ArnabGate

The Lalit Modi-Sushma Swaraj-Vasundhara Raje Episode

All these little boys and girls who claim to have studied at grand Oxbridge or Columbia colleges and pass for editors on TV channels consistently demonstrate how uneducated and brainless they really are. On the night of June 25 Arnab Goswami, in his usual outrage, screamed at a BJP spokie (Shrikant Sharma) that if Lalit Modi (LM) can be helped on humanitarian grounds then possibly BJP might tomorrow help Dawood as well. There’s a problem here that the new Category4Moron Arnab refuses to see. Dawood is wanted for mass-murder, declared a terrorist and is a fugitive whereas none of that applies to LM.

You have the moronery to equate a wanted terrorist to someone who is on political asylum in the UK because of death threats that he fears in India. I am no fan of LM and I am not convinced he’s an angel in all this muck flying around. But to equate LM with Dawood to merely outrage over wanting the scalp of a minister is the kind of criminal journalism that passes in our media. AG is an ignoramus who cannot distinguish between two cases and will talk all kinds of nonsense like a little child who wants his chocolate. They may wear all the suits and lipstick but still remain uneducated. So what’s the case? Let’s see.

In the first one Sushma Swaraj, the EAM, is reported to have recommended travel documents for LM so that he can visit his ailing wife outside UK. This was on LM’s request. The UK govt considered LM’s request on recommendation of one of their MPs. Now, AG first LIED that his passport is revoked and therefore this was to circumvent LM’s need for a travel document. This lie fell flat on its face. GOI (UPA) had revoked his passport as he was wanted for questioning by the ED (though it baffles me why they didn’t revoke it before he went to the UK). Delhi HC restored his passport and told ED that questioning can also be done by video-conferencing. Yes (for the benefit of Congi idiots) and Arnab, in this day and age, if our SC can grant bail on mobile calls and video conferencing, then ED can also undertake questioning through video conference. No court, police or legal body has designated LM as a fugitive.

That India now has a policy of helping Indians when they are in trouble is a policy I applaud. We have seen that in Yemen, we have seen extraordinary effort to save one missionary from Afghanistan. What SS did was the right thing and should be done for any Indian as long as he is not a WANTED criminal. Arnab must attend classes with his friend AM Singhvi in his chambers to understand the distinction. However, SS shouldn’t have surrounded it with such secrecy which made it look like a clandestine act although no crime was committed.

How criminal is the agenda of the media and Congress? These folks compared SS' act with those of scamsters like A. Raja, Suresh Kalmadi and so on as if she had looted the nation's wealth like these and other politicians are accused of. They cannot tell the difference and that is why they are uneducated and can be purchased to push an agenda beyond reasonable sense.

The second issue is that of Vasundhara Raje, CM of Rajasthan, giving a clean bill of character to LM to secure some immigration or asylum rights. In that note she wants it not to be disclosed to Indian authorities and also mentions LM was being politically hounded and faced threats. A letter from a legislator helps get political asylum faster. This was done in 2011 when Raje was not the CM. Here too, there is no doubt about Raje having doled out a favour to LM and in secrecy. That’s the only problem – the secrecy. Indian politicians seem to be unable to put their political conflicts aside and boldly do what their conscience permits. If Raje had issued that certificate and informed GOI at that time of having issued it then it would have been perfectly alright. She might have been criticised strongly then instead of the flak she faces now. She richly deserves all the flak and brickbats she is getting. But she has broken no law.

The trashing that SS got in the media was excessive and in the case of VR it has gone on too long and can rightly be called a witch-hunt. All other channels criticised them too but it is Arnab whose moronery exceeded even his peanut–size legal knowledge and he started demanding resignations of these two ministers. Remember, the job of a journalist to report, present facts and let the political class demand or agitate for resignations. At best this C4M can say both ministers should resign. The GOI is not AG’s private backyard that he can scream “SACK VASUNDHARA NOW”. Who the hell are you? That’s exceeding your brief. And claiming that he’s a journo he has never learned that if you hound your targets beyond a point then the public develops sympathy for them. All these media morons have not learned anything from hounding Modi excessively for 12 years.

The other thing is that there is no corruption involved in these episodes and no money was given or taken. Also, which law have these ladies broken? If there was some law that they had broken then our media would have quoted Section 666 or Section 786 or something. I have not heard of anyone in the media or in the Opposition claiming they broke laws. So both SS and VR do deserve a severe reprimand and caution but the demand for their resignation for so many days goes beyond mere principles. It unquestionably suggests and indicates an agenda.

Arnab has a history of hounding people with an agenda of seeking scalps. There was the Nitin Gadkari hounding which lasted for a month. There was this N Sreenivasan hounding which lasted 21 days. There have been others too. In the case of Gadkari all of it turned out to be nothing but a “Supari” hit job. In case of Sreenivasan, many indicated the agenda was because of conflict between TOI and BCCI. Sreenivasan continues to be in some position or the other in Indian cricket. After the world cup he wanted to hound MS Dhoni out and got severely trashed on Twitter. Whether SS or VR stay or go is none of my concern. But the media and Congress claiming “moral” grounds is like Al Capone preaching Prohibition.

All of Arnab’s mindless bitching has gotten nowhere. I am sure Arnab knows this and therefore he pounces on any and every little firecracker and screams “It’s a bomb, it’s a bomb”. People don’t find it funny anymore and none of his silly hashtags trend on Twitter either. At the end of it all, maybe in a year, when we thoroughly scrutinise every witch-hunt (going beyond news reporting) Arnab has carried out we will find most of them were damp squibs and the only real scandal would be ArnabGate.