Katju & The Crooks

This is a scene from the movie ‘The American President’ where a presidential aide blasts him for not stepping up and talking to the media as often as his opponent does criticising him. I have quoted this before on this blog but worth recalling: (Quotes, where they appear are in blue)

Presidential aide Lewis Rothschild (Michael J. Fox): “You have a deeper love of this country than any man I've ever known. And I want to know what it says to you that in the past seven weeks, 59% of Americans have begun to question your patriotism. They don't have a choice! Bob Rumson is the only one doing the talking! People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand”.

The President (Michael Douglas): “Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference”.

Along comes a spider and he is starting to scare the little Muffets in the Indian news media. Retired judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Markandeya Katju has stated “90% of Indians are mentally backward and need to be uplifted” by the media. That’s right. Where the news media’s magnitude of nonsense is concerned a majority of the Indian population drinks the sand because they don’t know the difference. Fed on a daily diet of ‘rashi and kundli’, mindless Cricket discussions, divisive debates, hollering anchors and reporters, senseless Bollywood crap, Saas and the city, Saas, Bahu aur Betiyaan, ‘Bhoot-Pret’, spurious opinion polls, fashion shows, Kareena adoring her wax statue and utter nonsense like replaying worst moments from BigBoss they do not have a choice. Most Indians are struggling to make ends meet and can’t be faulted for the kind of trash they absorb from the news media. If these were recognised as entertainment channels there would be no problem but they are supposed to be ‘news channels'.

Justice Markandeya Katju (MK) is now the Chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI) and he is ringing some discomforting alarm bells. He wants to clean up the news media, implement punitive measures for infringements and improve the quality of media functioning. He is pitted against an extraordinary gang which is as thick-skinned as any political group.

Written over a year ago, the post ‘India’s Worst Journalists’ continues to remain among the most popular posts on this blog. Some of the so called journalists in the list like Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose, Arnab Goswami among others can share the credit for destroying the credibility of TV news. In recent times the excessive promotion of a Shahrukh Khan movie or excessive space to Modi-haters or Kashmiri separatists is the trend. Some of these media celebs have also been decorated with Padma Shris. I guess that reward is for their excessive mental masturbation on mundane, trivial issues and keeping the real issues in the closet and from the public. That most of these media outlets and journalists are politically inclined toward the Congress is also not a big secret anymore.

Any decently educated and discerning person would hold the mainstream media in utter contempt. Justice Katju does too and that isn’t surprising at all. But before that let’s pick on that coffee shop called ‘Editors Guild’ (EG). For those who came in late, the EG club is nothing but the usual kitty party that rich ladies host with friends to kill time and money except that the EG kills reputations and truth. This is the same EG, when Rajdeep Sardesai was its head, which also sought to bury the Radiagate conspiracy that involved Barkha Dutt and some other journalists. Most of the EG members are your friendly regular crooks. So why would the crooks want policing? Aha! There you are! So when members of this EG appeared before the standing committee of the parliament for the Lokpal bill they were unanimous – Media should not be under Lokpal.

Outlook reports: “Representatives of the Guild led by its President T N Ninan appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice and Personnel here and said since media was a "private body" it should not be brought under the ambit of the anti-corruption watchdog”. A private body? Hmm! Let’s see, they get to peddle opinions to the masses, they get government quota on housing, they get political ads, they get govt ads some of which are mandatory and they exercise powers like many private businesses don’t. In short, they want all the luxuries of government money and accountability to none. Sounds pretty much like NGOs who also don’t want to be under the Lokpal. Funnier still is that Committee Chairman, Abhishek Singhvi, records that the Guild members have stated their views "clearly and provocatively".

Here are some more scathing observations by MK (All of this in an interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN): 

Indian media is, very often, playing an anti-people role. Let me give you that in three respects. Number one, it often diverts the attention of the people from the real problems which are basically economic. 80 per cent of the people are living in horrible poverty, unemployment, facing price rise, healthcare etc. You divert attention from those problems and instead you project filmstars and fashion parades and cricket as if they are the problems of the people.....

I think it is even worse. I think it is deliberate action of the media to divide the people on religious lines and that is totally against the national interest.....

Yes, the general rut is very low and I have a poor opinion of most media people. Frankly, I don't think they have much knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy. I don't think they have studied all this.....

