India's Greatest LIE

I sincerely hope CNN-IBN does not read this post. They have this habit of creating all those “Greatest” polls and awards and an award like “India’s Biggest Liar” might get a huge number of votes beyond their control. But I’m sure some may have heard of this annual “World’s biggest liar” contest. It’s held in November every year in Cumbria, England. Contestants have 5 minutes each to tell their biggest lie before the biggest liar is chosen. Only one problem though. Politicians and lawyers are barred from contesting because they are too ‘skilled’ at lying or are “professional liars”. Not very nice, is it? However, I’m petitioning the organisers of this contest to next year exclude “Editorialists” too. If politicians and lawyers can be categorised as “skilled liars” I don’t see why, with changing times, many editors and anchors too shouldn’t fall in that category. The job of these editors is to correct the record and lies that politicians may perpetrate but in India, over the years, they seem to thrill in these lies owing to their own political persuasions. I once recommended a “lie-detector” for NDTV and with good reason too.

Indian history has many lies. Some have been corrected some still happily float as gospel truth. Let’s keep that aside. Let’s take the single beneficiary of the highest number of lies against him over the last 11 years. As it happened Narendra Modi was in Delhi on Sunday, March 3, 2013 for a BJP meet and interacted with members of the party. It also happens that Modi is an extraordinary orator and possesses an armoury of one-liners and taunts that hurt his opponents. So he called PM Manmohan Singh a “night watchman” implying that he is just guarding the crease for the prince. That upset Congress members and supporters. I wonder why though. MMS has been called ‘tragic failure’, ‘Sonia’s puppet’ and even ‘Theek Hai’ which are far worse than a night watchman who still has a very important role. Tough! That wasn’t all, given so much corruption and so many scams under the Congress govt, Modi added “BJP=Mission, Congress=Commission”. That would have really upset the Congress as also their media supporters like Rajdeep and Sagarika, in particular.

Over the last decade the Gujarat 2002 riots were used to trash Modi for anything. Then the economic development in Gujarat was trashed. When all else failed politically the chant has turned to “What about malnutrition in Gujarat?”. Rajdeep doesn’t even complete a tweet about Modi or Gujarat without malnutrition. All is fair. But unable to stomach the “commission” tag the Congress went back to a very old theme of “Rajdharma”. Who else but Manish Tiwari! Tiwari, who should be concerned about who is really corrupt from “head to toe” in the most corrupt govt in the history of India, had nothing to offer but AB Vajpayee’s “Rajdharma” comment of 2002.

Over the years, the lie perpetrated by Congress and our MSM is that Vajpayee asked Modi to follow “Rajdharma” after the Gujarat riots during a presser. That is an entirely inaccurate portrayal of what happened at that presser. When Yudhisthara, who was never known to lie, said “Ashwathama is dead” he also added gently that he wasn’t sure if it was an elephant or a man. So Modi’s political opponents picking up only that first line is somewhat understandable given politicians are “professional liars” barred from lying contests. But that’s the reason I recommend that editors of MSM should be included in that category for they too are professional liars, especially when it comes to Modi. Here’s what happened at that presser:

By 2002 ABV was starting to be frail. He not only walked slowly because of his knee problem, he also spoke in slow halting sentences. Sometimes he would speak a sentence and stall for a whole minute or more. So his “Rajdharma” comment was in response to a question by a reporter on what he would advise Modi. That is fair enough. Advising any CM to follow “Rajdharma” is sound advice and every political head should be following that dharma. But this has been turned into the biggest LIE over a decade to imply that Modi was “guilty” in the 2002 riots and therefore ABV advised him so. This is also used to imply that Modi wasn’t following that dharma. What is being completely overlooked is that in his slow, halting speech ABV also said in Hindi that “I have faith this is what Narendrabhai is exactly doing”. That is, following Rajdharma. (Watch from 1.08 onwards in the video, I have enhanced the volume for clarity)

Congress members and political opponents of Modi twisting this and continue this LIE is understandable in the context of Indian politics where honesty is at premium. But that the media celebs too perpetrated this LIE and never made the slightest attempt to correct the records would make them more culpable as LIARS. Thus, the Cumbria event should bar the Indian editors too as they should be considered “professional liars”.  

In the history of Indian politics and media, this “Rajdharma” comment being twisted and misused by the media should easily win the award of India’s Greatest LIE ever.