Goswami leaks, Godi media and Indian establishment

The Arnab Goswami leaks exposed the linkages of the Godi media and the Indian politico-military establishment and kicked up a debate within and outside India.

Since the facts are already out and the debate has started, we will not go into details of what appeared in the leaks and instead focus on a critical analysis of where India goes from here. In order to analyse the subject, we tried to deduce from the argumentation in Indian and international media, so as to reach some plausible conclusions. We evaluated the newspapers, opinion makers and digital platforms that conduct serious debate on issues confronting India.

Barkha Dutt’s YouTube channel, Mojo Story discussed the WhatsApp chats between Goswami and Partho Dasgupta on January 18, and a substantive debate ensued. In this conversation, Dutt spoke to Tavleen Singh, Dilip Cherian, Sandip Ghose and Apurwa Rawat, the daughter of a soldier who was killed in the Pulwama attack on January 14, 2019.

Singh stated she was not only appalled but also felt ashamed as an Indian journalist; Republic TV has become a court, prosecutor and police, who would judge people through media trials, destroy their credibility and ensure they landed behind bars. She also showed concern that a journalist and loudmouth like Goswami was fed classified information in advance by someone from the establishment.

Cherian implied that Goswami is not a journalist, but what he sees is Arnab the businessman, Arnab the investor and it’s a crack case of crony capitalism. The formula is simple; befriend the bigwigs in government and increase your business empire, pull down your competitors and increase your ratings and dividends.

Ghose stated that Goswami used target rating point (TRP) to put Republic TV on top and actually threatened India’s national security.

Rawat exclaimed something that Dutt did not want to hear; her spontaneous response was that she felt betrayed as there has been no accountability of those who perpetrated the Pulwama attack. She also mentioned (which was deleted by Barkha Dutt later) that the perception of Pulwama being stage-managed by the Indian establishment got strengthened, the blood of Indian soldiers was exploited to boost Republic TV’s TRP. Rawat narrated how her mother felt about the leaks and said, “it means this Pulwama attack was planned for us.”

Singh also pointed out that an absurd press release by Goswami, through Republic TV, projected that he was taking on Pakistan and termed it as nonsense and as if he is the PM of India. She said that this episode put India in a very embarrassing situation internationally as these conversations would vindicate Pakistan’s stance about India conducting false-flag operations.

In another programme on NDTV, Mahua Moitra, an MP from West Bengal, raised the issue of violation of the Official Secret Act and how come a journalist sitting in Mumbai had access to such classified information. Desh Ratan Nigam, the RSS mouth piece, defended the issue by stating that the matter had not yet been investigated and it was just a police report. Dr SY Qureshi, a former MBSA member, stated that TRP was a fraud and a manipulation tool to help favourites in the Indian media.

Leaving aside Goswami for a moment, we must talk about the jingoistic Godi media that we termed the ‘Republic of Absurdity’ after the Balakot attack in 2019. Taking help from our piece published in a Pakistani English newspaper on March 3, 2019, we will try to add to the current analysis. Post-Pulwama tensions in the Indo-Pak context brought both states to the brink of a nuclear Armageddon, as substantiated by Araundhati Roy in her piece published in The Huffington Post, on March 1, “Modi with his reckless ‘pre-emptive’ strike on Balakot drew two nuclear powers into a serious conflict and as a result internationalised the issue of Kashmir” as major international stakeholders jumped in to ensure South Asia did not go up in flames.

Pakistan’s response was measured and resolute. PAF struck back within 24 hours in broad daylight, engaging the Indian Air Force in a bold and audacious manoeuvre, ensuring that the trophy (Wing Commander Abhinandan) was handed over to India through the Wagah border.

The Indians addicted to the post-truth perception management by the ‘Republic of Absurdity’ (with jokers like Goswami heading the cabal), did not realise that war and Bollywood are two different species and the rude shock delivered by the real top gun of PAF, Squadron Leader Hasan (that paralysed the Indian politico-military leadership) was a reality.

TV channels like Republic TV, ABP Ananda and Zee TV form the Godi media. These have been probably commissioned to run the Hindutva Agenda of RSS and their main constituency are the Bhakts and Cow Vigilantes. This Republic of Absurdity keeps the Bhakts and ‘patriots’ in an absurd and fantasy world, and its jingoistic tone is one reason India and Pakistan have reached the brink of nuclear Armageddon.

While saner voices within the liberal and secular segment of Indian media have been pushed back by this Republic, it is unfortunate that the international community and Western media has not realised the danger posed by Hindutva flagbearers to regional peace.

If it was an apolitical decision by the Doval-Modi cabal of RSS goons to push South Asia to the brink of nuclear disaster and sacrifice the Indian military on the altar of dirty politics, why did the international community remain quiet when India brazenly violated Pakistan’s sovereignty by hitting Balakot? Did America give India the go ahead? And why were the lives of 1.75 billion South Asians put at stake to satisfy the ego of a megalomaniac head honcho of RSS?

The collusion between the Godi media and Indian politico-military establishment has been exposed by the Goswami leaks and the international community must realise it before it’s too late.

The RSS-led Modi government is the driver of this malaise and Goswami just a pawn. The big question being asked by India’s opposition parties and liberal media is about the environment of hate and acrimony nurtured through the millions of Bhakts and Godi media: is it sustainable? Has Indian media reached an inflection point? We think the answer is a big No. The RSS mindset has permeated into every nook and corner of India and the Sanghi ideology is the order of the day. The dialectic of shouting and ridiculing opponents is now well-established in the Indian media and won’t go away soon.

BJP and the Modi government have become a threat to regional and international peace due to its toxic and pernicious ideology and the way it has treated minorities; especially Muslims. The Indian establishment has been thoroughly exposed for its false narrative by the EU DisinfoLab report published recently. The alarming thing is that the disinformation campaign by India is linked with state-sponsored terrorism against its own people as well as Pakistan and the Indian periphery.

Last but not the least, Pakistan’s consistent stand that the Indian military and intelligence conducts false-flag operations has been vindicated. The Goswami leaks is just the tip of the iceberg and the international community must investigate India for deliberately destabilising South Asia under a nuclear overhang.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2021.

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