In a shocking turn of events yesterday on Times Now’s marquee show, the NewsHour, editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami’s rage exceeded safe limits and reached a level hitherto unheard of, causing him to spontaneously shape-shift into the Incredible Hulk.
Readers who caught Arnab’s show yesterday might remember that the central focus of NewHour was the ‘dented-painted’ comment made by Abhijit Mukherjee with regard to the women participating in the Delhi Gang Rape protests. Arnab Goswami, angry to begin with, was not amused when his repeated attempts to browbeat engage Abhijit were met by a muted but firm ‘I have withdrawn the comment, and I have tendered an apology’ by Mukherjee every single time.
“He got progressively angrier every time Abhijit said that,” recalled Rahul Navrekar, spokesperson for the Shiv Sena, who was at the studio with Arnab. “When Abhijit refused to respond to Arnab’s question for a fifth consecutive time, Arnab’s eyes took on a rather green tinge. He ploughed on nevertheless, asking Abhijit once again to explain what dented-painted meant, only for Abhijit to refuse him staunchly. At that point…,” Rahul paused to compose himself, a hint of fear flickering in his eyes. “At that point, Arnab began to shake all over and rapidly expand in size… his skin turned completely green.. and his clothes tore to shreds…I… I didn’t wait to see what happened. I just ran for my life,” he concluded, shaking violently.
The Television footage of the episode substantiates Rahul’s account. A few minutes into the episode, Arnab is seen transforming into a great green monster, and leaping off from his rectangle on the screen while the in-studio panelists are seen shrieking and running helter-skelter. Abhijit, however, is still fidgeting with his ear piece oblivious to the mayhem. Seconds later, the Hulk lands with a thud in Abhijit’s rectangle, and proceeds to lift him by his feet and slam him into the ground multiple times.
The footage has been handed over to the Mumbai police, who are now looking into the matter.
Meanwhile, Rajdeep Sardesai dismissed the incident as yet another gimmick by Arnab. “Drama queen. He would go to any extent to get TRPs,” he said, disgust writ all over his face.