The Political Conflict At CNN-IBN

From ‘Argo’: "If you want to sell a lie, you get the press to sell it for you”. Truer line was never spoken in the modern age. The press now exists to peddle lies and falsehoods. The CNN-IBN in the title is meant to represent the whole IBN or TV18 gang and not one channel. Not one editorialist in the media had the guts to call the farce being played out in Delhi by the AAP party for the last 10 days. Elections, then 18 questions, 25 lakh letters, SMS referendums and so on are the most idiotic methods introduced in a bogus concept they call ‘Direct democracy’. Most of the honest commentary on politics is now coming from the SM or from stray news site observers. Here are a couple of tweets from TheJaggi, editor of Firstpost:

If you read the first tweet on the left (in the pic above) you wouldn’t know what the context is unless you’re aware of the background. The second tweet is quite obvious. What Jaggi refers to as fake liberals I call “Fiberals”. So Jaggi thinks people talk about right and left wing without understanding these terms. Hmm! Okay, but what was he responding to? 

There’s another tweet by TV18 Chairman Raghav Bahl supporting “right wing” economics being most successful in eliminating poverty. Oops! Does Bahl understand right and left wing? Jaggi isn’t sure he does, so he replies with “right way and wrong way” so that the answer to ‘centre-right’ in Bahl’s tweet can be avoided. I am an admirer of Jaggi’s articles because he says it like he sees it and reasons it well. But he’s dodging here. He doesn’t want to admit that both left and right see “their way” as the “right way” to do things. And that’s the reason for the conflict and it’s a healthy conflict, as long it’s not violent. But if historical evidence is of any value then the “left way” of solving problems has indeed failed. The AAP represents extreme left ideology if one goes by their ideas and manifesto.     

On November 8, 2013 a “source” told me Rajdeep Sardesai was headed for Nagpur. Although my source was correct I wasn’t willing to believe RS would go all the way to Nagpur just to deliver a lecture and not run a few other errands. So in a lighter vein I asked the question on what RS would be doing in Nagpur. It is no secret that RS has a severe contempt for both the RSS and BJP as does his deputy Sagarika Ghose. This contempt has been nurtured very fondly in a parent-like manner by both Rajdeep and Sagarika across the IBN family. So you can understand the usual haters like Ashutosh, Wagle and others in IBN who constantly send across hate-filled messages for the BJP and Modi. Did Rajdeep tell us what happened in Nagpur? Only partly as the following tweets indicate:

RS had a good time and drew a crowd of 1000 (my source tells me the Rotary hall can accommodate only 350-500 people). But Rajdeep doesn’t tell us what the Caravan magazine writes about his trip to Nagpur:

So Raghav Bahl is a right-winger who admires Narendra Modi, then you can understand the conflict with his entire gang in the IBN family. Unlike NDTV, TOI Group and others who are permanent supporters of the Commie ideology of Congress, Bahl can make the shift if he wants to. The Caravan article isn’t entirely accurate because while Bahl may be leaning right for some reason, his entire sales team at IBN is full of committed Commies. The first tweet in this post by TheJaggi (December 1) where he says people don’t understand the terms right or left wing is in response to the Caravan article by Rahul Bhatia (December 1):

Rahul Bhatia suggests the shift to the Right is being influenced by Mukesh Ambani. In a tweet he also contends the organisation’s leaning need not apply to its people who are unhappy about it. One can’t be sure but it can only be partly true in the absence of any clinching evidence. But what we can confirm with ample evidence is that the entire sales team of IBN had been a slave of the Congress party since the channel was born. Rajdeep himself had made his fortune by peddling stories about Gujarat 2002 and abusing Modi. The Padma award is just a small recognition for his work. Secondly, just a few months back TV18 had fired a lot of their employees to make the business more viable. Even comedians like Ashutosh and Sagarika were reportedly on the chopping block but survived with salary cuts. That they didn’t sack Sagarika is a sacrilege. You can understand the widespread grievance, fear and anger in the company when this happened. The compassionate Rajdeep didn’t like it but had to play with the top management on this decision.

What follows is a theory of what I estimate happened at the company. Now remember, this is a theory with reason but still a theory (with some inputs from “sources”. If you haven’t read “The AAPSucker Proxies” I recommend you do, before proceeding)

#1: Bahl went along with the Congress as long as things were rosy as did his sales team. Once he noticed the corrupt Congress had hit rock bottom he wanted to make an open shift but he was asking too much of his team. You see, people like Rajdeep, Sagarika, Ashutosh, Sagarika, Pallavi, Bhupendra Chaube are all soaked in Congress bloodline and philosophy for many years and an overnight shift would have been impossible and also a betrayal of their “Fiberal” clan. What would their darlings like Amartya Sen or Tarun Tejpal think of them, eh? Supporting the Congress any further would have been a deadly mistake for all of them but given their anti-BJP DNA the only party they could turn to was AAP. So it is quite possible that Rajdeep & Co. made it clear to Bahl that they would go the AAP way and he can like it or lump it. Faced with a revolt Bahl may have chosen to play along.

