Dhruv Rathee - The Mega Expose

“Even a ten-year-old would know that the root cause of these attacks is the religion and culture ideology of Islam! The ambiguity of outdated religious books, especially the Quran (same as other religious books), misguides some people into being unwilling to accept secularism, gender equality, democracy, but employ other absurd customs.”

These were the statements of a certain Dhruv Rathee, a man not uncommon to Aravind Kejriwal, a man who used to work for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)[i][ii], a man who used to defame the religion of Islam until he gained a majority of Muslim followers, and on deleting those horrendous statements, a man who claims to be unbiased, and completely fair.

Dhruv Rathee is an avid YouTuber with around 5 million subscribers[iii], who claims to be totally unbiased, and operates from Germany, while posting many videos that portray only one side of the story. He is an inspired ambassador of the youth who tends to almost always, highlight stories tinged with personal biases, and apart from being an author for ‘The Print’[iv], spreads propaganda through his various Facebook groups. He is not one who strays away from posting various hypocritical statements, not to mention a plethora of fake statements and derogatory remarks against people and groups, as highlighted in this article.

On response to the above audacious statement (written in the first paragraph) made by him, Dhruv was questioned on the links to religion and terror, especially how he had found the rights to call the Quran outdated. He responded through another set of derogatory remarks. He said, “I can have sex with a slave girl while I am alive*[v]… and if I continue doing “good”, I will be rewarded with 72 such sex slaves in paradise*[vi].” He then asked how he was to interpret this statement of the Quran, however, later ended up deleting his post as well as his statement.[vii]

Though this article has not been written to point out how demeaning Dhruv Rathee is against certain religions and people, the author would like to highlight how much of a hypocrite Dhruv Rathee has been in the past. Whether it is insulting the whole country, his motherland India, by calling Indians in general intolerant[viii], claiming himself and his content to be unbiased, yet posting videos titled ‘BJP: Lies behind the Bullshit’[ix] or posting innumerable amounts of fake news, not to mention insulting Naga Sadhus and equating them as unemployed people who have no other option but to become Sadhus[x], Dhruv Rathee is never one to stray away from controversy, showing his Hindu phobic and anti-Modi side to his viewers quite often indeed.

A man who published a video claiming that 55 million Indians were pushed into Poverty because of Healthcare spending, while conveniently forgetting that they were statistics of 2011-12[xi], when the UPA was in power, a man who, when the Corona Virus began, said that the media and the government were making a mountain out of a molehill, but a few months later, said that the government wasn’t prepared[xii], a man who compared the GDP growth of countries amidst the pandemic quite cleverly, without taking into account the sheer humane nature of India’s lockdown, the population of various countries, and, whether a lockdown was even imposed in certain countries[xiii],a man who has had the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) take action on him for his illegally obtaining the IP address of a minor[xiv], and a man who spread so much fake news that even the Adani Group had to issue a notice for him to stop spreading propaganda over something they had nothing to do with[xv], Dhruv Rathee is one who will never stop doing what he does best, misguiding his viewers by misrepresenting a variety of policies, and almost always, keeping our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the ruling party at the center, BJP, at the brunt of all the blame.

Be it comparing BJP’s rate of road construction of 16km/day with the Congress’ 13km/day, ignoring blissfully, the latest data, while he made the video, of the BJP laying out 22 kilometers of roads per day, double of what the Congress did[xvi][xvii], trimming video details to claim that Narendra Modi and the late Arun Jaitley were lying, or even handpicking sentences from Narendra Modi’s speech, and misquoting him[xviii], Dhruv Rathee has been exposed by various YouTubers and bloggers alike, and the author here, is just highlighting Dhruv’s hypocrisy and one-sidedness. Claiming that the ‘Ease of doing Business’ ranking doesn’t matter[xix], while the Chief Economic Adviser of the GOI (Government of India) himself has stated that it is an important aspect of the economy, in conversation with Times Now[xx], or alleging that Modi uses an expensive pen, not stating that it was gifted by the Prince of the UAE[xxi], claiming that India is the most unsafe place for women, even more than Syria and Afghanistan, through a survey with a sample size of a meagre 40 women, and only a paltry 4 women from a populous country like India[xxii], despite 48.03% of the country being comprised of females[xxiii], Dhruv Rathee has time and time again shown his anti-national side to his viewers and the public.

Spreading fake news is another avenue he doesn’t mind treading on. Be it saying that the ex-CM of Tripura’s speech was blocked by All India Radio, despite it being clarified by DD that it wasn’t[xxiv][xxv], claiming that BJP ruled states have not announced relief for the Kerala Floods[xxvi], while they clearly had[xxvii], or claiming that 20 lakhs were spent on Modi’s fitness video[xxviii], when not even a single rupee was spent, according to the PMO[xxix], Dhruv Rathee is someone who never fears to misguide and misinform his impressionable viewers by denting his credibility.

Dhruv Rathee, a self-proclaimed savior of journalistic ethics, had also put out a screenshot in the past, claiming that BJP supporter pages were spending mammoth amounts on advertising. A Facebook user then highlighted the hypocrisy of Dhruv, on one of his most heavily promoted videos about the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal, and it being at the top of the list if one searches the keyword ‘Rafale deal’, which, at that time was one of the most searched keywords[xxx]. When confronted about the video initially, Rathee responded instantly, saying it was a fake photoshop, and thought that the matter would end there. He added, that he never spent money on YouTube for promotion of videos. However, when various other started pointing out the hypocrisy of Rathee with the facts embedded in screenshots of the ad popping up on result of the search, Dhruv defended his so called “blunder” through an extremely weird statement. “Then it looks like some unknown person is doing promotion on my name. It’s being done from my account and I have no idea who is doing it,” said Rathee[xxxi]. These appalling traits of dishonesty, most certainly do not depict an unbiased, honest journalist, who talks a great deal about journalistic ethics, yet leaves no stone unturned to dump the blame on our Prime Minister.

In this article, however, the author does not intend to focus on the misdeeds of this YouTuber in the past, but wishes to shed some light on two videos recently put out by the aforementioned YouTuber in the months of October and November 2020, both targeting the independent journalist Arnab Goswami and his Channel Republic TV, after the journalist was hounded by the Mumbai Police in a politically motivated arrest and thrown into jail[xxxii], soon after the channel emerged victorious against fake charges of a TRP racket that was launched against them by the Mumbai Police. Dhruv Rathee claimed to ‘expose’ Republic TV’s TRP “jumla” in his video[xxxiii] and while doing so, in the author’s opinion, completely defamed the journalist and the channel, by displaying half-facts, hiding many facts, and blatantly making it look like there was only one side to the story.

In the second video the author is addressing, the YouTuber talks about the arrest of prominent journalist Arnab Goswami[xxxiv], who was arrested after the reopening of an already closed abetment of suicide case in 2019[xxxv], that was directed by the Home Minister of Maharashtra[xxxvi], Anil Deshmukh, belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party[xxxvii], one of the parties that Arnab spoke extremely critically of. Rathee goes on, in his video, talking about occasions where the BJP, the current ruling party has stemmed press freedom, and pitches a complete one-side story, as if previous governments have been idle and never once tried to silence the art of journalism. He goes on to give his opinion, but ends up stating lies in the name of facts and portraying his bias quite heavily. The author, in the next few paragraphs and pages, wishes to highlight these fallacies and errors, breaking down the video and the errors, piece by piece, with evidence associated with all claims being made.

Video 1 – ‘TRP Jumla of Republic TV

The video starts off with a 51-second introduction. Prior to the introduction however, he starts the video with a GIF where Arnab Goswami is screaming at the top of his lungs, “Mujhe Drugs Do!”, a dialog that has caught the attention of almost all the viewers who were waiting to find something they could use to get a laugh out of. After the dialog ends, Rathee says that instead of saying, “give me drugs”, Arnab should have said, “Give me TRP!” since all the channels in this country are after sole ratings[xxxviii].

He goes on to say that the Mumbai Police, had accused the Republic Network of manipulating TRP, and had thereby, exposed a TRP scandal. This is where the author disagrees with the topicality of the words being used in the video. Note that Rathee uses the word ‘accused’ in the first sentence, which translates to merely “saying that someone has done something morally wrong, illegal or unkind”, as of the Cambridge Dictionary[xxxix].

Now, the California Law Review[xl] states that when a statement is made accusing somebody of a crime or something that constitutes even an element or a portion of a crime, and the accused person stays silent or makes an equivocal reply, and the conditions are such that a normal innocent person would promptly deny or refute the allegations, only then the accusatory statement and the silence of the accused may be admitted as evidence[xli].

