The Hurt Mafia

Some years back Rajdeep Sardesai used to have a show or a segment on his TV debates called Crossfire. He probably borrowed the idea from CNN-IBN’s American sister CNN. Back in 2004, during the US election campaign, American comic and satirist Jon Stewart was on CNN’s Crossfire. He delivered a severe battering to the two hosts for their sham debates and deceptions (One of them, Carlson Tucker, was even ridiculed for his silly bow-tie, which LOC Ambassador Karan Thapar now copies). Stewart described where these guys went to after presidential and other debates. Here’s a hilarious exchange:

STEWART: But let me ask you guys, again, a question, because we talked a little bit about, you're actually doing honest debate and all that. But, after the debates, where do you guys head to right afterwards?

CARLSON: The men's room.

STEWART: Right after that?

BEGALA: Home.

STEWART: Spin alley.

BEGALA: Home.

STEWART: No, spin alley.

BEGALA: What are you talking about? You mean at these debates?

STEWART: Yes. You go to spin alley, the place called spin alley. Now, don't you think that, for people watching at home, that's kind of a drag, that you're literally walking to a place called deception lane?

After the thrashing that the hosts got, CNN pulled the show. It was brought in again some months later in 2005 in a totally different format. Fortunately, for our media crooks they carry on their sham despite many a slap.

That’s right! After a political rally or exchange our Editorialists gather in the “spin alley” and decide how to spin the statements by politicians or other public figures. Even after debates or interviews (Like RahulG with Arnab) along with politicians their media slaves also run to “spin alley” to spin both positive and negative bloopers. People are now smart enough to recognise these deceptive liars for what they are. I call them ‘India’s biggest mafia’. Every crime – rape, murder, financial frauds, cheque-book journalism – you will find it in our media. But on February 24, 2014 our mafia was hurt; very hurt. Seems Gen VKSingh called them “Presstitutes” and Home Minister Sushil Shinde threatened to “crush the electronic media”. The Union of Snakes, aka Editors’ Guild, also condemned VKS for using the term Presstitutes.

First, let’s deal with Shinde’s stupid statement. He said he will crush electronic media if there is any propaganda against the Congress. We are used to this man making stupid statements. When cornered he made it worse by saying he didn’t mean TV or journalists but social media. So he wants to crush social media for propaganda against Congress. That should have pacified our media crooks to some extent. Of course, his party also wanted to ban opinion polls. I wrote a long time ago ‘why the MSM would like see social media dead’ and folks on the SM had a good laugh as the real journalists at the Unreal Times showed us:

That done, let’s now deal with the Presstitutes. Johny-returned-lately, Akash Banerjee (ex-Timesnow, ex-HeadlinesToday, ex-Hibernation) started kicking and screaming at VKS on the phone over the Presstitutes remark demanding an apology on the evening of February 24. It wasn’t as if he felt insulted, it sounded as if he was raped or molested. After a few minutes of rage his own colleagues must have told him to calm down. 

One can understand Arnab inspires everyone in his channel to behave like him. Take a look at the daily morning show of Timesnow. Each morning there are 2, 3 or 4 ladies who line up to deliver the morning entertainment. I call them “Arnie’s Angels”. Each one of them is trained like a parrot and maybe helped with a teleprompter to prefix the term “poster boy” each time Narendra Modi is mentioned. It’s not just these angels but other ladies on Timesnow, like Navika Kumar, Arnab, Rhythm and Rhyme, also use this term to describe Modi. So I wonder why these folks get so agitated over the term Presstitutes. At other times we have heard terms like mass-murderer, hero of hatred and so on being used recklessly by all the editorialists. 

They also call communal riots “genocide” and “pogrom” knowing well they are lying. But these scumbags and scumbaginis expect they should be treated honourably, respected for all their nonsense and be spared the agony of insults that they heap on others.

Arnab doesn’t have a good memory unless it is fed by pieces of paper from his assistants. He forgot how he witch-hunted Nitin Gadkari over 19 episodes based on flimsy accusations by an AAP member. He forgot how he and the entire media witch-hunted N. Sreenivasan of BCCI over the IPL betting issue for three weeks and blacked out all other issues. Sure, you cover these allegations and scams but don’t claim to be ignorant of deliberate and well-planned witch-hunts. The TOI group carried some 107 odd negative articles on the CWG. Are we to believe these guys were really interested in the truth or justice? Was the TOI reporting without motives? Surely not! The excessive coverage was because TOI didn’t get the contracts that went to the Unholy Trinity of HT-NDTV-CNN-IBN through practices that weren’t entirely fair. What do you call this? Journalism or Presstitution? I bet if Times group had got the media contracts you may never have seen the 107 negative headlines. That’s the work of Presstitutes. We know how the media has reacted against Shinde and VKS; let’s sample what the people have to say on SM:

