Palghar: Hate as ‘Essential Commodity’, Arnab its Supplier – By Valay Singh

The sordid communalising of the Palghar lynching, and the vicious attack on Sonia Gandhi by Arnab Goswami, the co-owner of Republic TV and its prime time anchor, have made it clear that hate is a commodity that continues to be sold like an essential item during the Covid-19 lockdown. On the other hand, peace, amity and the rule of law are becoming non-essential goods. They are being junked because the silent majority is either failing to discern that it is being fed toxic propaganda in the name of news or it is gobbling up hate and spreading it knowingly.

After a spate of FIRs and defamation suits filed against Goswami by Congress workers across the country, he alleged that he had been physically attacked. The Supreme Court intervened in a short span of 12 hours and has provided Goswami protection against arrest for three weeks but allowed the hate-speech probe to continue.

Strange indeed are the ways in which courts work; sometimes the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slowly and at other times they stun with their speed. The FIRs will take their own course and action is likely to be taken against Goswami sooner or later, but meanwhile, should not the court have taken suo moto notice of his provocative broadcasts and passed strictures.