The saga of leaked sordid conversation between promoter and editor-in-chief of Republic TV Arnab Goswami and the former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Partho Dasgupta has eventually become a national cause célèbre, and chorus for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe is growing. The issue of compromising with national security has provided fresh ammunition to the opposition to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government which is already under siege due to ongoing farmers’ agitation.
The opposition asked whether Mr. Narendra Modi has created a “Lutyens Gang” with Arnab Goswami as its head as never before has India’s national security been so completely compromised. Never before have the office of the Prime Minister, office of the Home Minister, office of the Law Minister, and office of the Information and Broadcasting Minister been so brazenly compromised. Never before did our judiciary come under such an attack. Never before has a senior leader been divested of his dignity in his death.
The WhatsApp chats between Goswami and Dasgupta – running over 1000 pages – suggest complicity between the two and are part of the 3400-page supplementary chargesheet that the Mumbai police filed as part of the ongoing investigation in the TRP (Television Rating Point) scam.
The six important facets brought out by these WhatsApp chats provide an insight into the dark and unforgivable scandals in the corridors of power involving the Prime Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Home Minister and the entire edifice of the BJP Government.
NATIONAL SECURITY
The leaked chats show Goswami ‘gleefully’ providing ‘pre-event’ information to Dasgupta about the deadly terror attack in Pulwama that resulted in the killing of 40 CRPF Jawans. On February 23, three days before the Balakot strikes, Goswami was not only in “unauthorized possession of top secrets of defence operations”, but also further disseminated these secrets to another individual on a social media platform. The only people who had knowledge of these operations were the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, the Defence Minister and the National Security Advisor. In an exchange between Goswami and Dasgupta, it is mentioned: ‘It is good for big men in this season’. ‘He (Modi) will sweep polls then’.
Information about the strikes could have only been shared with Goswami by one of these four functionaries. Each one of them has taken an oath of secrecy, showing allegiance to the Constitution, to safeguard India’s strategic secrets.
ARNAB GOSWAMI – PMO – PM
From the chats it appears that Goswami shared a very comfortable access with the Prime Minister and secured his intervention in overcoming business troubles and fixing rivals.
GOSWAMI–AMIT SHAH INFLUENCE PEDDLING
From these chats, it is clear that Goswami not only had direct access with one of the most powerful leaders of the ruling party, then party President Amit Shah, he also took Dasgupta, then head of BARC, to meet him.
Goswami was actively securing the intervention of then BJP chief to influence policy and controlling the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
INFLUENCING JUDICIARY
From a series of messages, one can see the examples of influence peddling and attempts to influence the judiciary. On May 24, 2017, one attributed to Dasgupta talks about being unable to afford to lose an unnamed case.
It then says that a well-known lawyer would go “all out to nail” Goswami, adding “wonder if he is doing some setting tonight… with the judge”.
The purported reply from Goswami says the lawyer cannot do so because another lawyer “is aggressive”. Dasgupta replies: “But him na… that’s why I appointed him (the second lawyer).”
The next two messages attributed to Dasgupta read: “Buy… the judge.”
DEFRAUDING DOORDARSHAN
In 2017, Arnab Goswami’s channel and another channel by-passed the auction system put in place by Prasar Bharti to gain viewership on DD FreeDish. The two channels did not pay the fee to Doordarshan to book slots in the free DTH service with the help of Dish TV, a private DTH service. This violation cost crores of rupees to the public exchequer.
The chats tell us that the then I&B Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore allegedly informed Goswami about a complaint that was received by his department against Goswami’s channel. The chats reveal that Rathore buried the complaints.
GOSWAMI ON LATE ARUN JAITLEY
Late BJP leader and former Union Minister Arun Jaitley was battling for life for several days at the hospital in August 2019. Goswami says that “Jaitley was stretching it” and that “PMO does not know what to do. PM leaving on Wednesday for France”. On August 19, 2019, Goswami further claimed that they were “maintaining him.”
MALAYALAM CHANNEL AND RSS FUNDING
In another WhatsApp chat, Dasgupta and another accused, Romil Ramgarhia, discuss Malayalam channel Janam TV mentioning about the phenomenal “100 percent growth” in the channel’s viewership. This apparently was noticed by the PMO, Dasgupta claims in the chat, to which Ramgarhia claims that the channel has “RSS funding”.