See very often I find those debates totally frivolous. First of all there is no discipline. If there are four people on the panel, all speaking at the same time, is this the way disciplined people should behave? When you speak, I will never interrupt you. But why should you interrupt me when I am speaking?

The majority, I'm sorry to say, are of a very poor intellectual level, media people, I doubt whether they have any idea of economic theory or political science, philosophy, literature, I have grave doubts whether they are well read in all this, which they should be.....

MK is not saying anything new. Such thoughts on the news media have already been voiced over and over again by many in the social media, including on this blog. In response to MK’s statements Karan Thapar points to the National Broadcasters Association (NBA) as a self-regulating body for TV channels. Unlike the PCI, the NBA is not a statutory body and therefore is really not accountable to anyone just as the TV channels are not. MK wants the electronic media also to be under the PCI and for it to be renamed as ‘Media Council’. MK would need to substantially revamp the PCI too. It is the same body that buried its own ‘paid news’ report because most of the members are crooks themselves.

Some of the credit for the collapse of credibility of news channels has to go to some media celebrities like Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami, Shekhar Gupta, Vir Sangvi, Sagarika Ghose and more. They are responsible for vitiating the atmosphere so much that any sensible discussion of national issues is simply impossible. And they know the kind of panellists they need to pick who can kick and scream and talk over each other. Of the many great people available in this country you can trust the news media to pick on the most uncouth and uncivilised characters as their panellists. They don’t want a decent debate, they want the drama and the spin. Some of the people that adorn the TV screens actually need to be in prison for some of the worst offences. Some of the channels need to be shut down.

How Justice Katju deals with the crooks, only time will tell. But there is reason to be cautiously optimistic that the new chief of PCI is finally one who is with the people and the country.

TimesNow May Collapse Under ‘Arnab’ IMPACT

Update (August 12): This was originally posted on February 18, 2011. I thought sending a new QBox to Arnab to Impact the fall of Narendra Modi might help. Order placed. When the TimesNow kicking and screaming is over we will have elections soon.

Rarely a night passes without Arnab Goswami telling us how many questions he would ask. On the night of February 16, the day MMS finally broke his ‘silence’ and spoke to TV editors, Arnab gave us some interesting statistics. There were 16 editors and a total of 20 questions were asked. That is hardly a scenario that Arnab would have liked. I must mention though that it was extremely insensitive and discourteous of Harish Khare to have interrupted Arnab and tell him it was not an ‘interrogation of the PM’ and to show some ‘courtesy’. In this case it was Harish Khare who was being a jerk. After all wasn’t Harish Khare a part of the Times Group earlier? After wrongly snubbing Arnab he allowed Prannoy Roy to not only make a long-winded statement but wrap 2 or 3 questions into one to the PM. Well, Prannoy is from NDTV so that probably goes well with Harish Khare. But this is about Arnab Goswami.

For a start, let me state clearly that Arnab is not as despicable as some of his peers from other channels. He just believes he has to set a record for the number of questions and then let Times Now outrageously claim that it has ‘impacted’ all the outcomes.

TimesNow Impact: Kalmadi sacked. TimesNow Impact: Darbari suspended. TimesNow Impact: Lalli (of Prasar Bharati) suspended. TimesNow Impact: Antrix chairman to go? TimesNow Impact: SMS fraud. TimesNow Impact: Sports minister acts for national swimmers. TimesNow Impact: Isro Deal cancelled. TimesNow Impact: Hosni Mubarak resigns. Oops! The last one was a tweet from somewhere. The other channels are just cheats who are repeating the ‘Impact’ claims of TimesNow. 

So if TimesNow alone can Impact so many outcomes I have started to wonder whether we really need a CAG or CVC or PAC or JPC. Such is the power of Arnab Goswami’s constant questioning. Exactly a year ago Arnab had just about asked 702,855 questions on TimesNow according to highly reliable sources from Fakingnews. Since that report, the Guinness Book of Records organisation has been keeping a watch on Arnab and have now reported that Arnab has set a world record of 1,000,000 questions. The most ever by any TV host or journalist in the world. Watch out for the ‘Breaking News’ about the Guinness Certificate on ‘Your channel’.

