On Friday, the editor-in-chief of Republic TV, Arnab Goswami, raised questions over the credibility and political alliances of Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh. The sensation claims by Goswami comes a day after Singh falsely tried to implicate the independent news channel and its editor-in-chief in the contentious ‘TRP scam’.
During a live session on Republic network’s Hindi news channel Republic Bharat, Arnab Goswami revealed that the Mumbai police commissioner had met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar on Friday morning. He pointed out how Param Bir Singh was acting at the behest of his political masters in Maharashtra, who were out to get back at Goswami through all-means possible.
Arnab Goswami informed, “Parab Bir Singh is summoning journalists since morning. The Mumbai police have no other work. Their agenda is to eliminate me… You have met Sharad Pawar in the morning, didn’t you? I am asking one simple question – Did you or did you not meet Sharad Pawar this morning? The country wants to know.” He added, “Don’t you have any other work? When will you work for people? You have only one agenda (to eliminate me). What will you achieve by doing this? We know that you lied. But why?”
Arnab Goswami slams India Today-Mumbai police nexus
At the very onset, Arnab Goswami slammed India Today by saying, “Ya bohot chota sa channel hai. Koi dekhta nahin hai (This is a very small channel. None watches it.)” He challenged journalist Rohit Sardana to do a programme against Republic TV in his show ‘Dangal.’ Arnab Goswami informed that the First Information Report (FIR) filed in the TRP scam has explicitly mentioned India Today over 6 times. However, the Mumbai police commissioner has instead chosen to give a clean chit to the news channel within 12 hours and falsely said that the allegations were against Republic TV. Goswami further slammed Param Bir Singh for deliberately hiding the FIR from public discourse.
While hitting out at the doublespeak of the Mumbai police commissioner, Goswami inquired, “How did you investigate so fast? Why are you not summoning Arun Purie and other owners of India Today group? You wanted to turn around the case and make it about me. How can you have two different rules for Republic TV and India Today?”
The ‘fake TRP scam’ exposed
The ‘fake TRP scam’ had taken a remarkable turn in less than 24 hours yesterday. Mumbai CP Param Bir Singh, in an explosive statement yesterday, accused Republic TV of ‘TRP manipulation’. In a no-holds-barred attack against Republic TV and Arnab Goswami, the Mumbai CP had claimed, that the channel had illegally paid some households to keep some channels on even if they were not at home to boost their TRP.
However, by the end of the day, it was revealed that in the original FIR, Republic TV did not find a mention anywhere. In fact, it was India Today that had been named in the original FIR. The Joint Commissioner had also admitted that it was indeed India Today that was named in the FIR.
