End-It TV

Kanimozhi of DMK is in jail. She is not yet convicted of a crime but denied bail in the 200 crore bribe channelled to her Kalaignar TV. Far from being democratic quite a few political parties have adopted the communist method of propaganda TV channels. Kalaignar is not the only one in Tamil Nadu. There’s Sun TV and there is Jaya TV. There are some more in AP and Kerala and in some more states. Then there are some that play the role on the national stage. It is this excessive desire for party propaganda that has lured many media outlets to become poodles of political parties and into corrupt practices.

END IT TV !

On Friday, May 20 on her program ‘Left, Right, Centre’ on NDTV, Nidhi Razdan was discussing the Rahul Gandhi Bhatta-Parsaul episode. Some of the participants were Jayanthi Natarajan, Congress spokesperson, Swapan Dasgupta, right-leaning journalist, Zoya Hassan and another. The whole exercise seemed to be one of extracting Rahul Gandhi from the mess he created and spray paint some level of virtue into his conduct and utterances. I can understand if journalists of various hues are involved in such a discussion but why would you get a Jayanthi Natarajan into this? Does anyone expect Jayanthi to honestly assess the worth of Rahul Gandhi or his utterances? True to form Natrajan sermonised on the vision and strategy of Rahul Gandhi and how he is laying the ground work for the long term with the youth of this nation.

In the US, UK, France or any other major democracy Rahul Gandhi would have by now been the staple diet of late night comedians. He would have been the unending fountain of daily and weekly scripts for comedy shows. The Bill Mahers, the Lettermans, the Jon Stewarts, the Craig Fergusons feasted on Sarah Palin during the run up to the 2008 US election. I may lack the intellectual compass of a Jayanthi Natarajan but I cannot see how Rahul Gandhi is any different from Sarah Palin. Both see things. Palin sees Russia from her lawns and Rahul sees dead people. And both consistently utter absurdities. Both would do Don Quixote proud.

Tweets about Rahul Gandhi following the Greater Noida episode make hilarious reading. Those were comments reflecting his utter lack of maturity and thoughtfulness when opening his mouth. Yet NDTV systematically and consistently continues to portray him as some kind of great hero in the making. Is there something that the people at NDTV can see in Rahul Gandhi that ordinary people can’t? There was one tweet that said Nike is going to sponsor Rahul’s mouth because he usually has his ‘foot’ in it! The Congress may not own up to his gaffes publicly and that is understandable. However, I am sure privately they may recognise the need to counsel him. What exactly is NDTV’s brief in regularly trying to either extricate Rahul from a pickle or to portray him as some kind of hero?

Very recently after the cricket win against Pakistan in the world cup semi-final NDTV carried a banner on its website with the victorious Indian team with Rahul Gandhi at one end. Naturally, there was an explosion of tweets on what the motive was behind putting up Rahul’s pic in that banner. If this is not blatant and unwarranted sycophancy and promotion of a politician I wonder what is. Read the whole report here along with screenshots of the tweets andthe banners. So why is NDTV still pretending to be an independent news channel and not being bold enough to be like Kalaignar TV?

A regular reader of this blog (Free_Verse & thanks to her) has sent in an astonishing comment on the performance of Rahul Gandhi as an MP and I quote (some of this info is also available on various other websites):

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FIRST let us question Rahul Gandhi on the status of his pet constituency, Amethi, which incidentally has seen FIVE generations of Nehru Dynasty MPs.

Some developmental indicators:

(1) Amethi has 39.5% literacy level (national average being around 65%),
(2) Around 50% population is below poverty line
(3) Only 15% population has access to electricity
(4) Vaccination level is below 16%
(5) Around 16% of children die below age of 5 years
(6) Amethi received Rs.3.06 crore as developmental fund (or MPLAD) from Govt. of India in 2009-10 of which Rahul Gandhi used merely 5.89% (0.18 crore).

