Anti-Indian Of The Year 2010

I must clarify at the outset that being Anti-Indian is not the same as being Anti-India. Since TV channels and many media outlets offer sham awards to politicians like ‘Indian of the year’ and so on, this was an exercise to measure who could be Anti-Indian of the year 2010. Not surprisingly it was Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi who polled the most votes. Though reasons are not hard to see, prominent among them has to be their silence on the scams, anti-Hindu rhetoric and, most of all, deserting the ‘Aam’ Indian. Hit by severe price rises, shocking scams, corrupt party members, these two have a lot to answer for. If Sonia Gandhi is the winner of this poll then I might dare to say that in the runner-up, RahulG, India awaits its biggest disaster yet.

       Sonia Gandhi-Anti-Indian Of The Year & Rahul Gandhi-Runner Up

The poll results on the right margin of this page and it is not scientific by any means but it is definitely a reasonable indication of people's opinions in the current scenario of scams and scandals. Surprisingly, even A. Raja, the spectrum-crook, came in third when one would have expected him to top the chart.

Having ignored the ‘Aam Aadmi’ and presided over the most corrupt government in the history of India, Sonia Gandhi has also watched over Congress history being written. How this party usurped the legacy of the Congress of the Independence movement is a telling story of the conniving media and spineless opposition parties. This Congress (I) cannot equate itself with that Congress that fought for independence. If anything, this exercise in history was probably meant to white-wash the sins of Indira Gandhi. The Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, subversion of the constitution by her, imprisoning opponents and silencing the press has to be a dark blot that will forever remain in the history of India. To blame Sanjay Gandhi alone for excesses of the Emergency is like blaming the son for having gotten a bad mother. Congress (I) was always a party of sycophants, P. Chidambaram only helped to confirm it with his ‘Rahul reminds of Rajiv’ line. 

If the Sonia-Rahul duo should ever come to power again then I have to state that the future of this country is indeed bleak. I managed to lay my hands on the real Congress (I) history book they probably read all the time. A bird gave it to me !!

Happy New Year !

Manmohan Singh & Caesar’s Wife

When you see a doctor, you trust him with your body and life. When you board a flight, you trust the commander of the flight. When it comes to the nation, wouldn’t you trust your Prime Minister?  The answer to all three questions has to be a resounding ‘Yes’. But it’s also a fact that accidents can happen, lives can be lost, nations can be harmed.  Personally, I have no doubts that Dr. Manmohan Singh is an upright, clean statesman but he has failed in his job as the prime minister. The nation has been subjected to grave harm and serious danger and he indulges in his favourite theme of ‘Caesar’s wife being above suspicion’. This is to his own Congress (I) members. If you have to make bold statements, make it to the nation and not to your party-men who will neither challenge you nor debate your utterances. If you have to be bold, face a JPC.

Firstly, it is as good as a Flight Commander saying he did everything right but his co-pilots screwed up. It’s like a doctor blaming the nurse for having given him the wrong knife. Most importantly, it reflects an utter lack of a sense of responsibility for his government’s and ministers’ deeds. MMS is offering to prove he is innocent, when no one is accusing him of guilt. People are merely seeking the truth. Despite the scams most people have unfailingly given him a ‘clean’ certificate. It’s the failure as the Prime Minister that he should accept and act upon and not on whether he should prove his innocence where corruption is concerned. Silence on various other issues is equally damning. It is for this very reason I call him the ‘head in sand’ prime minister and equally criminally culpable for the misdeeds of his government. If your dog bites someone, you are liable. Some of the prime minister’s cabinet ‘dogs’ have bitten the entire nation and left it bleeding. The PM is answerable and equally liable for those dogs.

Head In Sand Prime Minister

As for Caesar’s wife, MMS uses it as a convenient line frequently for his own benefit. Here is  what a critical analysis of his career has to say: “When advised by admirers to leave the Congress in 1996 and concentrate again on propounding economic philosophies, he had dismissed the plea with his signature feeble voice, thus, "But I am in politics!" It seems somewhere in his subconscious he fancied his chances in a possible second innings in the future. Soon after the 1996 elections at a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party, he quoted the "Caesar's wife" proverb. the insinuation was clear; he was distancing himself from Narasimha Rao.” (Read the full article here.)

