Forces Of Calumny

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. (Hamlet, 3.1.129) – Shakespeare.

NDTV and CNN-IBN simply couldn’t have expected events that unfolded. When a carefully cultivated line of thinking and campaign goes terribly wrong it leaves one wondering which way to jump. Throughout August 17 as the Anna Hazare stalemate continued NDTV could only think of calling it a ‘circus’. Barkha Dutt kept tweeting about Alice In Wonderland and how this is all mad. Her late evening programme sported the tag line ‘protest or blackmail’ and an hour prior, Nidhi Razdan started her Left, Right, Centre by once again calling the event a ‘circus’. I couldn’t help laughing at the irony. When Barkha Dutt rushed to Egypt and Libya she didn’t find those events to be circus or the world of Lewis Caroll.  To Rajdeep Sardesai’s CNN-IBN, of course, must go the credit of inaugurating mud-slinging season. When a prominent news channel like CNN-IBN undertakes brazen mud-slinging it starts emboldening the forces and faces of calumny. The three stooges that were the faces of Congress in the entire Anna Hazare episode pretty much reflect the combined faces of calumny spurred by some in the TV news media. Rajdeep and Yogendra Yadav would be delighted to know how their recent opinion polls confirm everything they are seeing on the ground now. Oh yeah, if elections were held today the UPA would be voted back to power! That's what they would have you believe. And, of course, their poll suggested that only 28% believe UPA is corrupt. Will the truth ever set these media dealers free?

Faces of Calumny

Things didn’t go wrong on August 16. They went wrong on the night of June 4 when a peaceful crowd was lathi-charged in the middle of the night. I had then written that ‘Chidambaram, Sibal and Soni were the ones to have hatched the Anna arrest. But the people already knew that by now. What is worse is having a PM who has more or less abdicated his responsibilities and received a severe pasting from opposition leader Arun Jaitley.

The Congress and many in the media have tried desperately to spin these events as ‘parliament v street legislators’. Even that has failed. If the intellectuals in the media haven’t realised yet that no matter what Anna or Baba or Bedi do, they simply cannot make a law, the ordinary people are under no illusion. The best they can do is fast, agitate and protest. After the murder of journalist J. Dey did the media not demand special protection laws? Did they not demand that crimes against journalists be made ‘non-bailable’ offences? Is that not demanding laws that they want? The laws that Anna Hazare demands may be different but it’s not different in principle. He just seems to have more determination and the will to die for it. Fact is, journalists were demanding special privileges whereas Anna is not demanding any special privileges. But, that’s OK, people demand all sorts of things.

The most striking feature of the debates on TV is that people like Mahesh Bhatt, Nandita Rao, Rahul Kanwal question the wisdom or intelligence of ordinary people. I’m not kidding, here’s a tweet from Rahul Kanwal:

Rahul Kanwal:

Quite certain protesters don't understand finer nuances of Anna's bill. Doesn't matter to them. They're livid with Govt over corruption.

Finer nuances? Alright, I can laugh but the media morons wouldn’t understand nuance if it kissed them in broad daylight. What they hide is that the crowds are just as angry with the media as they are with the politicians. I can safely vouch for the fact that there is not a single lawyer or constitutional expert who knows everything that they talk about. What they talk about is a common-sense stand that they take. These opinionated egos of media might be under the impression that every MP even reads every bill that is passed. Ordinary people just have a boiling point. They keep watching the crimes of those in power and when it reaches a crescendo they will come out and fight. They don’t need to read law books before coming out on the streets as some of our stupid media dealers seem to desire. And a man like Mahesh Bhatt believes without cameras the Anna Hazares would disappear. Without a camera it is the Barkha Dutts, Rajdeep Sardesais, Sagarika Ghoses, Rahul Kanwals, Arnab Goswamis who would have had to choose a different career and would be consigned to the bin of the thousands of unknown journalists. Bhatt’s statement is like an idiot cursing the very gift by which he earns his livelihood. Same goes for the media dealers who claim protests would die without the camera. This is the same belief that leads them to believe that they are indirectly the most powerful law-makers in the land. An offence they accuse the street protesters of.

