The Indian National Congress has gone all guns blazing against the Union government and Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami after over 1,000 pages of WhatsApp conversations of former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Partho Dasgupta were made public on Friday. The Mumbai police attached this as part of its supplementary chargesheet in the Television Rating Points (TRP) scam probe.
Congress has alleged that the chats show Arnab had prior knowledge of the Balakot strike — three days before it took place — and planned coverage accordingly to increase TRPs.
In the WhatsApp chat cited by Congress, Arnab tells Partho there may be a “bigger than a normal strike.”
“Bigger than a normal strike. And also on the same time something major on Kashmir. On Pakistan the government is confident of striking in a way that people will be elated. Exact words used,” the chat reads.
Congress leaders have posed several questions to the government on social media alleging that confidential information on national security was leaked to a journalist.
"Did a journalist (and his friend) know about the retaliatory strike on Balakot camp three days before the actual strike? If yes, what is the guarantee that their ‘source’ did not share the information with others as well, including spies or informers working for Pakistan?" asked former Finance Minister P Chidambaram. "How did a “For Your Eyes Only” decision find its way to the government-supporting journalist?" he questioned.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleged that the Union government had put the life of soldiers at risk by sharing such information with a journalist.
"Arnab's chats dated 23.02.2019 refer to sharing of Intel re: action along the Pak border. It means someone very senior in Govt is leaking highly confidential info which may endanger the lives of our soldiers & so that mercenary considerations can add to TRPs," he alleged.
Other Congress leaders also referred to other parts of the chat, including Arnab agreeing to Partho's claim that former finance minister Arun Jaitley “was a big failure.”
"According to Arnab Goswami, Arun Jaitley was BJP's biggest failure. Well, he is partly right because Jaitley failed to called out the incompetence of Modi and also accept his decisions like DeMo & GST without raising any objection," said Congress' national coordinator for digital communication, Gaurav Pandhi.
The WhatsApp chats were submitted to a Mumbai court by the police attached to the chargesheet it filed against Partho Dasgupta, alleging that he had a role to play in the TRP scam. The chats also contained Partho’s conversations with Arnab on the inner workings of other channels, about keeping TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) from forcing BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) to make its data public and chats that also indicated that Arnab met Union ministers often.