The Hatemonger's Sermon

Here are some outstanding epithets for one’s epitaph on a memorial or a tombstone or excellent self-description if one is considering enhancing his resume for a higher office. The choices: Snake, Scorpion, Filthy man, Raavan, Gandi Nali ka kida (Guttersnipe), Lahu purush, Paani purush, Asatya ka Saudagar, Ghanchi (mocking reference to an OBC person), Monkey, Victim of Rabies, Mouse, Dawood, Failed husband, Badtamiz, Nalayak, Who is his father, mother? Hitler, Pol Pot, A Virus, Bhasmasur, Pagal Kutta (Mad dog), Yamraj, Maut Ka Saudagar, Hero of hatred, Mass murderer, Frog in the well, Gangu Teli…

Want some more? There’s still some time to go before the 2014 general elections and that time period might add to the list above. We are lucky! We are more civil now than Benjamin Disraeli (19th century British PM) who, when asked to differentiate a misfortune and calamity, referred to his rival and explained “If Mr. Gladstone were to fall into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out, it would be a calamity”.

I could say the same about a scumbag like Rajdeep Sardesai but there’s one difference. If Rajdeep were to fall into the already-polluted Yamuna that wouldn’t be a misfortune but if someone dragged him out, that would be a calamity. Such is the hatemonger’s hypocrisy that the only thing that stands out it in any of his dialogues is utter contempt for truth. He’s not alone; his partner in the Mom & Pop stores called CNN-IBN, Sagarika contributes her share of filth in the discourse. Both these wilful morons insult people’s intelligence and act as brokers and campaigners for political parties. Their latest has been as active campaigners and promoters of the AAP party. Many had suspected the entire IBN group was rooting for this party and my previous post ‘AAP-Sucker Proxies’ also deals with this. Here’s IBTL (a news website) further explaining how tweets were constantly exchanged and relayed between the IBN group members and AAP members to promote the party.

The texts under the red circles may not be quite legible so I suggest you look up the Tweet and enlarge the image to read. It is not just that Rajdeep often peddles garbage; he often promotes those who peddle garbage to suit his political agenda. Having a bias or political is not a crime. If a media house wants to promote a certain party or political ideology it would be honourable if they said it upfront instead of claiming to be ‘neutral’. Forget the neutral part, when do media crooks need to repeatedly assert who they are unless their conscience keeps hurting? Why else would this comic duo have to send out messages like these?

We are journalists! We are journalists! Don’t shoot us! Even Manmohan Singh never asserts being the PM so much, even though technically he is one.

The problem with deceptive spinners is that they aren’t really reminding YOU, they remind THEMSELVES of what they have forgotten they were supposed to be. Both these people don’t spare a chance to sermonise the world. Vinod Mehta is a colourful media celeb. I call him “The Claw” for the way he dangerously brandishes his hand while talking on TV panels. At a recent fun event in Lucknow the Lucknow Boy entertained the audience with some anecdotes, some confessions and what he really thought about news TV. This is from a TOI report (Dec.8,2013):

Mehta didn’t shock anyone as most viewers knew he was drinking on TV debates. That’s the least of the issues. He confesses talking rubbish and still being invited. Still, after this confession of “I speak rubbish” he as was back on CNN-IBN a day later to talk about the AAP party. You see, for Rajdeep it doesn’t matter if you’re drunk or talk rubbish as long as it supports his agenda. But hey, don’t shoot us, we are just the messengers. Really? There is a slight difference between a messengers and ‘go-between’. What does it say when someone like Digvijaya Singh accuses him of losing focus? Yes Diggy, of all people, who is an expert at distracting from real issues. This exchange is hilarious:

As with his shows on TV, Rajdeep totally forgot what the topic was at the recent HT Summit. It was about a “Vision for India” where Arun Jaitley and Digvijaya Singh were panellists and Rajdeep was the lost. I mean host! The whole discussion deviated from the topic and in the end the Pop couldn’t help bringing up his son’s question on why political discourse has so much slander. Oh yes, Numero Uno, Numero Unee and now Numero Sonny! Sonny boy is privileged so he gets to ask questions; even in absentia. Nepotism is a problem not just with politicians but also with media crooks. So what was the son’s concern? Let’s find out from this clip (3,53 mins. You can watch the full show on Youtube):