Rahul Kanwal shouldn’t assume people on the streets are dumb. If he offered them a choice to listen to a moral sermon, between Anna Hazare and Barkha Dutt, I’m certain even Kanwal knows who they’d pick. And Hazare isn’t the cacofonix on TV screens every night. All said and done it is not Anna who has lost his sense of decency. The media should ask the PM if he has lost all sense of decency and let loose his ministers to take the actions they did. I doubt you need a constitution or law to tell you what common decency is. After all, the Ten Commandments didn't include rape or child-abuse. Common human decency helped us learn that.

In all this, conspicuous by their absence from the media are M/s. Hit and Run. Yeah, both Digvijay Singh and Rahul Gandhi must have run out of silly statements. The media must be dearly missing the crumbs that this duo is used to throwing at them. Tarnishing RSS doesn’t seem to be paying anymore. In Gujarat,  Gandhi is a name used to refer to the corner-shop grocer. That’s because Gandhis are traditionally grocers. There is a reason why Gandhi cared to understand ordinary people. The Gandhi-grocer is the one who interacts with ordinary people almost every minute of his working day. That someone like Rahul walks around with the name of Gandhi may not be his fault, but there is a reason why he has a severe disconnect with the people as does the media. And the most stunning comment on the man came not from his detractors but his ally in UPA-I. It was Brinda Karat of CPM, who for the first time sarcastically used the term ‘prince charming’ in parliament to describe the white-wash that the Congress attempted to make in the bungling of the Hazare incident. The Congress and media attempt to credit Rahul Gandhi with diffusing the crisis failed miserably. We had one great Gandhi who is now in heaven. We don’t need fake Gandhis in our parliament.

The PM who stupidly talked about ‘skeletons’ before the current parliament session is now warning Anna Hazare of consequences. His lack of decency and miserable failure as PM is embarrassing for the whole nation. When he indirectly condones the sacking of the nation and then lets loose his forces of calumny the nation looks for leadership. In the absence of a leader they found one in Anna Hazare. In less than 12 hours they have made him a national, and probably international, hero. This is a time to be humble. If the PM cannot find his own conscience then a Janlokpal bill will not be the only thing that the protesters will demand.

Rajdeep Sardesai : "No Wild Allegations Against Gandhis, Please....."

In the post ‘Why is Indian media scared of Sonia Gandhi’ I referred to an incident in a public debate on the Lokpal bill conducted by Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today:

“Nothing about the program struck me as being new or specific except when a man wearing a green T-shirt, who introduced himself as ‘IIT Kharagpur and MBA’, started shooting questions. It was all fine until he started raising some questions about Swiss banks or KGB money apparently in relation to Sonia Gandhi. Hmmmm! That’s where Kanwal abruptly cut him off. This got me wondering all over again”.

Something similar happened on CNN-IBN last night in a discussion on the Supreme Court order setting up an SIT. Vishwabandhu Gupta, a former IT commissioner, talking about black money and Swiss accounts started referring to ‘the visit of a 41 year old politician and his mother to Switzerland…..” (before the new agreement with the Swiss authorities on black money was recently finalised) when Rajdeep Sardesai immediately cut off him. Rajdeep firmly suggested that “wild allegations should not be made”! Oh yeah! Talking about the queen or her son and their visits to Switzerland is almost blasphemy. And the media bimbos don’t like “wild allegations”. More of this later.

First, Manish Tiwari, the Congress spokesperson was unusually subdued in the discussion on CNN-IBN. As usual he started by stating that he had not read the full SC order. Then he mentioned that it wasn't really an SIT but an expansion of the High Level Committee. Wow! The SC should be clearer for the likes of Manish Tiwari. Then when it came to the SIT ordered by the SC he brought up something connected with Ramjanma Bhoomi movement having collected 400 crores and transferred it abroad. This, Tiwari suggested, was according to reports in the past by V. Gupta himself. There is no denying that the BJP may be involved in as much black money transactions as the Congress or DMK which is what Tiwari was implying. Rajdeep maintained a studied silence on the commentary by Tiwari even though that was clearly a digression. 

