In hindsight, Arnab Goswami comes out as an obsessive compulsive persecutor, somebody who cried foul when he himself was “wrongly charged” and placed behind bars, but was quick to hold Shashi Tharoor guilty of “murder” no less, without an iota of proof or trial. In other words, Arnab Goswami was above suspicion, innocent until proven guilty, but Shashi Tharoor is guilty as hell, till proven otherwise.

Yup, the high-profile TV anchor, who rose from ornery scribe to bombastic media baron, hounded Shashi Tharoor for years, with a bulldog-like pugnacity that would put to shame a ‘Bully Kutta’ of Pakistani pedigree. Goswami cast suspicions on Sunanda Pushkar’s death, and aspersions on Shashi Tharoor for allegedly orchestrating Pushkar’s death.

So much so, Sunanda’s son had to travel to India from a Gulf country to testify in court in defence of his stepfather. To those who don’t watch Republic TV, Arnab Goswami is the closest to a ‘journalist taliban’. He specializes in terrorizing people; the most, those who have a hard-earned reputation to protect.

Arnab Goswami, after fixing his targets in the crosshairs, sets his cub reporters to “ambush” them in the streets till there’s nothing more left to bluff with. He did it with Shashi Tharoor. Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a Delhi hotel in 2014. By 2017, Tharoor was fit to climb a wall, harassed and harried by Republic TV. Till the Delhi high court stepped in and asked Goswami to leave Tharoor alone! Goswami was asked to give an undertaking that he would stop tormenting Tharoor.

Goswami was also instructed to do “balanced reporting”; and to put to a halt to the media trial, and “parallel investigation” against Tharoor. But Arnab was beyond reasoning. Republic TV violated the undertakings given. And Tharoor was reduced to “murderer” and worse – it was “crime story”, no longer a “suicide”.

On August 18, 2021, Shashi Tharoor walked out from under the weight of Republic TV’s accusations. Tharoor, who was minister in the Manmohan Singh Government, had in 2017 filed a “Rs 2 crore defamation” suit against Republic TV, for talking ill about Sunanda Pushkar, for the innuendos including that Sunanda and Tharoor were in an unhappy marriage, and that she was addicted to prescription drugs.

Reacting to his “acquittal”, Tharoor, who is Thiruvananthapuram MP, said “it has been seven and half years of absolute torture.” He did not mention Arnab Goswami or Republic TV. Maybe he believes in magnanimity post victory, but folks, who regularly find Arnab Goswami invading their nightmares, didn’t need reminders.

Tharoor had always insisted that the charges against him were “preposterous and motivated”, but nothing that would help rein in Arnab Goswami and his Republic TV. In December 2020, the Delhi High Court took note and instructed Arnab Goswami and Republic TV to stick to its daily riffraff reporting, stop airing anti-Tharoor shows, and not violate undertakings given to the court, as also show restraint when reporting.

“Bring down the rhetoric,” the court asked. But it was like asking the leopard to change its spots, the Taliban to leaf through the Gita! Tharoor was angry that “they” continued to “defame and malign” him. The court said Republic TV cannot, and shall not call the Thiruvananthapuram MP a “criminal”. Also, not use the expression “murder of Sunanda Pushkar” till a competent court ruled that the death was indeed a “murder”.

For the time being, Arnab Goswami and Republic TV seem to have learned a lesson. Neither has spoken so far on the relief given to Tharoor. Maybe Arnab Goswami’s travails following the TRP allegations and finding himself behind bars in the twin-suicides case have tempered him, made him realize that levelling baseless allegations against anyone without an element of proof isn’t what journalism is all about.

Whatever be the reason, despite the clean chit given to Shashi Tharoor by the Delhi court, Tharoor may not be out of the woods, yet. The question will still be asked, if it’s not suicide, what’s it, accidental death or a murder most foul? Maybe, Arnab Goswami may want to play God again! Goswami’s shenanigans on Republic TV keep most of us amused and engaged, but some are not aware of the gap between untruth and truth. (IPA Service)