The Political Conflict At CNN-IBN

From ‘Argo’: "If you want to sell a lie, you get the press to sell it for you”. Truer line was never spoken in the modern age. The press now exists to peddle lies and falsehoods. The CNN-IBN in the title is meant to represent the whole IBN or TV18 gang and not one channel. Not one editorialist in the media had the guts to call the farce being played out in Delhi by the AAP party for the last 10 days. Elections, then 18 questions, 25 lakh letters, SMS referendums and so on are the most idiotic methods introduced in a bogus concept they call ‘Direct democracy’. Most of the honest commentary on politics is now coming from the SM or from stray news site observers. Here are a couple of tweets from TheJaggi, editor of Firstpost:

If you read the first tweet on the left (in the pic above) you wouldn’t know what the context is unless you’re aware of the background. The second tweet is quite obvious. What Jaggi refers to as fake liberals I call “Fiberals”. So Jaggi thinks people talk about right and left wing without understanding these terms. Hmm! Okay, but what was he responding to? 

There’s another tweet by TV18 Chairman Raghav Bahl supporting “right wing” economics being most successful in eliminating poverty. Oops! Does Bahl understand right and left wing? Jaggi isn’t sure he does, so he replies with “right way and wrong way” so that the answer to ‘centre-right’ in Bahl’s tweet can be avoided. I am an admirer of Jaggi’s articles because he says it like he sees it and reasons it well. But he’s dodging here. He doesn’t want to admit that both left and right see “their way” as the “right way” to do things. And that’s the reason for the conflict and it’s a healthy conflict, as long it’s not violent. But if historical evidence is of any value then the “left way” of solving problems has indeed failed. The AAP represents extreme left ideology if one goes by their ideas and manifesto.     

On November 8, 2013 a “source” told me Rajdeep Sardesai was headed for Nagpur. Although my source was correct I wasn’t willing to believe RS would go all the way to Nagpur just to deliver a lecture and not run a few other errands. So in a lighter vein I asked the question on what RS would be doing in Nagpur. It is no secret that RS has a severe contempt for both the RSS and BJP as does his deputy Sagarika Ghose. This contempt has been nurtured very fondly in a parent-like manner by both Rajdeep and Sagarika across the IBN family. So you can understand the usual haters like Ashutosh, Wagle and others in IBN who constantly send across hate-filled messages for the BJP and Modi. Did Rajdeep tell us what happened in Nagpur? Only partly as the following tweets indicate:

RS had a good time and drew a crowd of 1000 (my source tells me the Rotary hall can accommodate only 350-500 people). But Rajdeep doesn’t tell us what the Caravan magazine writes about his trip to Nagpur:

So Raghav Bahl is a right-winger who admires Narendra Modi, then you can understand the conflict with his entire gang in the IBN family. Unlike NDTV, TOI Group and others who are permanent supporters of the Commie ideology of Congress, Bahl can make the shift if he wants to. The Caravan article isn’t entirely accurate because while Bahl may be leaning right for some reason, his entire sales team at IBN is full of committed Commies. The first tweet in this post by TheJaggi (December 1) where he says people don’t understand the terms right or left wing is in response to the Caravan article by Rahul Bhatia (December 1):

Rahul Bhatia suggests the shift to the Right is being influenced by Mukesh Ambani. In a tweet he also contends the organisation’s leaning need not apply to its people who are unhappy about it. One can’t be sure but it can only be partly true in the absence of any clinching evidence. But what we can confirm with ample evidence is that the entire sales team of IBN had been a slave of the Congress party since the channel was born. Rajdeep himself had made his fortune by peddling stories about Gujarat 2002 and abusing Modi. The Padma award is just a small recognition for his work. Secondly, just a few months back TV18 had fired a lot of their employees to make the business more viable. Even comedians like Ashutosh and Sagarika were reportedly on the chopping block but survived with salary cuts. That they didn’t sack Sagarika is a sacrilege. You can understand the widespread grievance, fear and anger in the company when this happened. The compassionate Rajdeep didn’t like it but had to play with the top management on this decision.

