Namo & The Ass-Licker Factory

After a round of the December 2007 Assembly elections in Gujarat here is what Praful Bidwai, a ‘prominent’ journalist wrote:

“Is the tide turning in Gujarat? A month ago, most Gujarat politicians, social scientists, activists, bureaucrats, and citizens agreed on the dead certainty of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in the Assembly election — but with a smaller margin. Today, they say, the BJP could lose — despite the Congress’s timid campaign... All exit polls after the first-phase voting in 87 constituencies (of a total of 182) forecast a vote-swing away from the BJP. NDTV forecasts a loss of 13 seats for the BJP, placing it behind the Congress. …Current estimates of the BJP’s seats tally by government agencies vary from 70 to 80 seats, way below its 2002 score of 127. Even the party’s assessment is reportedly that it’s sure to win only 63 seats; and optimistically, another 15. The BJP is clearly on a downswing in Gujarat…..”(Read the full pack of Bidwai's crap here)

You’re smarter than Praful Bidwai. Yes, you may have guessed that those exit polls came from NDTV of course. I wonder where Praful Bidwai is today. Not only did Narendra Modi come back to power, the BJP rebels were thrashed and the Congress was nearly decimated. The BJP returned to power with an even greater majority than in 2002. There must be a reason for these fake exit polls and fake articles of doom by the likes of Praful Bidwai.

Recent events in Karnataka indicate a pattern with the Congress. Losing power in a state is unpalatable for the Congress and therefore it will go any length to destabilise a state government, especially if it has the BJP. If you thought the Bharadwaj episode was just a constitutional issue, you are probably wrong. It appears to be a well-rehearsed act by the Congress to keep rattling the BJP government in Karnataka and make all efforts to destabilise it. It also helps to distract from the various misdeeds of the UPA government. Did Bharadwaj really think the centre would dismiss the state government? You can bet on his last underwear he would have never expected that.

Hate Modi and be rewarded!

Back to Gujarat elections in 2007. Following his victory both NDTV and CNN-IBN did a bio-pic on Narendra Modi. They told us about his village (Visnagar near the oil town of Mehsana), that his family and relatives got no benefits from his being CM, that he started life as tea-stall worker, and that he belonged to a ‘Ghanchi’ family, (An OBC group). Not many people in Gujarat knew if Modi was OBC or Brahmin or SC, our news channels made sure everyone knew. Not once in any of his campaign has Namo invoked caste, class or any issue of that nature. His worst statements were reserved as a response to the ‘maut ka saudagar’ rant by Sonia Gandhi. Well, I don’t really think Sonia Gandhi could have come up with that and in all likelihood someone like a Digvijay Singh would have written that speech. The Congress paid a price for it. And unable to digest the victory of Narendra Modi, media crooks like Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi went to the extent of calling Gujaratis ‘an effete people’!

Communal riots are not new in Gujarat. They are a historical and tragic fact. The riots in 1969 were one of the worst ever. Who was in charge then? In 1985, under the last real Congress Chief Minister, Madhavsinh Solanki, there were anti-reservation riots. This then turned into a communal riot. Guess how and who turned that into a communal riot? In those riots the Hindus paid a heavy price with their lives and there were whole families of Hindus that were burnt alive. At that time the most notorious gangster, Abdul Latif, was propped up by a political party. Guess which one? And what was Madhavsinh Solanki’s pet theory for elections? It was called KHAM – Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim. If you need first hand lessons on how to divide a society, just call Solanki. If you search for real reasons why the riots of 1969 and 1985 happened you will, at best, find flimsy excuses and at worst political engineering. There was no severe provocation as is the case with the 2002 riots following the Godhra disaster. Not that any of the killings can be justified and they shouldn’t. The Hindu anger wasn't built up overnight on February 27, 2002. There is a history to it.

Yet, 2002 is often referred to as genocide or pogrom. The Congress, the media and Modi’s opponents revel in such descriptions. Modi-hater Vir Sanghvi is on record calling him a “mass-murderer”. This is a term often repeated and referred to by the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt. Rajdeep even referred to the mass-murderer title at a Hindustan Times seminar where Narendra Modi was an invited speaker. Such deep hatred for an individual does not come from one’s own conscience, it is cleverly engineered. I can understand a muslim victim of the riots nurturing a deep hatred for Modi. There is no reason why the media and many others should have jumped on to that ‘engineered’ band-wagon.

