Dileep Padgaonkar - India's 2nd Biggest Intellectual Moron

(This is a MaxiPost)

I consider it a serious insult if someone calls me an “intellectual” in our political context. I have come to loathe that description over the years. Gin-soaked in their Leftist ideology, nothing is real to them. People who think differently or people who demonstrate some common sense are a hindrance to their way of life and their politics. If only they could kill all such people who stand in their way, as the Commies in Bengal do, their life would have been one large cup of joy. Unfortunately, we do happen to exist and that does bother them immensely. Take a look at this:

Why do well-educated anti-war activists call the president of the United States “the new Hitler” and argue that the U.S. government orchestrated the September 11 attacks? Why does the Princeton professor known as the father of the animal rights movement object to humans eating animals but not to humans having sex with them—and why does PETA defend that position? In other words, why do smart people fall for stupid ideas? The answer, Daniel J. Flynn reveals in Intellectual Morons, is ideology. Flynn, the author of Why the Left Hates America, shows how people can be so blinded to reality by the causes they serve that they espouse bizarre, sometimes ridiculous, and often dangerous positions. The most influential social movements have spawned ideologues who do not care whether an idea is good or bad, true or false, but only whether it can serve their cause. It is startling how many Americans—and particularly how many media, academic, and political elites—fall for bad ideas. The trouble is, their lies become institutionalized as truth, and we all suffer as a result. How our universities have become hothouses of leftist ideology. How historians and journalists have airbrushed history to turn a racial separatist into a civil rights icon.

All that sounds familiar? Hitler? Airbrushing history? Universities cramped with Leftist ideology? That’s from the book “Intellectual Morons” in the pic above. Hmm… I had some time back recommended the book “How India’s intellectuals spread lies” by Ravishankar Kapoor. He doesn’t call the Leftists intellectuals morons but explains how they float terrible theories and notions which are passed off as gospel by our Commie media. Kapoor’s book in India is closest to “Intellectual Morons” by Daniel Flynn. The book explains how people like Nehru, Chidambaram, Mani Aiyar, Kuldip Nayar, Arundhati Roy and others spread lies and bogus theories to serve their own causes. There is a particular case of Suzy Roy that is hilarious to say the least. She recalls the Pokhran nuclear test of 1974 by Indira Gandhi and that it was followed by the Emergency in 1975. Therefore, she argues, in one of her 108786-word articles in Outlook Magazine of the past, that AB Vajpayee’s 1998 nuclear test would also be followed by Emergency. Oh yes, she’s an intellectual for our media. The only difference between the American and Indian intellectual morons is that they are uniformly anti-Hindu.

Surprisingly, such a long-time IM has been off the radar and he travels by the name of Dileep Padgaonkar (DP). He was the editor of TOI during the time TOI’s owners made the editor a worthless piece of furniture. Post-elections 2014 DP has had a sudden attack of conscience or he is being playfully sarcastic but he wrote his confession blog on May 30 (A missive to distraught liberals). It’s open defecation. Err… I mean like an open letter, which is the flavour of the season since Modi became PM. And he writes it to some imaginary “sentinels”. Here are some excerpts:

Dear Sentinels of the Republic,

We goofed. Every assumption we made during the election campaign has been savaged. Each one was premised on the values we cherish — freedom, justice and fraternity. Yet all that we did to promote them was to create fear in the minds of voters: fear of Hindu nationalists gaining control of levers of the state… We also reckoned that BJP-led NDA would fail to reach the halfway mark. This would compel it to rope in ‘secular’ non-Congress, non-Left regional parties to take a shot at governance. The latter, we took for granted, would extract their pound of flesh: deny Narendra Modi any role in the new dispensation.

Towards this goal we added our two-penny bit. We missed no chance to harp on Modi’s RSS background. Time and again we raked up the 2002 violence in Gujarat. We pooh-poohed the ‘clean chit’ the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team and a lower court in Ahmedabad had given Modi. We picked gaping holes in his much-vaunted development model. And when this was not enough to corner BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, we latched on to Snoopgate. On all these counts, we came a cropper. So why did we lose the plot? The plain answer is that we misread the nation’s mood. We didn’t gauge the depth and sweep of the rage against UPA. The dread possibility of ‘communal’ forces coming to power, we believed, would override all other concerns of the electorate, including the lacklustre leadership of the UPA government and of Rahul Gandhi, Congress’s undeclared mascot… At the same time, we must not lower our vigil to ensure that casteist, communal, sexist, hyper-nationalist and regional chauvinist forces of all shades do not threaten the fundamental rights of citizens. These rights are the foundation on which rests the edifice of our Republic. And we remain its steadfast sentinels.     

