Media Mullahs

In an interesting oped titled ‘Messianism versus democracy’ in The Hindu this is what Prabhat Patnaik had to say: “Maulana Bhashani, a popular peasant leader in what is now Bangladesh, used to give marathon speeches that were interrupted when people went home for lunch or dinner, or even for a night's rest, and resumed when they re-assembled afterwards; and the speeches contained much information about everything…”

Here’s another excerpt from the article: “Messianism substitutes the collective subject, the people, by an individual subject, the messiah. The people may participate in large numbers, and with great enthusiasm and support, in the activities undertaken by the messiah… but they do so as spectators. The action is of the messiah; the people are only enthusiastic and partisan supporters and cheerleaders. If at all they ever undertake any action on the side, this is entirely at the messiah's bidding, its ethics, rationale and legitimacy never explained to them…” Well, I don’t agree with quite a few parts in the article but this post is not to debate that. Patnaik probably has inadvertently described religious following itself. The para I quoted can be used for Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammad, Moses or any other prophet you can think of. Imagine if prophets from centuries ago had 24X7 media in their time.

Till the time a messiah from the general public, as Patnaik sort of describes Anna Hazare, comes around the role is usually played by those hyper media celebrity anchors and hosts. Each one passionately intent on heaping some agenda on viewers and readers. Desperately agitated and tired with the twittering and twattering of people on the social networks criticising her, one prominent media cacofonix called them ‘Internet Hindus’! If Maulana Bhashani’s marathon speech is an indicator our media celebrity speakers would have to be called the ‘Media Mullahs’.

If Prabhat Patnaik does a casual count of the number of followers our Media Mullahs have on their twitter accounts he will find them outnumbering those out on the streets supporting Anna Hazare. Secondly, to those who dismiss the crowds as not representing all of India one must point out that if social scientologists like Yogendra Yadav can make conclusions for the nation on sample populations of 20000 then the population sample of Anna is far more superior and far more reliable where accuracy is concerned. But in the crowds in the media are also those whose criticism of Anna’s effort is based on sloganeering and not completely on facts. Is everything in Anna’s protest fair? Obviously not. You are unlikely to find any mass movement in history where you are likely to find every part being fair and logical. This is simply because the end objective of mass movements are their stated objectives and that is that. Sometimes even unstated objectives like the partition of India are achieved/conceded. We don't exactly hang our earlier messiah, Mahatma Gandhi, for that.

Some innocent tweets wondered why Barkha Dutt wouldn’t go to Ramlilamaidan to cover the protests when she considered it so important to rush to Egypt and Libya. The reasons for her not doing so is pretty obvious to people who have followed her reporting over the years. But taking the cue the other media mullahs rushed to Ramlila. Rajdeep Sardesai went to meet Anna and even had a photo op. Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today is reporting live from Ramlila today. After his return from Ramlila, Mullah Sardesai’s pattern of discourse has substantially changed. You can expect a similar change in Mullah Kanwal’s approach. The media mullahs may also have to slowly admit that the battering they receive from Internet Hindus is not entirely unjust or misplaced.

What does it say about our media mullahs when they invite those who trash people or protests with absolutely no logic at all? Mahesh Bhatt calls the Anna movement Taliban. Does that make sense? Yet he figures prominently on NDTV and CNN-IBN. Nikhi Wagle of the CNN-IBN group also tweets of religious bias and questions secularism of the protests. Since when was secularism the agenda of the protests in any case? Since when was a religious tone or bias the agenda of the protests? But both Bhatt and Wagle would like to tweak facts brazenly to lend some insidious motive to the event. And where Arnab Goswami is concerned, he is already a convert and is doing a non-stop coverage of the event.

What Prabhat Patnaik misses is that when the protest eventually winds up the only messiahs left continuing the messianism will be our Media Mullahs. They may just have to alter their agendas a bit.

The Good Neighbour

The good neighbours

Putting the nation first is the last thing that is on the minds of some of our media and celebrities. Following the disclosures of David Headley in the current trial of Tawahur Rana CNN-IBN was the first to scroll through the day ‘CNN-IBN was the first to expose the ISI links to 26/11 in July 2010’! Sure, we all remember that. We also remember Rajdeep Sardesai was the first man on the moon, don’t we? The race to claim being the first to break something or being the one to reveal some story even where it concerns national interests is the most shameful part of our media. Not to be left behind NDTV pulls out Mahesh Bhatt for his comments on Headley’s testimony. Hmmm wait! Mahesh Bhatt? The guy whose son was linked to this same Headley?

As the worst terrorist attack on Pakistani soil, at PNS Mehran, concluded the Tawahur Rana trial was under way. A message to CNN-IBN : any idiot in India knew the ISI and Pakistan are connected to the 26/11 attacks and many previous terrorist attacks. We don’t need the wisdom of CNN-IBN to educate us on this. These events follow the discovery and killing of Osama Bin Laden in a mansion near Islamabad. I suppose CNN-IBN knew Osama’s hideout too but for reasons of security must have suppressed the info. They are very conscientious. After all CNN-IBN showed the same concern in suppressing the cash-for-votes tapes in 2008. Remember that?

