BabaRamdev: Media's Mudslinging-Season-2, Episode-1

In a tweet on August 8 I had predicted some serious mudslinging against Baba Ramdev (BRD) when he starts another campaign at Ramlila on Thursday, August 9. No it didn’t take the IB or RAW to tell me that. I just recalled how last year CNN-IBN had inaugurated mudslinging season against BRD as he started his agitation in June 2011. This time Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose (the eminent Social Genius) are not alone. They are joined by master ‘News-Breaker’ Bhupendra Chaubey from their own stable. And then there were others like Madhu Trehan, Suhel Seth (The Item-Girl specialist) and a few more. We will come to Chaubeji and the rest a bit later.

First things first! Let’s start with the common question by all anchors, all anti-BRD panellists and of course, Congress. Why is BRD’s assistant Balkrishna appearing in posters with terrorists like Bhagat Singh and Rajguru at Ramlila? That’s blasphemy! Oh wait, it’s not me calling them terrorists, it’s our own school text books calling them that. And who allowed such textbooks? ICSE and the Congress govt of AP did. Even Mahatma Gandhi reportedly did not protest the hanging of Bhagat Singh. I did not see a similar protest from the media when heroes like Bhagat Singh were called terrorists. Did you? It’s alright, as they say one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. In this case one has to wonder who the other man is. Not to forget, when Anna’s ‘secular’ movement pulled down the large back-drop of ‘Bharat-Mata’ the media thought that was fair and there were no questions.

You see, idolisation is fine with the media only as long as it is for the Gandhi family. They can be anything or anyone. Take Rahul Gandhi. He can be Kashmiri, he can be Dalit, a Muslim, a Sikh, an Allahabadi and he can be a Brahmin as well. If there were a Chameleon’s Association they would have been seething in anger and protest. Not our media. But RG didn’t start that trend. It was started by Nehru then followed by Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi.

Hell, I forgot someone in between! The great saviour of India: Sonia Gandhi. Five years back Congressmen in MP dressed her up as the brave Rani of Jhansi in posters (don’t miss the cute little Rahul in the back-pack).  In true spirit and bravery of the Rani of Jhansi SoniaG battles all evils that threaten India and her people. Oh, I’m sure even in that case you will recall how strongly the media protested and Rajdeep, Arnab, Barkha, Chaubeji were all lambasting the Congress for insulting the memory of the brave Rani. No? They didn’t? Okay, so little Balkrishna appears with many other ordinary men in a poster with heroes and that’s the biggest problem for media. Exemplary unbiased morons!

Now, we can come back to Chaubeji. On August 9, he got up early and got out early and headed straight for Ramlila grounds to confront some women in the crowd. He asked them if they came on their own or were truck-rolled into Ramlila. To his surprise they told him they came from far off places in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and such states. Not enough! So he goads another woman: “There are people who allege BRD has evaded tax, accumulated wealth and illegal properties?”. Hmmm! The woman replies with nonchalance: “Woh bewakoof hai!” (They are fools!) So Chaubeji got bitch-slapped over and over again with his silly questions. His questions tried their best to slander BRD but in vain. And he had stated in a tweet that he had the most “explosive” details about BRD’s tax evasion. Well, one sincerely hopes those explosive details don’t bomb the way Chaubeji did at Ramlila. So from last year our Mr.Chaubeji has now become Mudslinger Jr., next only to his boss.

And if Chaubeji does his thing in the morning can his boss, Mudslinger-in-Chief, be too far away? Rajdeep Sardesai started off early morning too with a stupid tweet asking if Ramdev can get some rains. Mind you, no Baba, no Swami, no Guru … nothing but plain ‘Ramdev’. Such is the contempt that our media gurus hold for him. Had it been a mullah Rajdeep would have addressed him as “Imam Saheb”. Well, you see BRD is clothed in saffron and Rajdeep’s loathing for that colour and Hindu traditions and customs is not such a big secret.

So at night Rajdeep repeats Chaubeji’s question: “Can Ramdev become the face of Anti-corruption?”. Someone on Twitter responded by asking if a bargirl and waitress can be the head of the UPA govt why BRD can’t be an anti-corruption crusader. Never mind! So RS asks Congressman Mani Shankar Aiyar the question and about crowds at Ramlila and MSA responds by stating “It’s a flop show”! Rajdeep turns to another panellist, Devender Sharma, and asks for a response. Sharma states a stunning fact: “The biggest flop in India is Congress’ youth icon Rahul Gandhi although the party will not accept it”. I would have to say going by history and facts Rahul Gandhi’s failures would actually be considered more than a flop. those would technically count as a total disaster. The difference is: Rahul Gandhi rides in the back-pack of Jhansi Ki Rani unlike BRD.

Hmm… so this Devendra Sharma wasn’t very obliging. So Rajdeep turns to a trusted RSS-hater, Kumar Ketkar. And because Rajdeep knows him to be a RSS-hater asks him a leading question: “Is BRD backed by RSS?” . Happily, Kumar Ketkar lets off a well-strung rant about BJP, RSS and BRD being the mask of these forces. KK implies, without saying it, that RSS is anti-national and to that Tarun Vijay shoots a few bullets calling KK “Friend of Pakistani supporters and ISI supporters in the media”. So you can see how Rajdeep wanted the debate to go. The idea was neither black money or corruption or BRD’s movement. Once again, it was how to trash BRD. Mudslinging at its best! I think both Mani Shankar Aiyar and Kumar Ketkar are scumbags from the filthiest of waters. But hey, don’t take my word for it! Listen to someone who is usually more profound with his loathing of the Twitterati: Nikhil Wagle. His tweet says a lot about about MSA and KK and their filthy language.

It’s not over until Justice Arnab sings it’s over. So apart from CNN-IBN, TimesNow too had a hilarious debate. Nothing particularly outstanding in that show except for Madhu Trehan outrageously charging BRD with “duping common people” and when asked about BRD’s ability to draw crowds, Item-Boy Suhel Seth responded with: “I can get item-girls from Bollywood and get you crowds of 30000”. I believe that is perfectly in sync with Suhel Seth’s job description. These are the stupid utterances of Trehan and Seth that pass for debate.

The singular chant of all anchors and media celebs is that BRD has been issued notices by IT department and allegations of illegal properties, whose private jets he flies and so on. Firstly, the IT and ED notices started only after BRD’s agitation last year. We all also know how the IT and ED work lately. LK Advani rightly stated: “The UPA survives because of its ally the CBI”. That’s how IT and ED are also used by Sonia Gandhi and the govt against adversaries and then their media stooges tom-tom that message as if BRD has been already proved a criminal. Nobody expects BRD to work miracles or expect black money to come back in 3 days or corruption to end immediately. He may not even know how the system or govt works. But there has to be a reason why the Chaubejis, Rajdeeps, Madhus, Aiyars, Ketkars and some more indulge in this extra-ordinary mudslinging against the man. Maybe it has to do with a colour or maybe it has something to do with phonecalls from upstairs. But either way, welcome to Mudslinging: Season-2 Episode-1.

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