Libyaberration

The protests in Libya and earlier in Egypt and Tunisia have fascinated the world. Rightly so. Ordinary people challenging dictators are always good to watch. Unlike Tunisia and Egypt, the protests in Bahrain, Yemen have turned ugly, more so in Libya. Defiant dictators unleashing the army on their own people. Then there is also a lot of drama associated with such uprisings. So can our journalists be left behind? After all, these are the champions of democracy. Aren’t they? Let’s see!

Liberation or Journalistic Aberration?

India can claim to have exported many great brains and professionals across the world. However, our journalists probably wouldn’t belong in that category. First, the ones that landed up in Egypt ended up reporting more about their own plight rather than the events there. How they were harassed by authorities, detained by police and so on. So I wonder, do we really need any reporting from clumsy Indian reporters? They do a bad job in India itself why take it out there? I have to admit, going to conflict zones does take courage and I do give them that. But beyond that it’s just comic relief.

First, it was Times Now that landed in Libya. Well, Egypt-Libya border if you like. And for the first two days last week what was it that Times Now reported? Their report consisted of one line repeated over and over again for two days: “Times Now is the only Indian channel on the Egypt-Libyan border”. Bravo! That’s the second biggest leap for mankind since the landing on the moon. I know what you’re thinking! Where’s Barkha Dutt? Well, while Kashif of Times Now was telling us how his was the only Indian channel there, our brave lady was tweeting her way right up to Libya. What followed from her could have been in a tweetathon.

No one described Barkha’s experience better than B. Raman, the former bureaucrat and strategy analyst. Here is a sample of what he wrote on his blog:

“Barkha and her NDTV team made their way through nearly 700 kms of beautiful desert made famous during the second World War by the epic tank battle at El Alamein between the allied forces commanded by Field Marshal Montgomery and the Nazi German forces commanded by FM Rommel. Barkha has over 200,000 followers in her Twitter site. I am one of them. I keep exchanging Tweets with her from time to time on current developments...... The Twitter enabled us to follow Barkha and her team for nearly seven hours of their 15-hour journey. We kept encouraging her through Tweets and E-mails and advising her and her team to take good care of themselves and not to walk into a trap. I was touched by the gesture of even some critics of Barkha in praying for the safety of the team. One of her critics tweeted her: “May not agree with her opinions on matters ....but safety is paramount ..I pray for her safety... There were so many others who prayed for their safety. I tweeted Barkha: “ U see how many well-wishers U have in the sub-continent.”..... Even people in Pakistan tweeted her “good luck.” Ms. Munizae Jahangir, a journalist, who is the proud daughter of Mrs.Asma Jahangir, the famous Pakistani human rights activist, tweeted Barkha to say that she was E-mailing to her the telephone numbers of some Pakistanis in Libya whom she could contact if she needed any assistance.”

That’s exactly what Barkha described too. 15 hours of travel, beautiful empty highways and deserts, and tweets that said she hoped the internet and other stuff worked out there in Tobruk. (If you don’t know where Tobruk is just look up her tweets)Wait! Even ‘Pakistanis’ tweeted her goodluck! Isn’t that nice? (Just as some other Pakistanis were busy killing Shahbaz Bhatti) And so at the end of these exchanges we were all better educated about the situation in Libya. Both from Times Now and from Barkha Dutt. It doesn’t end there. Not to be out-done Headlines Today rushed their own team out there. So we had a Gaurav Sawant and Co. taking us through the strife. Playfully, if I may add. That’s it! Enough is enough said CNN-IBN! So by Sunday (Mar 6) CNN-IBN announced their team was there. Why in the world does CNN-IBN need their own out there? Aren’t they a sister channel of CNN with the likes of Nic Robertson and Ben Wedeman doing the reporting there? And these guys are hardened conflict-zone reporters. Unlike our ‘studio heroes’ who landed up in Libya, you are unlikely to find Robertson or Wedeman frequently in TV studios.