Today, this hate Narendra Modi gang is not a small group, it is an Industry. The industry has new captains. One is Sanjeev Bhatt, the IPS officer, whose conscience struck after nine years of pondering. In hearings by the Nanavati commission Bhatt is now fretting and fuming over questions of his own checkered past. Will it destroy Narendra Modi? No, it will make him more popular. And, of course, the latest to join the industry is none other than Anna Hazare, who had previously complimented Modi. Here is what I wrote in ‘Sense & Senility’:

“Anna Hazare’s campaign has been called a comic revolution (Manu Joseph of Open magazine) and ‘rule of the unelected’ by many media persons. Nothing wrong with the first statement. Every revolution has a comic side to it. How else does one explain the presence of Swami Agnivesh in this campaign?  Hazare had made it clear that no politician will share the stage with him. Agnivesh was, is and will be a politician. There’s the irony. And then like most stupid politicians even after his victory Hazare goes around giving interviews to the media. The man hasn’t learnt in all of his 71 years that the media exists to destroy and poke holes into every action and word of any leader.”

Since 2001 Narendra Modi has been under a scanner, almost under a microscope. Not once has there been any mention of scams or corruption against him. The murderer tag did not work, so they will now try the corruption tag. He has proved to be ‘untouchable’! Yet, Anna Hazare now thinks his ‘corruption’ tag against Gujarat will work. A small crowd of the Congress workers and the media may cheer. But I can tell Hazare that he has now managed to further alienate Gujaratis. Given there are states like Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Delhi, AP and some more if Hazare really thinks the corruption movement has to start from Gujarat then he and the Congress are expecting to strike Gold in that state it is likely he will raise a poultry farm and end up with egg on his face. As for the likes of Swami Agnivesh and Mallika Sarabhai the less said the better.

There is the extra-constitutional body called the National Advisory Committee (NAC) chaired by none other than Sonia Gandhi. It has currently drafted a Communal Violence Bill, that will make it easier for the centre to dismiss a state government on the flimsiest of reasons for any violence. It is also a body to reward Modi haters. Teesta Setalvad, with cases pending against her and she having sought anticipatory bail twice, is a member of one the NAC committees. Harsh Mander is a member. Lately, Binayak Sen, out on bail, has been elevated to the Planning Commission probably because it was a BJP government that prosecuted him.

Media outlets like Star News, Hindustan Times and earlier India Today frequently come up with banana polls that show Rahul Gandhi as the most popular future prime minister. Will they be rewarded? Your guess is as good as mine. Read the full analysis of these opinion polls at www.sandeepweb.com.

Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh, Jayanthi Natarajan, Teesta Setalvad, Anna Hazare and many such people need to learn one simple lesson. The people believe the opposite of what the media tries to hammer as truth. Nobody believes the likes of Barkha Dutt or Rajdeep Sardesai except their own team members.

Ever heard of the famous speech by Mark Antony praising Brutus after the killing of Caesar? Public reaction is usually the opposite. The more they despise Narendra Modi the more popular he becomes among his electorate. The media in its desperate bid to bring down Modi is indirectly doing him a favour. The likes of NDTV and CNN-IBN and at the start Star News created this Namo industry. It is not Narendra Modi who is falling, it is the Congress and the media that are repeatedly being proved foolish. If they really intend to bring down Modi, then they should shut up and not mention him for a long time. But knowing our crony media, that will not happen and they will continue popularising Modi. Thanks to Modi haters, the BJP recently managed to win not only all Municipal elections but they even swept all the Panchayat polls. So much for a corrupt Gujarat!

Ratan Tata had said “if you’re not in Gujarat, you’re stupid!”. Anyone that hates Gujarat or calls it a den of corruption has to be a MORON. I wonder whose ass these people lick!!

Crooks On Patriotism

The news channels are feasting on the issue of Gautam Gambhir playing with an injured shoulder in the match against Mumbai Indians in the IPL league on May 25. Wow! Guess what these channels are asking? Club or Country! It’s funny that these questions should come from channels like Headlines Today, Times Now, CNN-IBN, NDTV and the rest.

Suddenly conspiracy theories of the injury being deliberately not declared, Shahrukh Khan should answer and BCCI gagging Gambhir are being floated on these channels.

In just my previous post (The Good Neighbour) I had asked the same question about these media channels. Putting the country first is the last priority for these news channels and they invest in themselves the moral authority to question the patriotism of a sportsman.