So from a “Vision of India” Rajdeep turned it into how politicians slander each other. Talk about a hatemonger sermonising the world. Another guy from the HT warehouse jumps in to say politicians don’t like “neutral” stands. Sure, HT and its foot-soldiers must know what neutral is all about. Err.. Licking both feet of Madamji equally would be neutral? And what is the problem? That Modi called Pappu a Shehzada. So Rajdeep probably wants to keep political discourse as close to the holy Quran or Bible as possible. Diggy says he never called Modi “Bhasmasur”. Fair enough! He calls people “thugs” and endorses “26/11 RSS ki Saazish” and “RSS bomb making factories”. I guess those don’t fall into the “slander” category. I opened this post with all the choice epithets that the Congress and MSM have hurled at Modi and Rajdeep, the former Congress politician and now the AAP-Sucker, wants clean discussions. Even Diggy calls Rajdeep a part of politics in the end. What a rise!

What exactly is so offensive about Shehzada? After all, it’s just an Urdu word for Prince. Isn’t it? But as Sunetra Chaudhary points out in her profound article, it is okay to abuse in English but the same thing wouldn’t pass if it were in a local Indian language (Why desi netas willnever charm the English media). So you see, the English Laloos can get away but the desi ones have to pay a price if they call someone “Shehzada”. Hypocrite Rajdeep knows that too.   

 

All the abusive words hurled at Modi have passed right through all TV channels and many events. Congress whining is out of “victimhood” but why is Rajdeep whining? Rahul Gandhi has been called by the MSM as “Crown Prince” or “Prince” for many years and many times. Here are just a few samples at India Today, Firstpost, Time Magazine, TOI, Rajdeep Sardesai and Rajdeep Sardesai. Prince is English, so it can pass. After all this, neither Congress nor Rajdeep have any moral authority to sermonise the world on good language or to avoid slander. I would in fact go a step further and state that Rajdeep (as the entire MSM) has built his career and wealth on slanderous discourse. Please do remember that repeating a slanderous message - knowing it to be so - is equally liable for defamatory action. If Modi ever wanted it then pathological slanderers like Rajdeep and some of his co-scumbags in the media would have been in jail for mindless slandering and wanton use of abusive language, diverting from the topic of an event to deliberately humiliate and slander a person. The problem with the hatemonger is that he forgets too soon. It’s our job to remind him. This is the same HT Summit from 2007 (Video 3.42 mins):

Hero of hatred? Mass murderer? That is not as offensive and slanderous as Shehzada I suppose. And this is being said in front of a select audience to deliberately insult a Chief Guest and keynote speaker. This is the culture Rajdeep wants to pass on to his son? Did the son watch that video with the pathetic slandering by dad? As Digvijaya inconveniently pointed out in HT 2013, the same happened in HT 2007 as well. In 2007 the topic for that day was “Centre-State relations”. What does Rajdeep do? He turns it into a tirade on Gujarat 2002, discrimination against Muslims, hero of hatred, mass murderer, blah blah. I sincerely believe this editorialist would pollute the Yamuna if he were thrown in it. That is the level to which he has degraded journalism and public discourse. And that HT sidekick thinks people don’t like neutral stands. Who are these people trying to fool?

Post the Tejpal episode Sagarika Ghose laments how editors have been “de-valued”.  I don’t call these people “editors”; they are unworthy of that title. They are “editorialists” whose job is to swing opinion one way or another. Let’s see, they have no problems in welcoming a spokie who indulged in sexcapades in his office with certain promises. Morals! They still invite a person who admits he talks rubbish and 50% of news channel content is a joke. Morals! Rajdeep defended Radia-tainted media celebs and even tried to get in Vir Sanghvi through the backdoor into debates. The list can get longer if put under a search. Both he and Sagarika call politicians and people names at their will and demand public discourse is clean. They say "charity begins at home". The woman who abuses Indian males as ugly, calls ordinary people guttersnipe, ridicules court judgements has now heaped the ultimate insult and slander on the Indian judiciary.

The SC did nothing but rightly ruled that the Gay rights issues was best decided by Parliament and not the judiciary. What's the response of the C5M? Absolute contempt, slander and abuse of the judge:

Rajdeep talks about his son being concerned about slander in politics. A small mirror on the streets of Delhi just costs around Rs.25. Rajdeep would do well to keep one in his pocket all the time. Hatemongers shouldn’t be sermonising others so often.