Am I famous now? Isn’t that how CNN got famous overnight on January 17, 1991 by being the only channel to report live on the first Gulf war? Yes, I was somewhere in Europe that night to watch it all. So you might see a Gaurav or Barkha or Kashif hogging international channels very soon. There is a reason why American journalists are all over the place. The US has a lot at stake in many countries and regions given its political and economic influence for a long time. India simply doesn’t have any stake in any region except for our citizens living there and general trade. And if you wanted conflict zones, those are in abundance within our shores. And yes I do hope and pray our journos remain safe and out of harm’s way.

Those who run channels like Aaj Tak and India TV may hold the strong belief that most Indians are stupid, gullible morons who will buy into the ‘Bhoot-Pret’  and ‘end of the world’ stories or Amitabh Bachchan or Shahrukh Khan’s previous avatars. Make no mistake, India TV is probably the most popular channel in India. But the English channels need greater sophistication in treating their audience to stylish tom-foolery. The funny part is just as these journos got into Libya the biggest stories were breaking in India. The SC judgement on the CVC and then the DMK pull out of the UPA or "what the hell is going on..." hogged the TV channels for the last few days. And their greatest achievement might simply be one of just having gotten into Libya, without visas. Other than that there is nothing much in their coverage that is not already there on CNN or BBC or such channels. Very soon Al-Jazeera maybe in India too. Yes, that TV channel whose post box the Al-Qaeeda love so much. Will be more fun then.

I seriously wonder. Just over a year ago, there were strong anti-government protests in Iran. None of these bravehearts dared to go there and do some reporting. Does Islamic rule have anything to do with that? Does courage stop at fully Islamic countries? It’s hard to say if Libyans will truly find Liberation. But with our journos I can say with some confidence that it has been a Libyaberration!

JuD: Jihad, N-War Solutions To Kashmir Issue

Any ‘moderate’ muslim anywhere in the world will tell you ‘Jihad’ is an ‘internal struggle’ for spiritual cleansing. I am confident that the likes of Digvijay Singh and Rahul Gandhi will agree. It’s only idiots like us who do not understand the real meaning of ‘Jihad’ and frequently stereo-type muslims.

“India has shown disappointment over the release of Hafiz Saeed, chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and a suspect for masterminding 26/11 Mumbai attacks. JuD is suspected to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba. The release questions Pakistan’s seriousness in combating terror...Hafiz Saeed is also reported to be a co-founder of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)”.  That was a news report from June 2009.

On Sunday, February 6, at a Kashmir Solidarity Day meeting Lahore, Hafiz Saeed’s speech for spiritual cleansing of Kashmir was reported as under: (From DNA)

"You (Manmohan Singh) must remember that the movement of the Kashmiri people is nearing an end and I am telling you very clearly to immediately leave Kashmir. Otherwise we are ready to start a war against you to get this at any cost," "The only solution to the Kashmir issue is jihad," said Saeed. The jihad should continue "as long as Kashmir remains under Indian occupation" and there would be "no problem" if the fighting leads to nuclear war between Pakistan and India, he contended".

Well, we need not worry much about the JuD or the LeT. We have a bigger terrorist threat at home through Hindu Terror outfits. That is what Rahul Gandhi told an American Diplomat. Hafiz Saeed also blamed India for masterminding the 26/11 attacks. He is not wrong. The Digivijay Singhs and Aziz Burneys of India have also expressed similar sentiments. It was probably an RSS conspiracy.

A few days ago I wrote a post titled ‘Egypt & The Fifth Column’. The separatists in J&K are understandable. Why should we believe that there aren’t hidden separatists in the other parts of India? The more the weakness of the UPA government and greater their attempt to cloak the real threat of Islamic Terror with strident cries of Hindu terror the more emboldened the likes of JuD and LeT are likely to feel. For long many leaders have been calling upon muslims in India to merge with the mainstream. It may have happened to some extent. But there is a certain religious intolerance among certain sections of muslims which will inevitably fall prey to the designs of JuD and LeT, if they haven’t already done.

Not surprisingly, British PM David Cameron has recently announced that multiculturalism has failed in Britain. This follows earlier such announcements by Angela Merkel of Germany. The community being responsible for this according to them is not Hindus or Jains or Sikhs. They singularly point to muslims who have proved to be against any norm of democratic and liberal society. And on cue, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has announced that they would like to implement the ‘Sharia’ in Egypt.

