Kejriwal Doesn't Care Two Hoots For Delhi

Let’s keep aside the fact that AAP and Arvind Kejriwal have no answers for the 2 Crore Hawala funding. A bunch of Delhi thugs who called everyone else “corrupt, chor, murderer, rapist” alleged to be a front for money laundering isn’t exactly a big surprise. The story of bogus companies funding AAP is not entirely new. Let’s keep aside the hyperbolic claim that BJP is a corrupt party according to AK. Let us say for argument’s sake that BJP is the only corrupt party in India. Let’s keep aside the lie that inflation has gone up since Modi became PM. Let’s keep aside AK’s lie that crimes against women have gone up 20% in Delhi. Let us also say for argument’s sake that the BJP govt hasn’t been performing. That should please AK & Co. In the meantime, more black money reports keep tumbling out as this Indian Express report suggests:

In October 2012 Rajdeep Sardesai went to Gujarat for his monkey tricks and had that bus-floor interview with Narendra Modi. Seems a long long time ago. Barkha Dutt went to Juhapura, the Muslim Ghetto in Ahmedabad, to inflame passions and campaign for Congress in November 2012. Sagarika Ghose too went to Juhapura and travelled through to Surat campaigning for Congress. Other media crooks campaigned against Modi from the studios. When the results came out even moronic PC said Congress had stopped BJP from getting 2/3rd majority so Congress didn’t lose in the Gujarat polls of 2012. Since December 2012 Congress and its bootlickers haven’t had a major election victory except Karnataka. The BJP not only walked away with major states in December 2013 but also won its first clear majority in LS polls in May 2014. Since then they’ve also won states like Maharashtra and Haryana. Even in JK the BJP is likely to be a member of the ruling coalition; something the Congress’s media pimps would have thought impossible.  It’s been a devastating time for the crooks, particularly the following club of nine-pimps:

“A horse, a horse, a kingdom for my horse… I haven’t had a win in six months” said the Raging Bull. It’s been a long time since our pimps had an electoral victory against the BJP. They are thirsting for blood. They are thirsting for revenge. As in the past, they have thrown all sense of decency in their campaign and projected “Mahatma” Kejriwal as their next messiah since Moses stepped on earth. Here’s what I wrote about the disgrace of these pimps back in December 2013:

“No matter what the results of an election and what their political preferences, media anchors and panellists are expected to carry out discussions with some semblance of reason and logic. All the nine persons above (and there were some more minor ones) were an absolute disgrace in their unwillingness to even grudgingly concede a victory to BJP and the impact of Modi. Their hatred of Modi has now become part of their DNA and disease and there is no cure. It is killing them inside and they know it. All these years these people sucked up to Rahul Gandhi as India’s Obama or the Great White Hope. He sunk them! The Congress doesn’t have an answer to Modi so far nor do these media slaves. Shankarsan Thakur said on TimesNow Congis are afraid to blame the Gandhis. Laughable! I keep saying the media boys and girls piss in their pants and skirts when they have to mention “Gandhi”, so are they now expecting Congis to blame or name Gandhis? The cowards and slaves in the Congress are no different from the cowards and slaves in the MSM. Should we talk of 2014? It’s too early, will drink that poison when the time comes… Arnab Goswami, acting like the regular circus clown, had a stupid question at his 6pm show on December 8: “Is AAP now a threat to Modi”? Well moron, get used to it! All of you are a threat to Modi including Congress, SP, JDU, RJD, RLD, DMK, CPM, AAP, Third Front, Fourth Umpire, CBI, Salma and Sabrina, IM, LeT, JuD and the Indian MSM collectively. He’s still standing. You’re the ones who have fallen to the pits. You’re the real losers”.

