A Sardesai In The Works

Rajdeep Sardesai has released his latest Friday (August 26) blog-buster ‘An open letter to Anna Hazare’. I have always maintained that there are two Rajdeeps, one on TV and one on his blog or print. The latter one usually surfaces from deep contemplation. I have promised that I’ll often be there to rehash Rajdeep. In this case let’s start with the last para of his latest post: “Post-script: I have framed a picture of our meeting earlier this week. The caption reads: "When zero met hero!". India is not Anna, nor is Anna India, but you are now an icon for millions. Please don't allow a personality cult to shadow your ultimate gift of common sense.” What usually amazes me is fake humility, more than fake journalism. But let’s give the benefit of doubt to Rajdeep. The zero meets hero would have suited Kapil Sibal a lot better. We will come back to his open letter a bit later in this post.

I agree, India is not Anna and Anna is not India. That is a stupid statement from a woman in a frenzy. Why don’t journalists ask the question: Is Manmohan Congress and is Congress Manmohan? So why is the constant claim of MMS being clean offered as a defence for a corrupt Congress? As the head of govt if this man can’t even take responsibility for what goes on under his leadership events such as the Anna protest will come about. MPs will be gheraoed. The media should have condemned MMS strongly over the Ramlila crackdown and demanded his resignation. They should have condemned the PM strongly over corruption and demanded his resignation. The media should have demanded the PM’s resignation over Anna’s arrest. They did not. If anarchy is about to visit India it is not the making of Anna Hazare. It is the making of the PM without a conscience, a corrupt govt that has lost touch with people and a media that has been a slave to powerful forces. The shamelessly slavish media wouldn’t even dare ask the Congress or the govt on the truth about Sonia Gandhi or her illness etc. If Rajdeep were an ordinary citizen and watched some of the news channels he would know the media could well be party to any anarchy that might come about. Inadvertently, Rajdeep himself owns up to some of the lies media peddles and absolute fixation with powerbrokers. Now let’s understand the notes in his latest blog in this context. (All quotes in blue)

You (Anna) have worked tirelessly for more than two decades in exposing corruption in Maharashtra but Ralegan Siddhi is a long way from Delhi which is perhaps why television channels hadn't featured your contribution prominently till now. An opinion poll we did just a month ago suggested that more people had heard of yoga guru Baba Ramdev than a tireless fakir-like crusader from a Western Maharashtra village.

Bravo! So I wonder if Rajdeep thinks India is Delhi and Delhi is India. This is one of the cruel truths about our media. Almost all of their reports, be it politics, education, schools, colleges, police are about Delhi and few more metros. Why Ramdev? If I had conducted a poll like CNN-IBN I can guarantee more people would have heard about Barkha Dutt than they would have about Anna Hazare. Are the reasons so hard for Rajdeep to see? That their poll samples are pathetic! Anna Hazare is not a TV hugging campaigner. Ramdev is on TV probably more than Rajdeep and many other media celebs put together. Shamefully and conveniently Rajdeep’s channel has consigned the rest of India to ‘Citizen Journalists’ to report on and proudly tom-toms it as a great innovation in journalism. CJ is a good idea, but that innovation doesn’t take away the fact that the media doesn’t give a damn about the rest of India, which is why the immense response that Anna Hazare has generated has come as a shocker for many media crooks. More importantly, the intellectuals who frequently appear on TV simply cannot digest the fact that a simpleton from Ralegaon Siddhi has brushed their nonsense away with his sincerity, courage and focused campaign.

You've even shown that the Marathas, a community that has failed to conquer Delhi since losing the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, can indeed take the national capital by storm. But in every battle there must come a time when you must call a halt. That time may well be approaching.

I’m not exactly a history expert but what has this got to do with Marathas? If the campaigner was from Indore would Rajdeep be invoking the history of Holkars? Or if he were from Mysore would he be citing the failures of Tipu Sultan? Or if he were a muslim would Rajdeep say that the Moghuls have once again conquered Delhi? This is how Rajdeep cites caste and community and divides the country as does the media in general. One particular channel turned the Anna campaign into the Ramlila crowds V Dalits & minorities. Such was the impact that Dalits and minorities carried out a rally in Delhi’s Connaught place area on Wednesday night causing a complete traffic mayhem. This is how our news media is dangerous for unity and the democracy of India. CNN-IBN’s  Lokmat group editor, the vicious Nikhil Wagle, has been consistently tweeting messages to incite religious divisions in the crowds at Ramlila and the public in general. That’s Rajdeep’s own backyard member.

Ram Lila is not Mumbai's Azad Maidan nor is it the village square in Ralegan Siddhi. This is not some battle to stop the local thug from shutting his liquor shop. Here, there are multiple agendas that require dexterous negotiation and not mere sloganeering. The sight of gangster Abu Salem's girlfriend Monica Bedi parading Mumbai's streets with an Anna cap should convince you of the dangers of reducing the fight against corruption to a well-choreographed prime time TV spectacle.