The 20Q Gadget specially made for Arnab by Firebox.Com

 The current information on TimesNow’s new strategy is that they are now planning to take the number one spot in ‘Breaking News’ ahead of India’s most loved and respected channel ‘IndiaTV’. And the trick is to keep asking more questions that have no answers and all silly answers can then become ‘Breaking News’. Take that Rajat Sharma! But in all fairness since TimesNow keeps telling me that it is ‘Your channel’ I have decided to help them in asking more silly questions that have no answers. I have sent a special 20Questions Machine to Arnab Goswami that might just deliver one answer on being asked those 20Questions. This is a gadget specially designed for Arnab Goswami who can’t seem to get answers despite so many questions.

I have only one fear. With the chances of the number of questions exponentially growing because of the gadget their ‘Impact’ would also be phenomenal. And I wonder if TimesNow itself will collapse under the Impact of Arnab’s questions. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Sanjiv Bhatt In Arnab's Kangaroo Court

I had already suggested ‘Padma Shri awaits Sanjiv Bhatt’. I guess that is not enough so a higher award for this courageous cop may be in order. If Teesta Setalvad got embroiled in fake cases of her own affidavits the media needed a new hero against Narendra Modi. Well, looks like they’ve found one.

On August 9 evening Arnab Goswami scooped an interview with Sanjiv Bhatt. The first round had Arnab questioning Bhatt about his hobnobbing with Congress leaders, getting Blackberry from them, emails that were exchanged and so on. The hilarious part came a little later in the evening at 9pm on Arnab’s Newshour when he again had Sanjiv Bhatt and a panel to discuss the suspension of Bhatt by the Gujarat government or to be more specific Narendra Modi as media would insinuate. Sanjiv Bhatt came to the discussions with his lawyer Iqbal Syed. With his lawyer? Yes! That’s right, hahahhaa!

‘Hello Arnab, you know me, now meet my lawyer please’! Isn’t that nice? Now what else would Arnab want for his Kangaroo court? Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai must be writhing in anger that they couldn’t manage to do this on their channels. The lynch mob isn't out there on the streets anymore, it's there on TV channels in the form of news anchors.

Imagine, a supposedly honest cop, a whistleblower, possessing great regard for truth and his own convictions turns up at a TV panel discussion with his lawyer. And Bhatt has made a statement these are desperate measures (his suspension) by a desperate government. Bravo! By now the Congress spokespeople are all over the place. Ambika Soni stated “everybody knows what is happening in Gujarat”. Yes we do, it is that terrible police state where all freedoms have been suspended and it’s a state where there is virtual emergency. Of course, in case you missed it, the tainted Teesta Setalvad got her chance to be on TV again and shooting off her mouth.

Okay, all that is fine. Now, if you even remotely know anything about Narendra Modi you would also know that he is one of the shrewdest politicians around. He is not so dumb as to not estimate that actions such as those against Sanjiv Bhatt (and lately one against Rahul Sharma) wouldn’t invite accusations of vendetta politics. That he would be accused of hounding a cop who has filed an affidavit against him in the SC. That this would give the Congress and all the sickular media channels to again start hurling abuses at him. Is Narendra Modi that silly? Well, even if there is some grain of truth in the vendetta part I doubt he is nervous (as Arnab implies) and I also doubt if there is any legal loop-hole in the actions against Sanjiv Bhatt or Rahul Sharma.

Now, apart from being the CM of Gujarat and knowing well the Congress would use the issue to sidetrack many other issues would Modi be silly enough to undertake these actions? I doubt. This is also given the fact that Congress at the centre is in shambles over various issues of corruption and wrong doings. NaMo would hardly hand them an issue on a platter in such a situation.But the media thinks he desperately would.

In another case of fake encounters it was made out that Modi was a mass murder, ‘maut ka saudagar’. In an article today this is what S. Gurumurthy wrote in the Indian Express:

“That State (Gujarat) is the least sinner in fake encounters, just one in a hundred. Yet, its leader is vilified as ‘Mauth Ka Saudagar’ [merchant of death]. So, the selected State’s leader is the target, not fake encounters as evil. The State selected? Needs no guess. It is Gujarat, certified as the best governed, most prosperous. The leader targeted? Needs no mention. Narendra Modi, known as the cleanest, also the ablest. The National Human Rights Commission’s list of 440 fake encounters from 2002 to 2007 under inquest shows the share of Gujarat as just 5, almost the lowest. Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 231, followed by Rajasthan 33, Maharashtra 31, Delhi 26, Andhra Pradesh 22, Uttaranchal 19, Assam 12, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka 10 each, Tamil Nadu 9, West Bengal 8, Bihar and Haryana 6 each. More. At 7.25 am, on 8.8.2011, the NewX channel reported a further 120 fake encounter deaths in UP after 2007!

