After the BJP targeted the Congress over arrest of Republic TV owner and Chief Editor Arnab Goswami on Wednesday, the Congress termed the outrage “selective” and “extremely unwarranted”.
Addressing a press conference Congress Spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said: “I am shocked with selective outrage by the government and BJP and it is unwarranted.”
“He has brought disgrace to journalism and was working as a BJP front and hurling abuses on individuals and making allegations. Is he judge or jury what type of Journalism is he is doing?” she said.
“When independent journalists are persecuted then why does the BJP keep silent,” she said giving the example of Prashant Kanojia and Supriya Sharma who were booked by the Uttar Pradesh government over tweets and reports.
The Congress said that no action will be taken if anyone is innocent and “law will take it own course”, said Shrinate.
The Congress was attacked by the BJP for bringing back emergency days by BJP president and Prakash Javdekar, but the Congress refuted the allegation and said “The BJP should be the last to speak on media freedom and the way they are controlling the media with intimidation and fear is absolutely shamefull”.
The Maharashtra Police’s Raigad unit on Wednesday morning raided Goswami’s home and arrested him in a 2018 abetment to suicide case.
A senior police officer Sachin Vaze said that Goswami was arrested in the abetment to suicide case, which was closed earlier but has now been reopened.
A police team swooped on the Republic TV’s chief and picked him up from his home even as his family protested while his colleagues started rushing to the spot for live coverage.
The channel strongly slammed the move for “parading the editor of a top Indian news channel like a criminal, pulled by the hair, threatened, not allowed to drink water” after 20-30 policemen barged there.