Surpassing all the hurdles placed before it, brushing through all the unscrupulous legal notices that it was served with, Republic TV finally went live, 6 months after its founder Arnab Goswami announced his intention of launching Republic. 6th May went down in history as a historic Moment when a journalist challenged the might of Media moguls only to come out on top.
Laying down the 3 principles on which he envisaged this channel to stand on –
- Move (decentralize) the centre of Indian journalism from Delhi to the rest of India,
- Bring alive a spirit of pride in our Media for the Nation, where journalists put the interest of the nation above everything else; and
- Pursue real stories, stories which the nation wants to know.
Based on the above philosophy, Arnab launched his channel and the fervor of Republic seems to have gripped the nation, for want of quality journalism.
It has been 5 days since the launch of Republic TV and the political scenario in the country already seems to be tilting against the pseudo secular brigade. Starting with a bang, Republic broke the story of Lalu- Shahabuddin nexus where telephonic conversations between the two were released to the public showcasing the brazen manner in which the democracy and sovereignty of this nation was being compromised by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The expose also cleared the air on any doubts that anyone had on the ruler of Bihar (and it is not the Bihar CM, Nitish Kumar, by a long stretch).
Whilst the citizens were still digesting this major expose, the Republic team came out with another expose on Sunday. And this time it was Mr. Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi who faced the wrath of Arnab Goswami. The Journalist hit the nail on Arvind Kejriwal and his Deputy Satyendra Jain’s head. Breaking the #ArvindGate after Kapil Mishra’s allegation of Kejriwal taking a Rs. 2 crore bribe from Satyendra Jain, Republic TV released official documents showing how Satyendra Jain, Minister of Urban Development made millions of rupees in land allotment deals under his authority.
Republic produced records of how 200 bighas of land worth hundreds of crores of Rupees was authorized under the authority of Satyendra Jain, under the leadership of the Delhi CM, and how Satyendra Jain ended up making 100’s of crores.
For the reader’s convenience – Mr. Satyendra Jain is the same person who in 2016 used the Govt income tax declaration scheme for disclosing black money and his benami assets. He is the same person for whom the urban development ministry portfolio was taken away from Manish Sisodia, only to be given to him.
The charges against Mr. Kejriwal and his government leveled are very similar to the charges Mr. Kejriwal had alleged against ex-CM of Haryana, Mr. Hooda and his shady land deals with Son-in-Law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Robert Vadra.
After exposing 2 very strong people in 2 days, nobody expected Arnab to venture out, taking another giant head on. Considering it was only the third day his channel had gone live. On Monday, Arnab Goswami released the
#sunandamurdertapes, opening the debate to how the wife of Congress Leader Sashi Tharoor died. Having released 19 tapes recorded before and after Sunanda’s death. With enough evidence on the table, the police now have little option but to open the case again and investigate Tharoor.
Conclusion
The hard hitting fire brand journalism had propelled times now to the no.1 news channel and they must be cursing their stars the day on which they decided to give Arnab the boot. For now, it is Arnab and the Republic TV which has managed to grip the republic’s attention. And while the game might have just begun for Arnab, the closing for paid journalists has just begun.
If Arnab continues at the same pace and with the same anger, it will either be curtains for journalism of convenience or there will be a radical shift in the way the mic is held and the words come out of it. And this is bad news for the old lords of Indian Mainstream who have been the leading setters of the national discourse and their frustration is evident:
It's called the 'ravan' school of journalism! Soon you will have 100 heads on a channel shouting at each other!! https://t.co/TpufsdsYjQ
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) May 8, 2017
One party going all out to prop up one TV channel. 100% bias. 0% objectivity. Agenda: Promote the BJP. Fight opposition. Supari journalism! pic.twitter.com/0dhIh5qwB1
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) May 9, 2017
From ownership. To story selection. To pitch to tenor. You have to be delusional to believe this channel is not an extended arm of the BJP.
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) May 9, 2017
Republic made a debut on Hotstar and crossed a million views on its very first day. There shouldn’t be any doubt that The TRP Data for other channels after a month of republic should be very gloomy, especially Times Now’s.
Anyway! 70 years into independence and it finally seems like India is coming out of the shadows of the colonial mindset of the conventional media.
