Pots & Panellists

Pots and Pans have a great history about them. We can’t live without them and they aren’t just things in the kitchen. Toddlers and kids find endless joy and banging them all the time. Pots and Pans have been used to celebrate the New Year and people bang them to even keep evil spirits away. It would have been nice if evil could really be kept away with just pots and pans. In the small narrow alleys of many old cities in India people use pots and pans to warn the arrival of police during agitations. Last year the Argentinians had their own TeamAnna moment when their citizens agitated against corruption; crime and inflation (see pic). And what did they do it with? Pots and pans, of course! After all, in the global village there is something indeed that unites all of us. Pots and pans create a lot of noise, draw a lot of attention and numb our heads. There’s even a family song about “Singin’ in the kitchen, bangin’ on the pots and pans” (Youtube) which was a chart hit.

Recently on Twitter an interesting question came up about our panellists on nightly news debates. Many didn’t know that these panellists are not “free”; they are “paid” to appear on TV channels. Everyone, from Swapan Dasgupta to Pooja Bedi, all are paid for appearances and their views on TV. Let me caution you. There is nothing wrong or unethical about this. If SwapanD writes for a column for a newspaper he would be paid for it, so would a Shobha De. They can, of course, volunteer a free-appearance. The exceptions to payments are usually spokies of the govt and political parties. These spokies usually turn up to defend their party positions on debates. This could also be true for others who are “defending” allegations against them. But they too can be paid if there are featured shows like ‘The Big Fight’ on NDTV. This is not true for interviews. For instance, Kanchan Gupta’s Twitter account was listed to be blocked last year by Sibal & Co. So when he was interviewed by some channels on the topic he doesn’t appear as a panellist but as one being interviewed.

All our TV channels have a database of panellists. Let me explain. Supposing a channel is doing a debate on politics the ‘booker’ (the guy who books the panellists for the show) types in “Politics” as a search-term into the database and up come Vinod Sharma, SwapanD and so on. You type “Woman” and you would probably get Ranjana Mukherjee, Pooja Bedi. How would you ever learn to even outrage unless you’ve heard Pooja Bedi? You type “Anything on Women” you are guaranteed to get Mamta Sharma of the NCW. You search “Elections”... Yeah you guessed right, you’ll get Yogendra Yadav & Co. You type “Islam”; you will likely get Zakir Naik and Shah Rukh Khan. You type “Expert on everything” you’ll get only one name: Suhel Seth. You type in “Gujarat & Modi” … Oh that’s a very long list and the specialists run into thousands to be listed here. You type “Unwanted” you will definitely get MediaCrooks! That’s the way it works and it’s as simple as that. We do owe much of your current-affairs education to all these panellists.

Then there are other shows aired on TV which are from a programme held elsewhere. These shows too employ panellists and speakers. This is where the usual TV host or anchor gets lucky. He or she too gets paid like a regular panellist and the guests get paid even more handsomely for their appearance and their lecture. This pic is from the HT Summit 2012. See the nice guy on the left? And the nice guy on the right? Both get paid for this appearance. The wonderful part is that these guys can be paid with YOUR money. So next time you run across such a show on TV, the least you can do is watch it since you’ve indirectly and unknowingly paid for it already. (Read about HTSummit2012). So you see, even if you missed out playing with pots and pans as a child or never banged those in an agitation, you’ve lost nothing. You get it every night on your TV.

If you think all panellists are greedy and appear only for money then that’s being very unkind. All of them have other professional pursuits from which they earn enough and don’t depend on the panellist’s fee for survival. Do some people have enough motivation to appear on a TV debate without a payment? Absolutely! Recognise the faces in this pic? All of them are champions of justice and the fight for justice needs no other motivation; especially when it comes to Gujarat and Narendra Modi. Most people have no idea the sacrifices these panellists make and the suffering they go through for you. Yes, they run into Arnab Goswami frequently and that takes a lot of courage and sacrifice. So let’s not be under any impression that a panellist’s life is easy. They also run the risk of their agenda being exposed if their opinions and utterances turn out wrong and their targets are not met.

Take Shabnam Hashmi, for instance. Till the other day she claims she was being chased by TimesNow for debates and appearances. They even sent her pick-up cars. Turns out her outfit called ANHAD operates from a premises given to a Planning Commission member (read Pioneer article). Now, that’s not legal and may have consequences. She claims she operates from a “Garage”. Wow! The late Steve Jobs has indeed inspired many, hasn’t he? Shabnam quit all her govt posts after the Gujarat elections and now refuses to appear on TimesNow. That guy Modi may have won the elections but imagine the loss to humanity. We have lost a panellist! You can read Shabnam’s sob-story here.