Fantastic! Who else to warn Anna Hazare and talk to him about ‘turf wars’ than Rajdeep? The idea is, go back to your village you village-idiot, places like Ramlila or Azad Maidan are not for you. These are for greater men and women who usually appear on CNN-IBN. The ones who believe have the right to set the multiple agendas. The NAC types who draft spurious bills to be presented in the parliament. The best part is about Monica Bedi. Hello? Who made Monica Bedi a media celebrity? Who are the ones who talk about Rahul Mahajan’s swayamwar as lead story? Have you forgotten all that Rajdeep? Monica Bedi has appeared for the protests voluntarily but it’s the media who promoted her on their channels. I am under no illusion if CNN-IBN had the chance to interview Ajmal Kasab they would be thrilled to devote an hour to him.

The frenzy being built up in the media by hyper-ventilating news channels and demagogic acolytes could easily transform a genuine people's movement into a lumpen expression of mob fury. It's a transformation that could end up destroying the hard-earned credibility of your struggle.

Imagine the extraordinarily malicious campaign that Rajdeep & Co. carried out on CNN-IBN against Ramdev during the first week of June. I could very easily say that media campaign emboldened the govt to become a lumpen expression of state fury. You never know what can happen with mobs, but so far the crowds at Ramlila and other places in the current agitation have been largely peaceful. It could well be that the goons floating around could well be plants of the movement's adversaries, just like media threw a spanner in the works of Ramdev. It is when the media has their own agenda that great concerns confront them – in this case another channel that has grabbed eyeballs. TimesNow maybe. Rajdeep even came up with his own 5-point strategy to end the current crisis. Is that the job of a news man? Someday, Rajdeep must wake up to the fact that the media actually throws a spanner in the works many times. Remember 26/11? In such a situation it’s a bad idea to throw a Sardesai in the works.

Arm Aadmi

Take a look at the pic on the left. If you were showing this to a young school-student he or she would be very impressed and would probably be inspired to join the National Cadet Corp (NCC) or the Indian Defence Academy. Why not! And so, the Baba Ramdev satyagraha chugs along, with a new addition. He has now called for raising an ‘army’ of 11000 to protect citizens or his followers from state atrocities. So that’s your new ‘arm aadmi’ movement. The brutal attack on peaceful, sleeping men, women and children was bound to provoke even a weirdo to think up such actions and Ramdev is hardly one.

A regular reader of this blog (TaMoGhNa) had this to say: “ I don’t see anything wrong with Ramdev's call for arming the protestors to save themselves. US constitution gives this right for every ordinary citizen to own the firearms in case the government turns into tyranny and help them safegaurd themselves from the government that has become rogue..” I have quoted a part of the US Second Amendment before but will quote the explanation again:

From ‘Sense & Senility’: The second amendment of the US constitution allows people to bear arms. The words in that amendment have been interpreted in many forms but here is a very common interpretation: “The Constitution aside, bearing arms is a fundamental human right. It is the only means the American people have to reclaim control of their government, should it one day become irredeemably corrupt”. Arms aside, it is the duty of the unelected to reclaim their government should it become irredeemably corrupt….” The 2^nd Amendment was also meant to ensure ordinary Americans had adequate defence against a tyrannical government. Is the Indian government corrupt and tyrannical? Make a wild guess! The attack on protesters last Saturday in the middle of the night is the sign of a government desperate and clueless. It was nothing but a sheer act of tyranny. This government does not have the moral right to continue.

The 2^nd Amendment was made in the 18^th century and in modern times one wouldn’t expect a US President to declare an emergency, overthrow the constitution and usurp all military powers. Can you say the same about this Congress government? The Emergency, after all, happened not so long ago.

Sure enough, P. Chidambaram warned Ramdev against his ‘arm aadmi’ call. He then goes on to repeatedly assert what others in the Congress have been screaming so far. ‘Ramdev’s agitation is backed by RSS, VHP’. So what? The government refuses to acknowledge that it’s not WHO is agitating, but WHAT they are agitating for that should concern them. So in response name-calling and even going to the extent of calling Ramdev a thug is the kind of dog-barking that will reflect political maturity. There are more gems from P. Chidambaram:  (From Firstpost.com)

“I think sections of the media, for reasons which I can’t spell out, are engaged in competitive populist coverage of these movements. This undermines parliamentary democracy….But I don’t support elected representatives yielding their obligations and responsibilities to civil society representatives. Let us remember that the foundation of this country is parliamentary democracy..” he said. Really? So which assholes conceded the demands of Anna Hazare for a joint bill drafting committee? The Congress should have listened to the demands of the Hazare team, talked to political parties and should have formed a committee consisting of minsters and maybe even the opposition party heads. Instead, they take on the civil society members in the group and then complain. As for the media, the words I quoted were spoken by PC to Doordarshan. I think he ought to also know that much of the media is a Congress puppet and he should be grateful and not grumble about them.