On the face of it that looks like a confession but when read closely it’s more of regret and bile on having failed to stop Modi. And like the typical coward DP uses “WE”. Who is WE? Why not “I”? Why not admit “I” was wilfully blind? DP dreamed that BJP wouldn’t reach the half-way mark so that there’s a hung parliament and that would at least leave a door open for the Congress to somehow worm its way in or have a powerless govt which will allow scumbags like him to still roam its corridors to curry favours. A true confession by DP would have said he is a pathetic ass-licker of the Congress and Gandhi family. That would have been honest. And sentinels? If DP and his clan of bootlickers were truly sentinels would this country have come to such a pass under Congress-UPA? Would they have indulged in so much corruption and destroyed so many institutions? I doubt a coward like DP has ever questioned SoniaG considering he chose luxury assignments from the govt (as Kashmir interlocutor). Since when do sentinels accept assignments from a corrupt govt? See the line I have underlined in the excerpt. The IM also expects people to be idiots to overlook all the terrible misdeeds of Congress in the misbelief that “communal forces” will come to power. By what logic or reason does he conclude BJP is a “communal” force? Just because all the fake secularists say so? The media will use the same terms that political opponents use to describe parties?

Since when is seeking to remove Article 370 or seeking a uniform civil code communal? Since when is seeking a Ram Temple communal? This is the idea and language of intellectual morons. When they don’t get their way, their language becomes even more colourful. On August 15, 2013 when Modi made a speech after the PM and made comparisons this is what DP had to say (Read his blog):

“The tenor and tone of Manmohan Singh's address were in keeping with the office he holds. Those of Modi were akin to the rants of Hyde Park cranks or, better still, to the often obscene fulminations of Bal Thackeray at Mumbai's Shivaji Park or those of Akbaruddin Owasi in Hyderabad. Indeed, there are times when you detect disturbing similarities between the oratorical style of Modi and, Heaven forbid, of Hafiz Saeed: the same venom, the same conceit of a Saviour-in-waiting, the same promise of redemption from enemies. The result is that even when Modi makes sense - which he does once in a while - he goofs”.

Hyde Park cranks? Akbaruddin Owaisi? Hafiz Saeed? What level of hatred can make Padgaonkar draw such comparisons? You may dislike or hate Modi and you’re free to lampoon him (DP argues Modi makes sense only once in a while). You may not like the fact that Modi made a speech and compared it with the PM or whatever your problem is but you would equate a democratically elected CM with a wanted terrorist like Saeed? But, of course, DP is an intellectual. You see, he was such a gullible “useful idiot” that even the ISI had identified him as a tool to be used by Ghulam Nabi Fai, who is now in prison in the US. So Saeed plays with the ISI team and DP gets used for the ISI indirectly. Who is the anti-national? Who has more in common with Hafiz Saeed? When they spew nonsense they forget to look at their own deeds. There are many such IMs who are “useful idiots” for ISI and other enemies of the State. Oh, in case you tried the link to the article above, it has disappeared from the TOI pages. But you can read DP’s garbage in this cache here. When your mind is preoccupied with so much filth how do you expect to read what people are thinking? When the UK moved to re-establishes ties with Gujarat and Modi, DP couldn’t help pouring more scorn:

“Some might be tempted to compare the British government’s decision to reach out to Modi to prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s infamous Munich Pact in 1938. The appeasement of Hitler, ostensibly to ensure that he would be content to subdue the Czechs and spare Europe a devastating war, came a cropper. But to describe Narendra Modi as a Hitler, or to argue that David Cameron has acted like Chamberlain, or to suggest that today’s Gujarat can even remotely be compared to Nazi Germany is not very enlightening. Such comparisons are worse than odious: they are misleading. What however the changed stance of the British government does suggest is a certain continuity in its foreign policy approach. It is Adam Smith who summed it up in ‘The Wealth of Nations’: ‘To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear as a project fit only for a nation of shop-keepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shop-keepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shop-keepers.”

The intellectual trickery of DP is to first make the comparison with Hitler and then cleverly suggest it’s not very enlightening. I make the comparison and then imply others are doing it and it’s not a great argument. Not just that, DP ends up ridiculing the British govt for its actions. That is not a problem; you can ridicule them if you want. But it NEVER occurs to this IM that the British action in boycotting Gujarat or Modi in the first place itself was WRONG. All his eloquent crap is spent on ridiculing the UK but I wonder if DP ever wrote an article criticising the UK for boycotting a state in India for reasons based on the same hateful campaign that people like him had run. Today Modi is PM; would these same IMs seek UK or USA to boycott India? Such is level of their intellectual moronery. They had no clue that their behaviour was as bad as traitors and anti-nationals.