What follows is a theory of what I estimate happened at the company. Now remember, this is a theory with reason but still a theory (with some inputs from “sources”. If you haven’t read “The AAPSucker Proxies” I recommend you do, before proceeding)

#1: Bahl went along with the Congress as long as things were rosy as did his sales team. Once he noticed the corrupt Congress had hit rock bottom he wanted to make an open shift but he was asking too much of his team. You see, people like Rajdeep, Sagarika, Ashutosh, Sagarika, Pallavi, Bhupendra Chaube are all soaked in Congress bloodline and philosophy for many years and an overnight shift would have been impossible and also a betrayal of their “Fiberal” clan. What would their darlings like Amartya Sen or Tarun Tejpal think of them, eh? Supporting the Congress any further would have been a deadly mistake for all of them but given their anti-BJP DNA the only party they could turn to was AAP. So it is quite possible that Rajdeep & Co. made it clear to Bahl that they would go the AAP way and he can like it or lump it. Faced with a revolt Bahl may have chosen to play along.

#2: Rajdeep & Co. have taken the chance on AAP to somehow thwart Modi and BJP coming to power at the Centre in 2014. It implies that even if the Congress gets routed in 2014 they hope the BJP can be kept out of power. A Narendra Modi as PM is a dreadful thought for the entire gang of Fiberals. So, multiple interviews of Arvind Kejriwal and other internal promotions happened. Bhupendra Chaube’s tweet (which he later deleted) quoted in response to a question by me is ample evidence of what was going on inside the IBN sales team. On November 20, 2013 Karan Thapar dissected the AAP manifesto and Rajdeep grandly tweeted it too. This was the first time since 786 AD that a party’s manifesto was so gleefully analysed. Obviously, the fact that AK had promised 50% cut in power bills, 700 litres of free water per Delhi-family and 500 new schools in 5 years all went over “The Tool’s” head. Someone pointed out on TV 500 schools in 5 years means 100 in a year and nearly 2 a week. Allocation of land in Delhi is under the Centre so how these schools will be delivered doesn’t matter. Also, the foolish promise of 50% cut in power bills and free water passed over their heads. Nothing mattered! They had to support AAP in the face of a definite Congress rout.

#3: Here are tweets from Ashutosh and someone called Latha Venkatesh who allegedly works as a financial analyst or reporter in CNBC-TV18:

Sounds like two desperate housewives? No! Ashutosh has worked his way up from small beginnings and many of his messages betray a feeling of “victimhood” and that explains his natural sympathies for Commie AAP even when his message contains LIES. We all know AK appealed to Muslims and also Dalits. What about this Latha? She’s the latest laughing stock from the CNN-IBN stable. She decided to support AAP because Maharashtra’s Congress govt decided ‘no-action’ against Adarsh scamsters, including Ashok Chavan. Bright as she is, she is blissfully ignorant (influence of Sagarika?) that AAP hasn’t announced contesting major Congress states in the next election. They have so far announced only contesting in Gujarat and MP which have BJP govts for over a decade. The only Congress state announced by AAP for a contest is Delhi neighbour Haryana which is AK’s home state too. So the morons at IBN feign ignorance of the pattern in which AAP is planning its LS campaign but this Latha will support them in Mumbai. Who did she support earlier in Mumbai? Mayawati?

