SC Exposes Media's Clean Shit

In 1999, after losing a no-confidence motion by one vote, the BJP+NDAcame back to power after mid-term polls. It was a result that no doubt shocked the Congress and its ‘secular’ allies. The BJP victory was probably also helped by the Kargil war. That war produced a new media hero of sorts – Barkha Dutt. The StarNews team of Prannoy Roy, Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai had gained prominence during that time. People still believed what the media said. Then came Kandahar. The extra-ordinary hysteria and emotions that the trio whipped up during the hijack drama on TV was unbelievable. Relatives of the hostages were flung on to the screens. The distress, chest-beating, wailing and abusing of the minsters was a precursor of sorts. Some of us suspected that the media was not doing this on their own. There are still suspicions that many of the relatives of the hijack victims were instigated by both the Congress and the Left and the media to humiliate the NDA with abundant aid from this media trio. So even today after every terror attack Kandahar creeps into discussions. That episode was the one where paid media started to go downhill.

On the morning of March 1, 2002 if you had walked the streets of the relatively posh western parts of Ahmedabad you wouldn’t believe what had happened while you were sleeping. You could see shops and restaurants that were burned overnight. All these shops had such names – Bhagyoday, Kabir, National and so on – all belonged to muslims, and this was a predominantly Hindu area. While there was property damage there was no report of people being killed in the area. Even residents of Ahmedabad had no idea of the scale of the riots that were going on. And then suddenly on the scene bursts Barkha Dutt and then Rajdeep Sardesai (both with Starnews then) and some more.

Hour after hour after hour we hear the most horrific stories of mass killings all over the state. In cities, towns, villages and even on highways. Words like mass murder, genocide, pogrom start to gain currency in some quarters. Were there terrible killings? You bet, some of it very horrible. But the kind of dramatic and hysterical reporting on TV was no more news reporting. It was almost fanning the flames. So much so that in some areas some TV channels had to be shut down to contain the provocation. As in the case of war, even in an unfortunate communal riot such as this, ‘truth’ is the first casualty. The numbers-killed story was generously sprinkled with imagination of people being raped, foetuses ripped and more by the media. I can safely say that the response to the Godhra train burning was spontaneous. The Gulbarg case which has become prominent because of the widow of Ehsan Jafri, killed by mobs, were attacks by mobs that would have been difficult to handle by any police force given that many other parts of Ahmedabad were equally badly affected. For all this to make one man singularly responsible could not have been anything but an agenda driven media. This agenda had to be surely backed by political forces and extraordinary influx of funds. This is where the witch hunt of Narendra Modi started. Lies, lies and more lies have been peddled by the media since then. The best example is of Suzanne Arundhati Roy who oozed brilliant lies.

Writing about the Gujarat riots, Suzy Roy had this to say (Outlook, May 6,2002).

A mob surrounded the house of ex-Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri. His phone calls to the director-general of police, the police commissioner, the chief secretary, the additional chief secretary (home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not intervene. The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burnt them alive. Then they beheaded Jaffri and dismembered him.

The description is graphic; the veracity of the incident taken almost for granted coming from a writer of Arundhati Roy's reputation. But, alas, that's where we make the mistake. Fame and honesty are not interlinked as the following paragraph clearly indicates.

Jaffri was killed in the riots but his daughters were neither 'stripped' nor 'burnt alive.' T.A. Jafri, his son, in a front-page interview titled Nobody knew my father's house was the target (Asian Age, May 2, Delhi edition), says, "among my brothers and sisters, I am the only one living in India. And I am the eldest in the family. My sister and brother live in the US. I am 40 years old and I have been born and brought up in Ahmedabad. So if Ehsan Jaffri had only one daughter (singular) who was safe and sound in the US, where did Roy get her facts about not one, but daughters (plural) being stripped and burnt? Was it the fantasy of a writer's mind? Or was it willful deceit aimed at maligning her ideological adversaries?

Arundhati Roy did apologise for her mistake in a letter published in Outlook May 27, 2002. Could this have been a genuine mistake, one is tempted to ask? But when such 'mistakes' occur periodically, the chances of them being accidental appear remote. They appear to be in fact calculated machinations aimed at achieving a specific goal as the following incident further proves. In the same article, Roy claims.

"Last night a friend from Baroda called. Weeping. It took her fifteen minutes to tell me what the matter was. It wasn't very complicated. Only that Sayeeda, a friend of hers, had been caught by a mob. Only that her stomach had been ripped open and stuffed with burning rags. Only that after she died, someone carved 'OM' on her forehead."

Disturbed by the thought of such a ghastly act, Balbir Punj (a BJP MP) had this matter investigated. In Outlook (Jul 08, 2002) he wrote. Shocked by this despicable 'incident,' I got in touch with the Gujarat Government. The police investigations revealed that no such case, involving someone called Sayeeda, had been reported either in urban or rural Baroda. Subsequently, the police sought Roy's help to identify the victim and seek access to witnesses who could lead them to those guilty of this crime. But the police got no cooperation. Instead, Roy, through her lawyer, replied that the police had no power to issue summons. Why is she hedging behind technical excuses? So when asked to prove her allegations, Arundhati Roy developed cold feet; definitely not the attitude of a crusader for truth.

