This month, comedian Munawar Faruqui was arrested for “a joke he was about to crack.” Also this month, media mogul Arnab Goswami’s purported WhatsApp chats with BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta were made public, which reveal that he violated media ethics, and possibly passed on sensitive State information.
Only one of these men had their bail plea rejected.
Faruqui is currently in jail because Eklavya Singh Gaur, the chief of Hind Rakshak Sangathan and son of BJP MLA Malini Gaur, "OVERHEARD" jokes that insulted Hindu deities and Amit Shah during "rehearsals”. He was booked under Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), and Section 269 (unlawful or negligent act likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life).
Goswami and Dasgupta have been embroiled in the ongoing probe into the Television Ratings (TRP) Scam, which looks into the matter of Goswami allegedly mediating with the former BARC CEO to manipulate ratings for Republic TV’s profits.
His chats reveal that he mentioned a “bigger than a normal strike” three days before the nation launched the Balakot airstrike in 2019.
(Kaafi Real is a series of cartoons on The Quint. You can check out all our other Kaafi Real cartoons here.)
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