In the case of Republic TV however, the channel immediately refuted all claims being made with evidence from their side, as well as official statements, the Journalist coming out with sting investigations and facts, as well as the FIR report, which I will get to later, thus, ensuring that the accusation is not even close to a strand of evidence, if we look at what the California Law Review has said regarding the same.

This is not all, that Dhruv Rathee has failed to mention. He has said that the Police had accused Republic TV, but also exposed a TRP scandal of the Network. Now, in the author’s opinion, the words ‘accuse’ and ‘expose’ cannot go together. The author is of the opinion, that the word accuse is basically an allegation, and the word expose is to bring out the facts (mainly neglected or unknown) to the public and shed light on them, and thus, a mere accusation, that is a statement without facts, in this case, cannot lead to the exposal of a scandal directly.

That being said, ‘Grammarist’[xlii], defines exposé as “a noun which means a news article, book, movie or electronic report that reveals a hidden truth about someone or something. Usually, an exposé is an investigative piece that reveals information which is shocking or surprising.[xliii]”. However, besides the sole accusation of the Mumbai police, there was no evidence presented to make the exposal with facts, and thus, the author concludes, that based on these references, Dhruv Rathee was wrong to directly correlate an accusation of the police to an exposal and make an inference in the same manner. This point of topicality will not be highlighted very often and it is quite easy to get away with such things because the audience will never, in detail, check and review every part of the video.

In the next part of his video, Rathee explains the concept of TRP and what exactly TRP is. He compares it to views on a YouTube video and uses simple layman terms to ensure easy understanding of the concept from the audience’s point of view. Giving credit where credit is due, Dhruv Rathee has done a substantially good job educating the people on the concept of TRP. He gives a good explanation on the importance of TRP, the content and the reason why advertisers approach channels and at the end of the segment, talks about the sole agency that calculates TRP and impression, BARC. He does a good job in the segment regarding the necessity and the importance of TRP and for what seems to the author as the first time in the video, starts educating the viewers honestly, as opposed to doing what he has been known to do, spreading propaganda and portraying his bias.

He continues the good form in the next segment too by giving a detailed analysis on the calculation of the TRP, comparing it to exit polls and YouTube analytics and gives a brief yet detailed explanation on the concepts of people’s meters, the functioning of BARC and other organizations and ends the segment by talking about the Hansa Research’s role in placing the barometers at selective destinations. He does so whilst subtly talking about the loopholes of the TRP and how it potentially could be manipulated. Overall, though, the author feels that the YouTuber has done a good job informing the people about the topic at hand and has succeeded in raising awareness about a topic very often spoken on.

But now we come to the meat of the video. The part of the video he has been most criticized for. The part for which the comments section is filled with remarks pointing out his hypocrisy, his one-sidedness and his bias[xliv]. Dhruv starts out by saying how channels could manipulate these TRPs if they were friends with employees of the Hansa Research Group who planted meters in houses. He explained how people would be able to bribe the homes and the employees of the audit centre and then succeed in manipulation of the TRPs. He further goes on to say that according to the Mumbai Police, the very same loophole was used by the Republic Network.

The next part of the segment though, was where Dhruv seemed to go completely off track. Without quoting the Commissioner of the Police, he went on to directly quote[xlv] “facts”, saying how former employees of Hansa Research were bribed to identify houses, and how those houses were given Rs. 500 – 600 per month to keep Republic TV on, thereby increasing the TRP. He then quotes the Police Commissioner to reiterate how households that didn’t even speak English were ordered to keep the channels on.

However, here is the climax. Confidently, he says that the Hansa Research Agency and BARC had written a statement, filed a complaint and gone to the police, thereby exposing the scandal. On the contrary, the Hansa Statement, that is displayed in the video, merely states that “Hansa Research and BARC conducted an investigation into the matter over the last few weeks, the conclusion of which resulted in Hansa Research filing an FIR against an ex-employee who was engaged in some wrongdoing. Hansa Research has always been vigilant about these issues and has been proactive in informing BARC and the law enforcement agencies as and when such cases have come to our notice. We would continue to cooperate with BARC and with the authorities as and when called upon to do so”[xlvi]. From the opinion of the author, this nowhere states the name of Republic TV and nowhere states that the Republic Media Network is involved in the case, as Dhruv seems to be alleging. The statement talks about a rogue ex-employee, who, mind you is not even accepted in court as proof, of the third party of the rating agency and states nothing about a TRP scandal consisting of the Republic Media Network, but goes on to give a very obscure and vague interpretation of an ex-employee of engaging in “some misdoing”.

The words TRP and Republic TV are not even mentioned in the statement that according to Dhruv, “exposed the scandal”, and thus the author feels it is safe to say that the claims made by Rathee alleging that both agencies have confirmed the complaint and have unanimously filed a complaint exposing this TRP racket, is completely baseless and only has the power to fill his agenda, bad-mouth and defame the Republic Media Network.

Moreover, the seven-page Hansa Research Group Report, on the basis of which an FIR was registered in the TRP scam case, categorically mentions India Today on two occasions and not even Republic TV once[xlvii]. Now the author feels it was indeed irresponsible of Dhruv Rathee for not mentioning the same, but also extremely immature of him for saying that the very agency that has not even mentioned Republic TV, had filed a complaint exposing the scandal.

It is also worthy to note that in an exclusive report by OP India, it was revealed that TV Today Network had failed to provide a satisfactory answer to the BARC Disciplinary Council (BDC) as to the “abnormal” and “inexplicable” increase in India Today’s TRPs. The BDC had passed an order imposing a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the media network for viewership malpractice. India Today Group had had later issued a statement admitting that it was fined by BARC for viewership malpractice[xlviii].

Dhruv makes no mention of how an audit inquiry by BARC confirmed that 5 households were indeed bribed to watch India Today daily for a minimum of two hours from November 2019 to May 2020[xlix]. Again, there is no evidence of Republic Media Network’s involvement in the TRP scandal and what all the evidence does, is do nothing but tarnish the image of the Mumbai Police, and Dhruv Rathee. If there is no bona fide case, then where is the complaint coming from? When BARC and Hansa Research have said that there is nothing against the Republic Media Network and that there is no evidence implicating Republic TV, it seems very unlikely that a great intellectual like Dhruv Rathee would put out fake news and twist and turn headlines to suit his propaganda, but as the author has exposed his antics in the first few paragraphs of this piece, it is not something new to Dhruv.

That being said, Dhruv Rathee’s video went on, talking about the three channels that were accused in the case. He continued, by talking about Republic TV’s refuting the allegation made and went on to talk about though it sounded believable, it was not the first time Republic was “caught doing something like this”. This last phrase is something that irks the author of this piece. Despite the vagueness of the phrase, the author believes that Rathee has used it incorrectly. This is due to three reasons.

1. It is fairly illogical to say that Republic TV has been caught in this case since the author has put forward a mammoth amount of evidence that proves that Republic has not even participated in this scam, let alone be caught amidst the controversy as the guilty party.

2. The phrase “doing something like this” is ineptly vague and is a mockery of the art of being specific. Dhruv has not specified any kind of case, where the Republic Media Network has been caught guilty of any kind of malpractice and thus, the point being made here can be completely negated.

3. The image he has put up on the screen refers to an accusation being made by India TV refuting Republic’s claim of them manipulating TRP and proves nothing but an argument between two news channels in the country. Surely that cannot be the basis on which Rathee says Republic has been “caught”.

Rathee continues his video, now talking about the issue in the case that turns it over into Republic TV’s favour. Rathee says that the first FIR that was filed, mentioned India Today, however the Mumbai CP later clarified in the press conference that it was Republic TV who had engaged in the wrongdoing, and that though India Today was mentioned in the FIR, it was indeed Republic TV’s name that came up in the investigation held later.

The author here, does not agree with a variety of points being made by Dhruv Rathee. Firstly, Rathee fails to mention that the reporter of Republic TV, Atul, was not allowed to enter the venue of the press conference that was heled 24 hours after the filing of an FIR[l]. Dhruv failed to mention that the CP alleged that Republic TV was named on numerous occasions[li] despite the FIR, which shows that India Today was named[lii]. He has failed to mention how India Today breached provision of section 7 of the EULA[liii] and committed major viewership malpractice, which led to them paying a fine of 5 lakh INR[liv]. Dhruv has also conveniently forgotten, that even though the police spoke on the contrary to FIR 0143905, that didn’t even mention Republic Media Network once, Hansa Research Group and S Gurumurthy have confirmed the name of India Today[lv], the Remand Copy named India Today 6 times[lvi] and that the police also, quite conveniently, have not mentioned even a single channel in court[lvii], thus proving the rate of involvement of Republic TV in this TRP scam.