I sometimes wonder why parents started giving pots and pans to their toddlers. I am no exception. For all the noise and hell they raise, these pots and pans seem to be a sure way of keeping the little ones productively employed. These childhood habits are difficult to let go. So now we have our panellists doing all the work. They create hell and all the noise and they’re lucky. They even get paid for it. Nothing you hear on TV is free. Nothing! 

Twenty Two Yards Of Dead Bodies

“He who joyfully marches to music, rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

According to a TOI report some 4000 soldiers have died since 1999 for various reasons when there has been no “official war”. There is something strange about soldiers being recruited in the Army. Quite a lot of them are from villages, rural towns and mostly from poor families. There are villages in Rajasthan and Himachal that have at least one veteran or soldier in the army. There are villages in Rajasthan where at least one member of every family is in the Army or is a veteran. You know… young men and women around the age of 21-22 willing to die for their country if required. Many, if not all, fortunate ones in the same age-group are addicted to the latest mobiles, malls and movie stars. The slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” does seem to have a deep meaning and prudence. It’s either the farmer or the soldier who is dying lately. Very frequently!

Last night some TV channels were discussing Captain Saurabh Kalia the soldier who first noticed the Kargil infiltration in 1999. He and five others were captured, tortured and their dead bodies returned to India by Pakistan. There was Arnab Goswami on TimesNow talking about him. And yes, there was Barkha Dutt, the Kargil heroine, on NDTV. Both channels had to discuss Capt. Kalia with some Pakistani guests also. Barkha was looking to an open and honest discussion and the Pakistani, Gen. Qureshi, decided he had enough and it was pointless. I’m even amazed that it takes him to tell her that it’s pointless talking to a representative of your enemy of that war about a situation. Well, Barkha and Arnab show you how intelligent our media is and how concerned our govt is. Barkha even ended her program with the words that it takes something sensational to talk about our war heroes. So what was this sudden reason to talk about Saurabh Kalia? Well, after 13 years of waiting his father, Dr. NK Kalia, has petitioned the Supreme Court to direct the GOI to seek an apology from Pakistan for “war crimes” in returning the body of his son tortured.

“Kargil martyr Saurabh Kalia's torture: Violations by Pakistan unacceptable, says government” says the NDTV report. If you read the headline you’d think our govt has suddenly woken up and it had nothing to do with the SC petition by Kalia’s father. Yeah, the UPA govt that doesn’t observe Kargil Diwas. The same UPA whose prince charming, Rahul Gandhi, claimed on November 4 that the Congress had generously supported the BJP during the Kargil war. We are just past another anniversary of 26/11. I remember during the 26/11 attacks TimesNow and Arnab had screamed “We will never forget”. And yet within a couple of months TOI was running a crap campaign called “Aman Ki Asha”. So much for never forgetting dead people and soldiers! And Barkha Dutt? Oh yes; the one who reported breathlessly from Mumbai during 26/11. In less than 48 hours, even before the blood on the streets and the targeted buildings had dried and were washed she was doing an episode of “We the people” right from Mumbai on November 30, 2008. This episode was angrily titled “Enough is enough”.

In a tweet on 26/11 this year Barkha called it an “act of war”. I suppose same as Kargil. She also states privilege offers no protection and terrorism is an awful leveller. If you decide to watch the video of that program you will find that except for one Shameem Khan, who lost 4 members of his family, all the rest could be categorized as the “privileged”. Of course, the panellists on the program were poor people who had experienced terror themselves – Ness Wadia, Simi Garewal, Bachi Karkaria, Ratna Pathak, Kunal Kohli, Luke Kenny etc. and one former police officer M.N. Singh. Barkha’s outrage over the act of war and her histrionics were on full display that night. After a heated exchange between Simi and a guy from the audience she even told everyone: “Will you all do what I ask? Can we have dignified silence please?”. Such was the outrage. Here are some quotes from her (in blue) at the beginning of the program:

Home Minister (Maharashtra) and many more heads are expected to roll. Oh yes. RR Patil, then HM did roll. He even said somewhere that such attacks happen in many cities. Well, what do you know; he’s back and is still the HM of Maharashtra. 

We are going to tell our politicians that we don’t necessarily trust them. And the politician she had on the program? Oh, that was Abhishek Singhvi. Yes, the same guy who was suspended for his physical escapades and is now back on all channels again as Congress spokesman. She also had Milind Deora, who is currently a minister.

Justice for this, justice for that! These are frequent campaigns run by our media. And in the run up to 26/11 what are some of the great deeds our politicians were busy with? 2G, Cash for votes, CWG scam, Hasan Ali and his black money which has ended nowhere, Adarsh scam, Aircel-Maxis. Within hours of 26/11 ending Vilasrao Deshmukh his son Riteish and Ramgopal Verma were on a terror tour inside the Taj hotel. At an all-party meeting the PM announced there would be four more hubs of NSG. That would mean more Saurabh Kalias and Unnikrishnans will be happy to serve. What happens once the war is over and all the patriotic screaming is over in the media? They get back to their games of hosting our enemies. Especially, the architect of Kargil – Parvez Musharraf.