So what exactly are the ‘wild allegations’ that Gupta wasn’t allowed to air by Rajdeep Sardesai? Well, Gupta was probably attempting to make a connection between the visit of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi to Switzerland and subsequent Indo-Swiss agreement that black money investigations will now relate to only prospective offences. In other words past records of black money hoarders will not be accessible to the Indian government. Isn’t that convenient? One can’t be sure but that is what Vishwabandhu Gupta was probably alluding to. And why is that scary for Rajdeep Sardesai? Why is that a wild allegation or a new allegation? There are enough number of sites that have already made these allegations. Even Subramanian Swamy is on record stating the Gandhis were in Switzerland to handle black money issues, although that can be a sarcastic and snide remark. So why exactly were the Gandhis in Switzerland?

In case Rajdeep Sardesai is unaware  there are many other sites that have made another startling connection in the coincidence between the Gandhis’ visit to Switzerland and another event. Yes, that’s the Bilderberg group meeting between June 9 and 12 at St. Moritz in Switzerland. The Bilderberg group is one of the most secretive group of elites who seem to set the world agenda on economy, politics and various other issues. Participating members in the past have been Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and many other prominent personalities. It has also been suggested that Richard Nixon opened up to China under pressure from the Bilderberg group. It’s not hard to find material about this group on the net and even videos on youtube. Well, all that may still be speculation. Still, would CNN-IBN or any other channel or newspaper mind telling Indians why the Gandhis were in Switzerland? No details need be furnished they could simply say it was a personal family holiday. But you won’t find even that in any media outlet. Such is the secretive and intriguing conduct of the Gandhis and their defence by media shops like CNN-IBN. Naturally, this leads to more speculation and rumours.

For the record the Supreme Court order setting up the SIT on black money makes stunning reading. It’s an order born out of extreme unhappiness and discomfort with the government’s inaction and unwillingness to act. The very first para of the SC order starts with a quote of Deep Throat’s famous advice to Bob Woodward : “Follow the money” (From Watergate’s ‘All the President’s men’) The SC didn’t mention that Deep Throat later on admonishes Woodward for sloppy work and almost letting Haldeman get away. Well, in the end Deep Throat does reveal to Woodward that the entire operation of spying, Watergate and scandals was masterminded by Haldeman. Bob Haldeman, incidentally, was the Chief of Staff at the White House under Nixon. The corruption of the systems started right from the White House in that event.The highest seat of power in the US.

Well, Rajdeep Sardesai, there is no reason to believe that all the scandals and scams that are now emerging in India do not have their source at the epicentre of the UPA power. There is every reason to believe, as does the Supreme Court, that all the Queen’s poodles are working vigorously to stall and drag the black money investigations.The Hassan Ali-Tapuriah stories seem a bit far-fetched and at best these guys maybe a front.

One has to wonder over and over again why the media is so scared about talking about allegations hurled at Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and even Sonia’s family members. They need not look in many directions to bring out these allegations – one man, Subramanian Swamy, has a whole dossier. The media channels have invited Swamy for debates on many issues but not once to discuss his allegations against the Gandhis.

The Supreme Court suggests “follow the money”! Who the hell will follow the mediacrooks who seem to protect the queen?

Also read: All The Queen’s Poodles

MPs Have The Responsibility To Make Laws, Not The Right!

The fast unto death by Anna Hazare has been in the news on all the channels. Corruption has reached such dizzying heights in the nation that it now needs a war to be waged against it. Particularly against the very people who are supposed to make laws. Against the very people who have institutionalised corruption.

In particular, the response to this issue by Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi merits some response. First, he refers to Hazare’s actions as pressuring the government and second, calls it ‘holding a gun to the government’s head’. I am sorry Mr. Singhvi, the time to just hold a gun has passed, it is time to shoot! Over 4 decades of inaction doesn’t call for a gun, it really calls for the whole army at your doorstep. And the people’s army will arrive finally at the Congress’ doorstep.

The stupid arguments put forth by Singhvi once again expose the shamelessness of the government and instead of holding his feet to fire, the discussion in the media is whether the tactics of Hazare & Co. are depriving the right of the MPs to make laws.