Besides these many fallacies, Dhruv says that “though the FIR did indeed mention India Today, the police clarified in a press conference, that it was Republic TV who engaged in the wrongdoing.” To Dhruv, who has misguided his viewers by citing a press conference as a reputed and noteworthy source of information, the author wishes to raise a few rebuttals.

1. How come Dhruv thought a mere press conference, ordered by the police who have been accused, with supporting logic and evidence, of doing all this at the behest of their political masters, is more informative and reliable than an FIR filed by rating agencies?

2. How is it that Dhruv thought it was alright to accept the comments of what was said in a press conference, that are mere accusations and allegations as opposed to the complaints in the FIRs lodged by the rating agencies?

3. Did Dhruv Rathee deem a press conference enough to overturn what was a written statement?

4. The statement in the press conference was solely based on witnesses supposedly stating the name of Republic TV. When there is no physical evidence and reports that mention Republic TV, does Rathee deem it fit to actually consider the word of a witness over reports and an FIR?

Witnesses have been proved untrustworthy and unreliable on numerous occasions. Research shows that 75% of false convictions are caused by an inaccurate eyewitness statement[lviii]. Eyewitness talk, where witnesses discuss what they saw with each other after the event and then change their mind about what they thought they saw based on the evidence of another witness is also extremely probable[lix], especially in the case of the TRP scam. Be it the malleability of memory, or the fact that memory can be easily distorted, eyewitnesses aren’t exactly the go-to solution for a case like this. With the ripple effect, causing a witness to double-down after they accuse someone, as well as well as mistaken identity leading in to 71% of wrongful convictions in the US[lx], the author is quite surprised how Dhruv Rathee thought a few eyewitnesses would be more than enough to suit his propaganda, look over the FIR and hold Republic TV guilty.

Many questions trample over the same few lines and we can come to a satisfactory conclusion that Dhruv Rathee, in this case has made an illogical comparison, deeming it fit for an alleged statement of a witness to be more reliable than an FIR drafted by the rating agencies themselves. Besides, in this case in particular, a witness, while talking to the media also named India Today, inexplicably, in front of the magistrate, the witness changed tunes and named Republic TV, a very common fault and problem with witnesses as the author has highlighted above.

Dhruv Rathee failed to shed light on this matter and further, didn’t even bother to talk a bit about a conversation where a witness, in whose home a bar-o-meter was installed, was admitting to his neighbor that he is being coerced to name Republic TV and India Today in his statement. Dhruv fails to tell his viewers how the police barged into the witness’ house at 3:30 AM[lxi] and coerced him to name Republic TV[lxii]. Dhruv failed to mention how the witness said that the police had already written Republic Bharat in their papers[lxiii] and how, in the entire scheme of events of the case where Republic TV was being implicated in the TRP scam, not a shred of evidence, except the inexplicably changed statement by the witness made in the magistrate[lxiv]. It has slipped the genius Dhruv’s mind how the Police surrounded a witness’ house after she confirmed that she named India Today and not Republic TV[lxv].

The author, on that note has a few rebuttals to raise against Rathee’s one-sided portraying of the topic and the way in which Rathee is using the topic to spread his anti-Arnab propaganda.

1. Does Dhruv deem it fit for the police to go and interrogate any kind of potential witness at 3:30 in the morning?

2. Do the tactics used by the police not occur to Dhruv as coercive tactics and does it occur to Dhruv that, since the reports by Hansa Research and BARC, not to mention the FIR, hadn’t been in their favour, the police could have been trying to create fresh evidence to implicate Republic TV?

3. According to the witness, the name of Republic TV was already present in certain documents. Doesn’t this portray some kind of bias against the Republic Media Network, and, Can an investigation into any case be carried out with the police force being personally vested in implicating one channel?

4. Why do these facts not occur at all to Dhruv Rathee despite him trying to educate the public, coming out with such informative facts?

5. Is Dhruv trying to hide these facts by not portraying them, making it look like there is only one side to the story by not showing anything that is in the favour of the Republic Media Network?

These questions need to be answered by Dhruv, for otherwise, the author is of the belief that the content and videos that Rathee makes are fundamentally weak, flawed and very strongly tinged by personal, conformational and most certainly selection bias, due to the way he hides data that goes against his agenda, not to mention, almost always, reciting only one side of the story.

Continuing to analyze the content of the video, Dhruv decides to raise awareness on how easy it is to bribe people and manipulate the TRP using statistics and facts given by journalist Aunindyo Chakravarty. He talks about how easy it is to manipulate the TRP of English news channels and gives a brief explanation on the numbers and the statistics behind the number of bar-o-meters and people associated with watching English news channels. He discusses in detail, how the views and watch time influence the TRP and YouTube views with good and easy-to-understand examples. Giving credit where credit is due, this is quite an informative section giving people knowledge about the number of people’s meter that ought to be rigged to successfully manipulate the TRP.

Dhruv goes on to explain a few more loopholes of the TRP and gives an example where Republic TV has been accused, not guilty, but merely accused in a case that India Today seemingly alleged against them. He gives an example where a few people have reported that Republic TV seemed to be a “landing channel”, but that too is a mere allegation, without sufficient evidence and proof, holding Republic TV guilty of all charges. Obviously, in a democracy like India we believe in “innocent until being proven guilty”, and thus, mere charges by rival channels will not be enough to hold Republic Media Network culpable.

In the next part of the segment, he highlights a few instances, like NDTV’s battle with TAM and how the organization prior to BARC used to be prone to TRP manipulation. While he does mention on numerous instances how various channels have often manipulated TRP, he does not even once specify the names of these channels. He resorts to only naming and shaming Republic TV and instead of pointing out the respective facts, talks so highly about channels like India Today and NDTV. Here, yet again, crucial information slips his genius mind. He talks a great deal about the sting operations conducted by NDTV exposing channels and organizations who have manipulated the TRP, but fails to even mention how Sree Iyer has written a book, ‘NDTV Frauds’, highlighting each and every malpractice, fraud and corrupt act the channel of NDTV has carried out.

When there is written evidence on how channels like NDTV and India Today have committed innumerable fraudulences, when people have gone to the extent of writing books exposing such channels, it is only an obligation to Rathee, who spreads awareness and information, to actually let his viewers know about such things. Yet, Dhruv makes no mention of any kind of fraudulent activity NDTV has carried out, despite there being a plethora, and continues to blame Republic Media Network, continuing to spread his propaganda, continuing to defame Arnab Goswami and his Republic Media Network.

The next segment of Rathee’s video is where he makes the most ignorant and brainless blunders. He takes an example of two channels – Republic TV and NDTV and decides to make a few comparisons. Comparing the YouTube subscribers for both channels, he says that Republic TV has around 35 lakh subscribers whereas NDTV possessed around 90 lakh subscribers. Currently, NDTV has 8.9 million, and Republic World has 4.03 million subscribers. It is also important to note here however, that YouTube was launched in the year 2005[lxvi] and NDTV was launched in 1988[lxvii]. Republic TV on the other hand, was only launched in 2017[lxviii] which means that NDTV had a gigantic 12-year head-start over Republic TV, which would allow then to increase their outreach much more than Republic would be able to. Unfortunately, the genius Dhruv Rathee does not take this in to account while comparing YouTube subscribers, and the author would like to point out what a huge fallacy this is.

Dhruv blatantly misguides his viewers while comparing the subscribers and making an inference that NDTV is more popular. Individuals have done their research and so has the author. At the time of writing this piece (22/11/20 – 16:50PM), Republic World has 1.3 thousand watching live, while NDTV has a mere 571. According to The 420, at 10:47 am on October 14, Republic TV had a live viewership of 6,300 people while NDTV India had 4,400 live viewers at the same time[lxix]. A similar data was scanned at 1:40 pm which showed that Republic Bharat had a live watching of 9,900 while only 3,300 watched NDTV India[lxx]. This data was taken from YouTube which is available in the public domain and is non-tamper able. “Aaj Tak has 10 times more subscribers while NDTV has double numbers but both the channels are getting 30 per cent less viewership that Republic Bharat. Republic with just 4.7 million subscribers is actually leading even at that those time when Arnab, who is the face of the channel is not on screen. This clearly shows that Aaj Tak has lost the loyalty of its viewers who have shifted to other channels,” said Amit Dubey, Chief Mentor, Root64 InfoSec Research Foundation[lxxi].