For a start, Gambhir was playing a very critical match against the Mumbai Indians. If I were in his place, especially as captain of the team, I would damn well take the risk and play when chances of my team reaching the finals are at stake. This wasn't a routine league match we are talking about. I would do that even if I were told about the seriousness of the injury. It is unclear if Gambhir was fully aware of the seriousness of the injury.

To infer and imply that by his act Gambhir has put club over country is the kind of nonsensical sensationalism that our media peddles. What should have been a small news item is being turned into a major scam as is the practice with the news channels.

All said and done, our communist media is the last entity that should be talking about patriotism. The day they stop hosting anti-India people like Parvez Musharraf, Hamid Gul and many such people is the day when they will regain the moral right to talk about patriotism.

Gautam Gambhir is  part of the world cup winning team. He doesn’t need to prove his patriotism to anyone. Least of all the assholes in the media.

The Good Neighbour

The good neighbours

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

End-It TV

Kanimozhi of DMK is in jail. She is not yet convicted of a crime but denied bail in the 200 crore bribe channelled to her Kalaignar TV. Far from being democratic quite a few political parties have adopted the communist method of propaganda TV channels. Kalaignar is not the only one in Tamil Nadu. There’s Sun TV and there is Jaya TV. There are some more in AP and Kerala and in some more states. Then there are some that play the role on the national stage. It is this excessive desire for party propaganda that has lured many media outlets to become poodles of political parties and into corrupt practices.

END IT TV !

On Friday, May 20 on her program ‘Left, Right, Centre’ on NDTV, Nidhi Razdan was discussing the Rahul Gandhi Bhatta-Parsaul episode. Some of the participants were Jayanthi Natarajan, Congress spokesperson, Swapan Dasgupta, right-leaning journalist, Zoya Hassan and another. The whole exercise seemed to be one of extracting Rahul Gandhi from the mess he created and spray paint some level of virtue into his conduct and utterances. I can understand if journalists of various hues are involved in such a discussion but why would you get a Jayanthi Natarajan into this? Does anyone expect Jayanthi to honestly assess the worth of Rahul Gandhi or his utterances? True to form Natrajan sermonised on the vision and strategy of Rahul Gandhi and how he is laying the ground work for the long term with the youth of this nation.

In the US, UK, France or any other major democracy Rahul Gandhi would have by now been the staple diet of late night comedians. He would have been the unending fountain of daily and weekly scripts for comedy shows. The Bill Mahers, the Lettermans, the Jon Stewarts, the Craig Fergusons feasted on Sarah Palin during the run up to the 2008 US election. I may lack the intellectual compass of a Jayanthi Natarajan but I cannot see how Rahul Gandhi is any different from Sarah Palin. Both see things. Palin sees Russia from her lawns and Rahul sees dead people. And both consistently utter absurdities. Both would do Don Quixote proud.

Tweets about Rahul Gandhi following the Greater Noida episode make hilarious reading. Those were comments reflecting his utter lack of maturity and thoughtfulness when opening his mouth. Yet NDTV systematically and consistently continues to portray him as some kind of great hero in the making. Is there something that the people at NDTV can see in Rahul Gandhi that ordinary people can’t? There was one tweet that said Nike is going to sponsor Rahul’s mouth because he usually has his ‘foot’ in it! The Congress may not own up to his gaffes publicly and that is understandable. However, I am sure privately they may recognise the need to counsel him. What exactly is NDTV’s brief in regularly trying to either extricate Rahul from a pickle or to portray him as some kind of hero?

Very recently after the cricket win against Pakistan in the world cup semi-final NDTV carried a banner on its website with the victorious Indian team with Rahul Gandhi at one end. Naturally, there was an explosion of tweets on what the motive was behind putting up Rahul’s pic in that banner. If this is not blatant and unwarranted sycophancy and promotion of a politician I wonder what is. Read the whole report here along with screenshots of the tweets andthe banners. So why is NDTV still pretending to be an independent news channel and not being bold enough to be like Kalaignar TV?

A regular reader of this blog (Free_Verse & thanks to her) has sent in an astonishing comment on the performance of Rahul Gandhi as an MP and I quote (some of this info is also available on various other websites):

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FIRST let us question Rahul Gandhi on the status of his pet constituency, Amethi, which incidentally has seen FIVE generations of Nehru Dynasty MPs.

Some developmental indicators:

(1) Amethi has 39.5% literacy level (national average being around 65%),
(2) Around 50% population is below poverty line
(3) Only 15% population has access to electricity
(4) Vaccination level is below 16%
(5) Around 16% of children die below age of 5 years
(6) Amethi received Rs.3.06 crore as developmental fund (or MPLAD) from Govt. of India in 2009-10 of which Rahul Gandhi used merely 5.89% (0.18 crore).