Despite the lies being exposed, Suzy Roy continues to be hosted as a crusader by our media. For such absolutely blatant and deliberate lies no journalist would have survived in any mature and honest media. Such liars can expect to grow in the Indian media. On TV Rajdeep and Barkha continued their blitzkrieg against Modi, while the likes of Vir Sanghvi called him a ‘mass murderer’ in print. I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that the degeneration of TV news owes a great debt to both Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai. You could call them the leaders of the moral decay.

Now, after the riots calmed, out of nowhere came up another crusader. Someone called Teesta Setalvad, I had never heard of her before, she arrives on the scene with her NGO called Citizens for Justice and Peace. This NGO was created in April 2002, according to their website, to fight for justice for the riot victims. Hmmm! Suddenly, there was a flurry of affidavits being filed in the courts supported by Teesta’s group, flurry of FIRs being filed, complaints of lack of facilities at refugee camps. All this seemed noble till Teesta started appearing more often on TV channels. By now the newly born NDTV, CNN-IBN were already neck deep in targeting Narendra Modi at every opportunity. The discussions shifted from justice for the victims to singularly implicate Modi and somehow hang him. The Zahira case, the Best Bakery case, shifting of cases outside Gujarat, were all systematic effort at tarnishing Modi’s image and implying there can be no justice in Gujarat. Mind you, not one of these channels or journalists ever talked about justice for those who were burned to death on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra. Never mind!

Modi had then won the elections in December 2002. This was another blow to the media and the Congress. So later, Teesta and her cronies approach the Supreme Court and the SC also sets up an SIT to investigate. This year around 30 people are convicted for the Godhra killing of Hindu Kar sevaks. Contrary to expectations of the media and the Congress the SIT nails the lies of Teesta Setalvad and exposes her fake affidavits. Many witnesses back out from their original affidavit or testimony. In 2007, suddenly, Mrs.Zakia Jafri, widow of Ehsan Jafri finds evidence that some 60 officers of the state, including Narendra Modi, had conspired to engineer the riots and have her husband killed. This had to be the strangest concoction of a theory that came years after the investigation into the riots had started. The Gujarat High Court did not accept her petition finding no merit in it. That is how the Gulbarg case landed in the Supreme Court. Needless to say, her petition was obviously backed by Teesta Setalvad.

Despite the literary classic of ‘Maut ka Saudagar’ used by Sonia Gandhi, BJP wins the election again in 2007. As in the case of Suzy Roy, the media continued to host the tainted Teesta on their shows to support the malicious campaign against Narendra Modi. In the course of time Gujarat started gaining prominence because of development, investments and universal recognition of Narendra Modi’s performance on governance. So what happens? The Congress throws up a new hero, Sanjiv Bhatt, and more affidavits are filed in the SC.

Two of the prominent campaigners against Narendra Modi, Teesta Setalvadand Harsh Mander, go on to to a stage where they get to influence national policies and laws. They become part of a team, the NAC, that would draft the viciousCommunal Violence Bill. Every step of the way these voices, along with nation-dividers like Digvijay Singh were given the biggest space in the media. If anyone remotely appreciated or associated with the work of Narendra Modi they were ripped apart. Ghulam Vastanvi and Amitabh Bachchan were fair targets for the Congress and the media.

The vicious anti-Modi industry is a mixed bag of media crooks, NGOs and politicians. A heady cocktail if you like and the only thing we don’t know about these liars is who funds them and to what extent they were funded. The misdeeds of the ‘cash-for-votes’ scam exposed Rajdeep Sardesai for what he is. But the final evidence of Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi being well entrenched in Congress persuasions was exposed by Radiagate. There was no place left to hide.

What the media did not anticipate in 2002 was another form of media. In 2002 the internet was just about growing in India, mobile phones usage was going up. There was no Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. The law takes time to catch up, but the social media doesn’t. In the absence of social network there was really no challenge to the corrupt media. The Congress was in power and they had a field day. Rajdeep, Barkha, Sagarika, Vir Sangvi, Prannoy Roy had established themselves as the most powerful force after the govt. One should recall a prominent editor once boasting that he “was the second most powerful man in India after the PM”. Naturally, the media believed the case against Narendra Modi was already rested. They had signed, sealed and delivered the judgement. He was guilty, he was a mass murderer and should be put away. The advent of the social network was a challenge the mainstream media did not calculate. Writers, bloggers, websites, tweeters, youtubers all started exposing the lies of the media.

The make-up and mask of Chachi 420 wasn’t meant to last forever. Like bad make-up, the media’s lies came crashing on September 12, 2011. The Supreme Court simply directed Zakia Jaffri to approach the lower court with her petition. Effectively, there was no significant evidence in her petition to pronounce any indictment of Modi or to warrant a probe against him by the SC. The SC also informed that it would not monitor the case further. The media crooks didn’t know which way to look. All the years of carefully crafted hate, lie-mongering had come undone in a single stroke. So, as in the case of many other verdicts, the media now even questions the wisdom of learned judges of the SC.

The media’s campaign against Modi shouldn’t be seen as a stand-alone case. The cottage industry of hatred has coloured every national issue. Be it terrorism, riots, communal harmony, civil rights. In all cases the media has mostly been on the wrong side of justice. Suddenly, new terms were being searched for  “clean-chit”, “relief”, “breather” to describe the SC verdict on Modi. And just as they called the Ayodhya verdict a “panchayat” judgement this time the crooks called the SC verdict overlooking the “moral” aspect of the Modi issue. So when a media campaign fails the legal measure, they invoke the moral measure.