Here is a video of a Fox News interview with Imam Anjem Chowdhary. This Imam is one who deeply desires complete Islamisation of Britain and is also reported to be a Sharia Court Judge in one of Britain’s Sharia courts. A Sharia court in Britain? Yes, there are more than 80 of them. And this is the multiculturalism that David Cameron states is failing.

                           Anjem Choudhary on Fox News "..You can live under Sharia"

Let me caution you, Fox News is often cited as a right-wing conservative news channel. I have not pasted this video for a Fox News’ programme but to reflect on the views of Anjem Choudhary. And he holds out this promise in the video “...Islam is coming to your backyard...you can live under Sharia”. But when our own politicians and media tarnish many Hindu outfits as ‘right-wing’, ‘communal’ and such choice tags you have to know what they are inviting into this country through a backdoor. A veritable fifth column. If we talk about these, don’t be surprised getting labelled as ‘Racist, Bigot, Propagandist or an Islamophobhe’.

So all the mediacrooks who were tom-toming the theory that the protesters in Egypt were seeking democracy, freedom and liberty should now stop lying and realise the fact that much of the protests was fueled by the Muslim Brotherhood and their ultimate aim is Islamic rule in Egypt. Our friendly neighbour, Pakistan, is already an ‘Islamic Democracy’. The Times of India, NDTV and similar news outfits desire nothing but great peace with Pakistan. Nothing wrong with that. The only problem is Islamic rule and Democracy are not compatible. According to the Islamists, democracy is man-made and that is not acceptable to them. Therefore, their God-made laws and systems will always triumph over man- made ones. That’s a certainty.

The columns that some of our media friends write could well be ‘The fifth column’ in reality. Aziz Burney was not the only one strident with his conspiracy theories about 26/11. Digivijay Singh, A.R. Antulay are among prominent subscribers of that theory. And among the many journals that espouse such theories has to be Tehelka. Yes, the journal that employs journalists who believe in journalism and who get paid to tell the truth!

An interesting piece about Tehelka titled “Turncoat Tehelka” appears on Sandeepweb, and I produce some excerpts below:

.....Back to the fearless paper’s fearlessness, we see that Tehelka in February 2009 published an article entitled THE CURIOUS TALE OF MUMBAI TERROR by one Raveena Hansa. The full text of the article is here. An unending stream of the author’s medically-untreatable bowel movements on an overdrive, it basically says the following:

• There are unanswered questions about 26/11.
• There are doubts about who killed Hemant Karkare.
• The attack is not entirely the work of Pakistani terrorists.
• We can’t rule out the possibility of “Hindutva terrorists.”
• Pakistan is as serious about shutting down terror networks as India is.

And then inexplicably, Tehelka took down that article from its site, a fact that went by unnoticed except that the indefatigable Barbarindian detected this sleight-of-hand and posed a question to the fearless paper. The paper responded with:

@barbarindian Sorry that article wasn’t published on Tehelka. Altho, same article on Countercurrents w/ diff headline Here.

That is the fearless Tehelka denying an article it carried supporting the conspiracy theories about 26/11. One needs to be reminded that Tehelka had nearly shut down some years ago. The blog Sans Serif carries a post about how the Congress government helped restore Tehelka. Is it any surprise that such a fearless journal would need to reward the Congress with some propaganda?

The dangers of the media being corrupt and not willing to call the lies spread by several politicians or events that unfold in the nation and the world is a clear warning that propagandist media will eventually destroy every democratic value and freedom that we cherish. Hafiz Saeed and his JuD are emboldened to threaten Jihad and N-war. And on the sidelines of the current SAARC meeting our journalists are busy interviewing various people on the next move for peace with Pakistan. We need a watchdog over the media so that they do not abuse the very freedom we cherish to open the backdoors to those who wish to destroy India.

Barkha Dutt Saves Hosni Mubarak

“It was impossible for Christiane Amanpour to not be there, so one can understand how hard it must have been for Barkha Dutt to have not rushed to Egypt. Someone must have stopped her, and thankfully so”.  This is what I wrote a couple of days ago in my post ‘Egypt & The Fifth Column’. As expected Barkha Dutt has proved me wrong once again and has rushed to Egypt. Well, she was just a bit late. Hosni Mubarak was looking for someone to pass the buck for the present crisis in Egypt. He wanted to pick Barkha for an exclusive interview, but in her absence he had to pick the poor man’s version of Barkha, Christiane Amanpour.

