'I stick my neck out. I'm not forcing anyone to agree with me'

Arnab GoswamiLifestyle magazine covers I see one on the desk photoshoots onground events online spoofs comedy shows This rockstar treatment is rather new to journalism Howve you taken it Or is this just an outcome of television as a mediumLaughs Bottom line is Im launching a TV channel and Im not swimming on wads of money Im going around talking to people to spread my message It reduces my marketing costs Its as simple as thatWatch video Exclusive Why is Arnab known as the loudmouth on TVI remember reading in a magazine once where you said that your job is to report news not become the news But you are very much the news itselfIm not the news at all There is public anticipation for Republic TV also because Ive been away for some time When I quit Times Now late November people told me it would take a year to launch a TV channel Here we are ready in four months In 120 days we got 300 people onboard multiple offices across the country Delhi state capitals with complete infrastructure So there is buzz around that All the attention thats coming to me is the attention thats coming to Republic TVYour sell as it were has been that Republic will be Indias first independent news channel But all news channels need investments advertisers have stake holders and therefore inevitable agendas Is it really possible for anyone to be independent unless youre running a personal blog or Twitter handleI do things without being influenced by anybodys agendas Our previous channel Times Now was very popular for the journalism it did and therefore there were lots of advertisers and audiences Thats enough to run your ship Im not personally greedy for anything more As for independence I have never compromised or allowed any individual interest advertiser or political party to influence our opinion Being in Bombay helps us do that Were away from politicians and in the real worldThere is a formula to television news content if I can call it that which you cracked and many especially Hindi channels have tried to adopt since 1 Nationalism 2 Corruption somebody elses not the viewers own 3 Terrorism which at some level is also linked to nationalism Its almost as if this nation has no other major problems Do you think this formula has peakedIve never looked upon things as a formula to build viewership I think terrorism is a reality that this country has faced To report on events threats and radicalisation that lead to terrorism is not a formula but my responsibility as a journalist Second exposing corruption at the highest level is something weve consistently done Which is again my duty as a journalist As for nationalism my love for my country comes from my heart When I exposed five to six scams in 2010 the entire Lutyens media stood up against me and was on the side of the then EstablishmentMaybe thats the formula of the Lutyens and Lutyenised media Which is to play safe all the time I dont play safe They ask me why are we sabrerattling asking so many questions shouting I ask them why are you so quiet Why do you compromise so much Why are you so neckdeep with people in the Establishment After all these scams when Manmohan Singh held a press conference why did proprietors and editors not muster up courage to ask a single straight question to the PM Why did you go soft on Uniform Civil Code Shani Shinghnapur Haji Ali I stick my neck out One thing you cant blame me for is lack of consistency It is my right to speak my opinion But even this view of mine is only my view Im willing to place it against everybody elsesEventually were in the media business People will like agree or disagree Im not forcing anyone to agree with meBut thats what you changed about debating on television with evident success Establishing the conclusion of a debate as news anchor even before the debate has begun Thats rather unfair dont you thinkAbsolutely not Im a debater Why should I sit there like a placid daffodil in the middle of a heated conversation Anchors who do that are actually lying They should be clear enough to disclose what their point of view is When the Niira Radia tapes happened it came to the publicfore that there were some journalists acting as conduits of business houses Would you have imagined that those people usually talking big at Jaipur Literary Festival would actually be doing these things on the sideWhat I do is place my point of view openly and visibly I dont do Niira Radia business I have a view on issues you spoke about terrorism nationalism corruption and regarding our society Im a student of Indian sociology Now what you said was Do I place my point of view and Im adamant that only my point of view is correctYesTo that Ill say if you notice all my debates I often have more people disagreeing with me We enjoy that healthy debate I like the disagreement and in that disagreement is the essence of our democracy If we merely reported and not debated we would not be able to engage with enough people of this country The soul of this country is not Bollywood or cricket The soul of this country is debateIt is your showhellipLaughs No its not my showOf course it is and youve decided what your point of view ishellipIm willing to be engaged If a contrary opinion has come to me and Im proven to be factually incorrect I have corrected myself on the show Ive said so very oftenHave youMany a timesOne of the things activists and NGOs tend to do many of whom youre not exactly a fan of is to assert that their word is gospel truth and they are the only repositories of good faith everyone else is an ahole If as a journalist you take a similar stance thats being an activist isnt itI would never do that I wouldnt be foolish enough to presume that Im completely right all the time What I do is this Before I place my opinion on every issue I do a fair amount of research I come in prepared I understand the other perspective and Im willing to be corrected Im a debater by profession and will essentially always remain one Some of my own colleagues have corrected me on my programme Im open to that But I do get involved during debates I cant help it and would rather notYou are an extremely persuasive speaker and in the spur of the moment can