On Monday, when TimesNow editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the nation wanted to know what had gone wrong. There was none of the usual finger-wagging, no yelling, not even any awkward questions.
Throughout the 85-minute telecast, Goswami maintained an even tone and never strayed too far from safe, seemingly predecided issues like China, the Nuclear Suppliers Group and Raghuram Rajan’s exit. At one point, the conversation even wandered to the subject of jokes. “I am not conscious,” Modi said. “I am in fear, there is no humour left in public life because of this fear. Everyone is scared. I am in fear.”
The viewers were informed that Modi is an apolitical prime minister. “Apart from elections, I don’t get involved into politics ever,” Modi claimed. “You can call elections a necessity, a restraint or a responsibility, we have to do it. I attend many functions, go to different areas, you wouldn’t have heard any political comment from me.”
Where Goswami failed, social media pitched in. After the much-hyped telecast, Twitter came up with a different set of questions for the prime minister under the hashtag #QuestionsArnabDidNotAsk.
A two-year-old tweet of Arvind Kejriwal resurfaced, questioning Goswami’s journalistic ethics.
Cartoonists also criticised Goswami’s kid-gloves approach.
Twitter was flooded with memes, panning the TimesNow editor-in-chief.
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