I have to presume Barkha was fed up with the comic work of CNN-IBN journalists who went there and were either detained or attacked. So on CNN-IBN the reporting was much about their own journalists’ plight than Egypt itself. After all, these are the representatives of India, the new super-kid on the block. To her absolute delight Barkha found she had scared the living daylights out of the protesters and Mubarak’s goons. Incidentally, CNN-IBN had originally planned to send Sagarika Ghose, but the Egyptians strongly objected to the fact that her shrill screaming would drown their own voices. So good sense prevailed on that channel. Another reporter, Karmic Soliloquy, who was in Cairo, has filed this live report from Egypt:

Protesters praying for Barkha Dutt to go..

“Live and direct from Cairo: NDTV journalist and all round news aunty Barkha Dutt has lodged a strong protest with the Egyptian government over the latter’s decision not to arrest or threaten her. Bharkha, who is reporting on the crisis in Egypt from Cairo, was among the few journalists left unharmed by President Hosni Mubarak supporters, policemen and army soldiers.....Barkha’s stock in India has been on a freefall since the last three years following among others an incident where she got a tiny small time blogger to shutdown his blog over some uncharitable comments he had made on the self proclaimed queen of Indian newsdom .......not only did the Egyptian government goons leave her alone, but they also treated her with much respect as if she was one of them. An angry Barkha rushed to the makeshift office of the Mubarak Goons Association and demanded an immediate arrest\detention or even a reprimand from the forces loyal to Mubarak..... (instead) The goons served her tea and breakfast and even gave her a sturdy horse to take her around Cairo. Grandpa Pranoy Roy has meanwhile condemned the incident and refused to dye his beard for three days in protest....” Read the full report by Karmic Soliloquy

The New York Post writer Andrea Peyser had once conferred the title ‘War Slut” on Christiane Amanpour for her reporting from conflict zones, and later called her a “Palestinian Propagandist”. Barkha is now angry that the international media has conspired to deprive her of similar titles which would have been well-earned.

 

Knowing Barkha was in Egypt can Nira Radia be far behind? Well, the Egyptian protesters suddenly realised that with Barkha in Egypt there was every chance that Hosni Mubarak may stay on in office. After all, some Indian journalists and PR bigwigs know how to put people in office or keep them there. So they have now shifted their focus away from Mubarak and instead want Barkha out.

Another Indian reporter in Cairo (Emmaarcee) has sent in this one:  “Here is a sms message which says that "After seeing (NDTV's) Burka Dutt's reports, several Egyptians dropped their demand for Mubarak's exit. They want HER to go”. So now you know how our very own Barkha saved Hosni Mubarak. I can confirm the Amanpour-Mubarak interview, but the rest is, of course, based on unconfirmed reports. Indian journalists can get anything done and keep anyone in power. Now you know!

Egypt & 'The Fifth Column'

TV channels and other media are full of the ongoing protests in Egypt and other Middle East states. A quick over-throw of the regime in Tunisia has followed protests in Jordan, Yemen and the ones in Egypt have been the most dramatic and have caught the world’s fascination. On Tuesday (February 1) Arnab Goswami went hammer and tongs at the USA. Some of his outrage included “America should stay out of Egypt”, “US should stay out of middle east” and so on. Those are not quotes but what he effectively said. The others aren’t too far behind. It was impossible for Christianne Amanpour to not be there, so one can understand how hard it must have been for Barkha Dutt to have not rushed to Egypt. Someone must have stopped her, and thankfully so. Typically, most of our TV channels turned it into greater drama than was already on the streets of Cairo and the anchors themselves were calling for Hosni Mubarak to step down.

A thought on revolutions. Our own independence struggle was a revolution and partition was a consequence. Where democracy and real freedom are not at the core it will be easy to see where states can go. Former Soviet Union’s October Revolution needs to be remembered. That Pakistan, with its Islamic Republic Constitution, has gone down the drain is not hard to see. Iran is not hard to see. Tunisia is already in the making. That is the danger for Egypt. And this can spread much farther.

