Chakrabarti and Pia Krishnankutty