Politicians in India are not reputed to have great moral standards. It’s the media that has become the gutter and the drain. That tainted journalists like Barkha Dutt continue in their jobs is a feature you may not find in the media of any other democracy. The ones who should be accused and found guilty of moral failure and more are Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose, Vir Sanghvi, Suzy Roy and many more. The list is too long. The bigger danger is that there could be darker forces funding and handling a media that never fails to honk its independence. Next time any of these media celebs talk about morals, imagine them naked and see how full of shit they are.

From Kandahar to 26/11, from 1984 to 2002, from Ayodhya to Ahmedabad, I maintain that the current media is the greatest danger to Indian democracy. I don’t think Modi is debating whether it’s a clean chit or not. But the Supreme Court of India has clearly exposed the media’s clean shit.

The Rating Game

Another weekend and we have another Friday blogbuster from RajdeepSardesai. This time it’s about the plight of Irom Sharmila and her 11-year old fast against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). This time, his lament is why Anna Hazare got all the attention and Sharmila didn’t. I usually help Rajdeep rehash his articles, because he's a favourite of mine, but this time I will let it pass. Though there are many holes in his latest article I am for anything that can help Sharmila end her fast and fight for her cause in a different manner. Right now, it’s the battle of TRPs that the media is engaged in with advertisers that is not on front pages or on our screens.

Okay, this was a headline on a news channel today morning (either Headlines Today or CNN-IBN) ‘Kareena Kapoor with all three Khans in a row’. Would any bright intellectual ever explain to me what exactly that is supposed to mean? Why in heavens are news channels more and more like ZoomTV or ImagineTV? It appears the only thing that drives news channels is a terror strike, an Anna type movement or fierce political battles. Their main programming is made up of cricket, Bollywood, cheap thrills, cars and gadgets, Hindu-bashing and if after all that, they find some time, there is news. And they'd even like to think they are the ones mostly making it. On most channels there are no serious documentaries or any serious investigations. The now extinct ‘News of the world’ and that dead dodo ‘Illustrated Weekly’ would be proud of our news channels any day. Kushwant Singh would applaud what our news channels have become. Mindless banter by the fair and lovely manly crowd of Kanwal, Rajdeep, Arnab and the extinct Prannoy! Oh, that includes the ladies too! This is where Rajdeep Sardesai came in lately. TRPs!

Television Audience Measurement (TAM) releases TRPs every week. Now, Rajdeep leads the chorus that wants them to release the ratings monthly and not weekly while advertisers want it weekly, as it currently is. Wait, advertisers even ask: why not every day? The ratings for TV channels are given in time bands from morning till prime time. In case you haven’t looked at the ratings, I recommend you just take a casual look. Mind you, the TAM ratings aren’t released publicly but only to members, who in turn use it to claim superiority in one segment or the other. You might get to see those TRPs as they get slightly dated and not before. As ordinary viewers you and I are not normally concerned about these ratings but for TV channels and advertisers these are their Bibles and Korans. They swear, live and die by it, after they have paid for it.

The recent Anna Hazare movement had TimesNow taking up the cause against govt so strongly that it had other channels playing catch-up. TimesNow took pole position like Demi Moore in Striptease, sort of! Now, Rajdeep and others contend that the weekly ratings negatively affect content on TV. Oh yeah? So if your news content is bad you throw up a Kareena Kapoor and a Khan because the ratings are bad? Yes, indeed! That is pretty much the strategy of all news channels. Saas Bahu, Bhoot Pret, Cuckoo on the couch, Flashback Bollywood, Total Recall – all these are supposed to be worthy of news channels?

“Have you noticed how news channels are getting more and more breathless in their coverage of the news? How anchors tend to shout rather than speak? How every bit of news, no matter how mundane, is deemed worthy of a Breaking News headline? And how sensation is increasingly replacing the sort of thing that used to be regarded as news?” That’s not me. That is one time Radiagate hero Vir Sanghvi writing on his website Counterpoint. I am tempted to ask Vir Sanghvi what he did when he used to be on TV. At best I could call his shows gentle massaging while you snoozed. And I am being kind really. But let it be!

Let’s hear some more from Vir Sanghvi: Currently, the news channels and the advertising industry are locked in a fierce battle over ratings. The news channels say that the current system in which ratings are declared every week is bad. It should be replaced by a system where such ratings are announced only once a month. Nonsense, say advertisers. We are in the business of spending the money our clients give us wisely. We need information that is accurate and up-to-date. In an ideal world, we would like ratings that are instantaneous. At the very least we would prefer the current system of weekly ratings that allows us to judge how well a show is doing. Why should we have to wait a month to find this out?

Let me not bore you with Vir Sanghvi. The larger principle is pretty clear. In the recent discussions about a CAG report damning Air India, every channel had conducted an inquisition on Praful Patel with severe questioning. Not one, I repeat not one channel dared mention the other report on the Reliancescam relating to the KG Basin scam. Why would they? Just as ordinary citizens that they accuse of politician-bashing,  the news channels derive the same TRPs by politician-bashing. After all why would they bite the hand that feeds them? Right? And then, would an interview or screwing some lame executive from Reliance get them the same TRP? In both cases, Praful Patel and Reliance, the end result would have been denial, denial, denial! Given that end result in mind who would the channels pimp with? That’s simply a business decision and not a ‘news’ decision’! That’s the rating game.

