Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami on Monday night launched a tirade against the BJP warning the party to be careful even if the opposition had been decimated. Issuing a threat to the BJP government, Goswami said that while the opposition may have been decimated, the saffron party should know that the country still had him and other media outlets.

“Ladies and gentlemen, minister after minister in the (Manohar Lal) Khattar government is backing parole for a convicted rapist and a murderer. Tonight, they want this rapist Gurmeet Ram Rahim to be able to farm his fields just four months ahead of the elections in Haryana. I sniff a political deal in this.”

Earlier in the programme, he urged his viewers to ‘come together’ to ensure that the rapist and murderer baba was not granted a parole. “The Haryana government is out of its mind to not oppose his parole. They want him out so that they can do a trade off with him for a few votes.”

Goswami said that if Ram Rahim was granted parole, ‘tomorrow Asaram (another rape accused baba)’ will also claim that he was not a rapist but ‘a businessman.’ This was followed by his most extraordinary lines that not even his detractors would have expected Goswami to say.

This is what he said, “And therefore, this is the time and opportunity to stand for what’s right and push our voice because, because and remember what I am saying tonight viewers, this country may not have an opposition but it has us. This country may not have an opposition, but it still has some media…it has you and it has me and our voice will not be silenced.”

He wasn’t done yet. Addressing the BJP spokesperson, Goswami said in Hindi, “I said that after the Lok Sabha elections you thought there was no opposition in this country. But I can say this guarantee that this rapist will not be allowed by us….aap sudhar jaayiye. aap nahi karenge to aap se karwaya jaayega..main dhamki nahi de raha hoon. Main bhavishyavani kar raha hoon. (You better mend your ways. If you don’t do it, I will make you do it. I am not issuing threats, I am only making predictions.)”

Later in the programme, when a BJP representative accused him of not being fair, Goswami said, “I am never going to be fair on what’s wrong.” He even mocked PM Narendra Modi’s slogan by saying ‘this is not sabka saath sabka vikaas.’

Goswami was reacting to the Haryana’s BJP government’s decision to support Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s parole application even though the same has been rejected by the Punjab and Haryana High Court last month. The court, according to India Today, had observed that releasing Ram Rahim could lead to a law and order problem like the infamous incident of 2017.

In 2017, the rapist and murderer baba was sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment after being convicted for two cases of rapes.