On 16 April 2020, two Hindu saints along with a driver were lynched by a bloodthirsty mob at Palghar of Maharashtra. Following which Arnab Goswami, the chief-in-editor of republic tv network, posed questions straight to Sonia Gandhi- the national president of congress party and the chairman of UPA- which is in power in the state of Maharashtra where the incident took place. Mrs Gandhi has criticised lynchings of Muslim youths on several occasions and even called India ‘lynchisthan’. The UPA chairman has expressed her anguish selectively probably to gain political mileage out of the killings in India. 12 days have gone by, but the party president has only turned a blind eye to the gruesome murder of the two saints.
Arnab Goswami called Sonia Gandhi by her real name “Antonio Maino” which has apparently infuriated congress workers across the country. Over 150 FIRs have been filed against the Republic TV editor by congress supporters in almost all congress ruled states. Mumbai police, thereafter served two notices to the journalist and asked to pay a visit to the police station. The news journalist was interrogated for 12 hours on 27th of April.
DD news senior journalist Ashok Shrivastav shows his protest against the 12 hour interrogation, saying this is a clear attack on the freedom of expression in the country. he says, over 160 journalists raised their voice when Siddharth Varadarajan was caught by police for spreading fake news in public.
When a UP reporter, Prashant Kanujia, who habitually uses extremely abusive and vulgar languages on public platforms, was arrested, almost all prominent journalists and intellectuals sitting in Delhi came in his support. Even I protested the arrest of Prashant Kanaujia. However I am completely shocked why all of the journalists are silent on the interrogation of the republic anchor.
“You may or may not like the way Arnab does his job, you may have ideological differences with him. You have full right to speak against or even criticise him. But remaining silent when a journalist, along with his wife, is attacked in a car and he is interrogated for 12 hours only for calling UPA Chief Sonia Gandhi by her original name, is not acceptable in any way. Tomorrow you may be arrested for questioning a certain politician, you may be their next target.
Your silnce only implies that Arnab has given you a challenge and you have got rattled.