Stenographers & Stray Dogs

Whenever a political turn or event happens who do our reporters run to most? You guessed it – Digvijaya Singh. And what does he offer them? Nothing but filthy utterances against others and mindless statements that aren’t even fact-checked. His own party is on record stating that his statements are not “authorised”. Yet, DS with no political position or responsibility and clearly over-the-hill, is the Guru for most TV editors. The reporters seek his comments like Stenographers and faithfully relay it. By evening, on many occasions, based on his silly utterances, you will find DS doing a full-fledged interview with Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai or Rahul Kanwal. It’s a well-planned and organised routine. Did I just say ‘stenographers’? My apologies, someone else has a different take about stenographers. We will get to that.

Let’s call this paragraph Chapter- C for reference: Can you figure out who this guy is? “He was overjoyed… He did his mandatory piece to the camera and rushed to office. Once his script was done, he waited for a call from his Editor. No call came. For hours, video editors sat with the material. He was not allowed inside the editing bay. "I sat in a corner of the office like an outcast though I was the key person in the investigation," he recalls. And then, all hell broke loose. All he could hear was two words as an explanation for the volte-face: ‘inconclusive evidence’. The editor, who had not talked to him so far, asked if he needed police protection. For what, he asked? "I felt like a stray dog," he says and then resigned from the channel and took a bus home”. Sounds like an errand boy, doesn’t he? But he’s a reporter. His channel made him feel like a stray dog as he says. The man could well hold the key to one of the most infamous episodes in India’s political and media history but his story was shut out because his channel and his boss wanted to suppress the story.

Meet Amber Lyon, she has a similar story. She’s not a journalist covering India and the story may not have a direct relevance but her channel, CNN, does have a stake in India. Let me just quote the story (edited excerpts) from LibertyBlitzkrieg:

The Amber Lyon story is just the latest in a series of articles that expose the total Joseph Goebbels like censorship rampant in mainstream media today… This is precisely why alternative media sites are taking off.  They provide the only outlets left for genuine journalism… Back in March 2011, CNN sent a four person team to Bahrain to cover the Arab Spring.  Once there, the crew was the subject of extreme intimidation amongst other things, but they were able to record some fantastic footage.  As Glenn Greenwald of the UK’s Guardian writes in his blockbuster:

In the segment, Lyon interviewed activists as they explicitly described their torture at the hands of government forces, while family members recounted their relatives’ abrupt disappearances…She spoke with government officials justifying the imprisonment of activists. And the segment featured harrowing video footage of regime forces shooting unarmed demonstrators, along with the mass arrests of peaceful protesters.… Despite these accolades, and despite the dangers their own journalists and their sources endured to produce it, CNN International (CNNi) never broadcast the documentary. Even in the face of numerous inquiries and complaints from their own employees inside CNN, it continued to refuse to broadcast the program or even provide any explanation for the decision. To date, this documentary has never aired on CNNi…. In March 2012, Lyon was laid off from CNN as part of an unrelated move by the network to outsource its investigative documentaries. “At this point,” Lyon said, “I look at those payments as dirty money to stay silent. I got into journalism to expose, not help conceal, wrongdoing, and I’m not willing to keep quiet about this any longer, even if it means I’ll lose those payments.”

The ‘dirty money’ Lyon is referring to is the ‘severance package’ she got from CNN for getting rid of her. And just like the reporter in Chapter-C she too must have felt like a stray dog. Naturally, most editors have turned their ground reporters into stenographers who take a dictation and transmit the sound-bites. Reporting that is fine but there is no follow up from the studio staff or anchors to “verify the correctness and accuracy” of those sound-bites. Anything that is sympathetic to the ruling party passes without any challenge. But hey, that’s an insult to even stenographers as Glenn Greenwald brilliantly explains in his article "Inept Stenographers":

Journalists' excuses for their bad behavior -- it's necessary to get quotes -- are both fictitious and irrelevant…. A common criticism of establishment journalists entails comparing them to stenographers, on the ground that most of them do little more than mindlessly write down and uncritically repeat what government officials say. But stenography is a noble and important profession: they’re the court-licensed officers who, with astonishing speed and accuracy, transcribe the statements of all witnesses, lawyers and judges in judicial proceedings. If establishment journalists were to replicate actual stenography, it would be an improvement on most of the work they produce….  “And that explains why establishment journalists provide this service to these political officials: because they serve them as spokespeople, not report on them adversarially”.