Second, let us see his record as a champion youth icon Member of Parliament :
(1) The national MP attendance average in the parliament is 77%. Rahul Gandhi's attendance is 47%. (Hahahahha! That's 74 in reverse for you!)
(2) National average for questions asked by MPs in parliament is 119. Rahul Gandhi asked ZERO questions.
(3) The national average for Debates attended by MPs is 15.6. Rahul Gandhi attended ZERO debates.

His record as an MP is sourced from HERE. 

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For a performance like the one above I surely cannot see any vision or strategy in Rahul Gandhi other than his second name. So, in a time when more and more politicians are talking about performance and development there are some channels that have become propaganda channels and go any extent to cover up the non-performance and incompetence of the politician of their own political persuasion. In this case it appears NDTV seeks to glorify Rahul Gandhi for reasons that I think they know best.

Politicians are known to deceive people, create fear where there is no need. What exactly is the motivation of news channels. If the case of Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV is any indicator it is time that propaganda channels are scrutinised and shut down. These are the greatest dangers to democracy.

Yet, nothing characterizes the loathing of ordinary people by TV channels as Barkha Dutt does. And she is, indeed, the face of NDTV. Writing on the Hindustan Times website (A perilous path) she states: “Did anyone notice that while we were so busy hating our democracy, panchayat elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time in more than a decade. Usually, the right-wing loony fringe is not just well organised in the venom it orchestrates online; it is especially vocal against anyone with a nuanced perspective on the genuine issues of alienation in the Valley. Any talk of ‘political solutions’ to the Kashmir issue gets you labelled ‘anti-national’ and invites instant online stalking.” Yeah that’s right, “while we were so busy hating our democracy..” and the “…right wing loony fringe..” This is supposed to be her personal opinion. Well, these personal opinions do influence the way the media handles real issues as well.

As for NDTV, I think it is time to End It TV!

Manish Tiwari Establishes ‘The Supreme Court Of Perception’

On Friday (March 4) there were two events of significance concerning the CBI. First, the Supreme Court issued notices to L.K. Advani and others on the Babri case on an appeal by the CBI. Earlier, a High Court had quashed further proceedings against Advani & Co. on this case. The second, a Delhi Court accepted the CBI’s appeal for closure of the Bofors investigation.

Predictably, Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari was invited on CNN-IBN to comment on the SC notice to Advani. I assume Tiwari believes the SC too may throw out the CBI appeal. So instead of commenting on the notice Tiwari makes a sweeping judgement on Advani and others. His repeated statement to CNN-IBN’s Bhupen Choubey was that regardless of the outcome of the appeal in the SC it was established in the eyes of the people that ‘Advani and others, the BJP, the VHP, the RSS and the Sangh Parivar’ were responsible for the Babri masjid incident. And his statement effectively meant that in ‘public perception’ the people and groups involved were already ‘guilty’. And like lame ducks, both Choubey and the other anchor on CNN-IBN allowed  Tiwari to continue with his senseless rant.

Manish Tiwari - Chief Justice: 'Supreme Court of Perception'

Manish Tiwari is supposedly a lawyer. I have no idea since when lawyers started using ‘perception’ as strong evidence in legal issues. Never mind! I agree that perception does influence thoughts and actions of people but I doubt courts are influenced by perceptions. Perhaps they do in ‘The Supreme Court of Perception’ conveniently established by Manish Tiwari, with himself as its Chief Justice. So, I have some more cases for Mr. Manish Tiwari.

In the second case where a Delhi Court has accepted closure of the Bofors case are Rajiv Gandhi, Quatrochi and others now ‘perceived’ to be ‘not-guilty’? The media should take that to the Court of Manish Tiwari and it would be interesting to hear his answers.