Therefore, Rajdeep & Co want to promote a party that is exactly like Congress but doesn’t have the baggage of Congress. Like Karunanidhi or Nitish Kumar they want to save India from “communal forces” I suppose. Oh hell, even Karunanidhi praised Modi lately, so that downs the friendly numbers. It could be well be that Raghav Bahl has given some latitude to Rajdeep & Co. till elections 2014. Having gone through the trauma of having to fire over 300 employees just recently I doubt Bahl wants to rock the boat again so soon. So he’s given Rajdeep a long rope which will probably burn up around May 2014. At the moment Rajdeep, along with other channels, is lauding the stupid acts of AK and AAP in their referendums and SMS nonsense. AK is playing “victim” like Ashutosh, claiming he was forced to become CM by the people. He has created enough excuses in case he is unable to perform and deliver on his promises: Blame the “people who forced us to form the govt”. In an earlier post I had mentioned he could have formed a minority govt without fear as neither Congress nor BJP would pull it down with a major election around the corner. Even cartoonists can see what the Numero Uno and Unee political analysts can’t. TOI’s Ninan sees AAP, a pawn, riding the Congress quite well in this cartoon, with a noose around AK's neck.

The desperate ones in the IBN family are as battered as the Congress is by the Modi juggernaut. They simply don’t know how to deal with it or explain the phenomenon. That should help people understand the ecstasy and orgasm that the IBN gang and other channels are desperately faking in hope the AAP electoral performance will clean up BJP in MP, Gujarat, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan or wherever the party is. Yesterday Rajdeep bleated his frustration with Akhilesh Yadav over the mishandling of Muzaffarnagar victims in camps. Well, many of Rajdeep’s IOTY nominees have indeed turned out miserable non-performers. But hey, it’s not performance that counts with the IBN gang, it’s whether their sham awards will be funded or not given the nominees they pick. Of course, CNN-IBN awarded another IOTY to Kejriwal this year so watch out for Rajdeep’s tweet a few months later. Some observant ones like Bhupendra Chaube, Suhasini Haider and Anubha Bhonsle have kept out of this malicious campaign by their ring leaders. Pallavi Ghosh still suffers from the Stockholm-syndrome with Rahul Gandhi.

TheJaggi knows better! He does know who is right wing and left wing. From the entire stable of IBN he was the only one to bluntly state that Sonia Gandhi is the most divisive politician in this country and not Narendra Modi. The whole gang at IBN (save a few) also know AAP is a pawn and clone of Congress. How far these “useful idiots” will carry their campaign is a matter of time. Much as clowns like Rajdeep and C5M Sagarika talk about “rifts” in political parties, a closer look into IBN will also reveal a severe political conflict that runs deeper.

PS: Please do vote on the poll for India’s worst news channels (on the top-right margin of this page).

Rajdeep Sardesai: Marketing The Gandhi Topi

Any marketer would be quite familiar with the concept of ‘Test-Marketing’. You want to launch a new product, a new campaign or re-launch one, you might want to test it first. There are also ‘gurus’ who can help. For instance, if you want to re-launch Hamam soap across the nation again you might want to test-market it with some new features and packaging. Though the brand is nationally known Unilever now claims it’s a market leader in Tamil Nadu. Umm... like AIADMK or DMK. Like these two parties Hamam sales in TN also add to the national kitty of Unilever. So where would you test a re-launch of Hamam? In Mumbai? Oooh.. too big a market, too risky. In Delhi? Again, too big a market, too risky. Failing in these markets might cause a severe dent and make course corrections and return difficult. Okay, how about, say, Shimla? You could add nearby Panchkula and Chandigarh in one go? Yeah, why not? Sounds like a reasonable and fair risk, doesn’t it? That’s a good mix of urban and semi-urban markets and not a huge risk like Mumbai or Delhi. But you see, the REAL Hammam has different ideas. Don’t worry we’ll get to that in a few. 

Politcally 'Numero Uno'

First, after two consecutive posts concerning Rajdeep Sardesai (RS) I thought why not make it a hat-trick. RS is, after all, the Numero Uno political analyst according to the Social Genius. After his channel, CNN-IBN, ran the spurious headline of Nitin Gadkari being an accused in the Maharashtra irrigation scam it was atrocious to see Gadkari in an interview with RS. Anyway, let’s help ourselves to a few sound-bites from that show. Some excerpts (from Moneylife):

RS: The Robert Vadra issue began in March 2011. It is October 2012 now. Why has the BJP been quiet all along? Why didn't you raise this issue when it first came out in The Economic Times?