Reliance, of course, is a stake holder in some of the news channels. Reliance is also a major advertiser on all the channels in India. So the crimes of Reliance can pass, but Praful Patel, like other politicians, is fair game for our news channels. Anna Hazare knew that pretty well. So, when Rajdeep Sardesai wonders why Irom Sharmila doesn’t get the same media attention he makes the same mistake most journalistic cub idiots make. Corruption is more identifiable with politicians than with the army. That is why the rating game prevents news channels from the issues of Irom Sharmila. The news channels are as corrupt as the political class. Try and figure this – IndiaTV for all the ridicule that is heaped on it for its ‘Bhooth preth, Karma, Punar Jamn’ stories could still be business-wise the most profitable one. If your game is getting eyeballs, real news and truth is not about catching the criminals by their balls. I doubt anyone would pay to see Rajdeep Sardesai in the nude on TV, but hey, make no mistake, if Poonam Pandey makes that announcement - that would break a lot of eyeballs wouldn't it?

So it’s neither about truth nor about news, it is just about the rating game. Our news channels just want to ensure that they remain sexy and attractive for their paymasters. Where do we, the viewers, come in? Go figure!

Terror Is Not The Enemy, Wilful Blindness Is

I suppose it will take something really terrible, something even worse than 26/11 to wake up our government. Maybe something as dramatic as 9/11 attack with thousands dying might stand a better chance, although I can’t be so sure anymore. Nothing else can explain the pussyfooting on terrorism by the Congress. Let me first warn you – those who say “don’t politicise terror, terror has no religion, nation must unite, we will not succumb” are the ones most misleading the nation. The worst of these has to be “bombs don’t know who they kill”. These pearls of wisdom have been so drilled into our minds that people in charge and in the media have even stopped asking the right questions. A larger war is being confused for terrorism. A larger master-plan is being cleverly cloaked by frequently invoking Hindu terror by politicians and the media. The term ‘Islamic Jihad’ has even disappeared from the lexicon of the media and government. Instead, the media wilfully sings the same song as the Congress to spread a fear of Saffron terror. Rahul Gandhi even sets the agenda by suggesting Hindu Terror is more dangerous than LeT. His mentor, Digvijay Singh, takes many steps forward by clouding every terror incident by pointing fingers at Hindu terrorists.

War on terror? Even the media keeps harping - War on terror! Hmmm! You cannot win or wage a war if you don’t even know who your enemy is or refuse to acknowledge the reality of the enemy. And that is Jihad.

In response to the 7/9 Delhi blast the PM stated “it’s a cowardly act”! Seriously, it’s not the jihadis who are cowards anymore. The cowards are those who are wilfully blind to Jihad.  The jihadis are willing to die for their cause just as a soldier in uniform is willing to die for the nation. The Jihadis go back and report to their masters another successful battle. What do our ministers report? They send out messages to the people that are becoming increasingly unbearable to tolerate for us as their bosses. The people, unfortunately, have to tolerate both – the jihadis and an incompetent govt. It’s a lose-lose proposition for all citizens.

For the sake of argument let’s assume Hindu terror is a bigger threat as Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh and P. Chidambaram would have the nation believe. What exactly is the objective of Hindu terrorists? Do they want to conquer India? Do they want to over throw a democratically elected government? At worst, these could be revenge-thirsty elements of the Hindu fringe. In contrast the Jihadis have a long term plan. And terrorism is just one part of their entire plan of action. I repeat, terrorism is just one part of their overall plan.

There are pockets in India like Deganga (Bengal) where Hindus and their temples are being repeatedly attacked and they are being forced out of town. There are places like Miraj (Maha) and Adoni (AP) where Ganesh pandals are frequently attacked. There are places like Ahmedabad where Rath Yatras are frequently stoned. Sure, let’s dismiss all this as mere communal incidents. There is a news item today which reports the Muthoot group, a finance company, which has ordered dress codes and banned wearing of ‘bindis’. How do you explain that? There are pockets in Kerala which administer Sharia justice by chopping off arms. In response to the Batla house encounter some years back there were those who smeared brave police officers. One prominent media favourite even went to suggest muslims are like jews under the Nazis. So on hand you have the politician-media nexus which covers up the jihadi truth and then you have pockets where you have creeping sharia. Why? The motivation is vote bank politics.

It is weird and even absolutely idiotic to think that every nook and corner of a vast country like India can be secured by policing and technology. It is impossible. Security at strategic locations is a must but you don’t win wars by defending. You win wars by taking the offensive to the enemy. It’s as simple as that. So who is the enemy? Terror is a strategy, it is not the enemy by itself. Col. Allen West of the US army (now a Congressman) put it brilliantly when he asked – “How intelligent would it be during second world war if we identified Blitzkreig as the enemy”? Blitzkreig was a strategy, the enemy was Hitler’s Nazi. Similarly, terror is a strategy. You cannot wage a silly war on terror, you have to wage it against the enemy. The enemy here is the Jihadi. And this is where the govt is wilfully blind and repeatedly fools the nation.

Strangely the PM again made a silly statement: “Terrorists are using loopholes in our security”. What the hell is that supposed to mean? That one day you will eliminate all loopholes? Is that even possible? And the media can’t stop screaming that every terror attack is a wake up call that we need ‘fool-proof’ security. Is there really anything like fool-proof security? The dunderheads that the media assembles after every terror attack do more damage to the morale of the nation than reassuring it. “The objective of terrorists is to strike fear” says HM P.Chidambaram. And you didn’t get that in over 20 years of terrorism?