During the discussions on the adventures of Tarun Tejpal on TimesNow, Arnab himself admitted the media had wronged by not taking up and following up on the Radiagate episode. How conveniently the Presstitutes blacked out and buried the story is a major crime. Most of these Presstitutes were also aware of Tejpal’s misdeeds. It is undeniable that these Hammamis do not report on corruption in their own ranks and therefore earn the contempt of people and names that describe them pretty well. Before the 2013 state elections in November-December quite a few channels were openly campaigning for the AAP party. Even if the Presstitutes deny it they can’t deny the overwhelming evidence that points to this malicious conduct of fake debates and discussions. The ultimate proof of the political pimping came in the form of Ashutosh who was sacked from IBN7 and had to join his masters in AAP. Pics of him being bedmates with the AAP party also came into public domain. There are other scumbags like Punyaprasoon Bajpai and Anjana Om Kashyap of AajTak not being very different. The political pimping wasn’t different with Rajdeep, Barkha or Sagarika who have been long-time political doormats. One of the most read articles on this site still happens to be “The AAPSucker Proxies”. Here’s another image that is popular with people and I don’t think anyone is under any illusion (and it comes from an MSM cartoonist, not SM):

Recently, Deepak Chaurasia of India News (formerly with every Hindi channel on earth) was voted India’s Worst Journalist – 2014. He was indeed a surprise winner and the reason being he is alleged to have doctored a video of child-abuse using children and persons who were unaware of the scam. There also appears to be an FIR against him. Heard any news channel reporting on such pathetic activities in the media mafia? There are other journos who wantonly abuse politicians and people in general. And that is the reason the MSM is facing flak from every quarter. This is apart from financial frauds, tax frauds and sexual transgressions at work places. There is a history of how the MSM has obliged and colluded to cover up many crimes of the govt. Why be offended with the title of Presstitutes? I wrote in “Rajdeep On Deception Lane” that very long ago someone from the media gave the most stinging description of journalists and their character. Here is John Swinton of NYT from 1880:

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes”.

Between VKS and Swinton there isn’t much difference in the description of the crooks. Till a while ago the PCI chairman, Markandeya Katju, himself was behaving like a political tool. He was not only running a political campaign but also ridiculing Indians at large. His nonsense had to be ended by a stinging post from Arun Jaitley in which AJ delivered a severe slap: “Retired judges must remember that the rental for occupying a Lutyen's bunglow post retirement has to be political neutrality not political participation”. There are many media Presstitutes occupying Lutyen’s bungalows and govt flats and as long as they do so they will remain political doormats. The media mafia really has no business to feel hurt. They should cleanse their Hammam instead.

 

Shekhar Gupta Lays An Egg

General Douglas MacArthur was easily one of the most powerful army generals there ever was. He was the youngest Chief of Staff of the US Army. He was the one that oversaw the surrender of Japan in 1945 as WWII ended. For many years he was effectively the ruler of Japan. He was Field Marshall of the Philippine army as also the Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific area. In 1951, in a continuing confrontation with his boss, President Harry Truman, he was fired. Gen. MacArthur remains a celebrated hero in the US. Parks and monuments are named after him. Stories about him are told in classrooms. Songs have been written and sung about him. Films have been made about him.

Gen. MacArthur left the army in honour. But if you go by the imagination of the likes of Shekhar Gupta the general would have conducted strange manoeuvres to battle the President instead of leaving and almost staged a coup. Maybe he would have even declared himself permanent emperor of Japan and Philippines This is what journalism has fallen to at the Indian Express. Turning incidents of ‘un-notified’ troop movement into fear-mongering and misleading the nation to believe there was grave danger of a coup. We will come to all of that in a bit.

Before you proceed maybe you would like to look up a bit of history. Here are some posts on this site about Gupta’s passionate skulduggery for the Congress party. ‘Shekhar Gupta's Summer Freeze’, ‘Shekhar Gupta - Doctoring & Nursing The Congress’ and ‘Saving Shekhar’s Indian Express’. Nobody can recall how a newspaper that was famous for its bold anti-establishment stance and standing up for freedom of the press has come to be a doormat for a political party. In the recent past Gupta and his pitiful rag, including writers like Tavleen Singh, have done hit jobs on anyone that has had a confrontation with the Congress-UPA govt. This includes Anna Hazare and Team Anna, particularly Kiran Bedi, Baba Ramdev and now comes the turn of the Army chief Gen.VK Singh.