Reply: Why the hell are you asking me? Is it a political party’s job to conduct investigations like CBI? My party has been working on seeking more information before raising questions. We don’t accuse people like you accused me in your headlines. We aren’t a cheap sensation-seeking, Congress-mouthpiece TV channel. Are you too steeped “head to toe” in real estate scams? When my party man asked you, you said “Point taken”, what do you mean by that? Why aren’t you asking Robert Vadra instead of everyone else? What stopped you from doing your job? You didn’t even air the ET report findings. You did not investigate further. You did NOTHING! You buried it like C4V! Have you forgotten your job?

Haha! Don’t jump! That “Reply” wasn’t Gadkari’s but my own imagination. NG is quite an affable guy with media persons and doesn’t shout down people like Manish Tiwari or Kapil Sibal. Here’s the actual reply and some more:

NG: I have not received any paperwork on this matter.

RS: At no stage were you informed about Vadra's involvement?

NG: I have no paperwork. I kept hearing about it but I had no evidence. I can't accuse anyone of anything without evidence, can I?

RS: The reason I'm asking you this is because that same Arvind Kejriwal is also targeting you. He held a press conference targeting you.

NG: I am 100 per cent ready for any inquiry. I have no problem.

RS: Do you think that Arvind Kejriwal is making baseless allegations? Many are saying that he, and not the BJP, is taking on the role of the Opposition today? Are you worried that Kejriwal is targeting both the BJP and the Congress?

NG: Let Kejriwal do whatever he wants. I am not at all worried about him.

Let’s also understand one thing. What are being referred to as “allegations” by AK aren’t really allegations. Information from ROC, Balance sheets, P&L accounts can’t be termed allegations. Information from statutory sources or official documents do not constitute allegations. AK has only put public information already available in the public domain again. Simple! Of course, the Vadra issue or non-issue has put Coalgate, Irrigation scam, Kalmadi and Raja, 2G, Thorium and other scams on the back burner. Exactly what the media wanted? Wag the dog?

GOI has announced there will be no investigations into Vadra’s dealings. Robert Vadra reacted with a message: “I’m a mango man in a banana republic”. Funny that! That statement also doesn’t fit with all the Congress and media defence of his transactions. So what about AK and his new political outfit? Allegations and burning of electricity bills are fine. But sooner or later his party would need to contest elections. Where should he launch his electoral campaign? Where should he launch his new ‘Un-corrupt party’ product? Aha! This is where the ‘Guru’, Numero Uno, Rajdeep Sardesai comes in. And RS will guide AK on test-marketing. Unpaid! Nice, isn’t it? Take a look at the pic below:

See any differences in the 3 pics? You’re right! The Congress guys are in “topis” and so is AK. The BJP guys can’t seem to afford topis even. Product differentiation is essential for a successful launch. So a day before AK disclosed Vadra’s DLF transactions RS came up with another Friday blog-buster (talk about Timing): “The topi has to fit” on October 4 in Hindustan Trolls. A day later CNN-IBN’s online news partner, Firstpost, repeats the post with another headline: “Team Kejriwal, forget national power, start with Delhi polls”. Huh? This runs contrary to what I proposed for Hamam in the first para of this post. I must be a bad marketing guy. You see, RS recommends TeamAK should launch their product in Delhi and not smaller markets like Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland or Meghalaya. Not even Gujarat, which holds elections just after HP. Why? Not just that, he also recommends giving up the “topi”. He writes:

