5 Times Arnab Goswami Was Left At A Loss For Words By His Guests

If you’re not sure what exactly Arnab Goswami’s profession is – he’s a journalist, not a judge (in case you were confused). Anybody who’s into political debates where speakers are invited but not allowed to speak unless their opinions agree with the host’s, the Times Now Newshour, one of the most watched prime time shows in India, would love the show. Now, Arnab Goswami does have a way with words, thanks to his dramatics, his ability to shout over rebuttals and his liberty to cut the mic of his opposing opinionators.

However, there have been times when even the great Goswami of Indian media was at a complete loss for words. Fumbling, jumpy and even unbelievably meek at times, Arnab Goswami was found far from his fierce self when faced with someone bigger than his own size. Let’s have a look.

1. Arnab Goswami vs Raj Thackeray

Raj Thackeray, president of Maharastra Nava Nirman Sena, had already expressed his confidence in Modi as the new Prime Minister of India – an opportunity, Goswami grabbed, hoping to fish a news point. Now, Thackeray had a clear and simple answer – A man who has done good work for his state is expected to do well for the nation and that’s all the reason he needed to be supportive of Modi. 

However, Arnab came back to the question again and again and Thackeray, quite annoyed after a point, asked him if he’s downgraded from 10 grade to nursery because everyone else in the studio had understood Thackeray’s point by then but the host himself.

Watch it for yourself 

2. Arnab Goswami vs Kapil Sibal

When A. Raja of DMK found himself quite busted in 2011 owing to his involvement in 2G spectrum scam, Arnab Goswami asked Kapil Sibal, the then telecom, and HRD Minister, if the government was washing its hands off A. Raja, now that he’s in political bad weather. As Arnab questioned Sibal about what would be the value of the additional equity issued by investors, such as NuriTech, without the backing of the spectrum, Sibal had the perfect answer for him.

Sibal, quite calmly, asked Arnab, what would be the value of Arnab’s show without having any investment coming in from outside – a counter question, Mr. Goswami seemed quite unprepared for.

Here’s the video

3. Arnab Goswami vs Sachin Tendulkar

Arnab Goswami is an able journalist for sure but this time, he asked some genuinely stupid questions to Indian cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar. Discussing Sachin’s retirement, Arnab brought up the topic of Sachin’s dismissals in the series against New Zealand and his reaction where he hits the ground with the bat in disappointment and if it suggested that Sachin’s been pushing too hard lately.

Even Tendulkar, known for his poise, looked quite annoyed with the question but answered quite well with a strange cockiness hardly ever seen before in the little master. He said that there was nothing unusual about his reaction on the particular occasion and in his career, he has been dismissed several times, been annoyed and reacted heavily – he isn’t really answerable for how he reacts if he’s disappointed with a poor shot selection.

Watch the little master trivialize Arnab 

4. Arnab Goswami vs Subramaniam Swamy

This was definitely one of the most hilarious moments on Newshour Debate till date. The issue was the arrest of five Tamil fishermen in Sri Lanka and Arnab had alleged that the BJP leader had written in a letter that the people in Tamil Nadu want those five fishermen to be hanged in Sri Lanka. Swamy, however, cleared it out that it was a ridiculous allegation and challenged Arnab to produce the letter he had been talking about.

However, the best part was Swamy ornamenting Arnab’s existence with words like “ignorant”, “dumb”, “stupid” and most importantly’ “liar”. We lost count of how many times Arnab was called a liar by Swamy – almost cutting every sentence of Arnab with the words “you’re a liar”.

Let us know if you can keep track of the number of times Swami called him a liar.

5. Arnab Goswami vs Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi and Arnab Goswami had come face to face on several occasions and Arnab could never really manage to get the better of Modi. On one occasion, Arnab puts forward the claims that Modi’s governance is not inclusive enough. In conversation, Modi points out how Manmohan Singh, as the PM, stated that the Muslims have the first right to India’s wealth whereas, according to Modi, what he should have said was that it belonged to the poor.

When Goswami tried to justify Singh’s statement as a way to emphasize the needs of the minority, a quick question from Modi asking why does Arnab feel the need to defend Manmohan Singh with such conviction was never really answered.

Here are two occasions where Arnab was quite at a loss while facing Modi. 

However, not everyone can out-debate Arnab and sometimes guests are left with no choice but to give him the middle  finger – check it out, too.

Cover Image Source 1, 2