It was 34 minutes and 26 seconds into Newshour that it happened: journalist and anchor Arnab Goswami’s thunder was stolen by actress Mita Vashisht. 

Denying Goswami the pleasure of dismissing her from his programme, Vashisht staged a walkout. Vashisht was reportedly flooded with messages from friends and fans who cheered her on for having “the guts to say shut up to Arnab’s arrogance”. If Goswami offers catharsis to the average Indian’s need to rage against the machine, then Vashisht provided the same to those that Goswami lovingly calls “pseudo liberals” — those who, with Sisyphean dedication, try to make a point while opposing the motion that Goswami supports. And while he has to deliver monologues and gesticulate passionately, Vashisht made millions of liberal pulses go pitter patter with just three little words: “Shut up, Arnab.”

Vashist was quite evidently in a very noisy, outdoor location in Mumbai. Holding the earpiece and looking both irritated and impatient, Vashisht gave the impression that the last place she wanted to be at was on Goswami’s show. When Goswami wagged his finger at her casual tone — because you know how much gravitas Newshour commands — Vashisht actually rolled her eyes. 

In the middle of all this drama, two details have gone under. The first is that Goswami, Defender of the Nation’s Soldiers, Champion of the Indian Armed Forces and a Knight of the Order of Indian Nationalist Pride, needs to do a little more research. Vashisht raised an excellent point within her four-minute cameo appearance when she pointed out our general shortsightedness, herd mentality and dodgy memory by pointing out that there was none of this bluster in 1999, when an Indian patrol of six was captured by the Pakistanis. Their bodies were returned to India almost a month later, bearing signs of horrific torture. Why are we only talking about Uri, Vashisht asked, and forgetting that Pakistan has been an enemy for decades?

Unfortunately, Vashisht painted herself into a corner by saying Captain Vikram Batra as one of the six. The Param Vir Chakra-awarded officer was killed in action, during the Kargil War in 1999. The one who led the patrol, however, was Captain Saurabh Kalia. 

Fortunately for Vashisht, Goswami didn’t spot the mistake. He was far more concerned with getting his opinion out and so, instead of setting Vashisht straight, he complained about Bollywood milking the Army’s exploits to make its films. (This is a ridiculous accusation considering how few films we’ve had on the Indian military, but never mind that little numerical detail.)

It fell upon the father of Captain Vijayant Thapar to set the record straight. 

The way the scene played out on TV, there seemed to be a time lag between what was said in the studio and what Vashisht heard in her earpiece. Even though Vashisht made it clear that Vashisht was addressing her comments to Goswami, the news anchor did his best to make it seem as though Vashisht was dissing Colonel Vijendra Thapar. 

What became very obvious in the Saturday session of Newshour is that Times Now has seriously shoddy equipment and that Goswami is ready, willing and able to slyly trip up certain guests. For instance, earlier in the programme, when critic Mayank Shekhar was trying to get a word in, Shekhar asked if he could speak. Goswami said with the kind of softness that a Mills and Boon hero reserves to whisper into the heroine’s ear, “Go ahead.” It was a sharp change in tone and unsurprisingly, Shekhar didn’t hear those two little words. Goswami then, with a knowing expression on his face, waited. As did Shekhar. One for words, the other for permission. The net result: silence for a few seconds on Newshour. (Be still, my beating heart!) After which, Goswami snidely observed Shekhar was taking too long to come up with an answer and then proceeded to roar very audibly while Shekhar wailed miserably that he couldn’t hear earlier. 

Either Times Now, despite being the most-watched channel, doesn’t have the budget to get decent technical equipment or Goswami and gang are ensuring liberals look a little more tongue-tied than they actually are by making it difficult for these panellists to hear what is going on in the studio. This is a strategy that is rather easy to execute in an average Newshour debate, considering how loud and chaotic it is. On Saturday, though, it became very obvious that it wasn’t the general decibel level that was getting in the way of people like Shekhar and Vashisht making an argument. 

Add to that the shameless way Goswami used Colonel Thapar’s grief of being the father of a Kargil martyr, and what you saw on screen was a performance that was more jatra and less news. Using Thapar as his shield, Goswami roared at those panellists who questioned the wisdom of banning Pakistani artistes, demanding they show respect to the retired Army officer who lost his son in Kargil. Anything said in favour of cultural interaction was immediately packaged as the speaker dismissing the sacrifices made by the Indian Army and the way it has valiantly fought Pakistan. There is absolutely no connection between the two, whether or not you think Pakistanis should be employed in Indian industries. But Goswami didn’t let anyone get that point across. He shut them up by saying that their opinions were offensive to Colonel Thapar. He worked actively to show “pseudo liberals” as anti-national and anti-army if they’re, for instance, fans of Pakistani entertainers — not with a logical argument, but by shutting his opponent up by putting up Colonel Thapar and the tragic death of his son as a prop. 

Under the circumstances, with Goswami queering the pitch against liberals, Vashisht’s walkout was just the kind of uncivility that is perhaps needed. For the love of your liberal principles, dear “pseudo liberals”, stay away from Times Now. Don’t get browbeaten in a way that makes liberalism look like an inarticulate jumble of wussiness. Unless you can say “Shut up Arnab” and walk off, stay away from Times Now.