Some of our IMs speak, write and act in a manner that we have to now question what exactly their motivation is and who motivates them with what. Someone reminded me of this quote of Cicero yesterday:

We put these editors on a pedestal and respected them a long time. Events and discourses have proved they neither deserved nor earned such respect. They aren’t even half as bright as the ordinary people who vote. The kind of lies, filth and hatred they brought to the public domain with their writings and utterances is unmatched in our history. Dileep Padgaonkar once grandly quoted that he held the second most important job in the country after the prime minister. In the past few years he has proved he is the second biggest intellectual moron in the country. He should be looking after Number One.

Fai-re Fighting - Padgaonkar Must Go

The names of many people who attended various conferences of ISI backed Ghulam Nabi Fai are now coming out in bits and pieces. Frankly, it is not a crime or sin to have attended Fai’s conferences. We have been having conferences with seditious speeches right in the heart of Delhi. Most of these prominent personalities have claimed not to have known Fai’s ISI links when they accepted his invitations on sponsored trips to these conferences. However, the writings and statements of some of the participants in the public domain will now come under scrutiny. If, for some reason, the FBI has managed to nail him only now it is obvious Fai wouldn’t go around advertising his real sponsors. At the same time it is just as hard to believe that these participants were naïve enough to not know Fai’s anti-India position on the Kashmir issue. Fai had also selected Indians whose views matched or supported his agenda in some ways. It is also strange that seasoned journalists and others who were in the Fai network never ever wondered how he got his funding and never bothered to ask. There is one particular journalist who was a participant and is currently playing an important role in the Kashmir issue: Dileep Padgaonkar.

"We are here to look for a permanent solution to the Kashmir issue...but a permanent solution is not possible without the involvement of Pakistan." That was the statement Dileep Padgaonkar made immediately after being appointed interlocutor for Kashmir. That statement had created quite some controversy but it will now be viewed in the light of the Fai revelations. From reports it also appears that his Fai connection has created some unease among other interlocutors.

It is worth reading the excerpt below from a news article:

“Fai, by contrast, was quiet, conservative, but well-heeled, which was bit of a mystery because he was not technically employed by the Pakistani government or its embassy (we know only now from the FBI that he was bankrolled by ISI through phony Pakistani-American donations)…….. He was a pleasant man, but he had shady written all over him.

I had a just one encounter with Fai early on, and it did not go well. He lectured me on Kashmiri history and hectored me on the atrocities by Indian forces. With collegiate insouciance, I told him I've much to learn about the history of Kashmir, but he could start by telling me origin of the name Kashmir and Srinagar. He got the point, turned red in the face, changed the subject, and collared me on the plebiscite issue. I asked if he thought Pakistan would abide by the terms of the UN Resolution (which required withdrawal of its forces from PoK and allowed India to keep minimum number of troops to maintain order). And would Pakistan be able to get back the areas of Kashmir it had ceded to China? And how about restoring the demographics of that time (ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri pundits was already underway), not to speak of the relative harmony that existed at that time? I was never invited to another Fai event…….I don't particularly share the current lynch mob perspective in India over the dozen or so eminence grise from India who attended Fai's gigs, and perhaps enjoyed his hospitality. You had to be daft not to realize that he peddled the Pakistani line on the Kashmir issue but it would have required extraordinary acuity to discern he was an ISI stooge.”

That was Chidanand Rajghatta writing in the Times of India. Rajghatta writes for the same journal that DP once headed as editor. Now, if he could sense something shady about Fai in one single encounter surely people like Padgaonkar aren’t so dumb as to not see something fishy about the guy.

There are other reports that the Indian foreign office was aware of Fai’s ISI connections for two decades now. Strange that many of the Indians who participated in his programs would have never spoken to the foreign office or the Indian embassy in the US. Prior to his emails it seems he used to send out hate-filled faxes and the Indian embassy in Washington had coined the term ‘fax-terrorism’ for him. Sounds funnier when you learn he was arrested in Fairfax, Virginia.

There are others like Rajinder Sachar, former judge and ‘Sachar Committee’ author of the ‘minority muslims’ report. Clearly, that report will now be suspect and for good reasons too. One of the best defences of the Fai connections came from Gautam Navlakha. On being asked about the junkets sponsored by Fai, Navlakha clarified that the travel was not by ‘business’ class but by ‘economy’ class. A long term enemy without cannot succeed much if we do not have enemies within. It is often referred to as ‘The fifth column’. Knowingly or unknowingly some Indians have indeed played the role of the fifth column. Some of Fai’s Indians may also have been paid for their speeches. Time will tell.