“While political symbolism is important in the age of the visual image, does it really need the ritualistic wearing of the Gandhi topi? If Team Arvind really wants to break with politics as usual, they need to discover life beyond the symbols and soundbites”. Hmm! You see, wearing the topi also makes AK look a lot more like the Congress guy. Doesn’t it? I wonder why Rajdeep didn’t have to say: “Don’t wear saffron turbans or shirts or scarves. You don’t want to look like a Hindu, do you?” Of course, there is no advice from RS on wearing a skull-cap or anything green either. He has more well-intentioned test-marketing advice for AK:

“The system will not change with a nudge from outside, it needs a shake-up from top to bottom. And that will not happen if power changes hands from a Congress to a BJP, or a Left to a Mamata or a Mayawati to a Mulayam. Those are internal palace coups, not the revolutions that Team Arvind is looking for”. It’s not important that Bengal or UP aren’t up for contests right now. Delhi is up for a contest very soon and is critical. And the Sheila Dikshit govt is affected by both; scams and bad governance of her own govt and the scams of the Cong-UPA govt will also affect her campaign. There is every likelihood, as RS fears, that power may change hands from Congress to BJP. And as he says that may not shake-up the system. Clever eh? So TeamAK must launch their product in Delhi and test the customer acceptance of their product.

TeamAK, if they follow Numero Uno’s advice, and that of the Hammam, and launch in Delhi, some customers have to not only reject their current brand but also reject the other brand that they were poised to buy. So customers who were poised to buy brand BJP who listen to marketing guru RS will give brand TeamAK a try. Therefore, there will be a 3-way split in the market share. Guess which brand will then have the largest market share? Good advice for Congress! But is it good advice for TeamAK to make a high-risk launch in an important, critical and large market like Delhi? Or was that the objective itself of the whole exercise? Who will the Guru’s advice really benefit? You decide! And decide if you want to wear a “Topi”!

Democracy Is A Dangerous Idea

Democracy is a dangerous idea. Well, famous words as you will see a bit later. Four twitter accounts, of the 28 recommended for blockade, got notices from the GOI to present their cases or defence against the charge of ‘spreading hate’ or inciting communal tensions. That’s a news report. Nobody is really clear what the charge is though. When Ambika Soni, I&B Minister, says the govt is not indulging in or encouraging censorship it’s a bit hard to believe. It was easy to handle the MSM so far but the Social Media (SM) has become a thorn in the govt’s flesh. This is the rise of ordinary people which must be crushed at any cost.

Corruption and dictatorial regimes cannot flourish unless they destroy the press or co-opt them in their scheme of operations. Over the years the Congress and its Communist allies managed to co-opt much of the MSM to the system but are struggling for clues on how to deal with this menace called SM. The internet and SM somehow seem beyond their control unlike media houses. It keeps exposing their misdeeds that the MSM doesn’t and govt doesn’t even know which Twitter accounts can be co-opted with a coal block. Seriously, if  Kanchan Gupta or Shiv Aroor could be co-opted, they would probably be operating a coal mine or running a steel plant as a luxurious hobby. I don’t follow either of them but from various reports and RTs haven’t found anything objectionable in their statements. Would be true for other journalists and social media accounts critical of this govt. (Everyone on SM should hone their coal-mining skills, just in case!) So you have media houses like the Lokmat group or the Dainik Bhaskar group operating coal blocks. Perhaps even more! And what’s their experience in coal? Umm… I guess many in the media are comfortable with ‘black’ deeds.

Day after day, night after night the MSM brings on TV those accused of corruption to defend themselves and explain the charges. Far from doing that what we get is flinging mindless allegations against others by them. Any decent moderator of a debate would have said “Stop! Don’t fling allegations but explain the charges against you”. A minister’s guards thrash a traffic cop in Srinagar. Justice Arnab calls the minister to defend himself in a debate. Does this pathetic incident really need a debate? What deserves plain condemnation and a demand for sacking of the minister is being “debated” on TV. And the minister denies seeing the incident and explains he was about 30ft away from the scene and so on. This is the mindless nonsense that is delivered in a news channel. And if the worst happens the govt will set up a committee. Make sure you leave notes for your great grandchildren to check up on the report of that committee. You may not be around.