And all this for what? The media crooks have turned an ordinary election in Delhi which I call nothing more than a “Senior Municipality” in to a prestige issue, as has Kejriwal. All the recent defeats have battered their egos. On his part, AK is back to his muffler and lying ways. All the media goons made AK imagine he is such a great messiah that he could be the next PM of India. He believed that nonsense and instead of governing and doing good things for Delhi he quit as CM and went on to challenge Modi. He thought Modi was another Sheila Dikshit he could accuse of corruption and do another Uturn. It didn’t work out and as this interview shows, AK can throw allegations against anyone but is a “gaai” when it comes to answering questions. He doesn’t have any answers (1.34 mins):

When the questions are uncomfortable make a claim like “one-sided documents”. What exactly is a one-sided document? Does AK provide allegations against everyone with a two-sided document? Miss Hit & Run doesn’t have any answers. He quit as CM because he thought it’s a position with no powers and he should run the country instead. Like with other parties he wanted to challenge Narendra Modi and be a giant-killer. Fact is, this coward has no interest in governance, politics or anything except seeking a public position of prominence that will give him a life of comfort and make him immune to prosecution for his silly crimes.

He agitated in Gujarat after quitting as CM of Delhi. He employed nonsensical gibberish in his campaign at Varanasi claiming he will stay at Varanasi and serve its people even if he loses. All this balderdash is backed by media criminals because in AK they see a criminal who is rich in their own vein. Does AK care about Delhi? That’s a lot of BS that he knows quite well. He is not from Delhi and he doesn’t really care what happens to Delhi. In a classic case of lying and cheating this is what happened with a channel that was promoting him before LS 2014. There are pimps like Rajdeep and Sagarika who promote this deserter of politics and the number of times his lies have been caught is endless. Take a look (0.47 minutes - Youtube): 

The only thing that is important for Arvind Kejriwal is to somehow survive for his sponsors, whoever they are, for a limited purpose and for self-survival. AK doesn’t have a mission; he doesn’t know what to do. It is like crashing from one hole to another like I explained in “The reincarnation of ArvindKejriwal”. The last stop will be jail, if our laws really take their own course. Unlike in the past, no one has slapped or thrown ink at AK. This is a substantial improvement in his character (although there are a few days still left for voting). In between the last and the current election Aaptards have enriched themselves to further become more “Aam” than ever before.

The truthful thing for a politician to say would be to claim he wants power. I do not recollect ever seeing a criminal claiming he is an angel who doesn’t want power. Sometimes I do wonder how this uncouth, uncivilised bunch of thugs called AAP are even a party in contention in Delhi but then they are not very different from the average Delhi culture. As for Delhi, Kejriwal doesn’t give 2 hoots about the city or its people. He cannot survive a month without chaos or anarchy.

CNN-IBN - Happy Endings

Slowly but surely many Congress members are acknowledging the inevitable; that they had lost connect with the people and therefore did badly in the recent elections. This is dawning upon other parties like NCP, BSP, SP and AAP too. One Congress member from Kerala even called Rahul Gandhi a “joker” for the failure. There are many such jokers in the media too. Like the Gandhis, they too were like kings and queens who sat in their offices and had no connect with people. When they did speak to people, they scoffed at their ideas, sound-bites and tweets. They said SM would have no impact on elections. Now they’re reversing that opinion too. The Indian news media had become the poodles of one family and party. They survived on crumbs thrown at them without really having any real business model. I’ve said before that poodles surviving on crumbs cannot have the nose of a blood hound. They couldn’t smell the churning on the ground. A sorry chapter at CNN-IBN and their parent company Network 18 is coming to an end. Years of hate-mongering has its price. Raghav Bahl has already quit. Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose are reportedly on their way. Here’s what a report says:

First things first! One must compliment Raghav Bahl for putting together a news organisation from scratch. Building an organisation is not easy and takes a lot of toil, patience and passion. It must be painful for him to exit a company that he built but his only mistake, as with others, is not being able to see the writing on the wall. He allowed two of his senior editors to run amok with their political propaganda, lies and bad journalism. He refused to take feedback and measure the pulse of people. A company is built with talent in its early stages but as it grows it also acquires a certain amount of baggage. Such baggage is often confused for ballast. Rajdeep and Sagarika have indulged in extraordinary hate-mongering. They coined terms like “Hindutva laboratory” “Hero of hatred” “Mass murderer”; did they really think people will sit back and watch? In addition, their constant ridiculing of ordinary people and anti-Hindu stance did not endear them to people. N18 had become a slave of the Congress party and when that ship was sinking the entire network became a promoter of AAP. Sagarika, in particular, has indulged in crass skulduggery and mischief on many occasions. She should have been sacked long ago. That Bahl sacked ordinary employees and retained Sagarika reflects poor thinking and poor management vision. The bottle-neck is always at the top of the bottle.