It never occurs to the corrupt government that they were indeed the ones who started this corrupt practice of letting unelected people into the law-making system. How do you explain the members of the NAC, some with dubious backgrounds, drafting laws? Are they not civil society members, most of them with an anti-BJP agenda? The Congress even has the dubious record of ‘selecting’ an unelected man as prime minister of this country. Those who have already surrendered the supremacy of the parliament to the whims of one person are likely to repeat that mistake over and over again. They will crash in the same car.

That said, I do not support Ramdev’s call for a defence force of 11000. This can then slowly turn into an armed struggle. Even if the government is to blame for this consequence it is not a healthy move. We already have a whole bunch of militias at various places in the form of Maoists. We don’t need the danger of creating more.

In case you are still wondering about the pic at the start of this post. It is almost the militia cadre of the Popular Front Of India, a muslim party in Kerala that has regularly organised such marches of their cadre. The same party whose members chopped off a professor’s arm. (Here come the pious!) Since 2008 the PFI has been organising such parades. Where was the UPA then? If the government continues its corrupt ways and tyranny there will be more calls to ‘arm aadmi’ to use their ‘hand’ to slap the Congress back!

Fascists Will Reap The Whirlwind

There can be no more pretensions. No more defence. No more self-righteousness. Fascist Sonia Gandhi and fascist Manmohan Singh must go. So far, in each of the scams, many have supported the PM as still being clean despite the huge scams that had unfolded and keep unfolding. No more! Both Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh have not only presided over neck-deep corruption, they have now presided over SIN! Sins against ordinary and peaceful men, women and children. The HAND they hold up to beg for votes from the Aam Aadmi has over and over again been raised to slap the Aam Aadmi. The same hand has encouraged or presided over stealing of public funds, atrocities on innocents and proposing draconian laws.

“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power”. - Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In my previous post (The fast & the spurious) I had mentioned that some of our media outlets not only indulge in yellow journalism they also play the role of the anarchist. The midnight drama involving Delhi police carrying out a lathi-charge and lobbing teargas shells on people who were sleeping is as good a symbol of anarchy as you can get. With channels like CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and Star News firmly on the side of the government in tarnishing Baba Ramdev directly in every which way possible the government was emboldened to carry out action they think they can get away with. As expected not one single media channel has termed this action as criminal and disproportionate.

It is now beyond tolerance of a democracy to have a foreigner and a foreign born person with little understanding of this vast country to be dictating actions and laws for this nation. Anna Hazare has already asked for the government to resign and it is a valid and fair demand. Demands on Lokpal, black money etc. can now wait for a fresh government. The first demand has to be clearly that foreigners or foreign-born people who are not of Indian origin should not be holding any public office. It is not just Sonia Gandhi who should be out of any public office. The fact that this Congress is attempting to promote Rahul Gandhi as a future PM of this country bodes ill for India. This nation is under danger, clear and grave danger.

The extra-constitutional body called the National Advisory Council must be disbanded.  It has become almost a parallel government ministry outside the regular norm. A coterie of people who are close to Sonia Gandhi work to draft and impose draconian laws on this country. It has become a resort for anti-hindu people, some who are embroiled in legal cases. Teesta Setalvad, involved in criminal cases and seeking anticipatory bail, is on the draft committee of the Communal Violence Bill. If this NAC has its way very soon being a Hindu will automatically amount to being a criminal. This must not come to pass. (Read the analysis of this draft bill at Calamur and Offstumped.)

This is also the same government that refuses to take strong action against separatists and those accused of sedition. Wait, it actually rewards people like Binayak Sen, by elevating him to the planning commission. He has already been convicted and is out on bail and at the very least they should have waited for him to be exonerated. I had also warned in my post ‘This Dog Bites’ that the main worry against Ramdev is neither corruption nor black money. The main worry for the Congress is clearly the colour of his clothes and the elections in UP and other states in 2012. And post the atrocious attack in the middle of the night Congress spokespersons continue to ridicule and tarnish Ramdev as if he were some national enemy. Imagine the confluence of a thousand gutters and you can imagine the stench flowing out of the mouth of a Digvijay Singh. Our media celebrates this gutter mouth as if he were some spiritual leader.

There never was and never will be any serious attempt on the part of this corrupt government to either tackle corruption or to tackle black money or bring back money. What is that? Setting a thief to catch a thief? But there is no doubt that the agitation will now intensify. The Congress has sowed the most violent wind. The whirlwind will follow.

Also read:  Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi Should Be Held Criminally Liable...