Second, let us see his record as a champion youth icon Member of Parliament :
(1) The national MP attendance average in the parliament is 77%. Rahul Gandhi's attendance is 47%. (Hahahahha! That's 74 in reverse for you!)
(2) National average for questions asked by MPs in parliament is 119. Rahul Gandhi asked ZERO questions.
(3) The national average for Debates attended by MPs is 15.6. Rahul Gandhi attended ZERO debates.

His record as an MP is sourced from HERE. 

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For a performance like the one above I surely cannot see any vision or strategy in Rahul Gandhi other than his second name. So, in a time when more and more politicians are talking about performance and development there are some channels that have become propaganda channels and go any extent to cover up the non-performance and incompetence of the politician of their own political persuasion. In this case it appears NDTV seeks to glorify Rahul Gandhi for reasons that I think they know best.

Politicians are known to deceive people, create fear where there is no need. What exactly is the motivation of news channels. If the case of Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV is any indicator it is time that propaganda channels are scrutinised and shut down. These are the greatest dangers to democracy.

Yet, nothing characterizes the loathing of ordinary people by TV channels as Barkha Dutt does. And she is, indeed, the face of NDTV. Writing on the Hindustan Times website (A perilous path) she states: “Did anyone notice that while we were so busy hating our democracy, panchayat elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time in more than a decade. Usually, the right-wing loony fringe is not just well organised in the venom it orchestrates online; it is especially vocal against anyone with a nuanced perspective on the genuine issues of alienation in the Valley. Any talk of ‘political solutions’ to the Kashmir issue gets you labelled ‘anti-national’ and invites instant online stalking.” Yeah that’s right, “while we were so busy hating our democracy..” and the “…right wing loony fringe..” This is supposed to be her personal opinion. Well, these personal opinions do influence the way the media handles real issues as well.

As for NDTV, I think it is time to End It TV!

India Declared Errorist State

The spot the errors contest is on..

Remember those pairs of pics in the funny pages of newspapers and comic books? And you had to spot 5 or 10 errors in the second pic? That was fun! Now for grown-ups the Central government sponsors this game. You have a list of wanted and in the second pic you have to hunt for the errors. Let me update the story. So far at least 2 of the 50 Most Wanted list are reported to be in India. Latest reports are that at least 3 in the list have died. Yes, died! CBI has also removed the current list of 50 wanted from its website. I like this game, except that it’s not so funny. We have now been declared an errorist state.

If this issue is currently playing second fiddle in the headlines it’s because Kanimozhi, Sharath Kumar and some have been denied bail and are in jail. I have no sympathies for these people but it’s odd terrorists and murderers get bail but economic offenders and corrupt people cannot. Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, also in Tihar,  can start planning new real estate schemes –  of the jails variety, we are going to need a lot more jails. Let’s get back to our game though.

In response to the goof ups and the embarrassment our Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, accepts the error but repeatedly points out that Kandahar was an embarrassment too. Right! So this is fine because Kandahar happened. So every time a terror related goof up happens the UPA’s pet argument is Kandahar happened. Imagine, each time a terror goof up happens in the US Obama responds by saying “didn’t 9/11 happen?”! That indeed is the approach of Chidambaram and the UPA. And our media doesn’t question him for his stupid utterances. Not one journalist in the media has ever bothered to even check on the 50-list and investigate its accuracy. Most of their romantic attention has been reserved for one person, Dawood Ibrahim.

That Kandahar happened is bad and tragic. But that happened in a hostile country with another hostile country in between. In the context of that incident and situation, exchanging a few terrorists for over a hundred innocent lives seemed sensible, even if not the best option. Let’s also not forget the media drama by people like Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt during that incident. But in the current goof ups we are in no foreign or hostile land. We are in our own errorist state. And while Chidambaram and the UPA keeps offering Kandahar as an excuse for every goof up the wiseguys in the media never ask them a simple question. What would you have done if you were handling Kandahar? I have no doubts that if the UPA (with the likes of Digvijay and Rahul) were handling Kandahar they would have gladly released ten more terrorists. Someday that might come about and we may have to release Afzal Guru as well.

Come back to the 50-list. First, I have no idea why this has to be an exact 50? Maybe some accountant was making it and wanted the figure rounded off.  Maybe 50 sounded very romantic and adult like. Why not 46 or 54? I guess I do not possess the intelligence to figure that one. Maybe we were inspired by the pack of cards with pics of wanted men handed out to every soldier by the Bush administration after 9/11. In that case one has to wonder who stole the two cards from the pack of 52!