But clearly, the words of experts and honest statistics do not matter at all to people like Dhruv Rathee. Even if we talk about the monthly video views when it comes to both channels, while monthly video views of NDTV touched the heights of 100 million, views plunged downwards since May 2020 and reached around 60 million per month[lxxii]. NDTV, which was adding 3 – 4 lakh subscribers per month reduced to 1.80 lakh new subscribers in September[lxxiii].

On the contrary, Republic TV, which was getting 100 million views per month on YouTube till August 2020 saw a huge spike in September as it gained a traction of 300 million views monthly[lxxiv]. Exponential growth was seen in terms of new subscribers as around 13 lakh new subscribers connected with the channel in September[lxxv]. The online trend clearly shows that Republic TV has taken a lead on the digital world. But again, these statistics are useless for geniuses like Dhruv Rathee who selectively pick their statistics suiting their propaganda.

He then takes the app downloads and the website traffic, and says that since NDTV has a predominantly higher number, it is more famous. Here however, he fails to take into account the time when both channels were formed. When you have a channel getting a huge head start, being founded 30 years prior to another, comparing the app downloads and website traffic is fairly illogical. But again, this is Dhruv Rathee, a man who already knows everything, a man who has his eyes set on defaming anything even remotely against his agenda, and a man who extremely selectively chooses facts that sit tight with his propaganda, in lieu of misguiding and misinforming his viewers.

Due to these distorted facts that he presents, Dhruv says that despite NDTV having a higher viewing audience in terms of videos, higher app downloads and more frequent users visiting the website, it has only 1% of the share in terms of network whereas Republic TV has whopping 77%. He goes on to make one of the most flawed inferences that the author has ever witnessed, he says that despite NDTV having such a huge lead in terms of YouTube views, website traffic and app downloads, BARC still gives only 1% of the share in terms of network to them, and thus, this proves how unreliable and faulty the BARC ratings are.

The author would here like to point out that TRP, which stands for Television Rating Point, measures the views on television[lxxvi]. App downloads, website traffic and YouTube views have nothing to do with it. Dhruv Rathee has no knowledge whatsoever about the TRP, and makes claims concerning channel’s YouTube views and app downloads, which don’t concern the TRP at all. It is indeed a pity that Dhruv Rathee understands nothing about the TRP and how it is measured and yet lectures a great deal to others, ending up thoroughly misleading his audience.

That being said, the fact less, unreliable video comes to an end with an opinion of Dhruv’s. Dhruv states that it is indeed important for advertisers to understand how faulty the TRP system is, how easily and often it can be rigged, and has advised companies to critically analyse the money they spend on advertising. He further goes on to call the TRP system outdated as well. He says that advertisers ought to stop taking the TRP as a basis for portraying advertisements, and should instead on the plethora of digital sources – YouTube subscribers, Website Traffic and App Downloads.

The author would again like to point out the baseless arguments of the illogical Dhruv Rathee. The author wishes to convey to the audience that YouTube subscribers are a one-time icon people press and is most certainly not as representative of the current mood. Using YouTube subscribers as a basis is a completely nonsensical method because one can subscribe to a channel and not watch a single video. It is also highly plausible that since channels like NDTV came much before Republic TV, they would have a lot of subscribers. In the same way, we can go on listing out innumerable faults with using YouTube subscribers, app downloads, and website traffic, that the genius in Dhruv Rathee has just driven past. The video ends here, and the author is quite content with the way the video has been broken down, highlighting each fallacy made by the hypocrite Dhruv Rathee.

Video 2 – ‘Arnab Goswami Arrest’

Dhruv Rathee’s 311th video starts with the normal introduction that Rathee gives out in all his videos. Starting off immediately with the arrest of prominent journalist Arnab Goswami, Rathee terms the arrest as ‘controversial’ and ‘polarizing’. He talks about the two sides of the coin, one side, which shamelessly celebrated as a journalist was harassed, and another which hypocritically, in his words, condemned the arrest of a journalist not unknown to the public.

The second segment of the video talks about the reason Arnab Goswami was arrested. Bringing to light the abetment to suicide case of Anvay Naik, an interior designer residing in Mumbai, Dhruv clarifies that the arrest had of Arnab Goswami had nothing to do with the fake TRP case, or the Palghar lynching case either. He states clearly, that it is an independent case, having no relation with anything else that has transpired prior to it.

Dhruv starts off with his piece, narrating to his audience how, on the 5th of May 2018, two years ago, Anvay Naik, an interior designer, along with his mother, committed suicide. Dhruv mentions how the police had discovered a suicide note, and how Anvay Naik had allegedly written that he was facing financial problems due to people not paying him for his work, which was why he took the horrendous step of killing himself.

He continues, levelling off of the suicide note, and mentions that three individuals – Arnab Goswami, Feroz Sheikh and Niteish Sharda were blamed in the note, all of whom had hired Anvay for various purposes of design, yet hadn’t paid him a penny. Dhruv goes on, talking about how the note had specified that Arnab Goswami owed Anvay 53 lakhs, Feroz Sheikh owed him 400 lakhs, while Niteish Sharda owed him 55 lakhs. Dhruv, then makes a very mediocre statement saying this is not a new case and details are available in newspapers two years ago, as well as on public domain, a statement, which according to the author is meaningless.

Dhruv talks a bit more about the case and mentions that it took place in Alibag, which is situated in the Raigarh district. He mentions how the Raigarh police had filed an FIR and Republic Media Network had gone on to deny all charges against them, how investigations went on for a year, and finally in April 2019, the case had to be closed, due to no sufficient evidence being found. Dhruv also makes a note of how the Judicial Magistrate, on the 16th of April 2019, accepted the summary report of the police. This meant that due process of law was followed.

The readers might think that there is nothing wrong with the video until now, and author agrees. It is now that Rathee makes another one of his illogical, and meaningless claims. Rathee reminds the viewers that BJP ruled Maharashtra in 2019, yet fails to mention that Shiv Sena, the party in power in Maharashtra, was in an alliance with the BJP, forming the NDA. Dhruv completely negates the sheer existence of this hypocrisy and it seems like he wants nothing to do with it. Being such a hypocrite himself, it is indeed quite appalling that Dhruv is doing this.

Dhruv also mentions that he has stated in previous videos, how the police nonchalantly dance to the tune of the political masters of the state, and inserts a picture of the video ‘TRP Jumla of Republic TV’, which the author has already, broken down and sliced, segment by segment. He also went on to say that it is not surprising that people said that this case was closed due to political pressure. However, the author wishes to highlight that Dhruv Rathee has not mentioned any expert of law and order who has said the same.

Also, it has conveniently slipped the genius Dhruv’s mind, that India, a democracy, follows a constitution, and the Indian Constitution clearly highlights ‘Separation of Powers’ as a salient feature. This means that the judiciary is a completely independent branch of the government and thus, even if the police acted under political pressure as Dhruv claims, without any evidence, the Magistrate, which is independent of the ruling party, if not happy with the investigation, would ask it to be re-investigated. It is not uncommon for people like Dhruv, however to claim that institutions like courts have been hijacked in this country by the “fascist” government in the center but as there does exist a feature named ‘Separation of Powers’[lxxvii], and self-proclaimed analysts and geniuses like Dhruv cry out to save the constitution so often, it is very abnormal that he forgot something as fundamental as this.

Apart from this, continuing on in the segment, Dhruv highlights how Anvay Naik’s wife and daughter were unhappy, and wanted further investigation, as opposed to the case being closed. He highlights that a letter was also written to the honorable Prime Minister of India to continue the investigation, and mentions that in May 2020, the wife and daughter of the deceased met the Home Minister of Maharashtra, Anil Deshmukh. He says that Anil Deshmukh ordered a reinvestigation of the case which had been closed by the court. The same, competent Mumbai police, who had not once filed an FIR in the Sushant Singh Rajput case[lxxviii], were called upon to investigate the same. This, however is a fact genius Dhruv fails to mention. Dhruv finishes off the statement by saying that on the 15th of October 2020, the court gave permission for the reinvestigation.

The next segment of the video starts off with Dhruv mentioning how all three accused in the case were arrested by the authorities. He talks about how, immediately after the arrest, Anvay Naik’s wife and daughter conducted a press conference and said that they were content. He goes on to say that the family of the deceased said that there was indeed no politics in this case, and the previous investigation was suppressed only because of Arnab Goswami.

