The best thing to have happened to the legend of Arnab Goswami (AG) is his hasty ill-advised arrest and imprisonment. It has turned AG into an urban legend.A modernday crusader in the quest of truth.
The cross is not visible to the naked eye, but it is there. The rabid Goswami baiters in the film industry are now whispering to themselves about his sudden swerve into martyrdom. A very vocal politically savvy screenwriter said to me, “The Maharashtra government has turned him(AG) into a cause célèbre. Overnight, even those who were not too fond of his work methods are now seeing AG as as the beacon of hope, the voice of the downtrodden in an irredeemably corrupt society.”
AG’s arrest on November 4 took everyone by surprise, none more so than AG himself. Colleagues who know him well say he expected the politics of vendetta to deepen. But not to this extent.
“He’s taken the arrest well. He will come out stronger from this ordeal,” says AG’s friend Anupam Kher who is in New York shooting for a series. Anupam adds, “Arnab is outspoken, to the extent that he makes many people very uncomfortable.”
Where does the narrative of democracy-under-fire go from here? It would be foolish to make a political martyr out of AG. But that’s exactly what’s happening in the country right now.Imprisoning him has made Arnab Goswami a symbol of political oppression . It’s a master-stroke of redemption. Just when he was beginning to appear way too aggressive for his own good, the people in power stepped in to remind the world that no voice is too loud when it comes to calling a spade a spade.
Ironically, no one cares why AG was arrested. What matters is that he WAS arrested. Whatever be his brand of journalism, the entire country is hooked on to the drama.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer and not necessarily those of IWMBuzz. IWMBuzz does not guarantee the accuracy or reliability of the information provided herein.
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