The astonishing fact about N18 is that conflict wasn’t so much on the business or revenue front but more on their political preferences. I had tried to understand their political conflicts in two parts earlier (Part-1, Part-2). It should be of concern to the entire media on why there should be upheavals in a media house as a consequence of political changes. People in news media have political preferences but as news channels life should go on regardless of who is in power and political changes. And it was all out in the public with Sagarika’s mischievous tweets. Let’s follow the sequence. On February 7, Sagarika tweeted about an “evil” that is choking their voices:    

She was on a rant as if some major calamity had befallen journalists. And who exactly is that “Evil”? Obviously, she was referring to Raghav Bahl or Narendra Modi or Mukesh Ambani or a combination of them jointly operating from behind the scenes. Was there anything like that? The same Shivam Vij (whose report appears in the first pic above) carried an article about how “Sagarika can’t criticise Modi anymore”. And then Ram Guha (the family’s Nehruvian sidekick) also made noises about it. This became a major discussion in media circles. What happens then? There is a flurry of emails exchanged between Raghav Bahl and Rajdeep Sardesai. Here are some excerpts with date and timestamp (in blue):

Feb 10 – RB to RS 6.46am

Please see tweet below from Ram Guha. Coming from somebody as influential/credible as him (also one of your closest professional associates), this one is damaging. What’s more, Sagarika’s mail to me yesterday, clearly saying that she has NEVER been “muzzled” over the last 8 years in N18, completely and totally contradicts this. So in all fairness, I suggest we do one of the following things:

1 Sagarika isses a CATEGORICAL denial of this tweet; OR

2 We could release the relevant text from Sagarika’s mail to me, so that this matter is put to rest.

Do let me know how you would like to proceed on this.

Feb 10 – RS to RB 6.55am

This is I believe in response to an article appearing in scroll.in, which is a website run by someone called shivam vij. I have already replied to shivam, saying judge us by actions not innuendo. Can respond to ram too if need be. The point is, and I have learnt this to great cost, that any reply only leads to an avalanche of more responses and attracts even more attention. A denial can easily be issued, alternately, we just have to stay above the noise.

Feb 10 – RB to RS 7.07 am

Rajdeep – this one is too close/credible/for comfort/silence. Ram Guha endorsing this is almost equal to you /Sagarika saying this (especially since Sagarika was in Bangalore just yesterday). A full, formal and UNAMBIGUOUS clarification/denial, of the sort that Sagarika wrote to me, must be issued….. Silence is golden, but not always.

Feb 10 – RS to RB 7.11 am

Sagarika has not met/spoken to ram in a while. Ram is, however, close to a few of those who run the scroll.in website which is an ideologically left website. Ram, like many, has allowed perception to cloud his judgement, and to be fair, he has been a great supporter of the channel at all times. However, a categorical denial on twitter can be easily issued.

Interesting, eh? On February 9 when Ram Guha tweeted the alarm, Sagarika was in Bangalore and claims she couldn’t speak to him. Could be that she was very busy. Do note the time stamps in the emails above. All of it is early morning. I have not seen Sagarika tweeting early morning in the past but it’s possible I may have missed some. But as the transactions in the emails are going on what does Sagarika do? Here’s what she tweet early morning on February 10 to Ram Guha:

Wow! Bahl and Rajdeep are trading emails and Sagarika wakes up to tweet at 7.38am in reply to Ram Guha’s alarm. And what does she now say? It’s not Bahl or Modi or Ambani but ordinary folks on the SM who are stalking her. People on the SM are stalking her? Her story changes from “Evil” threat to “stalkers” on SM in just 3 days. Such is the mischief and lie-mongering of this woman. Anyone who calls her a journalist or employs her as an editor has to seriously have his head examined. But those who have observed her and Rajdeep for a dozen years know well how these two have consistently peddled crap through their channel or their articles. Rajdeep’s lies and hate-mongering goes all the way back to Star News and NDTV when he first covered the Gujarat 2002 riots and then participated in the malicious campaign against Modi. And all this nonsense for what? Because Sagarika and Rajdeep wanted to promote AAP unhindered in their political campaign under the garb of a news channel. So turn everyone – bosses, social media, everyone into “Evil”.

