Arnab Goswami trends on Twitter for his 'high-pitched' questioning of Aparna Sen over letter to PM; social media divided over journalist's act

Journalist and Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami on Wednesday conducted a prime-time debate on his channel on the issue of 49 prominent personalities writing a letter to the prime minister expressing concern over the rising number of hate crimes in the country including lynching. Among his panellists, he had some members supporting the action of the group along with BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.

However, before the discussion began the channel showed ’live streaming’ of a press conference by the signatories of the letter in question and in the other window Arnab was miked up to ask ‘direct’ questions to those holding the media interaction including filmmaker Aparna Sen. But, sharing the clip of Arnab’s question session with Sen, many social media users pointed out the ’noisy’ and ‘appalling’ way in which the journalist put forth his queries.

One Twitter handle even argued that there was no one on the other side of the phone line Arnab was connected to and claimed that it was “peak” behaviour by the journalist.

Omg arnab bhai screaming into a phone and no one is on the other end it seems. This is beyond peak arnab https://t.co/9fwvzE0Wrb

— Zarrar Khuhro (@ZarrarKhuhro) July 24, 2019

The clip shared by Republic TV is captioned: “Lobby refuses to answer on LIVE TV as Arnab Goswami confronts them with over 10 questions”.  However, some found Goswami’s conduct “intolerable” and instead claimed that the latter stood “exposed " as Sen seemingly refused to entertain him.

Intolerable on every single level. This is how Arnab Goswami needs to be stumped & exposed & IGNORED. https://t.co/kg9px9gAdb

— Swastika Mukherjee (@swastika24) July 25, 2019

There were even mentions of the journalist taking the route of ’theatrics’ to catch the attention of his audience.

Where were you then?
Aparna Sen?

Arnab Goswami has now moved from news to performance art.

— Arnab Ray (@greatbong) July 25, 2019

While another Twitter user compared Goswami’s high-pitch questioning with ultra-frequency signals which could be heard as far the outer space!

Bleep bleep:- "this is an emissary from M32 of Andromeda galaxy.Arnab, we also can hear you,too loud and clear. You are causing disturbance in the solar system. Pls pipe down". .@ArnabGoswamiRtv #ArnabGoswami #AparnaSen #indianmedia #GodiMedia

— Abhik Mukherjee (@abhiksitar) July 25, 2019

Meanwhile, there were a few who also lauded his ’efforts’ to cross-question the people — who have once again stirred the ‘intolerance’ debate — alleging political motivations behind the same.

On 23 July, a group of artists, filmmakers, social activists, and medical specialists had signed an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting the atrocities against Dalits and minorities in recent times.