On a serious note one has to wonder what the UPA’s approach to such issues is. Not so long ago we had the intellectual Rahul Gandhi telling the US Ambassador that Hindu right-wing extremists are more dangerous than the likes of LeT. Then you have the Digvijay Singhs at the launch of books like ‘26/11 an RSS Conspiracy’ and so too his frequent utterances on Hindu terror. Most of all we have Chidambaram educating the security forces on the threats of ‘Saffron’ terror. Such being the internal beliefs and pursuits of the Congress it is natural that there are bound to be goof ups on the wanted lists and our attention to it and continuing intelligence failures. Add to all this fact that many of our ministers and rulers were too busy looting the nation under various scams and the intelligence failure is understandable.

It may not occur to Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh or P. Chidambaram that even if there are Hindu terrorists they are not supported by the people, the state or our security forces. In contrast, most of the people on the wanted list have the support of a state machinery. That should tell us who constitute a greater threat and who should be receiving greater attention. In the meantime let us rejoice our newly acquired Errorist status.

CNN-IBN: Should Cooks Use Kitchen Knives Responsibly?

'Brace The Nation'? (the silly-half-hour)

On May 18 CNN-IBN’s program ‘Face the nation’ was quite interesting. Sagarika Ghose asked a panel questions about Twitter. Whether Twitter should be used responsibly by public personalities and whether facts or opinions should be tweeted. Do you really believe that? These are questions being asked by a person who is infamous for some of her tweets. I have never seen a more stupid question being asked on a TV program. And it had to come from Sagarika Ghose. Sometimes I feel CNN-IBN should warn us about silly-half-hour by temporarily renaming it as ‘Brace the nation’ so we can be prepared by putting our brains aside for that period. The panellists were Dilip Cherian, Derek O’Brien, Shishir Hattangadi and Anupam Kher.

Let me digress a bit. Many years ago Bill Gates said something about MS WORD, either in one of his books or speeches. I don’t remember which but here is what he said (this is not an exact quote but effectively what he said):

We gave you WORD. You said you wanted a spellcheck. So we gave you spellcheck. Then you said you wanted more languages. So we gave you Chinese, Japanese, German and more. Then you said you wanted tables and diagrams. So we gave you tables and diagrams…. And on and on the list went and he finally said:

“..But we can’t tell you what to write. That’s totally up to you”!

I wonder if Sagarika Ghose understands the difference between a tool and the manner in which it is used. This is pretty much common sense with any professional or any grown up adult. Instead CNN-IBN does a whole half-hour program on prime-time debating the issue of Twitter as if it was some big national issue for anyone. For any medium that technology makes available there will be those that use it sensibly and those who will use it for other purposes.

It is usually the ones who haven’t used it too well who will constantly debate the merits of the tool. Is Sagarika the best user of Twitter? Hmmm! That is what probably bothers her. There are many tweets by her that have been lambasted. This blog carried a post on whether her tweets should be tagged racist. (Read HERE) There are many other blogs that have questioned her tweets some of which she has apologised for. Here endeth the lesson!

Kitchen knives can be used for murder, slashing wrists, slitting throats and if I were to go by CNN-IBN, sometimes to chop food stuff.  I am now waiting for the day when CNN-IBN will have Sanjeev Kapoor on this program to debate whether kitchen knives should be used more responsibly. Whatever it takes to fill the silly-half-hour!

The Fantasies Of Rahul Gandhi

I seriously wonder if Rahul Gandhi had even heard of a place called Bhatta-Parsaul a few months ago. The agitation there was quite tempting for him to go out there and demonstrate his deep concern for the plight of farmers. “I am ashamed to be called an Indian after seeing the atrocities. Congress will not budge from here till the demands are met..” he had said. Really? Well, if it’s any comfort there are many people in this country who feel that way too after all the scams Rahul’s Congress has heaped on this nation. But never mind that.

First, I am not sure Rahul Gandhi was inspired by his own conscience to rush to Greater Noida and be the saviour of farmers. That left me wondering where he derived his inspiration from. That was answered by the pics that have been up everywhere. See a familiar face? Yes, that would be the ‘royal’ farmer Digvijay Singh. The mentor and the ‘Apt Pupil’!