Apart from their own hate-mongering, these two got every charlatan who could condemn Modi or spew garbage against him in whatever form they could. They got “intellectual morons” like Amartya Sen, Amitava Ghosh, Dipankar Gupta and the whole lot to wilfully lie and rubbish Modi for their convenience. This is hardly the conduct of journalists or editors. Everyone has his or her bias but to peddle lies and even paint Hindus as monsters cannot be passed as journalism. And the constant spats with ordinary people on Twitter heaping abuses on them and then playing victim. Where did all this come from? Politicians pay the price for failing to read the people’s pulse and media crooks will not be exceptions anymore. Elections are over but habits die hard. CNN-IBN still continues to lie and twist statements coming from BJP as can be seen in the pic. I prefer not to comment on the finances of N18 or the luxuries in which many editors live at the cost of their sinking organisation because that is not the concern of this site.

There is a flip side to all this that cannot be overlooked. While the liars posing as editors may leave along with founder Raghav Bahl, the idea of Reliance taking over the whole network is not without dangers. In a note Bahl has stated to his employees Mukesh Ambani is a good human being and the company is in good hands. That may well be true and there is no reason to doubt that. But the idea of a corporate giant controlling N18, apart from other networks, is not a healthy turn. The very size of Reliance when all their businesses are put together is phenomenal. There may come a time when anything you purchase or consume will have Reliance behind it or Reliance maybe in the market for the same product with a controlling share. Reliance likes to control every commodity market – from yarn to gas to news to communication and so on. That’s a bigger problem to be addressed separately. Politicians and large businesses (that are not purely news media) controlling the media is a bad omen for citizens.  

One may change cars, change cities, change jobs and even change spouses but many people don’t change the easiest person to change: “the self”. No matter where Rajdeep or Sagarika go it won’t make a damn difference. This is true for many other crooks posing as editors in the media. I wonder what lessons they have learned. From their communications it doesn’t look like they’ve learned any. They will bring the same filth to the table and I doubt they are capable of learning any lessons. They sank CNN-IBN and they will sink someone else. There are no happy endings.

CNN-IBN's Political Conflict - Part 2

Previous part to this story, from December 2013: “The political conflict at CNN-IBN”

In a tribute to John Lennon, Elton John sang “Empty Garden” referring to Lennon as a wonderful gardener who weeded out tears and grew good crop and refers to his killer: “It’s funny how one insect can damage so much grain”. That’s true for any organisation or body. One insect is all it takes. News channels are meant to inform and educate the public. If they are into crooked acts in their kitchen, it is in public interest to know what’s going on; even if some are private business entities. Therefore, the goings-on in every news channel that claims to be doing public service are liable for scrutiny. On the flip side, every business must watch for the insects and rats that float in their offices and board rooms. Here’s a tweet from Sagarika Ghose when the Tarun Tejpal incident broke in November 2013:

Interesting, eh? “Many of us journos have faced harassment…” she says. The sick statement implies she speaks for many when she doesn’t. It implies she knows those who suffered but she didn’t speak out for them. It also implies she herself may have suffered silently. At whose hands? It implies she is some sort of “victim” too? And what does she fear? She doesn’t hesitate to slander those she doesn’t like and heap wanton abuses. After all that, she does a camouflaged “Saving Tejpal” act too.