Yet,from 2006, the ‘secular’ media has been obsessed with, not the most guilty in encounter sins, but the least — Gujarat; and with only one of the 440 encounters — of Syed Sohrabuddin in Gujarat, none from the rest. Baying for Modi’s scalp, the media relentlessly pursued Sohrabuddin’s case, charged Gujarat with killing him [and his wife, Kausar Bi] only because of his religion. It made Sohrabuddin the poster boy of secularism, insisted on CBI probe to cover Amit Shah, Gujarat Home Minister then, and Modi himself. The judiciary too chose for CBI probe only Sohrabuddin’s case out of the 440 encounters. Later when CBI misused the court mandate, resorted to patent illegalities to fix Shah and target Gujarat and Modi, the media even seemed relieved. Interrogatories to ‘secular’ media on its role in the Sohrabuddin case are overdue. Here are some.Did the media even hint that, like Sohrabuddin’s in Gujarat, there were 435 other encounters outside, being inquired into by NHRC? No. And did it ever ask for CBI probe into them? No.”

There is a universal principle that Arnab Goswami, Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai would do well to remember. IT IS USUALLY THE LOSER THAT GOES TO THE MEDIA. Check up history, check-up businesses and the principle will hold true. Teesta Setalvad talked about truth and justice for a long time. Now we know where she comes from and what her actions were. In much a similar fashion Sanjiv Bhatt talks about truth and justice.

In all the shrill noise that Arnab Goswami and others make not one, I repeat not one, has bothered to ask if the charges against Bhatt are true or accurate. If he has indeed been playing truant and is on illegitimate leave for 10 months. If those accusations are true then all this bullshit by Bhatt, Arnab and others will not wash.

I tend to call such people ‘washing machines of justice’ that wash nothing. These assholes don’t seem to realise that the more nails they drive in to Modi’s imaginary coffin the more popular he becomes. What next? Now are people going to bring their mom and dad to TV panel discussions? Arnab Goswami only exemplified what our media already is. TimesNow, NDTV, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and some more are truly the real lynch mob in their own Kangaroo Courts.

Maria Susairaj & The Media Crocs

On July 2, the media had its O.J. Simpson moment with Maria Susairaj.

It would have been another boring day full of Lokpal stalemate and Team Anna’s audience with the Queen herself but for small mercies (no pun intended). Maria Susairaj walked out of jail after three years having served her time for ‘destruction of evidence’ in the Neeraj Grover murder case. Anyone can understand the outrage and anger of the Grover family and even of the general public. But our media did exactly what was expected of them: create great drama and then blame Maria for all the publicity. Behind all the self-righteous outrage the media reporters could hardly hide their glee over the chance of displaying their histrionics and their moral superiority over courts of this land. Here is a tweet from the usual Rahul Kanwal, on July 2, that says it all:

Rahul Kanwal:

“Media also needs to be careful. Maria is finally getting all the publicity she could have dreamt of. Feel very bad for Neeraj's parents”

Hmmm! It wasn’t just Rahul Kanwal’s channel but also Arnab Goswami of Times Now who provided the most extraordinary nonsense in the coverage of Maria’s release. Kanwal’s tweet is a perfect reflection of the media – first behave stupidly, then sermonise. That’s behaving like vultures and then shedding crocodile tears. Whether you’re good, bad or evil the vulture doesn’t really care as long as it gets to have a sumptuous meal of you. That's the media for you!

Let’s start with the release of Maria. Times Now ran a headline “Killer Walks Free”. So that headline tells you who’s the best judge of a crime. That headline is not so much against Maria but against the judge who passed the sentence. Put aside emotions for a moment. No matter how much one is enraged by the event, Maria is not a killer unless she had put a knife into the deceased or participated in that act. Yes, she could be an ‘accomplice’ or as the court has ruled, ‘destroyed evidence'. She was convicted for the latter and sentenced accordingly to 3 years which was time she had already served and therefore released. The prosecution does not appear to have accused or proved Maria to have put a knife into Neeraj. But the media goes on a song and dance with ‘how can she be released’? Well, what are the police to do? Hold her against the orders of a court? Little does Times Now realise that the ‘killer walks free’ headline could well merit a defamatory case. And if Sharif Shaikh, Maria’s now famous lawyer, decides to walk that line it could hurt the Grover family even more. Such is the cavalier reporting by Times Now.

