Did Arnab pay Rs 500 to each audience to buy viewership for Republic TV?

New Delhi: The charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the TRP rigging case provided a shot in the arm to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.

ED’s charge sheet, on expected lines, says that it found no evidence of bribing households where people meters are installed, which was alleged in the Mumbai police FIR dated October 6, 2020.

The charge sheet said that the allegations by Mumbai police on the basis of the forensic audit report were “superficial” and based on the analysis of “limited aspects".

However, ED has not denounced the forensic report which was commissioned to Acquisory Consulting by BARC India. The forensic report pointed fingers towards a larger conspiracy of manipulating ratings in connivance with the then BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

In an eight-minute-long speech delivered on his show on Wednesday, Goswami said that people think that they can say anything or put any allegation and get away with it. “Because that’s the way, they think, things work in India,” he said.

Let us take a look if Goswami thinks otherwise.

The overzealous Goswami tried his best to mislead his viewers by calling the ED charge sheet – the ‘Final TRP report’.

During the entire speech, he did not reveal what is this ‘Final TRP report’.

The TRP report which was made public last year in October was prepared by the TRP Committee, headed by former Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati.

People kept wondering what is this new thing called ‘final TRP report’.

Ironically, Goswami did not name ED at all in the eight-minute speech.

His viewers understand that the ED charge sheet can be contested in court. It is another thing that no one will contest fearing coercive action by the investigative agency.

Calling it what it was – an ED charge sheet – would have diluted the impact of his theatrics in his viewers' minds.

Beginning his speech, Goswami said, “They accused me of paying every viewer Rs 500 for watching Republic TV.”

But the fact is that the Mumbai police charge sheet had alleged bribes were paid to a few metered homes.

But Goswami being Goswami, he can say anything to mislead his viewers and guests.