After the stink raised by television journalist Arnab Gowami and his team from Times Now over Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s jamboree at the Saifai Mahotsav at a time when the state is reeling under the impact of communal riots, apparently the Yadav government has blacked out Arnab’s channel in several cities of Uttar Pradesh. Sources from Arnab’s channel say, “We’ve been hearing of being blacked out all day long on Monday in one area after another in UP...first Lucknow, then Kanpur, NOIDA, Ghaziabad. Arnab Goswami texted to members of the Samajwadi Party asking what was happening. But Arnab has not received any response.” The source from Arnab’s channel admits that the channel has done a series of scathing indictments on the Saifai Mahotsav. “And Arnab had volatile exchanges on air with members of the Samajwadi Party. And it’s not just our reportage on the Saifai Mahotsav that has incensed the UP government. It’s also our reportage on the Samajwadi members’ junket to foreign countries. We sent our correspondents to Amsterdam and Istanbul to trail them through their exotic foreign tours. We did the same thing when a bunch of ministers from the Karnataka government took off on foreign junket. So it’s not as if we’re targeting the UP ministers. We covered Muzaffarnagar, Saifai and the UP ministers; junket without malice.” Apparently three days prior to the black-out of the channel in UP, Arnab Goswami had applauded his UP correspondent on camera for asking the Chief Minister an uncomfortable question. Says the source from the channel, “We’ve heard that the cable operators have been given orders to black us out.” When contacted Arnab Goswami said, “I am totally surprised about how our channel has gone off the air in many parts of Uttar Pradesh over the weekend. I’ve sent repeated messages to Samajwadi Party members and those close to the UP government. I haven’t got any response, though they said they’d get back to me. I hope the UP government will investigate this black-out. Due to the black-out our viewers in Uttar Pradesh missed the first coverage of National election debate. I feel sorry that the people in India’s largest state cannot watch our channel. I really think that whoever is responsible for this black-out would take immediate steps to restore our channel in UP. We’ve been inundated with calls from across the world. And now there are calls from the media. We’ll do our best to restore our channel in UP at the earliest.” We will keep an eye on how the situation pans out!!!