#2: Rajdeep & Co. have taken the chance on AAP to somehow thwart Modi and BJP coming to power at the Centre in 2014. It implies that even if the Congress gets routed in 2014 they hope the BJP can be kept out of power. A Narendra Modi as PM is a dreadful thought for the entire gang of Fiberals. So, multiple interviews of Arvind Kejriwal and other internal promotions happened. Bhupendra Chaube’s tweet (which he later deleted) quoted in response to a question by me is ample evidence of what was going on inside the IBN sales team. On November 20, 2013 Karan Thapar dissected the AAP manifesto and Rajdeep grandly tweeted it too. This was the first time since 786 AD that a party’s manifesto was so gleefully analysed. Obviously, the fact that AK had promised 50% cut in power bills, 700 litres of free water per Delhi-family and 500 new schools in 5 years all went over “The Tool’s” head. Someone pointed out on TV 500 schools in 5 years means 100 in a year and nearly 2 a week. Allocation of land in Delhi is under the Centre so how these schools will be delivered doesn’t matter. Also, the foolish promise of 50% cut in power bills and free water passed over their heads. Nothing mattered! They had to support AAP in the face of a definite Congress rout.

#3: Here are tweets from Ashutosh and someone called Latha Venkatesh who allegedly works as a financial analyst or reporter in CNBC-TV18:

Sounds like two desperate housewives? No! Ashutosh has worked his way up from small beginnings and many of his messages betray a feeling of “victimhood” and that explains his natural sympathies for Commie AAP even when his message contains LIES. We all know AK appealed to Muslims and also Dalits. What about this Latha? She’s the latest laughing stock from the CNN-IBN stable. She decided to support AAP because Maharashtra’s Congress govt decided ‘no-action’ against Adarsh scamsters, including Ashok Chavan. Bright as she is, she is blissfully ignorant (influence of Sagarika?) that AAP hasn’t announced contesting major Congress states in the next election. They have so far announced only contesting in Gujarat and MP which have BJP govts for over a decade. The only Congress state announced by AAP for a contest is Delhi neighbour Haryana which is AK’s home state too. So the morons at IBN feign ignorance of the pattern in which AAP is planning its LS campaign but this Latha will support them in Mumbai. Who did she support earlier in Mumbai? Mayawati?

Therefore, Rajdeep & Co want to promote a party that is exactly like Congress but doesn’t have the baggage of Congress. Like Karunanidhi or Nitish Kumar they want to save India from “communal forces” I suppose. Oh hell, even Karunanidhi praised Modi lately, so that downs the friendly numbers. It could be well be that Raghav Bahl has given some latitude to Rajdeep & Co. till elections 2014. Having gone through the trauma of having to fire over 300 employees just recently I doubt Bahl wants to rock the boat again so soon. So he’s given Rajdeep a long rope which will probably burn up around May 2014. At the moment Rajdeep, along with other channels, is lauding the stupid acts of AK and AAP in their referendums and SMS nonsense. AK is playing “victim” like Ashutosh, claiming he was forced to become CM by the people. He has created enough excuses in case he is unable to perform and deliver on his promises: Blame the “people who forced us to form the govt”. In an earlier post I had mentioned he could have formed a minority govt without fear as neither Congress nor BJP would pull it down with a major election around the corner. Even cartoonists can see what the Numero Uno and Unee political analysts can’t. TOI’s Ninan sees AAP, a pawn, riding the Congress quite well in this cartoon, with a noose around AK's neck.

The desperate ones in the IBN family are as battered as the Congress is by the Modi juggernaut. They simply don’t know how to deal with it or explain the phenomenon. That should help people understand the ecstasy and orgasm that the IBN gang and other channels are desperately faking in hope the AAP electoral performance will clean up BJP in MP, Gujarat, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan or wherever the party is. Yesterday Rajdeep bleated his frustration with Akhilesh Yadav over the mishandling of Muzaffarnagar victims in camps. Well, many of Rajdeep’s IOTY nominees have indeed turned out miserable non-performers. But hey, it’s not performance that counts with the IBN gang, it’s whether their sham awards will be funded or not given the nominees they pick. Of course, CNN-IBN awarded another IOTY to Kejriwal this year so watch out for Rajdeep’s tweet a few months later. Some observant ones like Bhupendra Chaube, Suhasini Haider and Anubha Bhonsle have kept out of this malicious campaign by their ring leaders. Pallavi Ghosh still suffers from the Stockholm-syndrome with Rahul Gandhi.

TheJaggi knows better! He does know who is right wing and left wing. From the entire stable of IBN he was the only one to bluntly state that Sonia Gandhi is the most divisive politician in this country and not Narendra Modi. The whole gang at IBN (save a few) also know AAP is a pawn and clone of Congress. How far these “useful idiots” will carry their campaign is a matter of time. Much as clowns like Rajdeep and C5M Sagarika talk about “rifts” in political parties, a closer look into IBN will also reveal a severe political conflict that runs deeper.

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