What MMS does hide is the fact that Caesar made that statement to explain why he divorced his wife and not as proof of his wife’s innocence. The story behind that proverb can be searched anywhere on the net. The prime minster failed to divorce his cabinet wives who should have been above suspicion. If he himself, like Caesar’s wife, is above suspicion then he should divorce the Congress (I) or divorce himself from the responsible position he holds, because he has been clearly suspected of shielding corrupt ministers and covering up misdeeds of his government. For a change, the media is telling him these facts and are showing him why Caesar made that statement.

Far from the Caesar’s wife proverb, I would like to ask MMS “Et Tu Brutus”? That would be a more appropriate line for him.

Media Sensationalises Judges’ Blame-Game.. But Where’s The FIR against A. Raja?

‘SC judge puts Ex-CJI in dock over Raja’ screams the TOI(let) paper of India. Our stupid news channels have once again fallen over each other again in sensationalising the ongoing blame-game between the three judges over the letter mentioning the attempt of A. Raja to influence a judge of the Madras High Court. Times Now even claimed Justice Reghupathy spoke to them ‘exclusively’. This ‘exclusive’ nonsense has gone on a bit too far. With lots of mikes being thrust upon them the judges involved have been talking to the media in general and as a whole. Yet every Comedy channel (yes, our so-called news channels are nothing more than comedy channels) claims ‘exclusive’ interviews.

With the sole purpose of sensationalising wrangling between judges the media has once again failed the nation by not asking the real question.  What is quite obvious is that although the judges may be passing the buck, one thing is now beyond any doubt. That one judge did mention clearly that A. Raja tried to influence him on behalf of two murder-accused known to the DMK politician.

The real question from the media was totally missing. Where is the FIR against A. Raja? If influencing or attempt to influence a Judge in India is an offence then Raja needs to be prosecuted.

The conflict between judges is surely a news-worthy incident and should be reported. That is making headlines everywhere, when there is apparently no action against the crook who has committed an offence.

When will our media wake up and stop sensationalism and start asking the right questions?  When will we see an FIR against A. Raja for this particular offence?

Is CNN-IBN Plagiarising From MediaCrooks?

Don’t let the title of this post surprise you in the least. The mainstream media is notorious for lifting pieces from blogs and passing it off as their own. Even fake  news and spoofs.  Here is what I wrote in my post titled ‘UPA Govt. May Not Have A Case Against Nira Radia’ on December 14.

“...one can safely assume the complaint to the then Finance Minster, P. Chidambaram, on the basis of which the phone tapping commenced might as well be fabricated. Else, Chidambaram can and should reveal who the complainant was. That is neither a matter of national secrecy nor a matter of grave danger. I wonder if the complaint was signed by anyone or was an anonymous one”.

This morning, reporting on the CBI raids on Nira Radia, CNN-IBN’s Bhupen Choubey asked the very exact question that I asked above. So why does it strike me? Because nobody, no one in the MSM had asked this question before. Who is the complainant? Is the complaint signed or is it anonymous? This was the exact question that Bhupen Choubey asked.  Picking up pieces from various journals or sites is no crime at all, as long as the source is mentioned. Let’s see if CNN-IBN refutes what I have called plagiarism.

Even if they did, I have no problems. This blog was any way meant to persuade the media to ask the right questions. And for once CNN-IBN, at least, has asked the all important question. Who was the person who filed the complaint against Radia? Was it anonymous? I believe the answer to this simple question will solve the entire drama surrounding the 2G Scam. The CBI raids, eye-wash as they are, on Nira Radia and others is bound to reveal absolutely nothing. With all the intelligence at their disposal it seems outright stupid for the government to be raiding Radia or others now.  Even the tape-leaks are nearly a month old. Everyone involved had enough time to cover their tracks and clean up. I am confident the CBI is working like an old dog that has lost the sensory effectiveness of its nose and smell (or should I say Congress’ ‘pet-dog’?)