The truth of the matter is that the seeds of the Jihad were sown when the 1971 war ended. Bhutto had then declared a 1000-year holy war against India. What you’re seeing now is that war being prosecuted by the Jihadists. Terror is one of their tools. The jihad started 40 years ago. The one person who has correctly identified this enemy in the media is prominent journalist M.J. Akbar. In July 2010 he wrote an article titled “Only 960 years left”. That’s right, of the 1000-year holy Jihad 960 are left to go. That is when terror will end. When the Jihadists might manage to finally overthrow India’s democracy and establish India as an Islamic Republic. The PM did say “it will be a long war”! It is just that he doesn’t know who the war is against. Terror is not the enemy. Jihadists are.

At the foundation of the 1000 year jihad is Pakistan. One of the finer security experts in the media, Maroof Raza, has correctly analysed our dealings with Pakistan as the cause of the mayhem that is continuing and will continue. There cannot be any peace, any aman (As TOI preaches) with a country that is hell bent on destroying India. You have the violent strategy of terror executed by some warriors. The non-violent warriors are executing things like ‘Love-Jihad’ in Kerala. The govt fears revealing or even dealing with the truth due to electoral concerns. So is terrorism going away soon? Forget it. Someday it might be your turn and mine.

It is a strange irony that the first major security response to the Delhi blast has been to enhance the security of P. Chidambaram. The pussyfooting of the govt over issues of security and terror is best brought out by former CBI Director, Joginder Singh. In his article “The silent invasion of India” he states “Illegal immigration from Pakistan and Bangladesh poses a serious threat to our internal security. Thanks to vote-bank politics, our politicians are indifferent.” That illegal population may have many enemies within. The multiple strategy of the Jihadis – terror, demographics, cultural terror, electoral badgering and playing victim. Before you know  it, these illegals may well be regularised by the UID scheme of the govt. Brilliant strategy! Of these, terror gets the most attention because it is violent, causes death and is dramatic for the media. The other not so visible parts of this Jihad is not so visible on your screens all the time. That is a war that is being prosecuted covertly.

The govt appoints NIA and other such outlets which have been used more to spread the canard of saffron terror. We are yet to see at least 3 visible and result-oriented actions by the govt. It can start by conducting a massive combing to flush out illegals, cutting off all dialogue with Pakistan no matter what the compulsion and declaring an official war against the Jihadis. The war against terror is as much bullshit entertainer as your usual saas-bahu soaps on TV. And most of all, Congress should get rid of a monumental nation-divider like Digvijay Singh. It takes patriots to fight wars, not communal nation-dividers like Digvijay.

If all that is not enough you have a bunch of specially appointed interlocutors for Kashmir who want to restore the state to pre-1953 status. Well, that is precisely what the Jihadis want too, don’t they? They want to restore India centuries back to Islamic rule. Many citizens have woken up to this reality. It is our govt and the compliant media that continues to suppress the reality of the war.

The first step to winning a war is identifying the enemy. The govt and the media will repeatedly carry us through the maze of nonsense like more CCTVs, more beat cops, police reforms, technology … all of that can only be of moderate defence. You don’t need “intelligence” anymore to tell you Islamic Jihadists are your enemy. They have been so for over two decades. Going after them is the only answer. Will the govt do so? I doubt, and so many more will die and acts of terrorism will continue.

The Congress and the govt seem to exist not to serve the nation but the care-taking of the dynasty and to concote election-winning populist measures and vote-banks. The secrecy of Sonia Gandhi’s illness, protecting her from any criticism, protecting Rahul Gandhi from every failure. If that is the chosen agenda where will the govt find the time to even start to fight the terrorists. Tavleen Singh writes: “Dynastic democracy has so derailed democratic processes that we have been ruled by an unelected prime minister since 2004. He was appointed by a lady whose own entry into public life was based wholly on marrying into the right dynasty. In recent weeks, it became blindingly clear that what India needed most was a real prime minister…”.

Strategy expert Brahma Chellaney  tweets: "When a nation fails to execute for years a man sentenced to death for attacking its Parliament, it will only make its courts a terror target." Those are targets they managed to hit. Many others may very well be on their table.

Terror is not the enemy. It’s a strategic tactic, the Jihadists are the enemies. Will the govt have the courage to acknowledge that and begin the real war? If they don’t, we will just have to grow up or die! 

Roots of The Mining Disaster

A GoM meeting is scheduled tomorrow on the issue of the ‘paid news’ syndrome. About time too. The group includes P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Sharad Pawar and Kapil Sibal who had faced public wrath just days ago during the Anna movement.

An excerpt from the Indian Express “..An amendment in the Press Council Act to bring electronic media under its purview and make its recommendations binding…At present, TV channels self-regulate themselves through a loose federation of News Broadcasters Association. The GoM’s brief is to study the PCI report and suggest comprehensive institutional mechanism to check the corruption in media…. It also sought full empowerment to adjudicate the complaints of “paid news” and give final judgment in the matter. “A proposal to amend Section 15(4) of the Press Council Act, 1978, to make the directions of the Council binding has been pending for a long time..”