It is important in a democracy not just to reject unfair and improper laws but to also force our MPs to pass appropriate laws that are necessary. Lobbyists have time and again have had laws passed by these very people to suit their own ends. Lobbying may not be legal in India but it is definitely practiced and our MPs and ministers are often slaves to these vested interests. So what exactly is wrong in Anna Hazare demanding a law and changes in the draft to the Lokpal bill? Manu Singhvi’s argument is that it’s the exclusive right of MPs and Parliament to pass laws and that this cannot be forced by people. Utter nonsense! MPs and parliament have the responsibility to pass laws not the right!

The laws that do need to be passed by parliament are definitely meant to reflect not just the will of the people but also serve justice. The current draft of the Lokpal bill, as reflected in the discussions on news channels is nothing but another rotten egg. It is therefore the right of Anna Hazare and every citizen to reject the draft and demand necessary alterations that will satisfy the will of the people and also justice.

Anil Kejriwal rightly showed indignation and anger at Singhvi (on CNN-IBN’s Face the nation on April 5) and reminded Singhvi who his masters are. Let MPs, the Prime Minister and the parliament never forget that in a democracy the rulers shall rule with the consent of those who are ruled and not the other way around.  If the current draft of the Lokpal bill does not have the consent of the people, they have the right to protest and demand changes in the draft. Mr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, despite being an eminent lawyer, needs to read the idiot’s guide to the democratic process. Power to the people does mean power to the people and not a bunch of ministers who can decide such laws. Especially, when the group of ministers consist of some very tainted persons.

MPs have the responsibility to enact laws. However, this is not their BIRTHRIGHT. This birthright is that of the people. The rulers shall rule only with the consent of the ruled. Our freedom was achieved by rejecting, disobeying and breaking laws that were unjust, unfair and anti-people. Therefore, the war against corruption is essentially another freedom struggle. It not only means unjust and wrong laws should be rejected and disobeyed, the right laws must be demanded by people and MPs must be forced to pass those laws. So the Manu Singhvis and Manish Tiwaris and the Congress better start acting and not wait for the tanks and heavy artillery to arrive.

Manish Tiwari Establishes ‘The Supreme Court Of Perception’

On Friday (March 4) there were two events of significance concerning the CBI. First, the Supreme Court issued notices to L.K. Advani and others on the Babri case on an appeal by the CBI. Earlier, a High Court had quashed further proceedings against Advani & Co. on this case. The second, a Delhi Court accepted the CBI’s appeal for closure of the Bofors investigation.

Predictably, Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari was invited on CNN-IBN to comment on the SC notice to Advani. I assume Tiwari believes the SC too may throw out the CBI appeal. So instead of commenting on the notice Tiwari makes a sweeping judgement on Advani and others. His repeated statement to CNN-IBN’s Bhupen Choubey was that regardless of the outcome of the appeal in the SC it was established in the eyes of the people that ‘Advani and others, the BJP, the VHP, the RSS and the Sangh Parivar’ were responsible for the Babri masjid incident. And his statement effectively meant that in ‘public perception’ the people and groups involved were already ‘guilty’. And like lame ducks, both Choubey and the other anchor on CNN-IBN allowed  Tiwari to continue with his senseless rant.

Manish Tiwari - Chief Justice: 'Supreme Court of Perception'

Manish Tiwari is supposedly a lawyer. I have no idea since when lawyers started using ‘perception’ as strong evidence in legal issues. Never mind! I agree that perception does influence thoughts and actions of people but I doubt courts are influenced by perceptions. Perhaps they do in ‘The Supreme Court of Perception’ conveniently established by Manish Tiwari, with himself as its Chief Justice. So, I have some more cases for Mr. Manish Tiwari.

In the second case where a Delhi Court has accepted closure of the Bofors case are Rajiv Gandhi, Quatrochi and others now ‘perceived’ to be ‘not-guilty’? The media should take that to the Court of Manish Tiwari and it would be interesting to hear his answers.

Again, Advani recently apologised to Sonia Gandhi on Swiss bank accounts. Hmmm, that again should be taken to Manish Tiwari’s court of perception. Do people really believe that Sonia Gandhi or family does not have Swiss accounts? On Friday, on the black money case the petitioner once again repeated the charge of the Gandhi family holding illegitimate Swiss bank accounts and ill-gotten wealth. That includes a 2 Bn dollar pay off by the KGB. What does Manish Tiwari’s court of perception have to say about that? An Allahabad court has recently issued notice to Rahul Gandhi in a petition of ‘illegal detention’ of a woman named Sukanya and her family. What’s the perception Mr. Tiwari? In the same related incident there are allegations of rape against Rahul Gandhi floating for over 4 years on the net. What’s the perception, Mr. Tiwari?

