Who knew television news channels could double up as entertainment channels? All of us, in the last few months. Dance, drama, suspense, ‘suddenness,’ — television is hardly ‘boring’ these days and India’s main star is Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami. In the past few years, television anchors have found themselves in a war to achieve the trophy of becoming the “number one channel” every Thursday, and this has converted news coverage into a full-blown battle.
At the helm of this battle is Arnab Goswami. From his days at Times Now to his new venture Republic TV, Goswami has a no-holds-barred approach to confront every panelist to join his debate shows, loud and clear, and that too, literally. Needless to say, his dramatics have often led to some hilarious moments on television:
Here are five times Arnab Goswami ended up becoming a meme.
On one of the debates on Times Now, about whether the government should bring in an ordinance on homosexuality, BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi had accused Arnab Goswami of “receiving money from the lobby.”
“Never ever,” Arnab said, glaring into the screen, “ever, ever,” he continued, “say something as ridiculous as you are receiving money,” Arnab told Meenakshi Lekhi sternly.
This clip became viral and since then, Arnab’s “never ever” has become a pop-culture reference.
Arnab Goswami took Abhijit Mukherjee to task in 2012 when the latter used the phrase “dented and painted women” to talk about women protesting against the Nirbhaya gangrape. Abhijit, the son of late former President Pranab Mukherjee, had claimed in an interview to ABP news channel in Bengali, that the women who were protesting have “no connection with ground reality and the “pretty ladies" who were protesting are “highly dented and painted.”
“What do you mean dented and painted?” Arnab bellowed at Abhijit. Abhijit, clearly cornered and unable to explain himself, reasoned that he had withdrawn the statement, apologised for his statement and said that the matter should end. But Arnab was having none of it. “You will have to explain, you cannot brush it aside! I want to understand your mindset...Mr Mukherjee, don’t you think it is extremely cowardly of you, to hide behind the statement that you were only echoing the views of your constituency?” Arnab asks. This clip was also converted into a hilarious and extremely catchy rap number:
In 2016, Arnab Goswami quit Times Now and later launched Republic, and some say this is where he really found his ‘chi.’ It was an Arnab Goswami-times-100 version, and famous-for-confronting-the-
And safe to say, this new version of Arnab has ended up giving us more memes than ever. In June, the Union government banned 59 Chinese mobile applications in India following the Galwan clash with China where 20 Indian soldiers were killed, and the “SUDDENNESS” of Arnab’s (predictable) interpretation had social media in splits.
At this point it is difficult to tell whether something is parody or real pic.twitter.com/oTc0eyOoin
— dorku (@Dorkstar) June 29, 2020
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— Joy (@Joydas) July 3, 2020
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Arnab Goswami in the past few months has become a crusader for justice of sorts, in the death case of Sushant Singh Rajput. Sushant was found dead in his Bandra home on June 14, and Arnab Goswami and Republic TV are convinced that it was a murder, a murder abetted by his former girlfriend Rhea. Rhea has been arrested in a drugs case registered in connection with the actor’s death and Republic TV had accessed WhatsApp chats and messages to ‘prove’ that Rhea was a ‘drug addict.’ Arnab attempted to enact what Rhea’s alleged messages would sound like, and well, the rest is a meme.
During the follow up in the case against Rhea, Arnab Goswami has alleged a ‘drug mafia’ in the Bollywood industry and has been daring top stars to ‘raise a voice’ against the mafia. In a recent programme, Arnab bellowed at the camera, asking Salman Khan where he is. “Kaha hai Salman? Where is he hiding? Why not a single word against drug mafia?” screams Arnab, even as someone is heard commenting, “What is he saying…” The rest of the panelists also try to reason with him, asking him why he is asking random questions, but Arnab is unstoppable.
A clip of the debate went viral on Twitter and while many cringed, it also provided some much needed laughter for others.
सलमान खान कहा है, कहा है सलमान pic.twitter.com/mtf6nF21rL
— Rofl Gujarati(@Rofl_Gujarati) September 16, 2020