Now then, that is where Rahul’s imagination runs riot. He narrates stories of women being raped by police, people being burnt alive and so on. Violent agitation does cause damage to property and injuries and even deaths. His allegation, however, was that it was the police that heaped all the cruelties. And you know what? He even collected proof, pictures and selected a bunch of farmers to have a meeting with the PM.

Our news channels were quite conflicted as to which event they should cover. The drama of the Karnataka crises or the fantasies of Rahul Gandhi. In any case they had a great time between the Amul Yuvraj and the disturbing Hansraj. Suddenly, today there are news reports that much of what Rahul Gandhi stated was an exaggeration and not exactly entirely accurate. To that his mentor, Diggy and other Congress spokespersons, suggest that Rahul only repeated what he was told by the villagers. Of course, we already know that! Rahul only repeats what he’s been told. Do you seriously expect Rahul to say anything of his own?

One of the sound practices in management is to never rely too much on ‘second-hand’ news. If indeed one gets ‘second-hand’ news then some basic verification and corroboration is undertaken. Well, I don’t think they teach this at Harvard or Cambridge where Rahul Gandhi is reported to have studied. They also don’t teach this at journalistic schools I suppose. Our media simply belted out Rahul’s biggest hits of Bhatta-Parsaul without even a primary verification.

And now, it all comes tumbling down. A CNN-IBN report (and my compliments to them) has reversed much of the extra-ordinary allegations that Rahul Gandhi had hurled.  (Did Rahul Gandhi mislead the PM?) Typically, the Congress now says Rahul was misquoted and blah, blah, blah and another big blah.

No surprises here. I had sometime ago suggested that the Congress had long back changed a slogan. It remains ‘ShityamevaJayate’! And yes, they can count on the media to follow suit.

The Scum Of All Spheres

Accused in terrorist acts in at least 3 cases that killed quite a few it is first of all amazing that Wazul Kamar Khan was allowed bail. Did the prosecution protest? Bail in all 3 cases of terrorism? Then for years he enjoys his private life peacefully at Thane. The media celebrates the fact that the Central government, the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai police were caught red faced. Why, because this man figures in the 50 most wanted list submitted to Pakistan.

Out of the blue the police discover the man and take him for questioning. The media finds another piece of sensational development to grind their cacophony all day and night. Not one in the media even bothers to ask the following questions:

1.  Why was this man out on bail in the first place? Acts of terrorism that have killed scores are heinous crimes that do not merit bail. Imagine Kasab being out on bail.

2.   Even if he was out on bail, why were the cases against him not being fast-tracked? Why were no hearings being conducted?

The man most responsible for this pathetic state of affairs has to be P. Chidambaram, the Home Minister at the centre. Having created the National Investigation Agency specially to monitor and prosecute cases of terrorism how this man’s name crept into the list of 50 submitted to Pakistan is beyond reason. Errors and mistakes can be made. But to find a terror-accused being out on bail in our country and living happily under the nose of a state which has MCOCA is a stunning failure of serious magnitude.

In another unrelated case Iqbal Kaskar, Dawood Ibrahim’s brother, was shot at yesterday. Why is this man so freely roaming the streets of Mumbai? If anything he should be in custody and used as leverage against Dawood. This is the Kaskar that was deported to India in 2003 from UAE.

Does the UPA government intend to send a message to the terrorists and the people of this nation? 

What if Pakistan did hand over the remaining 49 wanted persons from that list of 50? What exactly would our government do? Afzal Guru and Nalini (Rajiv Gandhi’s assassin) are still comfortably lodged in jails. So most of these people, if extradited by Pakistan, will probably be out on bail and enjoy the same comfortable life that they enjoy in Pakistan or where ever they are. I often wonder who are the scum of all spheres. The terrorists or the ones who are responsible for national security who refuse to act.

While the Congress is neck deep in petty politics of spying,  phone-tapping, attempting to pass laws suppressing internet freedom and free speech, of course, reaching greater heights in scams,  our security apparatus is as rag tag as the coalition government. True to his usual style of spewing gibberish Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari states “…there is an inquiry by the home ministry….let the facts come out…The issue has attendant sensitivities. …so let us err on the side of caution”. Well said Manish. We will continue to err and err and err.

It is laughable that the central government considers Pakistan a safe-haven for terrorists. The real ‘heaven’ for terrorists is here in India. Ask an Afzal or a Kazab or the new found celebrity Wazul Kamar Khan. Criminals in parliament, criminals in assemblies, criminals free in society, terrorists living in our paradise. We welcome the scum of all spheres.