It is hard to believe that it has been only one month since Republic TV was launched with so much fanfare. It seems like a much longer period, perhaps because so much has happened in one month. The channel has blended into the Indian media scene with its screaming anchors and noisy debates. In this one month, it has managed to collect one defamation case and one criminal complaint for theft and copyright violation. According to BARC statistics, the newly launched channel managed to attract a large viewership in the first week itself as rival channels cried foul about unfair practices. Scorecard for the media however cannot be not based on viewership alone. Media has great power to set the agenda and shape public opinion. But with great power comes great responsibility. As the fourth pillar of democracy, its most important function is to scrutinise the actions of the government and hold those in power to account. How well did Republic do in this regard? The channel proudly states, “Republic is independent. Republic is global. Republic is your movement”, how far did it really live up to these tall claims? To answer the above questions, we will focus on the news as it unfolded through the hashtags promoted by Republic. The reason for a hashtag driven analysis is that the channel has selected them to set the agenda and drive public opinion. Unlike when it is reporting news, when a channel uses a hashtag, it is drawing attention to a particular topic and engaging with its audience on the topic. Let us look at the recurrent themes that emerge from the hashtags promoted by Republic in its first month and how the channel is using it to steer the public debate on important issues. Nationalism was the most dominant theme going by the number of hashtags devoted to it. The hashtags were designed to drum up nationalist support – #NationWithForces #NationLovesIndianArmy, #IndiaAgainstAntiNationals, #ArmyAbovePolitics #NationFirstNoCompromise, and so on. For Republic, nationalism serves a dual purpose. Apart from distracting attention from real issues, it is also used as a stick to beat the opposition. While it projects #NationWithForces, the opposition is singled out as insulting the Army and martyrs. #AkhileshInsultsMartyrs, #LeftInsultsArmy In the current era of hyper nationalism, any talk on nationalism is not complete without the “nationalists” declaring others as anti-nationals. Not to be left behind, Republic organized a debate on “Who is an antinational” with the hashtag #IndiaAgainstAntiNationals. It brought together a panel it considered qualified to classify fellow citizens into nationals and anti-nationals. While Major Gaurav Arya took on JNU, Sambit Patra declared “questioning the conscience of the govt., and the Constitution is anti-national”. A fair amount of time was spent discussing Arundhati Roy’s statement which it later turned out that she had not made. It was still not a wasted debate for the channel as it achieved the important purpose of keeping everyone distracted from any real issues that they should be bothered about. The channel’s obsession with nationalism, army and Pakistan can be seen from this long list of hashtags on the topic. It appears that if it was not for the Kashmir issue and India’s problems with Pakistan, the channel would struggle with what to report. It is not that these are not important issues but that a disproportionate importance being given to them at the cost of other issues. #NationFirstNoCompromise #ArmyAbovePolitics #NationLovesIndianArmy #IndiaAgainstAntiNationals #LeftInsultsArmy #AzadiLieExposed #TerrorProxiesRaided #PeltersSaveTerrorists #PakVersusICJ #PakShamedAtICJ #PakDefiesICJ #RebublicExposesPak #NawazSaudiSnub #PakBombedKabul #IndiaWithKulbhushan #FightForKulbhushan #CountryOverCricket In the one month, Republic continuously reminded its viewers of their nationalist duty with these chest-thumping hashtags at the cost of bringing up issues for discussion. There was not a single hashtag devoted to topics like unemployment, farmer suicides or growing vigilantism. Even before its official launch, Republic came out with videos focusing on Opposition leaders like Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi with the hashtag, #ArnabWithYouSoon. Arnab was coming soon to take them on. It is therefore no surprise that in its one month of operation itself, Republic has done an outstanding job of holding the opposition and liberals responsible for failures of the government. At the time of Sukma attack, the channel was not yet launched but the official handle put out a set of tweets from Arnab Goswami questioning the student leaders. There were no questions to the government.