Times Now’s hyper reporters screamed that Maria was protected and given special treatment by the jail authorities and allowed to drive away without letting the media question her. Well, let me make it clear the media does not have any RIGHT to question Maria and Maria has the absolute RIGHT not to talk to the media at all. So Times Now continued to protest that the media was not allowed to question her. Reporters were hanging around the jail like vultures ready to swoop on Maria and shove and jostle her and maybe even heckle her but fortunately that did not happen. And that unfortunately is the media’s grouse.

Let me make another point amply clear. The frontline reporters and cameramen of the media are the most indecent lot you will see in a democracy.  Some of them are as indecent as regular goondas. No one taught these goondas that you cannot push and shove, no one taught them you cannot shove mics into someones face and body, no one taught them they should keep a safe distance from any person they wish to cover or question. In fact, this crowd of vultures do pose a physical threat. It can anger convicts like Salman Khan who once beat up a few reporters for similar behaviour. Even in regular press meets with a PM or a prominent public figure these assholes do not know how to behave and usually end up shouting questions all at once instead of one at a time.

So who exactly are Times Now and Headlines Today to demand that Maria should have spoken to the media on her release from jail? Why should she? She is under no obligation whatsoever to talk to ANYONE. And then her foolish lawyer, Sharif Shaikh, discloses her movement plan (church, evening presser etc.) so that the media can chase her and follow her to the church she visited. He had his 15 minutes of fame and is now likely to be in great demand too. And be careful how you read headlines like ‘Killer walks free’. Who the hell is the media to decide she is a killer? This is how the media plays on public opinion. Even if the general public believes Maria is a killer the media has no business to declare her one.

Then they complained that media was not allowed to question Maria on her release from jail. Well, when she did hold a press meet in the evening Times Now was quick to ridicule the exercise by asking ‘What’s the point’? Well, if TimesNow didn’t see a point in the press meet why is it they wanted to interact with Maria at the jail area in the first place? Wait, that’s not all they declared the press meet was all a ‘bizarre insensitive drama’! Drama or not the media was the one that wanted her to speak to them in the first place. And then the TimesNow reporter went on to do a psychological analysis of Maria on her calmness, how she was faking, that she was used to cameras, and that she had achieved her goal of ‘publicity’.

If all that was not enough there is a jerk called Ram Gopal Verma, whose movies have now been flopping with regularity, who crawls out to make a statement. The media can’t believe its luck. So there is more drama with insensitive comments about a movie with Maria by RGV and in the evening Headlines Today pits him against the family of Neeraj Grover for a discussion. So Rahul Kanwal, when you say “Media should be careful..” you’re speaking through your ass and your channel is the one that is not being careful.

Even if there wasn’t all this drama after her release Maria Susairaj had already become a celebrity-criminal. The question for the media is why aren’t they asking the same about others who have already been convicted? Why is there media silence on Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt? Both are convicted criminals and both should be in jail. But the media will not talk about them because indirectly they are a source of revenue for the channels and the press. All the song and dance and comedy and action from movies of Salman and Sanjay are an immense source of revenue for the mediacrooks. So why should they want to see these convicted celebrities in jail? Why in the world would they want to see Maria Susairaj in jail instead of seeing more movies or TV serials about her that means money to the channels?

The family of Neeraj Grover is rightfully feeling hurt and anger. Those friends of Neeraj Grover who disrupted the press meet of Maria Susairaj did him no favour. One protester even got close enough to pose a physical threat to Maria. This doesn’t do any good for the Grovers. The Grover family must understand that the media is neither interested in justice nor in what happens to Maria or Jerome. They wanted their fun and they had their day in the sun.  The Grovers can now start their long trudge towards the justice they seek.

Mark my words! In a few months or years these very channels will be falling over each other to do emotional and charming interviews with Maria Susairaj over some movie release or some Big Boss episode. She provides all the regular ingredients for our media - murder, sex, deception, intrigue and a grieving family. Vultures really don’t care who dies and crocs need to have their meal. You know what feeds them.

Why ‘Liberal’ Media Is Scared of The Religion Of Peace!

Hindu Terror, Saffron Terror and such terms can be found in abundance in our media. Prominent among the users of such terms are Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose, Arnab Goswami and their channels. Politicians aren’t too far ahead. For the Congress (I) Hindu Terror is now an industry, particularly for people like Digvijay Singh, his protégé Rahul Gandhi and, of course, P. Chidambaram. This is easy because your life will not be in danger if you keep using the term Hindu Terror. Islamic Terror? Well, that’s the religion of peace, isn’t it?