The interesting part is much of the TV news media has either been a strong lobbyist for the Congress or covered up their misdeeds through spin and deception. The extra-ordinary hit job that the some channels have done and continue to do on Narendra Modi is a job that the Congress would be very proud of. Yet a public movement forced the TV media to stay with people’s anger on corruption and that has obviously annoyed Congressmen no end. The latest mining scam disaster is one such serious issue that has been either ignored or covered up by the media for the Congress. And the cover-up almost looks like a major conspiracy. With the arrest of the Reddy brothers the target is still the BJP in the media but there is something even more sinister. The arrests are related to illegal mining not in Karnataka but in Andhra Pradesh. (Some references here are based on feed by @KiranKS on Twitter. His tweets made me search for the roots of the disaster.)

Usually when a new CM takes office the media writes a detailed bio of the person. So is true for Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy (YSR), the late CM of AP who twice won elections to the CM’s office. Here is a link you might like to try to read up YSR’s bio: www.ndtv.com/news/india/profile_dr_y_rajasekhara_reddy.php. Don’t blame me if you came with an error page. That bio has disappeared. Truth is, the mainstream media glorified the man as a messiah so much that nobody really looked into history. I have only used the NDTV page as an example but they may not be the only ones whose pages on YSR have suddenly disappeared. You may find that in a lot of other sites.

Here’s a prelude: (Written by K. Balagopal in 2004 when YSR first became CM of AP) This is a bio you won't find in the MSM:

Raja Reddy established his credentials as a man to fear by an incident that people still talk of, nearly 50 years later. The town of Pulivendula has a sizable colony of Erukalas, a scheduled tribe, some of whom were known for their unruly ways. They were despised but feared by the higher castes, though it is rumoured that D N Reddy was not above using their crimes for his ends. One day one of them, Oosanna, tried to steal the ornaments worn by a woman of the reddy caste in the bazaar. When the woman struggled, that man cleverly exclaimed that she was his wife and was being disobedient. By the time people realised he was telling a lie, he had slipped away. Later in the day, Raja Reddy reportedly caught hold of Oosanna, dragged him to a public place, poured kerosene on him and burnt him alive. This incident made Raja Reddy a feared man, and people became willing to gather behind him in his conflicts with established leaders. By and by he established immense dominance in the area.

But he lacked money of the kind that would sustain his further rise in politics. This problem was resolved by a combination of chance and brutality just about the time that YSR entered politics. Cuddapah has deposits of the mineral barytes, which was once upon a time not a highly priced mineral. One of the mining leases was held by Venkatasubbaiah of the balija caste. Raja Reddy joined him as a junior partner/supervisor (it is not clear which), reportedly because Venkatasubbaiah believed he would be useful in controlling the workmen. Round about the mid-1970s, however, it was discovered that barytes has use in petroleum refining, and its price shot up. Raja Reddy wanted Venkatasubbaiah to hand over the mining lease to him and go. A prominent CPI leader and writer, Gajjela Malla Reddy, brokered a deal whereby Venkatasubbaiah would take Rs 11 lakh and leave the mining lease to Raja Reddy. Venkatasubbaiah refused, and was killed. The mining lease, passed into YSR's hands.

Raja Reddy is YSR’s father. I believe therein lies the roots of the mining disaster. The above is just an excerpt. The full article makes really chilling reading and I recommend you do read it to understand the background of the vicious YSR regime that prevailed in AP.

Some more tweets from @KiranKS (September 5)

Reddy brothers played perfect double game. Politically they backed BJP & Business-wise backed Congress. Big names will roll if they go down

If Reddy brothers were so bad, why did Congress CM YSR lobby for 1000cr loan, allocate 10000 acre land & even divert water for them in AP??

TV Media would not even report that Reddy brothers made profit in Congress ruled Andhra, BEFORE their plant began! humsurfer.com/gali-steel-fac…

Brahmani Steel’s proposed sale to the Jindals did not materialise. Brahmani is a company that received land allocation, illegitimate water supply assurance and doesn’t manufacture anything. All this under YSR’s AP. Now, there is this phenomenal financial rise of Jagan Reddy (YSR’s son) from around 9 lakhs in 2003 to thousands of crores by 2011. I don’t think the great scam that YSR ran in AP needs any further explanation. The facts of the story are brilliantly laid out by Sudhir Kumar on his blog titled ‘The great loot of Andhra Pradesh’. Reading that post would be enough education.It would be education for the MSM too.

Did the mainstream media really have no knowledge about all this? Paid news is only one problem when the overall corruption in the media is considered. If not for the media the Congress couldn’t have ruled AP the way they do. It’s not just a mining disaster for the Reddy brothers, the roots are with YSR and with the media.

Rahul Gandhi - 'Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Loser'

I have often compared Rahul Gandhi to Sarah Palin. During the 2008 US election campaign, out of the blue, a curious third-grader asked VP candidate Palin: “What does a Vice President do?”. Predictably, Palin didn’t know and gave a funnily inaccurate reply. One by one the skeletons of Palin’s ignorance on various issues started tumbling out. She backed it up by silly statements too. Sample this one: “We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans…..”. So, just like Palin discovered two Americas, Rahul Gandhi discovered two Indias. He stated: "There exists two Indias -- one in towns and cities with highrise buildings, computers, cars and modern gadgets, and the other in rural areas still underdeveloped for lack of facilities and opportunities.." So I am naturally tempted to wonder if RG derives some secret inspiration from Palin. The major difference between these two people being that Palin was a relative unknown whereas RG comes from the ‘dynasty’.I also wonder if any college kid ever asked RG what exactly a PM does. It would be interesting to hear his answers.