“Aan – men at work” is a Bollywood movie loosely inspired by Brian De Palma’s “The Untouchables”. But there is a particular scene in “Aan” that shows how to put your bosses and other top leaders in a tight spot if they are a hindrance to you. That’s what Akshay Kumar does when he drops a mischievous hint to reporters on how they will be transferred if they leak names or speak up. Let’s watch the video (1.30 mins):

So Akshay Kumar gives the media a vague hint and tells them if he reveals information he and his men will suffer. This is because his boss doesn’t allow certain investigations. Clever, isn’t it? Somewhat like this tweet by Sagarika:

Oh, there is an “evil” out there stamping out free speech and silencing independent journalists who should unite. Ahem! Who is she trying to put in a tight spot? In case you aren’t aware, this tweet was made probably after a private meeting at CNN-IBN’s office between Raghav Bahl, Rajdeep and Sagarika. How do we know? Patience! We will find out. And who is this “evil” that Sagarika is hinting at? Well, presumably, the same evil that other cronies like Ashutosh and Nikhil Wagle keep ranting about: Narendra Modi. The implication is that Modi is pressurising CNN-IBN or Raghav Bahl through some other powerful people. Snitches and Rats are bad for business and healthy work atmosphere but the news media does depend on snitches and rats. It’s their job. Soon after the “evil” tweet by SG on February 7, someone promptly puts out an article with a sensational headline on February 9:

Shivam Vij who wrote that article tweeted about it. It is fair to assume Vij was not present at the meeting between the 3 senior folks at CNN-IBN. So who gave him this juicy input to put out a story? It has to be one of the 3, right? And who, among those close to the CNN-IBN couple, picks up this article quickly and makes noises about suppression of free speech? Well, that would be family friend, the Commie Ram Guha. SG was in Bangalore on February 9 for some show but didn’t meet or talk to Guha. Believable? By some strange coincidence (?), Rajdeep puts out a tweet about NaMo and Nemo on February 8 (which too was after the duo had their meeting with Bahl):

Off-TV Rajdeep is generally known to be a nice guy and I have said often that there are two Rajdeeps. So Rajdeep may have thought his tweet would be funny but it ended up being seen as more abuse on NaMo. And why not? Since simple comments and analogies by Modi have been taken out of context and twisted heavily by both Rajdeep and Sagarika all through the last many years. Consequent to the article by Vij and the alarm by Guha, Raghav Bahl was naturally angry. People in the know mentioned heated exchange of mails between Bahl and Rajdeep. To add insult to the injurious “leaked” tweet tip (and some snitching) that led to the article “Why Sagarika Ghose may no longer criticise Modi anymore...” the internal communications also seem to be leaked to some folks and it makes sorry reading and tells the story behind the whole drama by Sagarika. I will narrate from the exchanges (in brown) that happened very early morning on February 10.

Bahl to Rajdeep:

RB asks Rajdeep to see Guha’s tweet and calls Guha somebody as influential/credible as him (also one of Rajdeep’s closest professional associates), claims it is damaging. RB mentions a mail of Sagarika’s which clearly says she has never been “muzzled” over the last 8 years in N18. And RB demands that: 1 Sagarika isses a CATEGORICAL denial of this tweet; OR 2 They could release the relevant text from Sagarika’s mail to RB to the public, so that this matter is put to rest.

Rajdeep to Bahl:

Rajdeep responds by referring to the article by Vij in scroll.in, and says it is a website run by someone called shivam vij. Rajdeep quotes his tweet to vij denying any such pressures. The tweet Rajdeep is referring in his response to Bahl is the one below:

Bahl to Rajdeep

RB says Guha saying this is as good as Rajdeep/Sagarika saying this (especially since Sagarika was in Bangalore the previous day). A full, formal and unambiguous clarification/denial, of the sort that Sagarika wrote to RB should be issued, he says. And then RB says if not, the full text from Sagarika’s mail should be put out in the public domain since Sagarika’s mail so clearly implies that the truth is totally different.

Good point by Bahl. Did Sagarika meet Ram Guha while she was in Bangalore? She was doing some show at the Infosys campus as I recollect. If she hadn’t met him did she interact with him? I believe that it’s unlikely that Sagarika wouldn’t have given at least a little phone call to dear friend Guha. And why is it that Guha so deliberately puts out a tweet? Since Rajdeep and Sagarika are such “close” friends would he not care to at least ask them about the stupid article before tweeting about it? Surprising? As with the article by Vij, Guha’s tweet is also meant to deliberately embarrass Raghav Bahl and I am in absolutely no doubt about that. Let’s snitch some more. Having learned about the trouble brewing Sagarika quickly replies to Guha with a “sorry” tweet:

Rajdeep to Bahl:

Rajdeep confirms Sagarika has not met/spoken to ram in a while and that Guha is close to a few of those who run the scroll.in website which is an ideologically left website.