For about a week now our MSM is obsessed with the killing of a ‘liberal’ called Salman Taseer, the late Pakistani governor. NDTV even had his son and daughter sharing their sorrow and possible fate in Pakistan. Rajdeep Sardesai even tweeted “Salman Taseer loved his whiskey and his women. Served me fine scotch in Pakistan. Was a liberal in an illiberal milieu.” Salman Taseer exemplifies the reason why our politicians and “liberal” media are so scared of the religion of peace and to call Islamic Terror what it is.

A report from the Sydney Morning Herald (Also quoting the Telegraph and Times Of India) had this to say:

"The leader of an Islamic political party in Pakistan has warned the daughter of a murdered politician to ''remember her father's fate'' and to stop supporting his cause. Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was shot dead ......because of his campaign to pardon a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy. Many Muslims celebrated the murder and marched in support of Taseer's confessed killer. Shadab Qadri, the leader of Sunni Tehreek, said the politician's daughter, Shehrbano Taseer, 21, must stop speaking out against blasphemy laws. ''We read the statement of the slain governor's daughter in a newspaper. She should refrain from issuing such statements and must remember her father's fate,'' Shadab Qadri said........On Wednesday, Ms Taseer told the BBC Today program: ''My father's stance has been misrepresented and has been misquoted because he simply said these laws are being misused and they target the poor, the dispossessed and the voiceless. ''He said it's a man-made law and these things should be debated in parliament. That has been misconstrued into saying that he has been blasphemous.'' The Times of India has reported that a court in Punjab has sentenced an imam and his son to life imprisonment after finding them guilty of blasphemy for removing a poster containing verse from the Koran......The Times, said the father, Mohammad Shafi, 45, and his son, Mohammad Aslam, 20, had been accused of blasphemy arising out of differences between the Deobandi and Barelvi sects."

...As of January 13, 2011

If one were to go by Shehrbana Taseer’s statement, her father was killed mainly because he was misrepresented and misquoted. If that alone can merit death you can imagine why cowards in our media and politics won’t even touch Islamic Terror with the ‘Truth’! Those who commit acts of terror in the name of Islam are supposedly misunderstanders** of the religion of peace. How often have you heard statements like “terrorists have no religion”, “those terrorists are not muslims” or “they have hijacked Islam”? And then you will have a Barkha Dutt running programs like ‘Why muslims are being stereotyped’ or a Zia Haq of Hindustan Times lamenting he was denied US Visa because he was a muslim. Haq even writes a blog called ‘They Call me Muslim’ (reminded me of the western movie ‘They call me Trinity’)! It may be fair to say that many in the media and politics are practicing what has come to be known as ‘Stealth Jihad’**

For someone to be killed or sentenced to death for blasphemy is one thing but to be killed for speaking out against blasphemy laws is another extreme altogether. And it is in India that muslims like Ilina Sen (wife of Binayak Sen sentenced to life for Maoist links) feels her life is in danger.

Those Hindus involved in terror activities deserve condemnation and should be hanged to death or sentenced for life. However, it’s the media that is guilty of energising such people when they lie or mislead or cover up for Islamic Terror. If our media had the courage to speak up on Islamic Terror it would sooner or later force governments to act. On the contrary the media acts as an extension of the Congress and the UPA and the likes of Digvijay Singh to tarnish Hindus and gloss over Islamic Terror.  There should have been as strong a campaign by the media to hang Afzal Guru as there was to seek justice for Jessica Lall and some others.

One should also bear in mind that much of the terror funding flows from Saudi Arabia. Wikileaks only confirmed what many already knew. One of the reasons for the mainstream media’s silence on Islamic Terror is who funds it. Most people know a large part of our media is funded by mid-east money. If ever the funding or foreign subsidiaries and other companies of our media are exposed, it will make a sorry reading. Fear and money are the keys and that’s the reason our media won’t talk about Islamic Terror.

Would the media like to one day fear Hindu Terrorists in the same manner? Would someone like to be killed for blaspheming Hindu gods or religious scriptures? They need not fear. Hindu culture does not have blasphemy laws, rules or traditions.

** ‘Misunderstanders of Islam’ and ‘Stealth Jihad’ are terms coined by Robert Spencer of Jihadwatch.Org