Think of the journalists who are embedded with a political party. You can easily identify them on TV. They even interpret body language of ministers or even Sonia Gandhi for you. You can also easily replace any party spokesperson with these journalists. They have become the spokespeople. I agree with Greenwald, Stenographers are far nobler. Crony media bosses treat some of their own as stray dogs as the reporter in Chapter-C feels. Then there are stray dogs elsewhere too. You will suddenly find them spinning strange theories. Sometimes it will be in support of the ‘cronies’ who can’t tolerate any criticism. Sometimes they will suddenly unleash a campaign for Priyanka Vadra as PM candidate. Oh do remember, at times like these they will refer to her as ‘Priyanka Gandhi’ for effects.  NYTimes itself admitted that MSM news is nothing but censored propaganda. If that can happen in a true ‘free speech’ society, imagine what it would be in India.

Gallup, the respected research company, published a poll on reliability of TV and newspapers in July 2012. They carried out a survey to find out confidence of Americans in the media. Not surprisingly, the confidence in TV news has fallen from 46% in the early 1990s to a low of 21% in 2012. Newspapers didn’t fare any better. From a peak of 51% around 1978 the confidence has fallen to 25% in 2012. This kind of decline would be true for India too except that there is no one measuring it. There is no one acting as watchdog over our MSM either. This gives them the license to run their propaganda and lies unhindered. Now that’s where opportunity lies for people to open up alternatives. Nope, not for more news but for the Truth.

So what about the guy in Chapter-C? One has to wonder how much he was Censored. That "feel like a stray dog” is Sidhartha Gautam of CNN-IBN who quit immediately after the Cash4Votes sting that he was ordered to conduct. That Editor is none other than Rajdeep Sardesai. Why did Gautam quit? Was there a severance package like with Amber Lyon of CNN, IBN’s partner? Gautam, according to his new employers, gave a “rehearsed” testimony to the parliamentary committee on C4V. (IndiaToday August 5, 2011). The 2nd para that I called Chapter-C is also about Gautam from an India Today article of April 6, 2011. Stenographers are noble. Treating ground level reporters as stray dogs is the tactic for some editors to run their well-oiled propaganda machinery. With the ruling party in trouble again, another C4V is not too farfetched.

Die, Freedom

Many court judgements running into 200-300 pages or even more could make a hardbound or paperback novel by themselves. If one takes time to read court judgements in many landmark cases, those read better than or at least as good as literary classics. This is particularly so when it concerns the constitution or freedoms. In a somewhat adapted statement of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King observed “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”. Question here is; what exactly is moral? For some the term “moral” means in the eyes of God and for some it simply means “common human decency”. There are still others who believe the govt cannot and should not decide or pass laws on issues of morality. All of these appear to be valid beliefs, as long as they don’t threaten or violate the freedom, life or property of others.

Lovers break up, relationships break up and marriages break up. Someone does end up with “hurt feelings” all the time. There is no law, and cannot be, that can heal such “hurt feelings”, just as there isn’t a law that can guarantee “happiness”. When laws can’t heal human hurt how is it that there are laws that claim “hurt feelings” for national symbols or even religions? Flag, monuments, buildings, pictures of religious or spiritual leaders and so on. Mind you, “feelings” are distinct from “physical” hurt and damage caused by violent acts. Also, laws become just or unjust only in a context. Cartoons and writings should be viewed from the context of massive corruption and scams. This “I feel hurt so I want to screw you” is a law for the insane. Jokes and cartoons in good or bad taste usually offend someone. They are indeed intended to offend.

In a time of extraordinary corruption, scams and subversion of institutions by the govt of the day it is natural and right for people to protest. This may even involve breaking some laws that supposedly protect “hurt feelings”. Aseem Trivedi is one such cartoonist who decided to lampoon all such national symbols and some politicians through images. If one looks at the images he drew, some are sure to find them in bad taste and revolting. But that is precisely his objective: To revolt. A rampantly corrupt govt has provided with him enough provocation. But he’s doing so without threatening or violating the freedoms of others. He is not violently revolting to overthrow the state. So the charge of “sedition” is even more absurd. If some people ended up with “hurt feelings” they should be seeing a psychiatrist and not filing FIRs against him. But hey, filing FIRs and legal cases is a lot better than drawing swords and guns as some do. In normal course Trivedi may not have been driven to such cartooning. These are desperate times. Yes, technically Trivedi may have broken some stupid laws but in the current context of the country such responses are not unusual.

Now, while the corrupt men and women in TV media tweeted vociferously in support of Aseem Trivedi they refused to carry a debate or raise a storm on their TV channels. Why? It’s because the National Broadcaster’s Association (NBA) has issued an advisory to TV channels not to carry the cartoons of Trivedi. Remember, using the cartoons, howsoever offensive, for discussions and in news reports on recognised news channels is not an offence and does not break the law. Cowards! And they have the audacity to call themselves watchdogs! Does that sound similar to the excuse they used in not covering the #AMS sex video episode under some fake interpretation of court orders? No, not the video itself but at least for 3 days the media blacked out the news itself till, inevitably, the video went viral on the internet. Morality? Privacy? Hurting feelings? Okay!

