How Republic TV and Times Now played judge

The Delhi media woke up to an unprecedented news development today.

So unprecedented that that was all we heard anchors say on various TV channels for the first one hour of the said development.

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Four senior judges, Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, held a press conference on Friday to express their grievances against the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra.

The four judges are part of the SC Collegium, the highest decision-making body in the judicial system. Their prime contention was that the administration of the apex court was “not in order”.

For those of you wondering why this was a big deal, judges, unlike our netas, rarely ever address the press on matters pertaining to the judiciary. In fact, they never do it.

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It was the Justices contention that the CJI, master of the roster, had allegedly allocated “sensitive cases” to “junior judges”. They also gave the journalists gathered a letter written by them to the CJI two months ago, which alleged “selective assignment of cases to preferred judges”. The letter also mentioned the RP Luthra vs Union of India order as an example of “departure” from longstanding rules adhered to by the courts.

Though it was not explicitly stated in the letter, when journalists asked if the judges’ meeting with the Chief Justice today had something to do with Justice Loya’s case, Justice Gogoi said yes. Special CBI judge Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, allegedly died under mysterious circumstances in 2014.

From the time of this press conference, around noon, TV news channels ran minute-by-minute updates speculating on what could have led the four judges to approach the press to complain about their own colleague. A move which is, you guessed it, unprecedented.

Opinions are, of course, divided on the judges’ move. Some like former Attorney General of India Soli Sorabjee expressed his dissatisfaction and said he wished they hadn’t done so – “I am very upset about this, I wish the four SC judges hadn’t done this.” Senior Supreme Court lawyer KTS Tulsi, on the other hand, indicated that the judges must have exhausted all options before going public – “There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking.”

In such a scenario, one would expect news channels to offer us nuance, context and break it all down for viewers. Yeah? No. Not if you’re Republic TV and Times Now and are master deflectors of the real issue at hand.

Conspiracy, conspiracy

By 2 pm, Republic TV’s commander-in-chief was in full form thundering that the judges should not have taken this oh-so-extreme step. “You have differences, good bad… sort them out… don’t take it to a level that you won’t be able to control,” he said. Then for some inexplicable reason he brought in Gujarat Member of Legislative Assembly Jignesh Mevani and Patidar agitation leader Hardik Patel – “will they decide how Supreme Court will function?”

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Then came the BIG scoop. Left leader and Rajya Sabha member D Raja met with Justice Chelameswar after the press conference.

Seriously, this was a scoop for Goswami.

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“What more are we going to witness as a nation?” Goswami thundered. “What are these political confabulations? Are the Bar Association members aware of these confabulations?” he asked, stating that the four “judges want the nation divided”.

All this as Republic TV’s screen flashed headlines like, “Nation faces judicial crisis” with the hashtag #JudgesAtWar.

Referring to the “selective” allotment of cases, Goswami said, “This is a very trivial matter. It is a very internal matter. India does not come to a standstill because of RP Luthra’s case. Glaciers won’t fall. We aren’t going to war.” Is it a “judicial crisis” or is it trivial? Republic TV couldn’t decide. In the meantime, the headlines on the screen read: “Congress politicises issue as battle intensifies.”

At exactly 3.10 pm, Goswami spoke about his latest obsession – “Tukde Tukde gang”. All this because Congress leaders and student leader Shehla Rashid expressed their views on Twitter on the issue supporting the judges, like a gazillion other people did.

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Arnab Lites join in

Over at Times Now, Republic TV’s lost twin from the last Kumbh Mela, journalist Shekhar Gupta, was labelled an “anti-Modi” liberal.

Life sure is tough for a Delhi journalist. One day, you accuse others of being elite, wine-and-cheese drinking dissenters, and the next day you get clubbed with the same set of deplorables.

Gupta, to be sure, was purely present at the press conference in his capacity as a reporter. But in Times Now’s universe, this hinted at a larger conspiracy – one where liberals and judiciary collude to bring down India.

Times Now had advocate Karuna Nandy on its panel appreciating the four judges for showing “constitutional spine” in these “bizarre times”. Times Now editor Navika Kumar was quick to ask her the definition of “bizarre times”.

Kumar then went on to reprimand Nandy for defending the four judges: “The Supreme Court is the highest authority. If that institution comes out to wash its linen in public, it erodes public faith.”

She then poured over important questions like: “Will Congress use this to target the government?” and, of course, if D Raja’s meeting with Justice Chelameswar after a “rank-breaking” press conference was “politicising of the issue”.

On prime-time, Kumar took a clearer line, with headlines like “judicial drama” flashing on The Newshour. About an hour before, her colleague, Rahul Shivshankar, whom we like to call RSS, deployed more imagination and questioned if the “revolt” was “spontaneous or sponsored”.

Oh well, what do you know, it’s 9 pm and the news is no longer about four of the Supreme Court’s senior-most judges raising some serious questions on the functioning of the top court. But on Congress and liberals and random conspiracies. That’s India’s most viewed English channels for you.

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