‘The art of making yourself heard’: The Pakistani guests taking on India’s right-wing TV anchors on their own turf

While fending off wild accusations about spy pigeons and terrorist locusts, Pakistani panellists are finally being heard without resorting to a shouting match, writes Raza Hamdani

Controversial Republic TV host Arnab Goswami has a reputation for putting jingoism ahead of journalism (Republic World)

Pakistan is now sending locusts to India as terrorists. Your corrupt country, Pakistan, does not have terrorists any more. We have taken care of them all. So Pakistan is now sending locusts as terrorists and sending them to India. Is the locust attack part of Pakistan’s new conspiracy?”

This not an excerpt from a dystopian novel, but a statement made by India’s controversial talk show host Arnab Goswami during his programme on Republic TV. But this is far from the first time anchors and newsreaders have gone to great lengths to blame Pakistan for India’s woes.

Recently, an anchor was explaining the latest updates in the India-China standoff in Ladakh under the headline “PLA War Model”. But instead of reading PLA as the People’s Liberation Army of China, she instead said “Pakistan Liberation Army”. In another incident, a pigeon that flew from a Pakistani village 4km away from the border with India was “detained” by Indian police on the grounds that it could be a Pakistani spy. One Indian TV channel later commented: “Even when Pakistan is in the grip of coronavirus, it is infiltrating militants and now spy pigeons.”