Here’s an image from a TV channel. It’s actually a video that was aired on the channel and then posted on its website. Oh, wait the NBA didn’t have any guidelines or advisories about such episodes. The woman molested at Guwahati was shown a zillion times across TV channels. Some of them didn’t even blur images. Some blurred more and some blurred less. They didn’t think much before flashing images of tits and cleavage. And the image on the website itself is no different. Oh grow up they say! Tits- Good! Cartoons lampooning parliament, Ashoka pillar or politicians – Bad! There’s a reason why I call the NBA a union of snakes. The last thing these morons should be deciding is what is morally right for the public.(I didn't want to use this image although I had it for long but this recent case makes it necessary).

Did I miss it? No, a little bird reminded me. Invariably, in all such cases the Fiberals will unfailingly bring up M.F. Hussain, the Father of their “freedom of expression”. And who else to recognise his freedom of art than the journalistic-bimbo? Don’t forget, she’s the one who wanted female orgasm to be a ‘constitutional responsibility of men’. 

Okay, the tweet here isn’t a new one but from 2009. Now if at all anyone brings up MFH against Trivedi, remember MFH had no provocation. Did he have a motive? Sure, he did.  But whether it was porn in his mind, money or art or wilfull abuse of Hindu deities – we don’t know. But his consistent painting of only Hindu and national symbols in the nude can’t be passed off as art without being accused of being a prejudiced bigot. Trivedi’s expression rudely captures corruption that affects all Indians and hurts them. I wonder if the Fiberals will suggest that Saraswati or Durga or Lakshmi or Bharat Mata were hurting all Indians so fair to paint them nude. I hope not, but hey, the media morons never fail to surprise. Do they?

The right thing to do was to file cases against MFH as someone has done against Trivedi. Some people did and MFH claimed there were 900 cases filed against him. So the coward runs off to some foreign land instead of facing the courts and dies as a fugitive. In contrast, Aseem Trivedi went to Mumbai and surrendered. He peacefully allowed the police to arrest him. He has not applied for any bail till the time of writing. That is courage and the bimbos from the Fiberal community would do well not to make comparisons. Whether a FIR or legal case is right or wrong is for the courts to decide but it’s always a more civilised way of battling. It’s definitely better than drawing swords and guns like some God’s warriors do.

Mamata Banerjee has arrested even a professor and a farmer for offending her. The GOI has been busy passing all kinds of laws to throttle the social media and the internet. They have even identified eight specific states to target for the clampdown. Till date the GOI doesn’t have a shred of evidence that Twitterati or social media sites incited violence or rumours that led to the Assam violence, its aftermath or the subsequent exodus of NE citizens from many cities. Dictators use “fear mongering” to suppress voices and hide their crimes. India isn’t different from that in the current situation. A corrupt regime flailing its arms and hitting out at anything and everything to cover up their shameful crimes. And what’s our supposed “watchdogs” up to? They are busy slyly helping the govt to impose restrictions on freedoms under the guise of hate-speech, spreading hate and such nonsense.

Larry Flynt, the founder of porn magazine Hustler, will be more remembered for his fight for free speech than his porn (Read about the case here in my post). In a parody that “hurt the feelings” of religious leader Jerry Falwell he was penalised with damages of $200,000. In the campaign to defend himself Flynt was arrested 9 times. He was shot at and permanently paralysed waist below. In a landmark decision the US Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision and protected his free speech rights. In the landmark case the US SC observed: "The fact that society may find speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for suppressing it. Indeed, if it is the speaker's opinion that gives offense, that consequence is a reason for according it constitutional protection. For it is a central tenet of the First Amendment that the government must remain neutral in the marketplace of ideas”.

Flynt and the late Falwell later became friends and often had friendly debates. In one of those debates Flynt mentioned that in the monthly agenda meetings of Hustler the discussion was “Who haven’t we offended this month?” Haha! That requires constitutional protection. And he added “Time and Newsweek don’t need constitutional protection, it is people like us who offend who need the protection”. Govt slaves like our MSM don’t need that protection. It is the likes of Aseem Trivedi who need that protection. If he isn’t afforded that protection watch more of our freedoms die.