The Fifth Column?

Arnab Goswami’s calls for America to stay out is understandable.  However, for a super-power that brokered peace between Israel and Egypt, for a country that has poured billions into Egypt, for a country that has several interests in the mid-east, it is not possible to stay completely out. And it shouldn’t. Indian governments have been stupid enough to either get fully involved or completely withdrawn from our own neighbours. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar are all good examples of how these countries are slowly being courted by the Chinese to strangle India from all sides. And, of course, we have the friendly Pakistan next door which our TV anchors, journalists and communist media love so much.

Hosni Mubarak’s rule of 30 years has been autocratic, corrupt and one of suppression. One that has also seen killings of minorities and church bombings regularly, especially Coptic Christians. The longer a government’s rule the more ineffective, the more brazenly corrupt it’s likely to be. Sooner or later people are bound to revolt. This has been seen in Iran before in 1979, in China in 1989 and in many other places. It is a lesson that no party should be voted to power twice in succession. India is already paying the price with the corrupt UPA government. So one can imagine what 30 years of power can do. Imagine what 60 years of Congress has done to India.

However, much as we would like to believe and are being told over and over again by the media that the popular uprising in Egypt stems from the people’s desire for more freedoms, economic well-being and a yearning for democracy, one hopes it is just that and does not turn into what Iran has come to be. There’s a reason to be skeptical. The protests are largely backed and driven by the Muslim Brotherhood, even if not openly so. There may be more, but the one sane analysis of the situation comes from Swapan Dasgupta on his blog – ‘Islamist regime may follow Mubarak exit’.

First, about the Muslim Brotherhood. This is an organisation founded in 1928 and is banned in Egypt since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. Members of this organisation, however, contest as independents to the assemblies in Egypt. They support terrorist organisations like Hamas and many other Jihadist organisations. Their final goal : An Islamic Caliphate across the middle east and maybe later across the world. They are staunch opponents of Israel’s existence. Egypt’s peace treaty with the Jewish state is also a cause for the unrest with the Muslim Brotherhood.  Anti-Israel posters also find place with others in the current protests. Early morning on February 3 protestors were heard shouting ‘Jihad, Jihad’ on CNN in Cairo, in the middle of clashes between pro and anti-Mubarak crowds.  

Robert Spencer, a keen observer of ‘Jihad’ and ‘Islamic’ activities had this to say on his site Jihadwatch.org:

"Research analyst Lorenzo Vidino writes about The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe: "Since the early 1960s, Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers have moved to Europe and slowly but steadily established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities, and Islamic organizations." Their ultimate goal "may not be simply 'to help Muslims be the best citizens they can be,' but rather to extend Islamic law throughout Europe and the United States. With moderate rhetoric and well-spoken German, Dutch, and French, they have gained acceptance among European governments and media alike. Politicians across the political spectrum rush to engage them whenever an issue involving Muslims arises or, more parochially, when they seek the vote of the burgeoning Muslim community. But, speaking Arabic or Turkish before their fellows Muslims, they drop their facade and embrace radicalism." Read the devastating full post here on the infiltration of the West by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Former American Special agent Paul David Gobatz infiltrated CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and revealed the deep nexus between CAIR, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood in his book titled “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America”  It would be naive to think the Mafia will want to stop at Europe or America. They have more than willing support in places like Pakistan and some countries in South Asia as well.

In every country where the muslim population has attained significant levels there is a growing desire for Islamic rule or implementation of Sharia. Britain, France, Germany are prime examples. And consequently the existence of ‘The Fifth Column’ should not be dismissed as wild conspiracy theory. In India our own Imam Bukhari, of Delhi’s Jama Masjid’ is on record stating: “We were rulers here for 800 years. Inshaallah, we shall return to power here once again”" and threatens “this country is in for another partition, so let us be prepared for nation wide riots and violence. ”

Islamic regimes and Sharia are incompatible with Democracy. Let us be under no illusion regardless of how our media paints the Egypt protests as. It is in the interest of democracies to be on guard and therefore Western & Eastern democracies must be closely involved in Egypt and the Middle-East. The lies and paints of the Indian media notwithstanding.