NDTV Needs A Lie-Detector

Looks like Digvijaya Singh (DS) was out of order or away for a few days for some reason. That’s why the nation was shocked that our news channels weren’t rushing to him for first comments over Robert Vadra scam or Salman Khurshid scam. Rest your fears, he’s back and in good form. Here’s what I wrote in the post ‘Stenographers & stray dogs’:

“Whenever a political turn or event happens who do our reporters run to most? You guessed it – Digvijaya Singh. And what does he offer them? Nothing but filthy utterances against others and mindless statements that aren’t even fact-checked. His own party is on record stating that his statements are not “authorised”. Yet, DS with no political position or responsibility and clearly over-the-hill, is the Guru for most TV editors. The reporters seek his comments like Stenographers and faithfully relay it. By evening, on many occasions, based on his silly utterances, you will find DS doing a full-fledged interview with Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai or Rahul Kanwal. It’s a well-planned and organised routine…”

Okay, good old Diggy is back but Barkha Dutt is away on a “sabbatical”. Poor Sunetra Chowdhury (SC), who often stands-in for BD, had to be the ‘bakra’ that had to interview DS. Somewhere Sunetra has mentioned in the past that she was disappointed at not getting to interview Rahul Gandhi, who she is supposed to cover. Never mind! Rahul’s mentor Diggy is not a bad substitute. You can view the interview and the summary on NDTV’s website which appears under the title: “Never attack family: Digvijaya Singh's lesson on political ethics toArvind Kejriwal”. Hmm! Lately, with all the corruption and scams the moment some public figure mentions “family” the only family I can think of is the “mafia family”.

So SC probably landed up with a scripted set of questions for DS. Nothing wrong in that, it’s always good to do some homework. True to form, DS also gave what looked like scripted answers. There’s only one more thing I wish NDTV had added; a polygraph machine with DS’s hand wired to it (Something like with Tyra Banks in the pic). And NDTV could have shown images of the live action on the polygraph when DS gave answers. Haha! I hope that dream of mine comes true one day. Here’s something from the interview by DS:

"He (Arvind Kejriwal) came to me in 2005 or 2006 with Swami Agnivesh and requested me that I should promote his name to become a member of the NAC. Probably Soniaji was wiser than me, so she refused," Mr Singh told NDTV. It’s possible Kejriwal aspired to a seat on NAC but not because DS says it but because AK has quite a few of his colleagues on the NAC and maybe he aspired to it. But I seriously doubt even AK would run to “kiss and tell” kind of guy like DS. I credit him with greater intelligence. AK’s friends on the NAC would have had greater influence with SoniaG than DS in that decision. AK hasn’t so far denied Diggy’s claim so let’s leave it there. The more interesting comment is this one:

Mr Singh, speaking to NDTV said, "There are ethics in politics. Never attack family. The Congress never attacked (former PM) Atal Bihar Vajpayee's son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya or (senior BJP leader) L K Advani's son and daughter. Have we ever said a word against them? They have a private life of their own." Really? See, this is my problem with NDTV and their fake reporting. It’s one thing to do an interview and report it verbatim like a stenographer but altogether a different thing to fact-check what was said. Over and over again NDTV, and other channels too, have peddled DS’s nonsense without a qualifier or a fact-check of their own. This is why it appears that they are peddling lies.

Now here’s something interesting from a news report. I wonder if you can call it a news report though. This is from the Congress party’s mouth-piece called “Congress Sandesh”. It’s a report from their wonderful activities in April 2001. This is a screen shot from that report:

Yeah! On March 25, 2001 the Congress proudly observed “Dhikar Diwas” as reported. And along with PM Vajpayee they also burned effigy of Ranjan Bhattacharya. This is the “family” that DS is referring to in his interview with Sunetra. So I can safely call DS a liar when he claims Congress never attacked “family”. Now, I don’t find anything wrong if an adult member of a political family is attacked for any wrong-doing. On what grounds is DS crying over the attacks on Robert Vadra for attacks on him over land scams?

The principle of not targeting family members is informally practiced in US politics. Generally, that is applicable to private “affairs”, sexual misconducts, divorces, drug addiction etc. This does not apply to corruption through use of govt offices or accumulating wealth through corrupt means. This is where NDTV fails. They interview Diggy frequently and reproduce his trash without stating the facts. For the sake of argument if family members are to be exempt as political targets why didn’t DS condemn Priyanka Vadra for using even her kids as political leverage? Look at the pic! Not only did she get her minor kids on stage there are sycophants garlanding them. The kids look amused and uncomfortable. Clearly, Priyanka using her kids for “emotional” appeals to voters is fine but targeting family members for corruption is wrong? Who the hell is DS to make these stupid rules anyway? For the record, his own party mouthpiece proves him wrong. Will NDTV now nail his lies?

Like I mentioned it would be good fun to interview DS with a polygraph wired to his hand. But hey, on second thoughts I feel even NDTV needs a polygraph machine when they report or use sound-bites from these interviews. I’m sure once NDTV earns some money they can buy a lie-detector and have it wired to their telecasts for the benefit of viewers.