Padgaonkar’s utterances immediately on taking over as Kashmir interlocutor were already suspect. The Fai revelations have only added fuel to speculation about his “usefulness”! Given these events his position as an interlocutor in Kashmir is untenable. Padgaonkar must quit that post immediately.

Fai Accompli For Mediacrooks

Throughout the evening on July 19 most Indian news channels were live with the British Parliament hearings of the NOTW-Murdoch phone hacking scandal. Some even had expert panellists to comment on the proceedings. The NOTW scandal isn’t about just phone hacking but also about bribing police officials, nepotism in recruitment and the connection of journalists with top politicians of the UK. Our media celebrities then went on a discourse on media ethics. If anything, the corrupt media in India is far worse than the one in Britain. Out there someone did expose the corrupt practices but here in India the media follows the Rajdeep Sardesai ethic of “Hammam Mein Sab Nange Hain”!

So enamoured with the hearings was one media celebrity that she sent out this tweet:

BDUTT barkha dutt

Could India ever hope for such a transparent and civilised inquisition as the one unfolding in UK right now. That would be the day.

July 19

Yes indeed! That would be the day! But prior to that NDTV needs to hold a mirror to itself. This is the channel whose most prominent media celebrity, Barkha Dutt, was in the midst of the Nira Radia scam and is accused of power-brokering. NDTV’s muddled financial dealings were also exposed by The Sunday Guardian. NDTV is also the channel whose head, Prannoy Roy, is accused of being let of by CBI. NDTV is also the channel whose journalist, Sunetra Choudhury, is on leave from 13^th July. Sunetra Choudhury had to write an article in the DNA newspaper about a top UPA politician insulting her modesty with sexual innuendos. Yeah, this is the NDTV that wouldn’t stand up for its own journalist and put that politician in the dock. Barkha Dutt should have been fired long back and NDTV should have shut down by now. A prominent financial news journalist wonders how the loss making NDTV continues to receive funding. “Transparency and civilised inquisition”, Indeed!

As a wag puts it:  “Act like Rebekah Brooks and talk like Mother Theresa”!

It doesn’t stop there. As if in a divine turn of events the Cash-for-votes scam has surfaced again due to court intervention. Some key players have been arrested and all roads seem to be leading to Amar Singh. He is, of course, the media’s once favourite politician who sang songs on NDTV. The sting operation tapes which CNN-IBN had were not aired in July 2008 before the parliament voted on the no-confidence motion. There was tall talk of ethics by Rajdeep Sardesai then. Dirty politics and politicians would have been exposed and the course of the nation could have been altered. Now, Rajdeep of the ‘Hammam...’ fame claims credit for the sting and expose. There was no expose because the tapes were not aired but were suppressed for reasons best known to Rajdeep Sardesai. He is the guy on July 19 during the UK parliament hearings who stated “Indian media doesn’t have such tabloid culture”! No, Indian media has worse. Many of our media celebrities are pawns of politicians and practically political players themselves. The media exists to curb abuse of power but in India the major players have themselves joined the party.

Corruption and Corrupt politicians exist and thrive because of corrupt media. The media silence on Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Robert Vadhera, Sahara group, Paid news, Reliance group and many such issues get successfully covered up due to a compliant media. For these celebrities to talk about ethics following the UK hearings is a terrible joke. If anything people like Rajdeep Sardesai and Rahul Kanwal have actually cut off people who even want to talk about the corruption by Sonia Gandhi and the Gandhi family. Besides these channels are too busy doing the Bollywood nonsense with every week’s new releases and their actors and directors. Let’s also not forget they are also into kitchens, couches, nights out, saas-bahu and so on. Real news and real reporting is like a part-time lover.

As if all that wasn’t enough out comes the news of the arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai of Kashmir American Council. He’s the guy who had many sympathisers of Kashmir Azaadi from India at various conferences and meetings. Journalists, politicians, humanitarians have been involved with him. Among names associated with him at some time and in some way or the other that are coming out are Kuldip Nayar, Rajinder Sachar, Arundhati Roy, Dileep Padgaonkar and the list may be longer. Turns out for over two decades Fai’s organisation was being funded by the ISI of Pakistan.

Indian media is not all corrupt. But the ones that are corrupt are not just hand-in-glove with corrupt politicians but may even turn out to be unwittingly assisting anti-national elements like Ghulam Nabi Fai.

Shall we say – Fai Accompli, mediacrooks?