The author would here like to point out that the statement made by the family is in contradiction to what Rathee said earlier. Rathee previously said that the police dance to the government’s tune and thus the closing of the abetment to suicide case was due to political pressure. However, when the arrest takes place, when a whole lot of people actually condemn the arrest, then he makes no mention of his previous statements. If the case goes the way he wants it to go, it seems his statements cannot be taken at face value for they are only relevant when BJP is in power.

The author would also like to point out, that the unbiased, neutral and fact giving journalist side of Dhruv Rathee, was camouflaged with his hypocrisy. He made no mention of how Republic TV’s sting operation actually exposed a shocking 'target Republic' plot that has been hatched, with outrageous details being disclosed by a top Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) insider at the Congress headquarters in Mumbai. He felt no absolute need to inform his viewers that Congress spokesperson Raghavendra Shukla laid bare the conspiracy, indicating that a team had been constituted at the behest of the top-most powers in the Maharashtra government with the sole agenda of targeting Republic. 'Nobody can stop the shutting down of Republic,' the stung MVA insider says on-camera, putting forth that the ongoing attack against the channel is just the start. These important pieces of news however, has slipped Dhruv Rathee’s genius mind though. He has not made a single mention of this at all.

Dhruv Rathee made no mention of the all-important quote Shukla made - "Strategy is that he (Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami) would have to be locked up. This is sure. Nobody on the planet can save him from being banned.”[lxxix] The author would like to ask his readers, isn’t that (Arnab being locked up) exactly what happened? But yet again, Dhruv Rathee chooses to keep silent. Dialogs like "the team has already started its job." and “more issues just like the 'TRP scam' will come out in two days.”[lxxx], just goes to prove that the TRP case was a sham, like the author proved with evidence, and rubbishes the hypocrite Dhruv Rathee’s claims. Additionally, "Yes, see the mastermind behind all this is Shri Sharad Pawar ji”[lxxxi], a dialog that proved that the head of Anil Deshmukh’s party was behind all this, was also not brought into light by the just Dhruv Rathee.[lxxxii]

Dhruv also failed to mention the statements of another NCP member, the party of Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Malik, who said, "He is stuck in the TRP thing now. Let me tell you clear cut. He will get trapped. I am telling you clear cut,", almost predicting the course of the investigation by the Mumbai Police and hinting that everything so far is pre-planned[lxxxiii]. But then again, Dhruv Rathee is indeed one of the most unbiased people out there. Surely these details wouldn’t have slipped his mind? Surely the backing of Republic Tv by an extremely credible expert, lawyer KK Manan[lxxxiv] didn’t escape his unbiased mind?

Getting back on track in terms of analysing Dhruv’s video, Dhruv says that Republic TV, “obviously” refuted those claims and claimed a misuse of power by the government. Even though he makes a complete mockery of the statement put out by Republic TV, the author would like to highlight something that has once again slipped Dhruv Rathee’s mind – another dialog said by Congress spokesperson Raghavendra Shukla. He (Arnab) should understand what he speaks," the Congress spokesman said[lxxxv], clearly highlighting that Arnab had said something that they didn’t like. According to the author, in light of these statements, the response by Republic TV seemed very logical, something Dhruv’s videos are not.

Dhruv goes on to talk about Republic’s statement, and how the network claimed that they paid 90% of the dues to deceased Anvay Naik’s company Concorde Designs Pvt. Ltd. (CDPL) over two years ago and that the remaining amount was to be paid on the completion of the pending work that has not been undertaken ever since. However, Dhruv yet again selectively mentions this, and skips out the fact that in the statement, Republic also mentioned that ARG Outlier media Pvt Ltd made several attempts for complete and final settlement of all claims but the absence of shareholders or directors in CDPL rendered the attempts unsuccessful[lxxxvi].

For Dhruv though, the number of blunders was just beginning. He made a claim that the actual arrest was actually controversial with videos showing that he was assaulted, and that he was making excuses and not cooperating, surfacing out. The author wishes to highlight that though that might have been the case, the video that Dhruv has shown, and claimed that ‘Arnab was making excuses to not budge’, just shows the police saying that Arnab possesses legal rights. Arnab Goswami did not even speak a word in the clip played by Rathee, let alone make excuses. The author seriously questions the credibility of Dhruv’s sources.

That being said, the author agrees that the arrest was much more than controversial. It is not often that you see a special team led by an encounter specialist, questioning journalists, and leading a team, all of whom are armed with AK-47s to arrest a simple journalist[lxxxvii]. It is not often you see the team led by the encounter specialist Sachin Vaze assaulting a minor[lxxxviii], and then filing an FIR against the wife and son of the accused journalist[lxxxix]. This is as good as a patient being diagnosed with fever but the doctor treating him for cancer. As appalling as it is, Dhruv has not spoken about this even once.

Moreover, Dhruv failed to specify how the Mumbai Police manhandled Arnab Goswami and dragged him to the police station for questioning. He didn’t bother to make a mention of how Mumbai Police didn’t produce any documents, summons or court papers as they reached Arnab Goswami’s residence and arrested him and conveniently forgot to tell his viewers, how, just a day before the arrest, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had called Arnab ‘the biggest hawala’ operator in the city of Mumbai.

Dhruv then makes a claim saying that despite the narrative run by Republic TV claiming that Arnab Goswami was assaulted, the Alibagh court labelled the allegations as false, baseless, and that there was no assault by the Raigarh police. However, the author would like to point out that an article by NDTV[xc] also, while stating that the allegations were dismissed, nowhere termed them to be baseless. This is something Dhruv has also not provided a source for, and as the author has proved above, his sources cannot be trusted.

What the author wants to highlight, however, is the audacity of the Gandhi family. Barely managing to hold fortress in 3 to 4 states, scrambling out alliances with every party they can, they can still plot such a nexus to get rid of a prominent journalist. One can only imagine the tyranny and the plight of journalists and field workers during the reign of Honourable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, when the Gandhi family used to pull all the strings behind stage. Imagine now, if they were at the centre!

Another something that Dhruv didn’t even bother to highlight, was how Aam Aadmi Party and Congress leaders and supporters who like to cry ‘fascism’ if a Modi critic even sneezes took to social media to celebrate Arnab Goswami’s arrest[xci]. He failed to mention how, instead of condemning the arrest of a journalist critical of state government, the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party supporters and leaders celebrated it, and some even took credit for the arrest[xcii]. It is appalling that Despite Goswami screaming as he was taken away that he was assaulted, pro-Congress workers would rather celebrate an assault on an individual.

Getting back to the video, Dhruv continues with the next segment titled ‘Ultimate Hypocrisy’, and rightly so, because the author would wish to highlight the hypocrisy of Dhruv Rathee here. Dhruv starts off the segment by saying how, immediately after the arrest, several union ministers, state ministers and BJP followers started tweeting in the favour of the arrested journalist, how they said it reminded them about the Emergency, how freedom of speech and expression, and journalism was being suffocated, how hashtags started trending in favour of Arnab Goswami, and how supporters came out onto the streets to protest in favour of the journalist. He says that it was very interesting because it seemed like a top BJP politician was arrested, rather than a TV “entertainer”.

This last statement is where the author disagrees with Dhruv Rathee. Referring to somebody who is performing their duty, doing their job, quite enthusiastically as a TV entertainer, not only is demeaning and derogatory, not only maligns Arnab’s and Republic TV’s image and portrays Dhruv in bad light, but also insults the sheer art of journalism. The author is completely against such personal attacks, and the know-it-all part in Dhruv Rathee should also know, and learn to stray from such vindictive personal attacks.

Dhruv highlights the “apparently” ultimate hypocrisy by citing some examples where journalists were arrested in BJP ruled states. The author wishes to look at each example and then analyse what Dhruv Rathee is saying about it.

1. The arrest of a Malayali journalist under UAPA on 5th October – Dhruv Rathee says that the journalist was arrested only because he was going to cover the Hathras rape case. However, that is not the case. Firstly, the audience should know why journalists flocked to Hathras. This was because an alleged gangrape, and an assault of a girl by four upper-caste men took place here. That being said, the case became a political battleground where the justice for the victim took a backseat as politicians tried to score political brownies. Coming to the case of the journalist who was arrested, the journalist was not arrested only because he came to Hathras, as Rathee has mentioned. That kind of reasoning is illogical, because if that were the case, the Uttar Pradesh government ought to have arrested all the journalists present.