The media had generously crafted RG as the next PM of India. Poll after questionable poll showed he was way ahead in popularity as the choice for PM. India Today and CNN-IBN, in particular, repeated these polls. And crediting him with revival of Congress in UP, CNN-IBN even bestowed upon him the title ‘Indian of the year’. It wasn’t the fawning media’s support that RG lacked. What comes about repeatedly is that it’s his own lack of vision and skills. In the face of a severe crisis with the Anna fast RG rushed off to Pune to console the farmer families who were victims of police firing. While his thought and sentiment would have been genuine there wasn’t one word to condemn the indiscriminate police firing. Quite understandable, his own party was involved in that crime. Next came his disconnected speech in Parliament on August 26. When a crisis begged for solution RG was propounding theories. That speech was like lecturing people severely hit by drought on the technology and long-term benefits of rain-harvesting. Wrong speech, wrong time. I even doubt if RG wrote it himself.

The media was desperately hoping that RG will finally wave that elusive ‘magic wand’ that the PM often refers to and bring the crisis to an end. Instead, he turned the old saying “Cometh the hour…” on its head. It was now “Cometh the hour, cometh the loser”. RG didn’t deliver anything except a phrase which the media played out over the next two days. He termed his own speech a ‘game-changer’. Tavleen Singh wrote: “This was his second chance to lead. Instead, he read out a speech so filled with banalities it could have been written by a political science professor. Whispers of ‘Pappu fail ho gaya,’ filtered out of the chambers of Parliament afterwards but the truth is that Rahul could not have done better.”

These are not particularly good times for Rahul Gandhi. His mother is down with illness and civil society activists are up against the Congress on corruption. His Congress cheerleaders were just the other day suggesting he was ready to become PM. His sycophant, Digvijay Singh, was the most vocal among them. His cheerleaders in the media were supporting that belief. If not publicly at least privately many in the Congress may now be acknowledging RG is not PM material. Many in the public already know that. The media never reported the slogans being chanted against RG and others outside Tihar jail during Anna’s detention. The media never posed serious questions to or about him. The media refused to analyse the man properly. And just like the third-grader’s question to Palin, the most probing questions to RG came from university students. But what the media and politicians may not reveal eventually comes out through social networks and that latest enemy of politicians called Wikileaks.

A Wikileaks cable credits noted journalist and Gandhi family friend Saeed Naqvi thus: “Naqvi claimed that it is increasingly common knowledge that Rahul suffers from ""personality problems"" of an emotional or psychological nature that are severe enough to prevent him from functioning as PM.” Psychological problems, really? A few weeks back I wrote the post titled ‘Rahul & Digvijay - The Narcissist& The Sycophant’. A dynastic heir is always tempted to have darbaris and sycophants surround him. This is the problem with RG. He needs to have people around him that will tell him a few blunt truths. His speech writers seem to further remove him from the truths and context of situations. These are the bad choices that RG makes that renders him unfit for bigger leadership roles, like that of a PM.

In other reports from Wikileaks the headlines read “Rahul proposed NREGS for Afghanistan, Assam model for Palestine”. Nobody seems to have had the wisdom to warn RG that NREGA is failing in India and currently the govt itself is considering closure of the scheme. And Palestine? Well seriously, if RG can advise on Palestine I can any day give a 3 hour lecture on the mating habits of insects.

And we now have a term that describes his coterie well – ‘Rahul Brigade’. You can usually find them sitting next to him. The Scindias and the Prasadas. This snippet from the Sunday Guardian makes an interesting observation: “Rahul brigade wanted TV muzzled… Ambika Soni came under attack from the Rahul brigade for failing to muzzle the television channels that were reporting on Anna Hazare's fast. When some of Rahul's associates asked Soni why she was letting the TV channels have a field day supporting the Anna movement, she told them that she could not do anything as they were independent. Soni was under pressure to speak to the owners of the TV channels. Soni is also in the firing line of AICC leaders for allowing three pro-BJP TV journalists join the Accreditation Committee. Deepak Chaurasia, Navika Kumar and Bhupendra Chaubey are known for their proximity to the BJP. Navika Kumar is supposedly close to P. Chidambaram as well, on whose recommendation she is said to have been taken on the panel.” 

Well, well that brings the media to a full circle. For years now the servantile media that has carefully crafted RG’s image as a ‘youth icon’ now had to be forced to move elsewhere to cover some ‘real’ events. The crowds were unstoppable and the drama impossible not to cover. As much as RG needs to learn, media outlets like NDTV, CNN-IBN and their partners also need to learn that even electronic sycophancy will not help to cover up the truth. The Congress tried everything, even getting someone like Imam Bukhari to announce muslims are against the Anna movement. They even tried the anti-dalit card. Nothing worked. Regardless of the merits of the movement the Congress proved rudderless and leaderless.

It’s not over yet. Post the agitation the Congress is now on a witch-hunt. Privilege and IT notices have been served to Team Anna members. ED is making vague statements against Ramdev. And RG’s mentor Digvijay is on the loose again making communal and foolish statements. This is one more chance for RG. He can step up even now and put a stop to the witch hunt and set the national debate on a different course. But will he? Does he have what it takes? He once again has the chance to show he can be a statesman. Will he? I seriously doubt, because I haven’t seen anything of a leader or statesman in him.

Even as this is being written, his cronies have made an extra-ordinary statement. “The Anna Hazare movement is not really against corruption. It is not even against the Congress. It is aimed at undermining Rahul Gandhi’s growing youth base, a Congress party office-bearer has alleged.” as reported by DNA newspaper. There maybe two Indias but there is only one Rahul Gandhi. He epitomises the new idiom I thought I’d never hear – Cometh the hour, cometh the loser..”

