Sanjiv Bhatt In Arnab's Kangaroo Court

I had already suggested ‘Padma Shri awaits Sanjiv Bhatt’. I guess that is not enough so a higher award for this courageous cop may be in order. If Teesta Setalvad got embroiled in fake cases of her own affidavits the media needed a new hero against Narendra Modi. Well, looks like they’ve found one.

On August 9 evening Arnab Goswami scooped an interview with Sanjiv Bhatt. The first round had Arnab questioning Bhatt about his hobnobbing with Congress leaders, getting Blackberry from them, emails that were exchanged and so on. The hilarious part came a little later in the evening at 9pm on Arnab’s Newshour when he again had Sanjiv Bhatt and a panel to discuss the suspension of Bhatt by the Gujarat government or to be more specific Narendra Modi as media would insinuate. Sanjiv Bhatt came to the discussions with his lawyer Iqbal Syed. With his lawyer? Yes! That’s right, hahahhaa!

‘Hello Arnab, you know me, now meet my lawyer please’! Isn’t that nice? Now what else would Arnab want for his Kangaroo court? Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai must be writhing in anger that they couldn’t manage to do this on their channels. The lynch mob isn't out there on the streets anymore, it's there on TV channels in the form of news anchors.

Imagine, a supposedly honest cop, a whistleblower, possessing great regard for truth and his own convictions turns up at a TV panel discussion with his lawyer. And Bhatt has made a statement these are desperate measures (his suspension) by a desperate government. Bravo! By now the Congress spokespeople are all over the place. Ambika Soni stated “everybody knows what is happening in Gujarat”. Yes we do, it is that terrible police state where all freedoms have been suspended and it’s a state where there is virtual emergency. Of course, in case you missed it, the tainted Teesta Setalvad got her chance to be on TV again and shooting off her mouth.

Okay, all that is fine. Now, if you even remotely know anything about Narendra Modi you would also know that he is one of the shrewdest politicians around. He is not so dumb as to not estimate that actions such as those against Sanjiv Bhatt (and lately one against Rahul Sharma) wouldn’t invite accusations of vendetta politics. That he would be accused of hounding a cop who has filed an affidavit against him in the SC. That this would give the Congress and all the sickular media channels to again start hurling abuses at him. Is Narendra Modi that silly? Well, even if there is some grain of truth in the vendetta part I doubt he is nervous (as Arnab implies) and I also doubt if there is any legal loop-hole in the actions against Sanjiv Bhatt or Rahul Sharma.

Now, apart from being the CM of Gujarat and knowing well the Congress would use the issue to sidetrack many other issues would Modi be silly enough to undertake these actions? I doubt. This is also given the fact that Congress at the centre is in shambles over various issues of corruption and wrong doings. NaMo would hardly hand them an issue on a platter in such a situation.But the media thinks he desperately would.

In another case of fake encounters it was made out that Modi was a mass murder, ‘maut ka saudagar’. In an article today this is what S. Gurumurthy wrote in the Indian Express:

“That State (Gujarat) is the least sinner in fake encounters, just one in a hundred. Yet, its leader is vilified as ‘Mauth Ka Saudagar’ [merchant of death]. So, the selected State’s leader is the target, not fake encounters as evil. The State selected? Needs no guess. It is Gujarat, certified as the best governed, most prosperous. The leader targeted? Needs no mention. Narendra Modi, known as the cleanest, also the ablest. The National Human Rights Commission’s list of 440 fake encounters from 2002 to 2007 under inquest shows the share of Gujarat as just 5, almost the lowest. Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 231, followed by Rajasthan 33, Maharashtra 31, Delhi 26, Andhra Pradesh 22, Uttaranchal 19, Assam 12, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka 10 each, Tamil Nadu 9, West Bengal 8, Bihar and Haryana 6 each. More. At 7.25 am, on 8.8.2011, the NewX channel reported a further 120 fake encounter deaths in UP after 2007!

Yet,from 2006, the ‘secular’ media has been obsessed with, not the most guilty in encounter sins, but the least — Gujarat; and with only one of the 440 encounters — of Syed Sohrabuddin in Gujarat, none from the rest. Baying for Modi’s scalp, the media relentlessly pursued Sohrabuddin’s case, charged Gujarat with killing him [and his wife, Kausar Bi] only because of his religion. It made Sohrabuddin the poster boy of secularism, insisted on CBI probe to cover Amit Shah, Gujarat Home Minister then, and Modi himself. The judiciary too chose for CBI probe only Sohrabuddin’s case out of the 440 encounters. Later when CBI misused the court mandate, resorted to patent illegalities to fix Shah and target Gujarat and Modi, the media even seemed relieved. Interrogatories to ‘secular’ media on its role in the Sohrabuddin case are overdue. Here are some.Did the media even hint that, like Sohrabuddin’s in Gujarat, there were 435 other encounters outside, being inquired into by NHRC? No. And did it ever ask for CBI probe into them? No.”

There is a universal principle that Arnab Goswami, Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai would do well to remember. IT IS USUALLY THE LOSER THAT GOES TO THE MEDIA. Check up history, check-up businesses and the principle will hold true. Teesta Setalvad talked about truth and justice for a long time. Now we know where she comes from and what her actions were. In much a similar fashion Sanjiv Bhatt talks about truth and justice.

In all the shrill noise that Arnab Goswami and others make not one, I repeat not one, has bothered to ask if the charges against Bhatt are true or accurate. If he has indeed been playing truant and is on illegitimate leave for 10 months. If those accusations are true then all this bullshit by Bhatt, Arnab and others will not wash.

I tend to call such people ‘washing machines of justice’ that wash nothing. These assholes don’t seem to realise that the more nails they drive in to Modi’s imaginary coffin the more popular he becomes. What next? Now are people going to bring their mom and dad to TV panel discussions? Arnab Goswami only exemplified what our media already is. TimesNow, NDTV, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and some more are truly the real lynch mob in their own Kangaroo Courts.