Whether it was Pragya Mishra, who sat between a field, hell-bent on meeting the victim’s kin, provoking an official by asking him whether they would also burn her as they cremated Hathras victim’s body[xciii], Pratima Mishra harassing police officials[xciv], these theatrics that has been displayed by the media serves nobody, and certainly not the quest to get victim for the family. In the case of the Malayali ‘journalist’, who was held by the police, he wasn’t simply arrested because he had gone there to cover the incident. He was arrested because of alleged links with the Islamist organization PFI[xcv]. Dhruv Rathee makes the arrest sound fascist, as if it was completely illegal. However, with the plot to wreck communal harmony quite blatant, with Shyoraj, the aide of Rahul Gandhi picked up by the police after admitting to incite riots[xcvi], it is only a given that the police were cautionary.

The journalist was on October 7 even produced before a court, which sent them to 14-day judicial custody[xcvii] but then again, this is Dhruv Rathee we are talking about. Of course, he forgot this. Of course, he forgot how the FIR launched against the four has serious charges, including threatening the unity and integrity of the country[xcviii]. Or how the affidavit filed by the UP Government in the Supreme Court stated that the “journalist” was an office-bearer of the Islamist organisation Popular Front of India and was on his way to Hathras pretending to be a newspaper journalist from a Kerala-based outlet called ‘Tejas’ that was closed in 2018[xcix]. Or how the bail application was rejected in court[c]. These are pressing details, but again, Dhruv remains bound to his agenda, spreading propaganda instead of information.

2. The second arrest Dhruv talks about, probably one of the only arrests in the list that he hasn’t botched up, the arrest of a journalist from Manipur by the N Biren Singh government[ci]. The arrest was certainly against the Fundamental Right of Freedom of Expression in the author’s opinion, and the fact that he was detained twice for such long periods, over a comment regarding a Facebook post made by the wife of a BJP politician[cii], it reeks of unethical use of power. The author gives full credit to Dhruv in this case for bringing up true hypocrisy and actually educating the public.

3. However, Dhruv doesn’t fail to show his true colours. Within seconds, Dhruv states that the arrest of freelance journalist Prashant Kanojia was merely due to a tweet from his account. However, that is not the case. The journalist, who was suspended from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication for abusing a senior faculty, was arrested because of the content in the tweet. The tweet, an original message from Sushil Tiwari, another twitter user was tampered with and surfaced on social media with this content: “People from OBC SC ST communities will be prohibited from entering the Ram temple”[ciii]. Prashant Kanojia was one amongst the many who spread this misinformation, with the potentiality to spark caste riots, and cause unrest in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Thus, this arrest, is not only half-heartedly explained by Dhruv Rathee, or is a legitimate arrest. An arrest for committing a crime. For spreading misinformation under IPC sections 153-A, 153-B, 420, 465, 468, 469, 500, 505(A)(b), 505(2) along with section 66 of the Information Technology Act[civ].

4. The next case Dhruv mentions is about an Assamese journalist Rajeev Sharma from Guwahati, who was arrested after the DFO lodged an FIR alleging that Sharma had demanded Rs 3 lakh for hushing up a news report alleging his nexus with cattle and timber smugglers. Rajiv denied the allegations saying the DFO levelled false allegations as he refused his offer of Rs. 10,000 to hush up his news reports alleging his nexus with cattle and timber smugglers[cv].

Now, this arrest was termed wrong on numerous occasions by numerous people, especially because Rajeev’s father passed away a few hours after his arrest at two in the morning. However, the state government, BJP, transferred Dhubri SP, Yuvraj and divisional forest officer (DFO), Biswajit Roy immediately and also asked the vigilance and anti-corruption branch to investigate the allegations against Roy. They also sought Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal's intervention in the case[cvi] which shows, in the author’s opinion, their responsibility, and most certainly not hypocrisy, as Dhruv Rathee is stating in the segment of his video. This is yet another case of the logical fallacy cherry-picking that Dhruv himself speaks a great deal on. Talk about hypocrisy!

5. The fifth case Rathee mentions, is the infamous sedition trial of Gujarati journalist Dhaval Patel. Dhruv Rathee goes on to say that Patel was arrested because he “only criticised the chief minister”. However, the author would like to point out, that this is not only a distorted fact, it is also a blatant lie. The author would like to lay down a few facts. The old colonial law of sedition and punishment for false warning, which is in contention when somebody “makes or circulates a false alarm or warning as to disaster…leading to panic”, was applied in Dhaval Patel’s case, and it was applied rightly so[cvii].

This was because Patel had written a piece that speculated change in the Chief Minister’s post solely due to the fact that CM Vijay Rupani had failed to contain the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic[cviii]. The mere speculation that Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) could replace Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and replace him with Mandaviya, a union minister and Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP), because of Gujarat’s inability to contain the Coronavirus outbreak was extremely absurd.

This was indeed, in both the author’s and the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate M J Khojjada’s opinion, fake news. The author is of the opinion that any journalist who misguides his viewers, whether knowingly or not, is going against the basic values of journalism – to present facts to people. And therefore, the author believes, that though Patel is now out on bail, the arrest was indeed lawful, and certainly not for “only criticising the chief minister”, as Rathee mentions.

6. The next case is about photojournalist Naresh Khohal, from Haryana. Dhruv Rathee calls this man ‘Naresh Khosla’. The author would like to point out that this is wrong, and that posting such half-researched videos where you even get the name of the protagonist wrong is quite irresponsible on Dhruv’s part. As an “educator”, the least he could do was to portray the facts, but alas, even that is too tough a task for Dhruv.

Onto the facts of the case, Naresh Khohal, was arrested for “creating nuisance” and booked for “spreading infection of dangerous disease”, violation of Covid-19 instructions and under Disaster Management Act, 2005, after informing the local police about stone pelting in his neighbourhood[cix]. Now, without a doubt, the author is completely against this arrest. That being said, he would like to point out, that unlike Arnab Goswami’s arrest, this arrest wasn’t done at the behest of the ruling party. A government enquiry, yes, an enquiry by the very fascist ruling BJP, in fact, found that the policeman, who is complainant in the case, was not even authorized to lodge a complaint under Disaster Management Act. The author would like to ask Rathee a few questions here.

1. If this was really a politically motivated arrest, does Dhruv not think that the BJP would take a bit more trouble to hide their atrocities?

2. Does Dhruv not think it would be fairly illogical for the government to first commit this crime and then lodge an enquiry?

Any layman would be able to understand the facts of the matter here, and the truth is, so has Dhruv. It is quite blatant that on his mission to distort facts and publicly malign the image of the BJP, he has decided to tread on the path of fake news. By distorting facts, by twisting and turning stories, to just doing everything he possibly can to hate and ruin the BJP’s image, it is very sad that Dhruv calls himself an educator.

7. The seventh case Dhruv Rathee mentions is the case of a journalist from Uttar Pradesh, who was booked for reporting the tragedy of a school running the midday meal scheme. The school, instead of serving vegetables, rotis and other items as they were mandated to, was serving only chapati and salt. Rathee says that the journalist was simple arrested and thrown in jail. That being said, he clearly hides out a whole incident, where within hours of the filing of the FIR, Basic Education Minister of the state, Satish Dwivedi, who is a member of the fascist ruling party, said that no action should have been taken against the journalist. Rathee fails to point out that Dwivedi condemned the arrest, as well as wished to speak to the SP of the district to enquire on the matte[cx]r. Besides, the FIR was filed by a third party[cxi]. After an enquiry that a BJP minister, Dwivedi wanted, the journalist was set free[cxii]. He even fails to mention how the journalist got a clean chit immediately after the investigation had finished. Blatantly omitting out facts that are not favourable to one is certainly not the trait of an educator. Clearly, there must be some bias behind it. The author has just one question for Rathee here. If it truly was the state government’s motive to arrest the journalist and make him suffer, why did Satish Dwivedi, a NJP minister of the state, condemn the arrest and enquire to the SP about it? Why was the journalist released as soon as the investigation ended? These are pertinent questions Rathee faces.