So today, April 4, the Indian Express splashes a front page story with screaming headlines: “The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt.” This is about the night of January 16 when the Army chief and the govt. were in a confrontation over the General’s age issue. On January 16 the army chief had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in the issue of his date of birth. Strange co-incidence at best you might say. What’s the story? Intel agencies reported an unexpected, un-notified movement by key military units, from infantry units based in Hisar (Haryana) in the direction of Delhi, about 150 km away. Following this, there was a flurry of activities in the defence department with even a Defence Secretary being recalled from a foreign tour. That the troops were stopped outside Delhi. To add to the drama, as IE states: “..The situation changed rapidly, though. Reports came in of yet another military movement “towards” Delhi. This unit was identified as a large element of the airborne 50 Para Brigade based at Agra”. The govt. didn’t know and according to the IE report army spokesperson had clarified that these were routine exercises.

But the mischief is not in the event or the incident of January 16 itself. The mischief is in the headline of IE, especially when read in the background of recent bad-blood between the Army and the Defence Ministry and the govt. It clearly led all other news outlets and the general public to believe that there was a possible ‘coup’ attempt that night. Clever! And throughout the day news channels have been busy discussing if it was indeed a coup attempt and what could have been the possible outcomes of such troop movements. Somewhere in his dark, dusty office at the IE building in Delhi Shekhar Gupta and his co-writers of the article, Ritu Sarin and Pranab Samanta must have had a good laugh over having fooled everybody, including their competitors. And if all that wasn’t enough you will have Sagarika Ghose, India’s best Defence expert, debating if reporting on ‘sensitive’ matters relating to the Army is  ‘anti-national’ on her show FTN on CNN-IBN. Bravo!

So what exactly was the motive for Shekhar Gupta’s mischief? Let’s read the opening lines of his article: “This is a story you would tell with extreme care and caution. But it so starkly characterises the current state of top-level politico-military relations that it is a folly to keep it under wraps, as the entire establishment has tried to do for a full 11 weeks now”. So you read that and tighten your belts to read the biggest scandal or potential threat. But the article hits the peak in the first few lines and then its downhill all the way. For all the experts who speculated on a possible coup the IE cleverly doesn’t even mention the word even once. That is great trickery at its best because it leaves so much to your imagination. At a press conference reporters even asked A.K. Antony if there were threats of a coup and he dismissed the IE report as ‘baseless’. The PM dismissed the IE report as ‘alarmist’ and TimesNow had to call in expert Mahroof Raza to explain the coup possibilities. In his usual candid assessment Raza dismissed the possibilities as ‘nonsense’ without actually saying so. Another past senior army officer called the report “planted by anti-national elements”. I would tend to agree with him. So essentially the IE article was sensationalism at best and utter nonsense at worse. Other than the spooky headline there is actually nothing in the article that is worth being alarmed.

Given that the Army chief has had confrontations with the defence ministry, there is a stinging letter by him to the PM which was leaked (and exposed by DNA), and this has resulted in the govt cutting a sorry figure in the continuing episodes, something had to be done. That seems to be the motive behind the sensational headline by Shekhar Gupta which makes it sound as if the Army had nearly run over an elected govt in India. Secondly, the article also clandestinely casts a shadow over Gen. VK Singh and makes it sound like he may have gone to the extent of over-throwing the govt on account of his fight with the govt. Of course, it doesn’t say all this in so many words but let’s you draw that conclusion. So like with Team Anna and Kiran Bedi and others Shekhar Gupta attempted another hit job on the Army and the Army Chief. Unfortunately, his attempt can be best described as a ‘failed coup’.

Despite his confrontations with President Truman, Gen.MacArthur was and remains forever a very popular General. The govt. probably realised that there is little they could do with Gen. VK Singh considering the immense popularity he has acquired as he took on corruption and the corrupt in the Army. Had they so desired they could have removed Gen. Singh but not tried to dent his reputation and popularity. Instead, there has been a lot of mud-slinging against Gen. Singh from the govt. and particularly the ‘anti-national’ media. Shekhar Gupta’s ‘failed coup’ is another attempt at that and nothing more. That the entire story could be a 'plant' is further reasoned by this article in the the SundayGuardian: "Senior minister Sutradhar of coup report?"