Dirty Govt, Dirty Media

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision to set up a group to deal with issues concerning the accountability and regulation of media has raised the Opposition's hackles, says a report from TOI. The govt wants to control the media, the internet, tap phones. All dangerous signs. Govt wants media to be also brought under Lokpal. The govt seems obviously rattled by the excessive media coverage of the Anna Hazare drama which more or less painted the govt as villain. But that’s the nature of the beast. The news media has long been indulging in excessive and tasteless broadcasting and for a change had to be forced to be on the side of a popular movement. In all the other times most news media outlets have been spokespersons for the Congress and the govt. Do the media need regulation and accountability? Definitely yes, but govt may not be the right body for it.

The media will find it extremely difficult to pull itself out of the paid news syndrome. If normal competition, normal business practices were to be adhered to then some media outlets would have to quickly wind up. In fact, some of them like NDTV should have wound up long back. What does it say when there is a blog titled ‘Don’t trust the Indian media’? Some statistics reported from that blog by FirstPost support the loss of credibility of mainstream media:

“…… newspapers are ranked higher than other media in terms of credible news with people trusting newspapers more than any other medium: 38 percent of the Indians polled trusted radio and television, while 40 percent trusted news in newspapers. Over the past two years, trust in television news dropped sharply from 61 percent to 36 percent, that of business magazines has gone down from 72 percent to 47 percent, and that of newspapers has gone down from 61 percent to 40 percent. Trust in the media in India as a whole declined by 7 percent (from 65 percent in 2009 to 58 percent in 2010)…The trend continues; trust in media has further declined from 58 percent in 2010 to 50 percent in the 2011 Edelman study.” That seems absolutely believable.

Channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN and their Hindi versions have become extremely bad examples of going over the top to set agendas that are biased in favour of a political party. The bias is not even subtle anymore. A report in Moneylife about NDTV would make one wonder at the miraculous manner in which the company manages to stay afloat:

“NDTV got listed in 2004 and is trading below its listed price after seven years. It has given a negative return of 19% compounded in the past five years and a total shareholder return (TSR) of negative 66% for the same period. Its viewership claims, like those of all TV channels, are impossible to verify. Its credibility is at a nadir (after the recent phone-tapping controversy) and its finances are in a mess. NDTV has rarely made money from operations. For the past few years, its consolidated operations have been making cash losses and it has been running on money made by selling loss-making subsidiaries to strategic investors…… Indeed, every few months, the financially-beleaguered NDTV manages to get ‘strategic’ investors with deep pockets and top-flight private equity investors to step in and pick up big chunks of its equity at fancy valuations.”

There’s a recent revelation about Bill Gates’ Foundation having donated over $800,000 to NDTV to promote awareness on maternal health. Reporting on maternal health or creating documentaries on various issues would be regular business for a news channel. Even if money was to support such efforts, normal sponsorship methods are available. Having received such a huge donation from Bill Gates can one expect NDTV to ever report any adverse report about the foundation or Microsoft? This is also true for business channels and business journals. They are unlikely to ever report misdeeds or wrong-doings of the very business houses that they depend on financially. News channels are nothing more than PR outlets for select Bollywood companies or fashion and mostly for the govt. I wonder where in the world you would find shows like ‘saas, bahu, beti’ on news channels except Starnews, AajTak and the like. And all the national debates are with usual suspects – the few 30 odd people you will find any day or night on every other channel. The media never thought it could be manipulated so thoroughly by Team Anna.

The Press Council of India is a statutory body created for the very reason why govt seeks accountability but has left the regulation to the press itself. There is a newer National Broadcaster’s Association dealing with TV channels. The problem with both these bodies is that they are largely toothless. The PCI actually softened their report on paid news a year back. If you check out the names on the board of directors of the NBA they belong to the very gang that is accused of the offences. Hardly any newspaper or TV channel has an Ombudsman to talk about. However, the Govt’s fear and desire to control media is another unwanted evil. Except for giant media organisations like the TOI almost all other media outlets depend heavily on govt spending on advertising and campaigns and therefore are already under some govt influence.

There is certainly one thing that PM Manmohan Singh can do. He can stop accepting sham awards like ‘Indian of the year’ from channels like NDTV. He can also call for an all-party meet to have a moral policy that politicians do not accept awards from media houses during their active political life. The govt should also not dish out awards to media personalities during their active career unless there is really a very exceptional case. The govt has lost as much credibility as the media has. The Lokpal movement is not just one of grievance redress but one that seeks bodies like CBI, CVC etc. to be autonomous and out of govt control. Why, then, should anyone desire govt intervention in any form in the media? The Lokpal is also a redress system and not one of oversight. The media needs an oversight body.

The problem lies in media houses being regular business units just as any other business unit now and still enjoying extraordinary privileges. It definitely needs a watchdog but certainly not one that involves govt or people from the media themselves. The watchdog has to be an independent and autonomous body with adequate powers. Both PCI and NBA or toothless bodies by the very people who are offenders. In the current scenario both, the govt and the media, are dirty. They are incapable of being a watchdog for the other. However, an independent agency as watchdog for the media is inevitable.

Also recommend: CNN-IBN-Barber Shop &   TV-Popups: Fraudulent Invasion of Privacy