Politicians and our media seem to have a strange love affair with those who plot the destruction of our nation. Even when Musharraf has ceased to hold any official position our media seems to believe he is the one with the wisdom on leadership and future of India. So you have the Kargil heroine running everywhere to interview him. You have the India Today Conclave hosting him, you have HT Summit hosting him. And he’s a frequent guest on both NDTV and CNN-IBN. These channels are often hyper-patriotic and even have special songs composed for some special occasions. A report from The Hindu in May 2012 describes certain incidents that the guys in the army seem to routinely experience. This was after a ‘Sahayak’, someone who’s like a valet, was beaten up. It talks about simmering class-tensions and feudal mindset in the army too. Musharraf comes to our land tells us he doesn’t regret Kargil, he tells us Muslims in India need a better deal and cracks jokes that make our media celebs laugh. During the India Today Conclave in 2009 Maulana Madani, an MP, gave a stinging response to Musharraf’s concerns about Indian Muslims and asked him politely not to worry. (See video) The host, Arun Poorie of India Today, was left dumb and speechless.

If not that Musharraf guy there’s always that other one. Yes, the other national pastime of our media folks, especially Barkha Dutt, is none other than Imran Khan. Our media seems to campaign for him as PM as much as they do for, say, Rahul Gandhi. He was here again this month and had reassuring words for India: If the Kashmir issue is not resolved there may be more 26/11s. And since we talk about “levellers” what levels everything better than Cricket, eh? Playing cricket with Pakistan with top politicians watching levels everything. In the 2011 world cup match at Chandigarh the Pakistan and Indian PM with their entourage were there cheering the players. After the match NDTV even put up banner with the jubilant Indian team and their lucky mascot Rahul Gandhi. And now the GOI has decided to honour Saurabh Kalia, Sandeep Unnikrishnan and many other fallen soldiers of Kargil and 26/11 by hosting another Indo-Pak series in December 2012. Idiots who scream patriotism every other day will, of course, turn out to watch the matches and the media will make another neat pile. It’s now called ‘Cricket Diplomacy’. Saurabh Kalia is dead while his father has been fighting a lot more battles. He’s taken the latest one to the Supreme Court.

If Saurabh Kalia had returned alive with his limbs broken or blinded he would have lived a miserable life running from pillar to post fighting for pensions and dues from the GOI. Fighting in Kargil was probably easier for our soldiers. If there’s anything left our politicians will make sure they will screw it up with an Adarsh scam over land supposedly allotted for Kargil heroes. Oh yes, how can we forget? There’s LK Advani, Dy. PM during Kargil, who went to Pakistan-Yatra to certify Jinnah was secular. Our Laloos and Bollywood celebs frequently go on a pilgrimage to that holy country. Lately, even the very secular Nitish Kumar was on a ‘Tirth yatra’ in Pakistan. A wag once commented Tamils in Sri Lanka don’t matter because they aren’t vote-banks but Pakistan matters because of Muslim vote-banks in India. I wouldn’t disagree. Pakistan is a vote-bank for our ‘secular’ forces.

What about our Cricketers? Aren’t they somewhat similar to soldiers? They wear India colours; often display patriotism covering themselves with the Indian flag. There’s a little guy who turns up at every match painted in the tri-colour just to support Tendulkar. Some of these cricketing celebs live under high security. The same security provided by the likes of those who die in Kargil or on the streets of Mumbai, like Tukaram Omble. People protesting is one thing, it is time these Cricketers stood up, showed some spine and said NO to playing Pakistan in a bilateral series. This is no world cup or international tournament where we don’t have a say. This is our own choice.

“The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonourably, foolishly, viciously.”― Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot.

Our policy towards Pakistan is not and never has been driven by a National Compass. It has always been driven by personal opinions, situations and stupidity. The cricketers now have a chance to stand up and do the right thing by the Kalias, Unnikrishnans, Ombles and many of our fallen men and women. They have the chance to show they not only have brains but also a spine independent of the BCCI and the GOI. They can imagine the plight and suffering of the families of those who died and imagine twenty two yards of dead bodies and not necessarily a cricket pitch.

If You Have The Inclination, We Have The Crime

Lots of Opportunities since the new regime came in. Let’s make lots of money. If you have the inclination, we have the crime.

