Just in the nick of time! So to speak. After Republic TV got wise to Mumbai Police’s intentions, and just after Yogi Adityanath, acting for the Centre and “BJP’s friend” Arnab Goswami, the Uddhav Thackeray dispensation, executioner-style, refused “consent” to the CBI – the doors locked and the keys thrown into the dank seawater behind the Gateway of India!
The Uddhav Thackeray Government’s refusal of ‘consent’ came a day after the CBI took over the TRP case lodged in Uttar Pradesh, which had ‘Modi Government’ written all over it. The apprehension was that the October 6 Mumbai Police TRP case against Republic TV would be “subsumed” and buried to be never exhumed if it’s taken over by the CBI.
Republic TV’s counsel Harish Salve had already asked that the case be transferred to the CBI. It’s also not lost on anyone that both the BJP and the Modi Government stand behind Republic TV with talk of a threat to press freedom building up. Earlier, in a reverse déjà vu, the Bihar Police had instituted a case in the SSR death mystery and then, too, the case had gone to the CBI.
So, what should one make of all this? There’s no denying that at least in the TRP ‘scam’ case, the Yogi Adityanath Government and the Modi Government are “using” them to wage war on the opposition. And, if the Uddhav Thackeray Government is using the Mumbai Police to target Republic TV Network, the courts have taken cognizance and both the High Court and the Supreme Court are “keeping track.”