Regardless, now that CNN-IBN has asked the question, others in the media should pick it up and pressurise P. Chidambaram to come clean.  The questions that the government should answer are:

1.   Who filed the complaint against Nira Radia that instigated the phone-tap?

2.   Was the complaint signed or anonymous?

3.   If the complaint was signed, was the complainant ever queried or questioned?

The media must now put pressure on P. Chidambaram to come clean. These 3 questions hold the key to the entire phone-tapping and 2G scandal. My personal bet is the complaint was anonymous and was probably fabricated once the Supreme Court got involved in the case.  Will the rest of the mainstream media now pick up the challenge and ask these questions? Even if PC can't reveal the name for some reason, he can definitely inform whether the complaint was signed or anonymous.

Radia Tapes Leak: Needle Of Suspicion Closer To Chidambaram?

Home Secretary G.K. Pillai has said that the leaked Radia tapes  just had "juicy elements" to "titillate" the media. The real details on the spectrum scam, he said, are in the remaining 5,000-plus recordings that haven't yet come out will assist investigators. All this in an interview with the Washington Street Journal on December 6. Thus, it would appear that the tapes that were released, involving journalists and businessmen, didn’t reveal anything concerning the real investigations. So why were those leaked? And who did? Pillai then went on to say  “Everything will come out. Then you can pick and choose”.

Following his interview and other reports that he may be somehow involved in the leakage of the tapes Pillai denied the suggestions and stated “Since I have neither heard nor seen the tapes, the allegations that I am leaking these tapes, at the behest of the Home Minister, is totally unfounded and false”. As I stated in another post, if the government denies something, it must be true. Is it so in this case?

Deepak Parekh, of HDFC, in an interview to Shekhar Gupta stated “You can’t have telephones tapped for two years...even if it’s a crook, does it take you two years?...You arrest that individual, you question that individual”. That sounds like simple common sense which seems quite elusive to our investigating agencies. As if the Congress stooges weren’t already a laughing stock, the CBI now raids A. Raja and others after allowing them a long time to wipe their footprints.

In a previous post I had suggested that ‘Chidambaram must come clean’ on the Radia tapes. It should be anybody’s guess that the probe or investigation or inquiry that the Home Minister keeps referring to is hardly likely to reveal who leaked the tapes. Welcome as the leaks were, it is clear that they were leaked to expose certain journalists and businessmen. It reeks of vendetta and a political one at that. Now who could possibly have a motive to do that? It seems unlikely for a ‘babu’ or some lower level official or some investigator to have the motives. 

Therefore, the leak has to come or should have been orchestrated at the very highest level. The one person who handled the two key ministries of Finance and Home during the period of phone tapping is Mr. P. Chidambaram. And having collectively plunged the nation into a sorry mess, the Congress (I) moralises on corruption. Their foul-mouthed spokesman, Manish Tiwari, calls the opposition ‘maoists and naxals’ for blockading the parliament. I for one don’t give a damn about the parliament right now. Parliament can wait. The JPC should be constituted and the first priority for the country has to be recovering black money and the scam money. The PM is very concerned about the ‘future’ of the parliament. If this man had not silently presided over the biggest scam in the country and some more, then the country would not be in this situation.

I had quoted her earlier and do so again. Mobina Gupta writes at Kafila.Org: "One of the anecdotes doing the rounds among journalists at the moment goes like this: A certain politician-unfriendly journalist asks P Chidambaram whether the Congress is embarrassed by the SC’s observation about the PM’s inaction on the A Raja corruption issue. Chidambaram quips back: Are you in the media embarrassed about the tapes?" 

If Chidambaram does not come clean on the tapes and the leaks, the needle of suspicion will get closer to him each day. The media has the chance to put all the pressure on this man to come clean. One hopes they will not let him off the hook,  now that they have learnt their lessons.