In a one of a kind spectacle, Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami invited BJP leader and chief whip in Maharashtra Assembly Raj Purohit on his show and proceeded to show him his own sting live on TV which was shot earlier that day. The sting was on the violence carried out by Karni Sena in some states to oppose the film Padmavat. Purohit was not informed about the same and presumable had come on the show as a regular guest in one of the debates.

#PadmaavatSting | Arnab confronts the stung leader who is sitting on the panel on the political angle to the ‘Padmaavat’ violence pic.twitter.com/Gy5oIYJeK4 — Republic (@republic) January 24, 2018

In his sting, Purohit is seen to have said that the issue is not the film, but it has now become political. He says the government is in no mood to hurt them (Karni Sena), especially till the elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are concluded. In another part of the sting, Purohit is seen to be admitting that Karni Sena is doing the violence for ‘politics’ and even hints at an ‘economic leverage’. He says when emotional outbreak happens, all “reasonability” is lost. He further states how the communities are fighting on caste lines to establish some sort of economic leverage, which could be taken with the help of politics.

Part 2 of #PadmaavatSting | WATCH: “It is politics”, says stung Raj Purohit, BJP MLA and chief whip in Maharashtra Assembly, going further to reveal a lot more https://t.co/lpnVZxoMbs pic.twitter.com/rN8saWLTbR — Republic (@republic) January 24, 2018

While Karni Sena may be supporting Congress, there is no political party which seems to be in mood to take a firm stand against the Karni Sena because no one wants to risk alienating them and possibly the Rajput community, for their own political gains.

Amidst all this, the fact that Arnab brought the BJP leader they had stung and show him his own sting live on TV is commendable. In fact, the part where he even thanks Purohit for coming to his show to watch his sting had people in splits. Quite a show, coming from someone whose channel is regularly branded as “North Korean TV” and he is condescendingly referred to as PM Modi’s ‘lapdog’ by many in his own fraternity.

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Meanwhile, Purohit, in his defence, has said the BJP does not support the violence. It has, and will continue to work for Vikas.