Who killed Sanjay Gandhi? Why was the inquiry commission closed? Any answers from the court of perception? How did politicians like Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot and YSR die in mysterious accidents? Should we take these cases to the courts of perception?  I am quite certain the loud and foul-mouthed Tiwari will certainly have answers to all of these. The case of Hassan Ali, accused to have black money to the tune of 9Bn dollars in Swiss bank was not being pursued vigorously by the UPA. This till the Supreme Court had to lash out asking “what the hell is going on..”. And the media suddenly reveals political connections of Hassan Ali. What’s the perception, Mr. Tiwari?

The media frequently calls politicians and allows them to make ‘hit and run’ statements without any follow up questions. If perceptions were votes Mr. Tiwari, you would be selling vegetables at Crawford Market.

Prof. Rahul Gandhi : Inflation & Corruption Linked To Coalition...

On a ‘bad-TV’ night this could happen to you. Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari and CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose could be on at the same time. The duo can out-decibel even the headbanger group called ‘Bhayanak Maut’! The two are very different. One is a TV screen hog, shouts over everyone else, knows more about law than Ram Jethmalani, can talk endlessly without meaning anything, can interpret everything that Rahul Gandhi says, usually starts with a statement of not having heard the actual statement and the other, of course, is Sagarika Ghose. One is the Raging Bull and the other is Ms. Caconfonix herself. So between them they managed to once again cloud the stupidity behind Prof. Rahul Gandhi’s utterances.

So the simple question that Sagarika put across to Tiwari was that Rahul Gandhi’s statement  to the effect that price rise and corruption are consequences of compulsions of coalition government was ‘meaningless’ and asked Tiwari to explain. That was Prof. Rahul Gandhi addressing students in Lucknow in a meeting organised by National Students Union Of India (NSUI) on January 11, where he linked price-rise and corruption to coalition government. Do you feel educated now? (For a change the media was allowed to attend this particular meeting, unlike the ones before.)

And so Manish Tiwari responds with a disclaimer that he hasn’t heard the statement but will interpret it for us. How kind of him! Apart from more lipstick, Tiwari now adds jewellery to the pig! He goes on to explain rainfall damaging onion crops and finally established a clear reason for the high prices. ‘It’s because demand exceeds supply”! Lo and behold, Manish Tiwari has founded and established a principle of economics that all the Amartya Sens and Keynes and the likes of the world never discovered. How come we idiots never knew anything about demand and supply affecting prices? Do you feel educated now?

Rahul Gandhi was asked  why the UPA government is "not able to control inflation and corruption as his grandmother and late prime minister Indira Gandhi could do". Really?  I wonder what bright student asked that question. Someone educated by the likes of Prof. Rahul Gandhi probably. I will field that one for the student. It was in Indira’s time that corruption was institutionalised, inflation started pinching the common man. Hoarding as a practice was born during Indira’s time. The ‘angry young man’ was born during Indira Gandhi’s time! Do you feel educated now?

Coalition may be a compulsion but it is outright majority that has institutionalised corruption in India. Rahul Gandhi seems to remember Indira Gandhi but seems to have forgotten his dear father, Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi was voted to power on a sympathy wave with the Congress then getting 413 seats in the parliament. No single party ever had that kind of majority. Yet, after arriving as Mr.Clean, Rajiv Gandhi is remembered most for two things. One is the infamous reversal of the SC ruling on the ‘Shah Bano’ case and two, the infamous Bofors scandal. The Bofors scandal is a landmark on the road to corruption by politicians and the Gandhi family. That didn’t come out of coalition compulsions, did it? Prof. Rahul Gandhi can likely be a future PM. Do you feel educated now?

It is one thing for the media to report Rahul’s stupid utterances with undue prominence but altogether another to  have someone like a Manish Tiwari interpret it for us. The lipstick is getting thicker by the day. I feel educated, do you?