R. Jagannathan (TheJaggi), editor of Firstpost, in an article titled “Rise of crony journalism and tainted money in media” writes about the media-politico nexus and explains this dangerous association. He exposes the mafia pretty neatly. At the end of his article he runs a disclaimer: “Firstpost is owned by media house Network18 that has presence across print, television and new media”. Er.. he forgot something. The right disclaimer should have included the name “Reliance”. Now, that would make a big difference to the disclosure. Wouldn’t it? That is not to fault TheJaggi, he does a great job with his writings. The point is that while we generally scream and shout about how great our democracy is or how free and independent our people are we usually miss some tricks. We have been fooled repeatedly into believing that our MSM stands for democracy, free speech blah blah. By TheJaggi’s account they hardly want any of that. They’re happy being cronies of the govt, making money and keeping that system going. What they want and practice could be called “the convenient democracy”.

You see, no matter how much they scream about it, govts and corporations usually don’t like the idea of democracy; at least not for all. It's a very irritating and inconvenient hurdle. So when a good part of the news media becomes a crony, corporations dictate the policies and politicians indulge in massive loot of the nation it leaves the ordinary people nowhere. And they’ll keep telling you; voting is a sacred responsibility. Take Ramalinga Raju. Do you seriously believe the guy could have swindled 7000 crores all on his own? Do you think Jagan Reddy, son of YSR, raised an empire of over 40000 crores just like that? And he owns a media circus too. Far from representing the people and creating systems that work for them a corrupt govt attempts to “manage” people and fit them into the system they want to create for themselves. This is not possible unless a huge part of the media is corrupted and bought to support this grand plan. And it’s working.

Considering the term ‘socialist’ was framed into our constitution let’s hear another socialist. Tony Benn, former British MP for over 50 years is one such socialist. In his own words, he retired from parliament to spend more time on politics. He championed the poor and the coal miners. He has been awarded many Oscars by the miners. Their Mining Lamp is the Oscar equivalent for them and Tony Benn has been awarded many of those. This edited video is of an extended interview by documentary film maker Michael Moore with him during the making of ‘Sicko’. Transcripts of a few key statements Benn makes are given below the video. Watch (1:57 minutes):

....The task of representation is to change the system to meet the needs of the people. But with the power of global capital now, instead of being represented, people are being ‘managed’. People are being changed to fit them into the system instead of the systems being changed to meet people’s needs. And that’s a huge transformation.... The world is now run not by the American President or the British Prime Minister... The IMF, the WTO, the MNCs… they have far greater power than political leaders. And people sense this. And they become cynical... turnout and voting is low. But actually this is an attempt to reverse the power of the vote. If the power is taken away from you and handed over to corporations or international organisations...they're are not elected then you realise you have lost something of fundamental importance. I think democracy is a very very radical idea. It’s not accepted by the Communists, Stalin didn't accept it... I don’t think the Capitalists like it because it takes power from them and gives it to the people who haven’t got money. And that is a very dangerous idea indeed.

Yes indeed, democracy is a dangerous idea for the corrupt and crony capitalists. A professor can be arrested for criticising a CM as can be a farmer. Imaginary ‘hate speech’ cases will be filed against prominent critics of govt. IT rules will be framed in a manner which allows an accused no defence or hearing. Pages on the web can be taken down merely on suspicion and allegation. A cartoonist can be arrested for “sedition” for abusing national symbols. Oh! Think about it, the ones who abuse national symbols in posters are the ones who love democracy. The pic misusing the three lions is worse because it looks like a political campaign poster and is a real offence. The union of media crooks conspires to cover up and hide the truth. It was easy to manage the MSM with threats, ad doles, investment by corporate giants, flashy awards and so on. It’s when the power of free speech passes on to ordinary people that creates a nuisance for the corrupt and that’s what makes democracy a dangerous idea for them.