After Mumbai Police leaked personal WhatsApp chat conversation of Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami with former BARC head Partho Dasgupta, Times Now’s Navika Kumar got quite emotional and nostalgic. During her show on these tapes, Navika spoke about her one-time mentor Arnab Goswami. In about 9 minute long monologue, she talks about how she filled in the chair vacated by Goswami after he left Times Now and started Republic.
Row over ‘chatgate’ escalates: Alleged references to Pulwama in leaked WhatsApp conversations of Arnab Goswami.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) January 18, 2021
Navika Kumar on @thenewshour. | #ChatgateBetraysBraves pic.twitter.com/ewfJ5skaUI
“The seat I am sitting on, the shoes I tried to fill in 2016 when Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-chief of Times Now left this organisation to start his own venture, to start his own channel. I was amongst the first few people he hired on first go in 2006 when Times Now had to be launched,” she says. She says how she knew nothing about television journalism since she came from print journalism. She says how Goswami was persistent for four months to get her to join Times Now.
She then talked about ethics and sanskar and how those who talk about them are mocked. Navika further talks about the twelve years she worked with Goswami. Comparing Goswami’s exit from Times Now to Republic’s launch to that of a small bird which developed wings to fly away in sky, a visibly emotional Navika said that after Arnab left, the most difficult thing for her was to fill in his shoes.
Navika said that when she was told she will be hosting The News Hour, a show that was associated with Arnab for twelve years, she had his shoes to fill. She then gives a lesson on morality over the allegations over the leaked conversation.
Responding to the allegations levelled by senior Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, Goswami, hit out on him as well as other media houses.
“I request a moment of introspection for media in India. You may not agree with my views, you may not agree with my ideology, you may not like the fact that I launched Republic,” he says. At around 47 minutes into the video, without naming Navika, Arnab talks about the time he quit Times Now to star Republic TV.
“On 1st November 2016, I left Times Now, the channel I had built with my blood, sweat and tears from the scratch. I left the channel with nothing but my briefcase. They did not like the fact that someone was challenging the existing capitalists in Indian media,” he said.
“People say they found it difficult to walk in my shoes. I want to tell them I carried my shoes with me. So nobody is walking into my shoes. I carried my shoes with me and I walked into Republic. I carried the audience with me and audience with me. So people should stop dreaming,” he said.
Here are the snippet of the videos side by side.
#ShoutForRepublic#ArnabWontCompromise #ArnabGoswami
— Sakshi Shelar// Arnab stan💟 (@arnab_stan) January 20, 2021
Arnabians have a look at Newton's 3rd law of Motion. 🙌@navikakumar you too madam. pic.twitter.com/ogAsjgC6AI
The actual reason why the Mumbai Police leaked Arnab’s chats are sufficiently clear given the nonsensical controversies they have generated. In order to tarnish his reputation and so that the opposition parties and their puppets in the media could have more ammunition to slander their respective enemies, the chats were conveniently leaked.
