Letters | Why Indian leaders’ outrage over arrest of TV host is baffling

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Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has called news anchor Arnab Goswami’s arrest, for allegedly abetting a suicide, an attack on press freedom. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:15am, 7 Nov 2020Updated: 8:15am, 7 Nov 2020

I do not know whether the arrest of Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami early on Wednesday was as per the law of the land, or a blatant misuse of power by the Maharashtra state government, as some have alleged (“Rabble-rousing TV host and Modi backer arrested for suicide abetment”, October 4).

Whatever may be the case, it pains the heart to see a man once so elevated plummet to such lows, and why would it not? He is, after all, one of Assam’s favoured sons who, in his formative years as a journalist, made not just our state but the entire country proud.

But it’s not his arrest that I want to comment on today (as I’m confident that the law will take its course). Rather, it was the inexplicable outbursts by one Bharatiya Janata Party leader after another that compelled me to pen this.

I’m baffled by the manner in which India’s ruling party has come out in support of a journalist who in recent years has been seen as the loudest custodian of “independent” journalism in India and apparently has zero political affiliations.

Yes, any citizen or political party has every right to speak up against any injustice happening anywhere in the country. However, was the arrest as big a deal as the BJP made it out to be?

The Honourable Union Home Minister Amit Shah believes that the arrest was an attack on the freedom of the press. In fact, he went to the extent of calling it an “emergency” – in a country that has seen the same party selectively turn a blind eye to countless rapes and murders, including the killing of journalists, not so long ago.

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A notion that is also hard to fathom because Goswami has been arrested for allegedly abetting a suicide and not for his journalism (or the lack of it).

So brazen has been the BJP’s support for Goswami that it seems as if only the prime minister of India is left to come out denouncing the arrest.