The Maharashtra Government took prompt action. Over a hundred villagers were arrested on the charge of murder. But the fact that two Hindu sadhus were killed was enough to trigger a vicious communal propaganda. The Maharashtra Government published the full list of the people arrested and the State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh pointed out that there was not a single Muslim among those arrested. Both the victims and their assailants were Hindus.

But the incident was a godsend to those who thrive on communalism and communal politics. Soon enough the Hindutva brigade started working overtime to fan communal passion. The Republic TV of Arnab Goswami, known for its highly provocative communal propaganda, had no difficulty in jumping to the conclusion that the working president of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi was directly responsible for the lynching, without an iota of evidence. Arnab questioned: “:Would Sonia Gandhi have been quiet if Muslim preachers or Christian saints had been killed instead of Hindu saints?” Then came the piece de resistance: “She will send a report to Italy about the fact that she is getting Hindu sants killed in Maharashtra. Goswami, who accused Sonia of maintaining a silence on the lynching, was, of course, discreetly silent on adducing evidence to substantiate his scurrilous allegations against Sonia. Nor did he name the person or persons in Italy to whom Sonia would send her report.

The point at issue is, however, not Sonia Gandhi. The target of Goswami’s attack could have been anyone opposed to the divisive politics of BJP. Targeting political opponents and denigrating them with false malicious and unproven allegations have become the habit of Goswami and his Republic TV. He has been at it from day one his channel came into being. What he has been saying, the provocations he has been giving against the minority communities and anyone opposed to the BJP are all on record. Since it is his own channel and he is the anchor person of the channel, he cannot take the plea that he has been misquoted or quoted out of context.

He is smug in his belief that as long as the BJP is in power, nobody can touch him, he is above the law. The Constitution says we are a secular republic but Goswami and others of his ilk masquerading as journalists are attacking the very idea of secularism and contemptuously calling the champions of secularism as “sickular”. Apparently, he believes that being a journalist gives him the right to character assassination with impunity.

In their arrogance of power, they have forgotten those days when the BJP had just two members in the Lok Sabha. It was Lal Krishna Advani’s rathyatra that culminated in the destruction of the Babri Masjid that turned the tide in favour of the BJP and ultimately helped it capture power at the Centre. It was the frenzy created by the Babri Masjid demolition that catapulted the BJP to power. And it can remain in power only by pursuing its divisive and communal line which reduces politics into the binary of Hindu and Muslim.

Foot soldiers of the BJP like Goswami are actively helping the BJP by incessantly spreading the communal virus by their blatantly provocative propaganda. The Indian Penal Code has enough provisions to deal with those carrying on this type of propaganda. But the Goswamis know that the law cannot touch them as long as the Modi-Amit Shah duo is in power. Goswami has noe been summoned by the Mumbai police and is being interrogated. In his bravado, he still says that he is standing by everything he said in his TV programme.

Goswami’s standard way of dealing with his panelists who do not advocate his stand and his political line is to bully and browbeat them and make them fall in line with him. What is more regrettable is that some anchorpersons of other channels are emulating him and resorting to the same methods that Goswami does to push his line. If you agree with Goswami, you earn a certificate of patriotism. If you don’t then you are an anti-Indian, you are talking the language of Pakistan, your patriotism is questionable and your political stand is suspect.

It was none other than President Roosevelt who said: “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic State itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” Arnab Goswami must have forgotten this dictum of that great American visionary. (IPA Service)