The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have demanded that the joint parliamentary committee on defence take cognisance of the chats between Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta, and probe their origin.
“The Mumbai Police have exposed the chats between Mr. Goswami and Mr. Dasgupta. It is extremely shocking and disturbing to know how issues related to national security have been used to gain TRP. The question also arises how Mr. Goswami was privy to such sensitive information. The Ministry of Home Affairs has to identify the source and immediately take action,” NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said.
Mr. Tapase said the Narendra Modi government and the BJP seemed to have gone totally silent on Mr. Goswami. “Union Home Minister Amit Shah should come forward and laud the investigation by the Mumbai Police and at the same time, the BJP should clarify its position on Mr. Goswami,” he said.
Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the voluminous transcript of Mr. Goswami’s chats released by the Mumbai Police was deeply disturbing.
“Who gave access to such sensitive information from national security to constitutional amendments and political appointments? The government of India must begin a thorough probe. Also the parliamentary standing committee on defence must take this matter with utmost priority,” Mr. Chavan said.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday said the chats between Mr. Goswami and Mr. Dasgupta were now no longer limited to the TRP scam, but raised serious questions about national security.
“We are going to take a thorough look into these chats. Some highly sensitive topics such as Balakot airstrike and Pulwama attack are mentioned in these chats. We are looking at how Mr. Goswami got access to such sensitive information,” said Mr. Deshmukh, adding that a meeting of senior officials had been called on Tuesday to decide on the future course of action.
A delegation of Maharashtra Congress leaders will be meeting Mr. Deshmukh on Tuesday demanding a probe into the chats.