The Varanasi Wake-Up Call

Media folks are supposed to have their ears close to the ground where politics is concerned. Some of them claim to be such big “experts” that they predict events instantly. Bad politicians take at least 2 years to taint themselves in corruption or misdeeds; some careful ones take 20. But in their quest to realise their own political agendas some media crooks wanted instant gratification without the patience to watch and observe. That’s what they did when Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP got a good number of seats in the Delhi election. They declared him the messiah. They declared him the man who would be king. Here’s the end part from the post “Polls 2013 - And the losers are…”

Immediately after the state results were declared on December 8, 2013 the MSM was thrilled that there was finally someone who could challenge Narendra Modi. The Gandhis have run aground. Arnab Goswami started off on December 9 with “Is AAP now a threat to Modi”? Others were rubbing their hands in glee in hope that AK will deal that final blow to Modi. None of the media pundits were willing to accept that not only is AAP a small player restricted to Delhi but also that the Delhi performance was helped by a corrupt Sheila Dikshit govt and the BJP’s sleeping beauties in Delhi. It also hinged on a lot of tall promises that AK made to the poorer section of voters. AK took oath as CM on December 28 and after 49 days of non-stop nonsense resigned with a fake excuse. Gone were his lofty claims of fighting corruption or prosecuting SheilaD and other corrupt politicians. AK turned out a moron who started believing the stupid stories in the media. He believed he was the David who was slated to slay the Goliath. Some in the media, particularly folks from AajTak, NDTV and the CNN-IBN group, spared no efforts to breast-feed AK into believing he is the royal baby who would be king. It was PM or nothing!

Well, you know the story since then; AK in Gujarat, ruckus all over, then violence by his thugs in Delhi, then Mumbai and Nagpur, more violence and nonsensical rants. Life goes on. Of course, in all this while he openly threatened Modi with a challenge from anywhere the latter contests the LS election. AK roared he would challenge Modi and show the world what a great hero he was. All this, till Modi’s candidature from Varanasi was announced. Naturally, someone had to test the waters for AK. He sought a poll from the locals in Varanasi to decide on his challenge but that is yet to happen. In the meantime the Macaulay Sisters from the unholy trinity in media, Barkha Dutt and Sagarika Ghose rushed to Varanasi to test the waters. They literally landed up on the Ganga waters. Let’s watch an edited excerpt from Barkha first (4.07 mins. There is a lag between video and audio and that’s from the NDTV site itself):

What Barkha really did was quickly run through a single street in Varanasi to seek opinions and then settle on the Ganga with two guys and a discussion with politicians in Delhi. Apparently, she didn’t hear what she would have liked to hear. Even in that one street she came across a former AK supporter (with the bike) who had sound advice for AK. He says “glass once shattered can’t be put back”. BD talks of religion, roads and so on but the former AK supporter clearly says AK has failed and should perform before seeking votes at Varanasi. Barkha pre-empts his sound-bite claiming “confused” supporter but the man seems in no confusion at all. Ordinary folks reflect this wisdom which seems to be missing the media folks all the time in their studios. The rest of the discourse is Hindutva or soft Hindutva and all that is usual monologue by BD. If Barkha was there, the other Macaulay twin had to follow. Here’s Sagarika Ghose (5.41 mins):

It is amazing that even folks in far-off Varanasi are talking of and desiring the Gujarat model; the model that some blind analysts and media folks like to trash as nonsense. It’s the very model that AK has been screaming about as rubbish. A lady makes a good point about a nearby town having an airstrip for private use but no railway station. That is something the Centre can solve even if not all the local problems. As for development and roads that both Barkha and Sagarika talk about, it is dependent more on the state and local govt. This is worth special attention because most of the Hindu pilgrim towns in India, especially in the north are in total disrepair. In contrast the southern Hindu pilgrim towns are far better maintained and managed. Whether it’s Varanasi or Rishikesh or Puri the Hindu pilgrim centres deliver a lot of money which can easily be ploughed back but the state govts seem to have different priorities when they should be making it as comfortable as possible for visitors and pilgrims.

The folks at Varanasi explain how their society is made up of small entrepreneurs and just need the support to perform well. That’s what they expect from Modi having heard the Gujarat story. When Sagarika tries to repeatedly rake up the “communal” agenda the people dismiss it as media propaganda. One hopes the blind people in the media learn from these voices. People are simply not buying the media propaganda. NDTV, CNN-IBN, TimesNow and the others have been trying very hard to paint the Varanasi choice of Modi as a “safe seat”. Except these morons everyone else seems to understand the political impact and implication of Modi’s choice. It wasn’t as if Modi would have lost from Lucknow or Kanpur or Patna but the choice makes the political statement he wants to make. And Modi is a politician first and not a stupid media anchor or panellist.

