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There’s a man whose theatrics include maligning your mother instead of plainly “questioning” her. Arnab Goswami is trampling over the dignity of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the mother of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and he’s doing it for TRPs.

It’s time to let the instinctive drive take over and become protective as a son, a daughter, and as the children of a family ravaged by assassinations and unwarranted criticisms.

Where’s your “enough is enough” moment, Rahul and Priyanka? If you’re not apologetic about your mother Sonia Gandhi being Italian and Christian, then it’s time you set some things straight by legally holding Arnab Goswami accountable for demonising your mother using baseless and false assumptions.

People say that those who forgave their father’s assassins would barely go all out to fight against someone who is insulting their mother on national TV on a whim. A part of it does make sense. But the fact that the killers of Rajiv Gandhi were punished and found guilty of their crime ensured that justice was served. Sonia Gandhi today, is facing one of the most vicious character assassinations. And the perpetrator has not been found guilty, yet.

Also read: Arnab divides Twitter, KTR is mad at Rahul Kanwal & Gowhar Geelani’s latest story

‘Italy wali Sonia Gandhi’

Arnab Goswami’s attack on Sonia Gandhi is valid only if it is political. But the minute you start referring to her as “Italy wali Sonia Gandhi” (Sonia Gandhi from Italy), who is sending reports to Italy of getting Hindu sadhus (sages) killed in India, is when you commit defamation. And this is defamation of a diabolical kind. He is not only attacking Sonia Gandhi for her former nationality but also her religion – Christianity. In fact, it’s disastrous even diplomatically, since Arnab claims that Italy will be lauding Sonia Gandhi for getting Hindu sadhus killed.

Yes, the Congress party and its youthful dynamic leaders can heap insults on Arnab. Or as Arnab has claimed, they can smear and attack his car with ink. But do you think any of this will have any effect on a person who has made a mockery of journalism?

If Arnab called himself a spokesperson of a political party and said what he said, most of us would not be outraged. Politics isn’t ever polite. But to run a channel as an editor-in-chief and defame people publicly is now turning into a dangerous trend that can spell anarchy in the near future in our country. Media should not be allowed to run trials where they name and shame people on fake assumptions. It’s legally punishable to do so.

Also read: If Uddhav Thackeray bows before Arnab Goswami’s dare, he will only weaken himself before BJP

Gandhis must go legal

So how do we end this? By taking legal recourse. One that is purposeful and not just to intimidate. In fact, fighting legally in a democratic India, whose citizen Sonia Gandhi became in 1983 will not only set an example for the others who have a propensity for spewing hate against the Gandhis, especially Sonia, but also reinstate the faith of any person who has taken up citizenship of India that they are as equal and have the same rights as any person born in India. And they don’t have to suck up to the government to be respected, since it’s the Constitution of India that has awarded them these rights. Not the government of the day.

This is the good fight that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra need to fight. It will not only be personal, for their mother, but it will also be a message to the world and the people of India. It will convey loudly and clearly that anyone who chooses to become a citizen of India will be given dignity.

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Arnab’s jibe turns CAA on its head

What many people, especially those rooting for Arnab Goswami, are failing to see is that the entire premise of giving Indian citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has been discredited by Arnab Goswami today. Why? When people from these communities will become citizens of India, is Arnab going to shout his lungs out by calling such people Pakistanis, Afghanis and Bangladeshis, like he does for ‘Antonia Maino’ by calling her “Itlay wali” all the time?

Will he be accusing people of being spies and traitors? What’s the whole point of giving citizenship if all you want to do is mock them and tell them they still have allegiance to their former nationalities? Ironically, the CAA is born out of the same Citizenship Act 1955 under which Sonia Gandhi got her citizenship.

Sonia Gandhi is Antonia Maino and to talk disparagingly about her identity should be legally taken up in a court. Arnab Goswami is resorting to bullying for TRPs. And this old trick has worked for far too long. The only spanner in this toxic competitiveness is a legal case that will hold him accountable for his actions.

But a violent recourse, as alleged by Goswami, will make the Congress party stoop to a level that’s not only petty but one that undermines its own vision of seeing India as a country that believes in the Constitution and rule of law.

The author is a political observer and writer. Views are personal.

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