Arnab Goswami's WhatsApp chats with Partho Dasgupta, CEO of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) - a rating agency revealed much information that could be termed as top secret in the context of Balakot air strike.
Without questioning the authenticity of the chats, Goswami on Tuesday concluded that he had shared the information that was in public domain. The Telegraph newspaper in its story asked if the information related to the Balakot airstrike was found in the Human Rights activist or with an anti-CAA protester just three days after the Balakot Bombing, it could have invited a witch hunt or verbal lynching of that person.
In the chats, Goswami had written that "People will be elated." He had written, "The government is confident of striking in a way that people will be elated.” Goswami in a press release tried to defend by saying that the information was in public domain. In a statement he said, "Thousands of journalists reported, wrote about it."
He further wrote in the press release, "when a journalist is attacked for WhatsApp chat on a publically available information....." However, he himself used WhatsApp chat in several of his shows against the alleged victims.
The Telegraph in its report mentioned that cross border missions always involve high risk. Mission accomplishment status is not ascertained beforehand as far as such missions are concerned.
The chat attributed to Goswami dates back to February 23, 2019 while the Balakot air strike operation was done three days later on February 26, 2019. The newspaper asked, "Does it mean that the government had only a modest tactical objective from the raid, which it was sure of accomplishing? It is pertinent to recall that one Union minister later said the purpose was not to cause human casualty."
The prominent question that
arises out of the leaked chats is how did Goswami know about the airstrike? The
government at the center had said that the strike had killed "very large
number of terrorists." The unnamed Indian sources put the toll at more
than 300.However, Pakistan denied it by saying only the trees were uprooted.
The Telegraph further asks if the information was available on messaging service, whether it helped Pakistan government to take terrorists to safe havens. “There are thousands of articles from that time suggesting a hard and tough response from the Indian forces. The government stated the same in interviews to our network and elsewhere, which were broadcast across the world,” Goswami said in the statement released by him.
Rahul Gandhi, the Congress
leader said, “If Mr Arnab Goswami knows, if it is on his WhatsApp, I assume the
Pakistanis also know it. It is not a very big jump. It is a criminal act and that
investigation should begin.” The Congress leader also termed it a top secret
information that was available with only five people in the government. It ends
only on one question, who gave Arnab this top secret information?