Read the last para from the first pic in this post. It recalls: “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”.  Oh yes, the “sickulars” are trying very hard to present a single candidate to represent their Army which is what the media folks have also been egging them to do. The Congress has even tried to put up Sachin Tendulkar to battle Modi. It’s good the cricket hero wisely declined. Elsewhere, more misdeeds of AK are leaking. He is now alleged to have indulged in electoral fraud. His nautanki and fall was foreseeable for everyone except his cronies in the media and his own party.

Barkha and Sagarika aren’t the only ones who dashed to Varanasi though. There are others from the print media too who rushed there to test the waters. There is “No Modi Wave” they all claim. Fine! One can’t help those who don’t breathe and those who are blind. The rude awakening at Varanasi has Modi’s opponents hunting for their candidate but like I wrote on December 9 the media folks are the ones who are the losers. Modi is still standing. 

Jayalalithaa Goes Fishing..

J. Jayalalithaa, TN Chief Minister, was in New Delhi today for a meeting with the Prime Minister. A charter of demands for TN may be the apparent reason for the meeting. However, our media, alert as ever, had all kinds of headlines including this one from Times Now – “Jaya Storms Delhi’. You would have thought JJ had launched an attack similar to the midnight one at Ramlila Maidan. And all the channels and sites reported “DMK watches closely”. I don’t think that is completely true. DMK may not have bothered much considering Sonia Gandhi is in Switzerland along with Rahul Baby, according to Subramanian Swamy.

Post her meeting she addressed the media and there was this routine demand for Dayanidhi Maran’s exit and other mundane utterances. There is one statement she made that stands out though (From NDTV website):

Home Minister P Chidambaram "has not won the parliamentary election. In fact he lost the election...he has played a fraud on the nation." According to official records, Chidambaram defeated his AIADMK opponent by 3,354 votes. The Chief Minister said that in the general elections in May 2009, the data entry operator in the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu transferred votes won by her candidate Raja Kannappan to Mr Chidambaram.

PC has reacted by stating that it is “contempt of court”! So what are you gonna do, PC? JJ had dared to say out loud what many in the opposition and media had long avoided touching upon. As far back as I can remember, PC was trailing in that 2009 LS election and was declared defeated, even in the media, but some hours later was declared the winner. A lot has since been written about the EVM being tampered or not being fool-proof. That is a topic for the election commission and the Madras High Court, where a case is pending on that election outcome.

Politics is not the normal business of this blog but in this case I will make an exception. Jayalalithaa has won the recent TN elections against the DMK on issues of corruption. The UPA and the Congress are parties to the extraordinary saga of corruption all around. If JJ is hobnobbing with the Congress it will be another foolish mistake from this lady who has always been an opportunist and a terrible alliance partner. If she has learnt her lessons from past mistakes and respects the verdict of her electorate she will stay clear of the Congress. On the other hand she may also be well aware that she is getting on in years and the only thing of interest to her may be staying in power one way or another. Well, that is true for any politician, isn’t it?

Let’s get back on track with her comments on P.Chidambaram though. The news channels that covered her press conference mentioned various topics touched upon in the post-presser analysis but none of them touched upon the statement she made about PC’s election being fraudulent. A few Hindi channels started mentioning it as did some websites so now all of them are back to talking about this.

Unlike a Laloo or a Digvijay Singh who frequently shoot their mouths off or utter some nonsense regularly (Less by Laloo lately for obvious reasons), PC is a skilful and smooth talker. Regardless, there is a lot that PC has to answer for and some of these questions were raised in previous posts I had made.

Ravi Shankar Kapoor not so long authored a book 'How India'sIntellectuals Spread Lies'. Prominently featured among the lie-mongers were Jawaharlal Nehru, Suzanne Arundhati Roy, Mani Shankar Aiyar and of course P. Chidambaram…I wrote that in my post “Saffron Terror: Chidambaram's Cheap Trick” In case you haven’t read the book by Kapoor, I recommend reading it. (You can read a chapter at his blog.)

I also recommend browsing through these previous posts on this blog:

Radia Tapes, Phone Tapping - Chidambaram Must Come Clean

Radia Tapes Leak: Needle Of Suspicion Closer To Chidambaram?

I believe there is a lot that PC has to answer for. To start with, after all the drama about Nira Radia and phone tapping there is yet to be a case filed against her. For two years her phones were being tapped for many reasons and it is hard to believe that the government couldn’t come up with a case against her. Well, we will wait and watch.

There is something very intriguing. Many have wondered and even alleged that PC may be the brain behind the Ramlila atrocity on the night of June 4. There was all-round condemnation of that action by non-UPA political parties, even by the detractors of Ramdev and those who were opposed to the ‘civil society’ movement. There was something missing.

I may not be the best informed person but I have not found any news report on any channel, newspaper or website reporting Jayalalithaa having condemned the Ramlila attack. I would like to be corrected, but it makes me wonder what she’s fishing for!