Anyway, now that Pakistan stands thoroughly and undeniably exposed some of our people need to hang their heads in shame. Shahrukh Khan, Mahesh Bhatt, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Barkha Dutt, Salman Khan, Mani Shankar Aiyar and, of course, Times Of India. Collectively these entities form the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ club in India. I am quite certain Shahrukh Khan would love to have Pakis around his house and as his neighbours. It would bring him great joy to see bombs falling all around or on his house every second day. That must be a thrill. What about Times of India? The earliest media outlet to back out on its promise “we will never forget” about 26/11. In just a year since 26/11 they came out with that crap called ‘Aman Ki Asha’. Song and dance with Pakistanis, a few awards here and there, a few matrimonial ads in their columns from across the border and TOI has proved it has strong memories of the 26/11 atrocities.

One of the worst mistakes Atal Behari Vajpayee ever made was to invite that war criminal Musharraf to a summit in July 2001. This was after Kargil. Few months after the failed summit, our parliament was attacked by terrorists. Since then our media has a great fascination for frequently having this war criminal lecturing on every issue concerning Pakistan and India. He is in exile from his own country and there is a warrant against him. NDTV alone has a long history of nurturing this war criminal as if he was some spiritual leader. (Read the post ‘Tainted? Have a chat with Barkha’)  India does not need anymore nonsense from this has-been who should still be treated as a war criminal. There are others like India Today and Hindustan Times who have hosted this war criminal in various seminars.

Another favourite of our media is Hamid Gul. He is a former head of the ISI and is known to have links with Al Qaeeda and the Taliban. The USA has even declared him wanted for terrorist links. Yet our media frequently hosts this man as if there are no other sensible voices in Pakistan at all. It is time our media, if any concern for the nation is left, stopped hosting such crooks and anti-India people.

I am in no way suggesting voices from Pakistan must be censored. Not at all. Democracy must allow all kinds of views to be aired, even those that hurt us. But democracy also means putting the country first. The media has the responsibility of not allowing known criminals to air their views and indirectly be used for some agenda setting. The Musharrafs and Hamid Guls are criminals who should not be allowed any airtime now that Pakistan has been proved to be what it is beyond the slightest doubt. There are journalists and other officials in Pakistan who can be allowed that freedom. Let me add that in many respects the Pak media is at least is a lot more independent than its Indian counterpart. We have more poodles.

There is this man called Shuja Pasha, the head of ISI. Following the killing of Osama he disappeared for a while. Then he surfaces to shoot out threatening messages to India. That any misadventure by India will have serious consequences and so on. There is a saying for fools like him. “Mian giraa magar tangdi oonchi hai” ! (Miyan has fallen but still has his feet up!) Bravo! Maybe PNS Mehran will remind him that India is not the threat.

As for the Mahesh Bhatts, Shahrukh Khans and some of their Bollywood clan, they would do well to embrace this new Pakistan. Pakistan may be our enemy but cleansing our own country would do us no harm. On most of those that firmly believe in the ‘Good Neighbour’ philosophy, you can rest assured it doesn’t come from any reason or reality other than religion or business considerations. 

My Sore Pak

I once again took a break, this time a longer one and was happy to get back on the day Osama Bin Laden was taken down. I have lost count of the number of posts where I have mentioned that Pakistan is a failed state with nothing to offer to anyone and surviving on misdirected aid. The only ones who think Pak is a great neighbour are the likes of Shahrukh Khan and Mahesh Bhatt. A few weeks ago our PM even wanted cricket to be played between India and Pak. Manmohan Singh cares two hoots about realities as events as shown over and over again. Friendship with Pakistan is not only impossible but not even desirable.

The idiots who have coined the term ‘people to people’ contact as an excuse to seek peace are the greatest enemies of India. You cannot have peace with a nation that has an army and outfits partly involved in terrorism. It took nearly a decade but the US finally got Osama. His hole just outside Islamabad proves what the Pak establishment was and is really up to. It might take a decade to get the perpetrators of 26/11 and other terrorists but instead our stupid government wants us to play cricket with those assholes.

We need not hate Pakistanis. Ordinary Pakistanis are not evil. But the way our media keeps promoting Pakistan and campaigning for relations with that country is sickening. The worst crimes on this count come from Bollywood itself. With an abundance of talent in India they still need singers and dancers from Pakistan and cite such cultural imports as a way of improving relations. Moron-in-chief of this theory has to be Mahesh Bhatt. And he is now in the Congress. Is that any surprise? And then there is still that Slime of India, with its ‘Aman Ki Asha’ crap. Do we need traitors?

What is the best question that Rajdeep Sardesai and others ask P.Chidambaram when Osama was killed? Hmmmm, when are we going to go after the Dawoods and the Saeeds!!! It takes spine to go after criminals. Do our politicians have any? In the tragedy of the 1999 Kandahar hijack the media turned it into an emotional drama and soap with the families of those hijacked to force the government to barter terrorists for hostages. And then Chidambarm tells the world India and US are the not the same when it comes to Pakistan. Well that is some comfort. Time to learn from tiny Israel on how to survive with cutthroat criminal rulers surrounding you all the time.

It didn’t take the Osama killing to expose Pak. Everyone knew it, everyone knew the Pak ISI and army are crooks and everyone knew Pak was playing host to Osama. The US finally decided not to be led up the garden path. But will our Manmohan Singhs, Mahesh Bhatts, Barkha Dutts and Shahrukh Khans learn? No they will not! The government still maintains talks will go on. Talks on what? To discover that Pak is a safe haven for another hundred criminals for crimes against India?

Right now Pak is sore. It is scab infested. Forget Pakistan, it’s good riddance.  Let’s get on with moving India on.  Pak should also learn a lesson from it’s friend Osama. You can run but you can’t hide forever. Pak will one day meet the same fate that Osama met. Hopefully, it will be at the hands of India.