Again, Advani recently apologised to Sonia Gandhi on Swiss bank accounts. Hmmm, that again should be taken to Manish Tiwari’s court of perception. Do people really believe that Sonia Gandhi or family does not have Swiss accounts? On Friday, on the black money case the petitioner once again repeated the charge of the Gandhi family holding illegitimate Swiss bank accounts and ill-gotten wealth. That includes a 2 Bn dollar pay off by the KGB. What does Manish Tiwari’s court of perception have to say about that? An Allahabad court has recently issued notice to Rahul Gandhi in a petition of ‘illegal detention’ of a woman named Sukanya and her family. What’s the perception Mr. Tiwari? In the same related incident there are allegations of rape against Rahul Gandhi floating for over 4 years on the net. What’s the perception, Mr. Tiwari?

Who killed Sanjay Gandhi? Why was the inquiry commission closed? Any answers from the court of perception? How did politicians like Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot and YSR die in mysterious accidents? Should we take these cases to the courts of perception?  I am quite certain the loud and foul-mouthed Tiwari will certainly have answers to all of these. The case of Hassan Ali, accused to have black money to the tune of 9Bn dollars in Swiss bank was not being pursued vigorously by the UPA. This till the Supreme Court had to lash out asking “what the hell is going on..”. And the media suddenly reveals political connections of Hassan Ali. What’s the perception, Mr. Tiwari?

The media frequently calls politicians and allows them to make ‘hit and run’ statements without any follow up questions. If perceptions were votes Mr. Tiwari, you would be selling vegetables at Crawford Market.

Rahul Gandhi – Sukanya Case: Amazing Media Silence

You don’t need great imagination to wonder what the media would have done if any other politician, especially from the Opposition, was allegedly involved in a rape incident. Yes, they would have fallen over each other in ‘Breaking News’ and the story would have been headlines for 10 or even more days. So why is there a complete silence on the issue of Rahul Gandhi being allegedly involved in a some incident concerning a woman named Sukanya? The story is not new to many who have followed such reports on the net but now there is a court in Allahabad which has initiated some action in this strange and secretive case.

This from the Economic Times online on March 1: The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court today issued notice to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on a petition alleging that a girl and her parents were illegally detained by him since 2007. Justice Shri Narayan Shukla passed the order, seeking Gandhi's reply, on a habeas corpus petition filed by Kishore Samrite, a former Samajwadi Party MLA from Madhya Pradesh, on behalf of Sukanya Devi, her father Balram Singh and mother Sumitra Devi. The petition alleged that the petitioners -- Sukanya Devi and her parents -- were in illegal detention of Rahul Gandhi since January 4, 2007. It has sought direction to command the Congress leader to produce the girl and her parents before the court and set them at liberty.

The petition doesn’t refer to rape but it refers to something just as sinister. ‘Illegal detention’! Now why would a court accept such a petition? We all know there many trigger happy petitioners wanting to file all kinds of cases against prominent people in society. This, however, is something that has been dragging since January 2007. The first story about the alleged case was carried by Hinduunity.Org on a website and this was followed by a supposed legal notice for defamation by Rahul’s lawyers. Intellibriefs still carries that story.

Has the media played judge, jury and defendant and decided there is nothing in the case to report about? One can understand that. It is safe to assume that if there is truth in these allegations and the court gets into the process fully then it may well be the end of Rahul Gandhi. Now, that is what would hurt the media. An entire media industry, with the exception of some outfits, built around its servantile relationship with the Congress (I) would be doomed if these reports were proven to be true. And if indeed Sukanya and her family do exist, where are they? Why will nobody in the mainstream media even dare to talk about the whereabouts of this family?

This can no more be treated as a rumour or malicious campaign by someone, although it may well have started out as one. And it is time Rahul Gandhi spoke out and made a statement himself. Silence will only fuel more suspicions. Now that a court is involved the media silence once again proves how corrupt and crooked our mainstream media is. I can only repeat what I’ve said before. In this tech-age you have no place to hide. Neither Rahul Gandhi nor a crony media. If there is actually someone called Sukanya it may do well for both Rahul Gandhi and the media that she and her family be traced.