In his private conversation, Goswami believes that the economy is ruined but claims that he cannot say this on television. What is this compulsion that does not allow the media to reveal the true picture of the economy?
Chats conclusively prove leaks of top secret information detrimental to national security and integrity and it is an act of treason, said former Defence Minister AK Antony, who was part of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in the UPA government.
On the messages relating to the Balakot airstrike, Antony said, “No military officer will leak such sensitive information. We have to find out who in the government indulged in this treason. The government must order a proper enquiry and punish the guilty. This should not be about party politics, this is an anti-national act.”
Referring to Goswami’s two messages sent just hours after the Pulwama attack that gloats about the “only channel with a ground presence” and “This attack we have won like crazy”, former home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said celebrating the martyrdom of 40 CRPF Jawans was a “blot” on journalism.
“Was Arnab controlling the government or was the government controlling him?” he asked.
On the comments (on the judiciary), former law Minister Salman Khurshid said these are painful and raise some questions.
There is a mention about a meeting with the law minister in the chats. Khushid said he has been a law minister and “I know what the responsibility of a law minister is. If the law minister is brought into the loop on something of this nature, it will be extremely unfortunate.”
Was a businessman asking a so-called journalist to influence the Hon’ble High Court?
“Will the judiciary turn a blind eye or set an example to restore the faith in judiciary?” former minister Khurshid asked and added, “I have no qualms in saying that the BJP has let loose people whose job is to influence judges. The question is, what would the judges do?”
After these chats came into public domain, opposition parties pounced on the government which has been battling the rebellion of farmers against the recently passed farm laws.
While demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe, the Congress and other opposition parties, including Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Aam Aadmi Party, Welfare party of India, Social Democratic Party of India and others, pose a slew of questions:
- Can the martyrdom of 40 Indian soldiers be a matter of victory for any Indian?
- Which one of these four individuals shared a sensitive secret about a top military operation with a civilian not authorised to possess such information?
- Does this not amount to an act of treason towards the nation, its armed forces and every single patriotic Indian?
- Is this not a brazen violation of the Official Secrets Act?
- Why was the Prime Minister allowing Arnab Goswami such friendly access to himself and his office?
- Why was Arnab Goswami allowed to actively lobby with the Prime Minister and his office?
- What was the quid pro quo?
- Why was Amit Shah interfering in the functioning of a supposedly autonomous authority called the “TRAI”?
Even Shiv Sena, an estranged BJP ally that heads the government in Maharashtra, also referred to allegations made after the February 2019 Pulwama attack “that the killing of our soldiers was part of a political conspiracy… to win the Lok Sabha elections”.
An editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana made these remarks in relation to the leak of purported WhatsApp chats between Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta.
The Sena said that while the media creates ballyhoo if someone is caught with 100 grams of ganja, it is not ready to hold a national debate on Goswami’s alleged act of treason.
It is to be noted that major news channels, which quarrel for more advertisements, maintained cryptic silence on the issue. Only its rival channel Times Now called it “Lowest point in television journalism”; it tut-tutted: ‘ArnabChatGate Explodes’. ‘TRPs above Martyrdom?’
Media analyst Shailaja Bajpai rightly puts: “TV anchors became the message instead of the messengers. The message? Modi is India, India is Modi, an echo of the infamous Congress slogan coined by Congressman D.K. Barooah, ‘India is Indira and Indira is India’.”
So far, in spite of multiple responses from Goswami, he has not denied the content of the chats.
“It’s good that the BJP filed cases against the producer and director of Tandav in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. But they (BJP leaders) will be truly men if the BJP files cases also against Goswami, who insulted the martyrdom of jawans,” the Saamana editorial says.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh said, “We have taken serious note of the 500 pages of leaked WhatsApp messages between Goswami and Dasgupta. On the state level, we are checking if Maharashtra Police can initiate action. I am speaking to senior police officers and have sought legal opinion if action can be initiated under Section 5 of Official Secrets Act 1923.”
Besides the annexed WhatsApp chats, the Mumbai police have recorded statements of 59 witnesses, including 15 experts. The police have said that the investigation is still on and that another supplementary chargesheet will follow in the case.
Along with farmers agitation, the ‘WhatsApp gate’ issue would dominate in the coming budget session of the Parliament which begins on January 29.