8. The final case Dhruv makes mention of, is the controversial case of “journalist”, and former Amnesty India head, Aakar Patel. Dhruv says that the journalist was arrested for simply tweeting about PM Modi. The reality though, as you might have noticed, is thoroughly different to his claims. OP India stated, “Aakar Patel was arrested for his three tweets in which he had alleged that Ghanchi community was "well-off" and "meat-eating" community and that PM Modi belonged to the community but turned vegetarian in accordance with RSS practices”[cxiii]. The journalist provided no source or evidence for his claims, and it was seriously absurd that a journalist would do such a thing, without any warrants, especially tweeting about castes amongst other things, when the issue of caste-based discrimination is very prevalent in India. In his third tweet, Patel claimed that those who died in the 2002 Godhra train burning belonged to the Muslim Ghanchi community[cxiv]. Clearly, this cannot be seen as anything more than an attempt to provoke the Muslim community, as well as an attempt to disrupt communal harmony. Again, the Godhra train riots was another sensitive issue, most Indians, according to the author, sensitise. Later on, June 27, he tweeted that the RSS and the BJP have always benefitted by violence against other Indians, particularly Muslims[cxv]. Yet again, the author would like to ask the journalist where the source and evidence was for all this. This was again another attempt to turn the Hindus and Muslims of the region against each other. “Vajpayee more than Upadhyaya, Advani more than Vajpayee and Modi more than Advani benefitted from this”, he tweeted[cxvi]. But moving on to Mr Rathee, why did the “educator” not make any kind of mention regarding the same? Why did he not even talk a tad bit about the absurd nature of the journalist’s tweets, or the willingness to disrupt communal harmony? Surely, the educator doesn’t have an agenda.

Moreover, why did the educator Dhruv Rathee not make any mention of how the “journalist” had his twitter account suspended for urging, and inciting Dalits and Muslims to take up arms against the centre?[cxvii] The statements which he was arrested for, also concerned caste and religion, and were very provocative in nature. Yet, Rathee makes no mention of the same. He makes no mention of how the same journalist had tweeted that Indian Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, women and poor also needed to do protests like the ones that were happening in Colorado[cxviii]. Clearly, this journalist has a history of inciteful and hateful comments. Again, this is something that hasn’t even been touched upon by the mass educator.

After giving all these cases, Dhruv moves on to one final case. Saying that BJP leaders and supporters didn’t open their mouths for all these atrocities, he goes on to say how they in fact were arguing in court, the sedition charges put on molestation accused journalist Vinod Dua, all because he criticized the BJP. But once again, like in the past, the author would like to point out the fake news and the twisting of facts that Dhruv Rathee’s viewers are subject to.

Now, the molestation accused journalist Vinod Dua, was not in court because he had criticized the government, as Rathee says. He was in court because a complaint had been filed against alleged absurd remarks, he had made on his YouTube show. Now, he allegedly accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using “deaths and terror attacks” to get votes[cxix], and if he is found guilty, should be punished. If he is innocent, he should be acquitted. That is the way a normal case runs, and that is why he is in court fighting it out. What is wrong here? It is of the author’s opinion that if someone files a complaint against another individual, the matter can be settled in court. And that is exactly what is happening in the apex court, where In a huge setback to journalist Vinod Dua, the Supreme Court refused to stay the ongoing investigation against the controversial journalist[cxx]. Again, clear fake news peddled by Dhruv Rathee.

In the final part of that segment, Dhruv Rathee “analyses” Union Minister Smriti Irani’s tweet, where she ends by saying, “Who Speaks if you are next?” Dhruv laughs and asks the minister a rhetorical question – “Who speaks if you are previous?”, he says, making snide remarks about the minister’s tweet. He portrays that the next few lines are his opinion, and goes on to berate and belittle the followers of the BJP calling them the Irani’s troll army. He says that they trolls were quiet regarding the cases of journalists he presented, though the author has rebutted them, and goes on to say how the BJP followers kept quiet because the arrests were in their favour. Now, while the author has no issues with the opinions of Dhruv Rathee, it just doesn’t stick right with the author, that Rathee calls himself an educator and then goes on for almost a minute, just giving his opinion.

The next segment, the author finds, is the most useless segment of them all. Here, Rathee wishes to portray “Arnab’s opinion”, which makes no sense since it is all a speculation, as Dhruv himself admits. He wishes to tell the audience what Arnab’s reaction would have been if someone else had been arrested in place of him. First off, the author would like to point out that Dhruv doesn’t know Arnab personally so making allegations and speculations without any evidence would be a rookie mistake. Secondly, Rathee has no evidence linking his claims and warrants and the whole segment is nothing but a hypothetical.

Rathee first cites the Sushant Singh Rajput case and says that there was no evidence behind Rhea’s involvement. That being said, the author doesn’t even want to rebut this well because of the plethora of sources available on public domain alleging that she met Sushant one night before his death, alleging the financial angle where she borrowed truckloads of money from him for certain personal expenses, as well as the whole drug angle where she herself was arrested and in custody. Therefore, this baseless claim is debunked. He then goes on to say how even an AIIMS doctor had said it was suicide, and not murder, yet the CBI never ruled out murder and a Republic TV Sting operation actually went on to find the opposite – that the AIIMS doctor first thought it was murder, but under sudden circumstances, made a U-turn in his decision[cxxi]. The case has not yet come to a conclusion and is therefore not fit to be spoken or even speculated upon.

Dhruv goes on to say that Arnab Goswami brought about tons of conspiracy theories about Rhea’s involvement. That being said, Dhruv does not at all provide even a single conspiracy theory that Arnab had supposedly made, and provided no links to any of his claims. This, is not only defaming Arnab’s image as a journalist, but also his image, spreading fake news. He goes on to make one more statement, where he says, and the author quotes, “Arnab started trending hashtags, and even went to the extent of saying, “Arrest Rhea, even though there is no evidence, arrest her via the Mumbai police””. For this claim, Rathee has provided no evidence at all. Even though it is a speculation, the author is of the opinion that if claims are being made on a public platform against an individual, they need to have sufficient warrants, something that Dhruv’s claims clearly do not have.

Dhruv says that in the aim of procuring TRP, this was just one stunt pulled by Arnab. He says that whenever any activist would be arrested, Arnab would start calling the activist and anti-national, or even celebrate the arrest. For this explosive claim, Rathee has again, provided no evidence at all, again. This is very unlike any educator, to simply make allegations, big ones at that, at the expense of another’s reputation and career, and then not give any kind of proof at all.

He concludes the segment by saying, that based on these claims, if someone like Arnab would’ve been arrested, Arnab would’ve started trending hashtags like #antinationalareested, or #tukdetukdegangmasterarrested. But, as the author has proved these claims to be absolutely bogus and baseless, his speculation and outcomes are also equally senseless. This is clearly not the role of an educator. Finally, Dhruv says that the Bombay High Court actually came down hard on Republic TV and termed it not as investigative journalism. However, he gives no extra context for this statement, and even misquotes the court. This is because, an article from the Mint, actually quoted the court saying “Criticism of city police by TV media was unfair, in view of the material placed on record. The city police were at the very basic stage of probe”[cxxii]. This again has no mention of Republic TV. That being said, even if you do go on to accept that Republic TV was at fault, the High Court acknowledges that Times Now too was at equal fault[cxxiii], therefore debunking any claims Rathee made about the court coming down specifically on Republic TV.

The final segment Rathee has on his second video, is nothing but his own opinion. He states how certain liberals have actually tweeted in favour of Arnab, and then mentions the opinion of Mumbai Police, and how they feared Arnab would interfere in the investigation, if he was given a notice earlier. Dhruv then goes on to admit that he himself believes that there is some kind of witch-hunt going on against Arnab via the Maharashtra Government, because of the plethora of cases lodged against him.

But, Dhruv being Dhruv, goes on to make another comment saying that he believes that what Arnab does on television is no less that dangerous speech. Here, again, he provides no evidence, no examples, no context and no definition of “dangerous speech”. He says that Arnab divides the nation, and spreads fake news on such a huge level that people are provoked to pursue violence in the name of religion. Yet again, he fails to give any kind of example, or any kind of instance when Arnab has done the same. Moreover, the author would like to point how, how he has debunked the fake news of Dhruv Rathee, and in fact it is ultimate hypocrisy that Rathee is talking about fake news. Again, this is just Rathee’s opinion, so everything he says is protected under freedom of speech, but that being said, the author is of the opinion that claims concerning a third party, especially ones having the capability to tarnish his image and reputation, should be factually checked. Dhruv’s innumerable allegations, are not, as he provides no evidence at all to his viewers.

Dhruv also says that courts should intervene and proper legal action should be given to Arnab so that he stops “demolishing news”. Again, there is no evidence, example or context behind the claim, a trademark behind Rathee’s many, many claims. Finally, he says that this case, the one concerning abetment to suicide, doesn’t contain his journalism, and goes on to quote certain press bodies who said that the arrest considered Arnab’s personal issues, not the journalistic ones.

