When Arnab Goswami took on the Modi government on Manipur…

By Ranjona Banerji

In the doom and gloom that is India now, there are occasional moments of gallows humour to cheer us up.

Like Arnab Goswami screaming that whataboutery on Manipur is wrong, that the Modi government has made a mistake by not sacking Manipur Chief Minister, and so on.

This is the first time I have seen Goswami’s face in I don’t know how long. So first I was amazed by how young he looks. Then I heard his bombastic shouting and realised it must be good exercise for face muscles. I may try it.

The clip itself is short. So I have no doubt that Goswami went back to his usual BJP propaganda soon. The channel he runs is supported by the ruling disposition in more ways than one.

But it was very entertaining.

We all know, except for old journalists who have forgotten the new rules, even if they championed the hero who changed the rules, that the Modi government will avoid Manipur and do what it can to save Prime Minister Narendra Modi from being questioned on Manipur.

This is a given.

But since people will continue to watch TV there is nothing to be done.

Except entertain yourself on social media.

Like with the Modi government reaction to the film Oppenheimer.

And that of former magazine employees who now work for the government. One such wrote a letter to director Christopher Nolan objecting to sex scenes where the Bhagvad Gita was quoted. The objector had not seen the film, but based his objections on social media comments. An honest admission. But also  a good lesson to be careful when journalists liberally sprinkle their copy or TV people their monologues with “sources”. Who knows what their sources are.

Trolls on Twitter for instance.

Another such important journalist who once worked for another government has also jumped into the fray on another matter: that the Congress President who is not a Gandhi family member is a puppet of the Gandhi family. This is the same story he has spun for years. But you have to admire his sense of timing.

With poor Modi being protected from falling airport ceilings, collapsing highways and an increasingly impossible situation in Manipur, it’s all hands on deck to help. And who better than an inside man from the other side?

I apologise for qualifying journalist with “important”. All journalists are important. Those who live in Delhi and have sources are more important than others.

I digress. While some old school journalists are up to their usual tricks, others forget the rules have changed and a few try to climb out of the molasses to talk about collapses. Not just Manipur, but landslides, roads, drains and soon, at least 25 per cent of India’s forest cover.

If you though Manipur was too far away for Delhi to bother about, imagine how far all the Himalayan states are.

Look out for the amendments to the Forest Conservation Act. Or rather, the new Forest Construction Act. While you sleep, the polity carries on with its destructive policies.

You could of course also laugh about Elon Musk changing Twitter’s name to X. Extreme foresight about our imminent extinction.

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.