So all that balderdash of Guha’s leftist leanings having “lapsed” does not hold. And he’s a close friend of those running that website. Fantastic! He is still as much a Commie as he was and appears to be a willing participant in this game going around Sagarika, Shivam Vij and himself. “The boss shouldn’t be given a chance to sneeze” says Akshay Kumar in that video. Doesn’t he? And that would prevent chances of any transfers or any other action on those leaking stories to the anti-Modi brigade. Do note, Bahl is clearly indicating there should be a categorical denial by Rajdeep or Sagarika and he also implies that he would release parts of an earlier mail by Sagarika which mentions there is no muzzling at Network 18. It gets more intriguing.

Rajdeep to Bahl:

Rajdeep wonders why issue it to all media and attract even more attention to an article which has appeared on a fringe website.  Says they chose the same path when the Caravan story was published… and that response should be measured and fitted to the publication/medium on which they are used.

Bahl to Rajdeep:

Bahl claims the problem is Ram Guha’s “endorsement” – and that Guha has personally charged him by using the word “proprietor” and refuses to be so charged. Bahl’s mind is made up – either this is retracted publicly by Guha, or Sagarika, or Rajdeep  – or he shall act to clear his name. Rajdeep again gives him a reply on how to go about this withdrawal tactfully and painlessly.

Bahl to Rajdeep:

By now Bahl is furious and stops taking calls from Rajdeep. He says “I am in no mood to “talk” about this. Bahl asks an important question: how did a private conversation, known only to the three of them, get into a “leftist” website of Shivam Vij? He swears with his “hand on his heart” that he did not share it with them.

So who put out the juicy titbits to Shivam Vij? Your guess is as good as mine and it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out. More importantly, from all the exchanges that I have read thoroughly, I have found no truth in the “Evil” that Sagarika is trying to peddle. It is true Raghav Bahl is a business man who is now more oriented towards Modi (millions of others are too) but Rajdeep says “go by our actions”. Are the mails circulating genuine? I would think they are. Going by actions alone neither Sagarika nor Rajdeep have stopped their anti-Modi shows or rants. If I remember right, there was a recent programme at Jamia where Sagarika provoked Muslim youth to heap more trash on Modi. It is important to note that even if this duo of Rajdeep-Sagarika toned down half their rants against Modi it still would amount to a huge negative campaign.

So what Sagarika was essentially doing through her “Evil” tweet is what Akshay Kumar does in that movie; to sound a warning indirectly to her bosses and the public in general about fake suppression of journalistic independence. Having tweeted that and attracted some sympathetic concern she attempts to create suspicions in the minds of people. I would read such tweets and articles (such as those by Vij) as collective “ambush-journalism”. If a deputy editor of a news channel plays so much politics over her own channel and issues inside it, then how good is the trash she delivers on TV?

Both Rajdeep and Sagarika (and probably Bahl too) have been Congress cronies all these years. When the masters had become a political liability both these people shifted allegiance to Arvind Kejriwal and AAP. What they want is not real journalism. What they want is not delivery of fair news and discourse. What they want is to trash the politicians they don’t like, peddle lies and distortions about them and promote those they think will nurture their own security and future. Don’t look too far, all this has been neatly explained in “The AAPSucker Proxies”. 

Bahl has a twin problem on his hands. Someone leaks discussions to a “fringe” website and then someone leaks mails to many media folks. He has to maintain journalistic honesty and also business profitability. Sagarika provides neither journalistic sense nor business sense. Events have shown she is not only a bad journalist but also undermining her channel by stupid statements. Whether “personal political preferences” should rule over journalistic principles is a choice Bahl will have to make. So far, it’s the public that gets a poor ride in all this. It’s funny how one insect can damage so much grain.