At the end of the video, Dhruv goes on to play the video of Anvay Naik’s wife asking for justice and says that it would indeed be difficult for Arnab to be proven guilty in the case. He says that it is possible that the police may have more proof, but it is only a matter of time, with which the author agrees. He concludes the video with one remark, urging people of all political ideologies, supporters of all political parties, to accept one thing – that we should all raise our voices against injustice and atrocities. If we don’t, the other side will not raise their voice also. He asks right wing supporters how many times they have raised their voice for the cases that he mentioned, and tells them not to expect voices to be raised for the other side. As a result of this, he says that the country would continue getting divided. With this, he ends the video.

But the author is not done here. Besides analysing Rathee’s claims, the author wishes to also analyse trends on journalism, and prove to the public how India has always been against free speech and journalism. The idea of trampling upon freedom of speech is not a unique one proposed by the BJP as Rathee and many others suggest. The author thinks that it is equally important to look at the past and make comparisons as well, rather than accusing one party of something the Grand Old Party started from its birth.

Since the birth of the Congress party in India, it has rampantly trampled on the press rights and freedom of journalists in the country. Yet, none of these offences were ever highlighted by the educator. The purpose of the author here, is not to paint a rosy picture of the BJP, but to prove that the Congress party has done much worse, while not for a second stating that the BJP is no different, but stating that it has reduced attacks on the press drastically.

Starting with clause two of the 19th article of the constitution when Nehru decided to move the first amendment of the Indian Constitution, which imposed “reasonable restrictions” on free speech on grounds like – in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, contempt of court or in relation to incitement of an offence, to justifying curbing press freedom through the draconian Press (Objectionable Matter) Act, to jailing lyricist and poet Majrooh Sultanpuri for being critical on Nehru, to getting Times of India columnists removed and banning newspapers and magazines, and then bypassing Supreme Court decisions through amendments, the Nehru government, with the birth of the INC, did it all[cxxiv].

But that wasn’t it. It was then the Indira Gandhi government’s turn. The cake was made with burning copies of magazines, arresting innumerable editors, cutting electricity supply to newspaper offices, nationwide boycotting and protests, reduction in advertising, shutting down and evicting media houses, and on top of that, merging the Press Trust of India (PTI) and United News of India (UNI) to suppress information. But that wasn’t the icing on the cake. No, the icing was the Bihar Press Bill of 1982, giving the government the power to restrict publishing of ‘grossly indecent’, ‘scurrilous matter’ or one that was ‘intended for blackmail’ and the Monopoly and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act that limited the reach of media to the audience due to lesser prints. So vague were these terms that many journalists ended up in jail for two years. A tragedy, right? But that wasn’t it. The cherry, on top of the icing, was the emergency. The emergency that curbed press freedom to a whole other dimension, including censorship of the press as well. How could we even call ourselves a democracy then? And yet, people like Dhruv say Democracy is in Danger now[cxxv]. Surprising!

But it is not only the Congress in the 1950s and 1980s that curbed press freedom. Even in the past decade, the country has seen the comments of Kapil Sibal, former IT Minister, who called for a ban on “hateful content” generating on websites, or the arrest of innumerable journalists, for reasons as minute as speaking against Tipu Sultan, or the beating up of Arnab Goswami by Congress goons, as well as the registration of 150 FIRs against him for simply questioning Antonia Maino. Why wasn’t any of this even mentioned by Dhruv? If he keeps saying the BJP is the only sinner, how can he even explain these incidents? Clearly, the BJP has committed far less sins than those of the atrocious Congress party[cxxvi].

That being said, if you want to look at events as recent as the past year, out of a million that Dhruv Rathee failed to mention, the author would like to highlight a few.

1. The horrendous assault on Arnab Goswami and Republic TV – For just questioning Antonia Maino, Arnab Goswami was met with a response that can have a chilling effect on media’s freedom of speech. Apart from being harassed and manhandled by Congress Party goons, Multiple FIRs were filed against him in various Congress-ruled states to prosecute him for hate speech[cxxvii]. Apart from this, the author has gone on to highlight how he has been targeted. From the TRP case, to the suicide case, amidst many arrests, many interrogations and a period of havoc for the journalist and the media network.

2. The attack on senior journalist Kamal Shukla in Chhattisgarh – When the Congress Party in Chhattisgarh promised a journalists protection law, nobody was happier than Kamal Shukla. Now, after the party is firmly in control in the state, journalists like Kamal are voicing their displeasure, for it has still not come in. Having been beaten up and humiliated publicly, and in front of the police, as he claims, the police still blatantly reacted the complaint[cxxviii]. The journalist still alleges it was a Congress leader who incited the violence, yet, the police have rejected the complaint[cxxix]. Mind you, Chhattisgarh is a Congress ruled state. Coincidence?

3. Navy Veteran attacked by Shiv Sena goons – Over a mere WhatsApp forward, a 62-year-old retired navy veteran, Madan Sharma, was attacked by a group of Shiv Sena goons in Mumbai[cxxx]. Where did freedom disappear to then, Dhruv Rathee?

In fact, on the very same topic, talking about how we shouldn’t for one second make the UPA the paragon of virtue, Sunil Jain of the Financial Express[cxxxi] goes on to say –

“The Press Freedom Index, apart from the problems mentioned earlier, is better than during the UPA years—since it fell from 106 out of 167 countries in 2005 to 140/180 in 2014, does this mean journalists were also being bumped off during the UPA period with the “central government’s tacit consent”? While the Press Freedom Index talks of using 124A and other sections of the law “to gag journalists” under Modi, keep in mind the UPA didn’t strike off the sedition law (124A) either and many people were arrested under Section 66A of the IT Act for posting tweets or cartoons or jokes that various state governments considered offensive during the UPA tenure.

What of criticising the government’s policies for which, many complain, Yashwant Sinha was ripped into by senior ministers; would this have happened under the UPA? Certainly, the UPA under Manmohan Singh looked a lot more open to criticism, but if MPs/MLAs/ministers genuinely had a voice, it is surely odd few publicly railed against the massive corruption of that period? If so, the A Raja telecom loot would have been stopped, there would have been statements condemning senior ministers who prodded banks to give loans to the likes of Vijay Mallya, and coal mines wouldn’t have been given free to the chosen few… The loot was so brazen, even in the face of a detailed CAG report on it, Kapil Sibal expounded a zero-loss theory. Certainly, it is true Sibal was mocked, but that’s because there was a detailed CAG report that gave all the facts. So, if a charge is made that journalists don’t go after Modi the way they did with Singh, a major reason is that no such scam has come to light. If the party faithful/ministers seek to shield Modi each time he is accused of something—from demonetization to encouraging anti-Muslim activity—surely the same applies to the way UPA ministers shielded Sonia and Rahul Gandhi? Criticising Modi for not being open to criticism or for not taking enough action against communal activity is valid, but while doing so, it is important not to paint a Golden-Age-of-UPA picture.”[cxxxii]

But it is not just mere opinions that support the author’s claims. There is a truckload of data as well. In just one incident, 9,000 sedition cases were slapped on people in 2012 when the Congress-led UPA government was in power at the Centre[cxxxiii]. Ironically, none other than then Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Law Minister Kapil Sibal are now most vociferous against the anti-sedition penal provision[cxxxiv]. If the sedition law really was “draconian”, as Congress leaders claim, why didn’t they repeal it when they were in power? In fact, a fact-finding team comprising journalists and civil society members had found that FIRs were registered against 55,795 people and around 23,000 agitators were arrested, while sedition charges were slapped against around 9,000 of them for “waging war against the Government of India”, all during the UPA’s tenure[cxxxv]. Thus, the government of the Sonia Gandhi-led UPA has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of sedition charges being filed in the shortest period of time. In fact, due to ownership patterns, strained relationships with journalists and editors, a culture that doesn’t nurture long-term relationships, as well as the loss of articulate spokespersons to government roles, Ashwini Anand of the Economic Times, actually goes on to highlight that the mainstream media of the country hates the Modi government[cxxxvi]. Are we still calling the BJP fascist?

Irrespective of whether you lean to the left or to the right, irrespective of whether you align with the BJP or the Congress, whether you support Dhruv Rathee or not, the author is of the opinion that you ought to call out fake news when you see it. Not support it because it suits your agenda. To be honest, why even have an agenda?

Jai Hind!

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