steamroller any opposing view But the fear is especially on certain issues like nationalismhellipNationalism is not an issue It is a reality In fact there needs to be much more nationalism in this country I dont understand why this Aman Ki Asha lobby believes nationalism is a bad thing How is it a bad thingHow about linking Hinduism to nationalismis that a bad thing Do you think mixing politics and religion is a good thingOf course not You cannot mix politics and religion And linking Hinduism to nationalism is unacceptableThe fear is that a lot of Right Wing trolls circulate your videos and arguments to further points that you dont possibly mean yourselfI dont care about trolls Right Wing Left Wing Aaptard Congi or Sanghi I have my perspective But if you call someone a Right Winger because that person is a nationalist then thats the most narrow definition of whos a Right Winger If speaking up for people in uniform criticising stonepelters calling out JampK CM for being proPak is being a Right Winger then Im happy to be a Right WingerBut then whats the definition of Right Wing and Left Wing There are illiterate people who call themselves LeftLiberal which is an oxymoron a leftist cannot be liberal and a liberal cannot be leftist by definition These are proclamations made by those in cocktail circuits who are neither Leftist in ideology nor liberal by thought Im not part of that fashionable politicallycorrect litfest cocktail circuit I cannot stand it Im part of the reality of this countryWhich isThat the mood of this country is changing and there is a need to be unified about things that are genuine challenges Issues like terrorism cannot be taken lightly Dont you think about why in this city of Mumbai we allowed a dangerous Salafi hatepreacher like Zakir Naik to continue unchecked for 15 years Is it politically incorrect to speak about these things If it is then Im truly concerned about what we define as right and wrongNow when you express these points of view fearlessly on television constantly you may become an irritant for people who believe there ought to be a certain kind of thinking in the Establishment I have reopened peels of guilt among the pseudo liberal elite in this country who have gone unquestioned for a long time I have questioned them all from Shashi Tharoor to Lalit Modi Both of them were questioned by me Why is it that when I was questioning Tharoor during IPL scam nobody else was Why was I going after Modi while others were doing deals with him In my perspective there is a system of patronage that has been built up in our country and that includes a large part of the media I want to correct that and bring a sense of balance operating out of MumbaiDo you think a lot could have already changed since 2014 and the new EstablishmentI dont think anything changes immediately Living in Mumbai I dont know enough about whats been happening over the past couple of years I see the toplevel corruption in the government is visibly down Its not like people of this country dont have enough complaints But I do see some amount of strategic intent from the government in certain areas of strategy defence and economyNo government is completely without fault As media it is our responsibility to keep an eye on everyone So we questioned people from Congress during the CWG scam And we questioned those from the BJP on Vyapam scam and during Lalitgate Sushma Swaraj Vijayraje Scindia Even then the same Lutyens media said nothing Theyre almost in denial zone about stories that we doRelatively speaking how responsive do you find the current government to be with stories in the news media on say Lalitgate or VyapamI can tell you with fair sense of delight that Ive been boycotted by all political parties at various points in time the BJP Congress and AAPThe other thing Im told this nation really wants to know is how are you at home Are you really this angry as a person Or is that a persona acquired for televisionLaughs I do believe in the idea of debating But its not like Im debating all the time And TV is a transparent medium Ive debated right from school at Mount St Marys Delhi Kendriya Vidyalaya to Hindu College Oxford Im not the judge who sits in the middle looks serious doesnt speak and sometimes goes off to sleep The person for and against and the audience are involved in the debate Im already for or against and Im debating with those on the other side So its not an act at all Its actually my obsessionAnd its our contribution to Indian society This is how fierce we naturally are I dont want to artificially inject Calmpose into the conversationWould it be incorrect to say that the channel you quit was hit hard by your exitI havent seen the channel since I quitRatings wiseRatings show me that the leadership position is gone Am I delighted that it has slumped to where it is Im not Would I be very happy to see their entire viewership base disappear No But Im sorry Im not with that channel anymore and I cant do anything about itYou were heading the channel Could you not have perhaps built a second line of starsIve done whatever I could We built a fairly good product I can be responsible for it as long as Im there Now Im launching Republic Why the Twitter trends arent as hot for Times Now why people arent engaging these arent things I have any control over You should ask those who have On the contrary I would say the love and support towards Republic TV is a function of the sort of journalism we did at my previous channelJust think about it Theres a new generation starting a media enterprise where journalists who at the core of it are reporters not businessmen are getting to manage the place Earlier there were so many monopolies that stopped us from doing that If this works out then well have many more experiments like this So this is a DavidGoliath fight Thats great And to be able to do it from Mumbai where people said you could only start a business channel from is fantasticPeople are already calling Lower Parel the second media capital of IndiaFinal questionBolo Grill kar rahe ho laughsYou have the big launch story in your pocket alreadyWere working on some stuff I dont overplan every move Its difficult enough to build a TV channel I want to go with the flow