Once upon a time the IE was the second most read newspaper in Bombay and in many other cities. It has sunk without a trace in many cities and survival against competition can only be with putting out lousy stories with screaming headlines. By evening today, Shekhar Gupta is the laughing stock of the nation. He will really have to start worrying how he spooked himself and IE. He managed to lay an egg alright. LOL! He made only one mistake – He should have called Arindam to count it before it hatched. As it stands, this has to be the worst report of the year gone terribly wrong so far.

General V.K.Singh - With Honours

The Supreme Court today disposed of a petition filed by Army Chief V.K.Singh on the matter concerning his age. The govt had decided to go by records which had his year of birth as 1950 while other records had it as 1951. This meant that he would have to retire in May 2012 while 1951 would have meant retiring in 2013. Why the case landed up in the SC is a sorry story which is consistent with the poor handling of various issues the central govt is by now reputed for. On December 30 the govt rejected a second appeal by Gen. Singh to recognise his DOB as 1951 seeking the advice of the Attorney General. It was the second time the govt had sought the advice of the AG on the same issue. This rejection led to the General taking the matter to the SC. Now, that’s the drama that the media couldn’t resist at all. What should have been reported as case of serious nature was turned into a WWE wrestling match of sorts by the media.

Dignity V Ambition was the constant topic of debates in the media. Shameful! General Singh is in the final year of his career, he is over 60, has earned laurels throughout his career. So to even remotely suggest that there was some ingredient of ambition in his stand is an offensive mud-slinging exercise that the media revels in. And, of course, there were those media crooks who even suggested he should resign as soon as the petition was filed. The General acted out of a call of his conscience and the belief that the govt doubted his integrity by rejecting his appeal. So what do the SC observations hold in this case?

First, last week the SC observed that the govt procedure was faulty in rejecting the General’s appeal since it used the same advice (of the AG) that it had already used in a previous appeal. This therefore vitiated the principles of natural justice according to the SC. In the second hearing of the case today the SC recommended the General withdraw his plea since the govt had already agreed and decided to withdraw its controversial order of December 30. The SC also observed that basic documents such as his school leaving certificate used in UPSC records and other records showed his DOB as 1951. SC also observed that it was an issue of service records where the records showing 1950 were proper and that neither his honour nor integrity was in question and that he should have taken steps to rectify the anomaly long back instead of this late state in his career.

The SC maintained it didn’t want to intervene in an issue of service records and did not want dirty linen washed in public. That, in short, summarises the SC approach to the whole case. So it is neither a loss to the General nor a victory for the govt. In a case such as this it is obvious that the people were with the General because they definitely have far more respect for the Army than for the govt. Secondly, General V K Singh is reputed to be an upright officer who has fought corruption in the army. In contrast, the UPA is now seen as a natural friend of corruption. Effectively the SC just said: Your DOB is 1951 but let the service records stay as they are and not reverse what was accepted for over 30 years. That is all!

The implications of the SC observations clearly point to the following:

1. The govt. simply failed to resolve the issue amicably and let matters get out of hand.
2. That the grievance and dispute redress systems in the army procedures need to be looked into closely and revamped where necessary.
3. That in the future even the Army may resort to normal legal processes in the face of govt intransigence.

During the time when the dispute was being negotiated with Gen. Singh the govt could have come out openly and stated in no uncertain circumstances that they hold him in high esteem, respect his integrity, his honour and the 1951 date, but would stand by the records. Instead, the govt was constantly giving the image of a conflict. If the govt has to learn any lessons then these are the ones. The govt was saved by a slim lifeline today. What if the SC had ruled against the govt? That would have completely eroded the govt’s right to even continue with any credibility. The last thing a civilian govt would want is a conflict over such issues with the Army Chief.

The case was turned into a circus by the media as usual. From the time the SC observations were being relayed from the court the usual rants came out: Blow to Army Chief, Setback to Army Chief! Some TV channels even reported Singh's petition was "Dismissed" when technically that was inaccurate since he had withdrawn his petition. It is indeed shameful that such headlines are being used to indicate a loss for the general. It was not a loss. There are those in the media who are now suggesting that General Singh should now resign early. This is a faulty suggestion. It is up to Singh to decide on that. An unresolved disagreement was referred by him to the SC. That’s all. It is not a defeat or loss even in the slightest sense. This was not some property dispute. Finally, the fact is that a huge majority of India does believe Gen. Singh and that his DOB, as claimed by him, is indeed 1951. That’s a victory unavailable to the govt. which has been losing trust every minute. As the saying goes – the law is an Ass, though not all the time. General Singh came through with his reputation intact and with honours.