In just the previous post we looked at how Hindustan Times with its HT Summit splurged on public money. Most of their major sponsors being big time PSUs and govt companies. Even the poor man’s work insurance corporation, ESIC, seems to have found compelling reasons to invest in HT Summit. Part of that unholy trinity of media I wrote about is CNN-IBN, HT’s media side-kick. It’s Managing Editor, Rajdeep Sardesai (RS), often likes to talk about “integrity”. Look at the samples. In the first tweet from February 2010 he yearns for “news with integrity” and in the second one, from July 2012, he complains about his integrity being questioned. “Those who abuse...” he says. Actually, anything that questions or ridicules our media celebs is nothing but ‘abuse’. The second tweet is because he had to apologise for an earlier stupid and tasteless tweet of his. When Deep Throat said “follow the money” he damn well knew what he meant. Pursuit of news and stories never resulted in loss of integrity but pursuit of extraordinary wealth has often led to loss of integrity. For almost a month my Twitter friend Suresh Nakhua has been asking questions of RS and CNN-IBN; tricky, troublesome questions which, of course, would amount to ‘abuse’ in the world of RS.

In this post I will just summarise the questions by Suresh Nakhua who has storified the financial joyride of CNN-IBN and certain group companies in his post “Few questions for@sardesairajdeep & some unknown facts abt CNNIBN”.  In other words Suresh has just tried to follow the money. Before you look at the maze of companies, here is a company that became part of Global Broadcast News Ltd (GBN). And it’s splendidly titled ‘SRH New Holding Private limited’.

Well, well, all the names from the CNN-IBN family are there. Sardesai, Bahl, Anubha, Chaubeji, Vidya Shankar and, of course, Cacofonix. Don’t read too much into that because there is nothing wrong there. This is just to share the ‘dramatis monetis’. All you need to do is follow Suresh’s tweets on that page sequentially and enlarge the images contained in each. You will find integrity in each. So here are the questions that remain unanswered:

1. SRH was a loss making company so how did it end up giving loans worth 19.71 crores? Hmm! One could say “we are a private company and it’s none of your business”. Yeah, so you can’t be in the public domain and keep screaming about integrity either.

2. The remuneration of Jt. MD, Sameer Manchanda, exceeds the limits prescribed under the Companies Act. The explanation is that GOI approval has been sought and if not received the moneys will be returned. Clever? First commit the offence and then claim the money is being held in “trust” and if the approval is not received, it will be returned. Integrity!

3. At March 2006 GBN had a loss of 46.53 crores. It’s a perfect qualification to receive an “unsecured loan” of 40 crores during the year, isn’t it? We shouldn’t complain about the loan itself. It should be of interest to all of us who or what entity gives such loans just in case we anticipate huge losses too. Needless to say, you need integrity.

4. To run your business you do need some pocket money at times. Who’s your daddy? Of course, Syndicate Bank. So you have this bank lending an unsecured loan of 5 crores to tide over festival periods. While the title shows the amount as ‘secured borrowings’ the statement says ‘NIL’ against security created. What was it secured with, integrity? Do read the article on Reliance and ‘Raghav’s Endgame’ squeezed in between.

5. Then Raghav Bahl, the Chairman of TV18 group, has some 7 Income tax cases pending against him. That’s normal if you’re running a large group of media companies, nothing to worry. Then in another page that Suresh produces, an IT penalty of over 1Cr has been reduced to a mere Rs.53461. Nice, isn’t it? Who’s your daddy? Integrity?

6. That’s all. Oh yes, there’s this small thing apart from the IT cases, there is an ROC case against Raghav Bahl that is pending. Oh, one more thing. There is this e-Eighteen.Com and Victor Fernandes who claim Bahl & Co. illegally diverted their businesses and are demanding over 3000 crores in compensation. If I read correctly, it claims there was an undertaking that TV18 would route business distribution through e-Eighteen which Bahl is accused of breaking. Integrity! Not the kind of program that will be debated on CNN-IBN or any of its group channels for sure.

There is hardly any doubt that since the arrival of the UPA govt in 2004 there has been a dramatic growth in the fortunes of certain media companies. People were complaining of the amount of tax-payer money on the recently executed terrorist Ajmal Kasab. He’s just one guy. The amount of tax-payer money certain media outlets may be guzzling without notice is like silent killers; like Cancer or Diabetes. I have stated earlier that our news media is the first line of defence for the corrupt. Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal have been spending a lot of effort on politicians. If they spent half that effort on media houses I have absolutely no doubts that corruption and financial misdeeds will start diminishing in every other sphere. And next time Rajdeep Sardesai talks about integrity I suggest you have a good laugh. At least laughing doesn’t cost anything.

*The title is from a Pet Shop Boys song.

HT Summit: How To Sell Leadership & Make Money

One of the most enduring legacies of George W Bush is the number of words he invented and the number of amusing statements he made. Try these: “Nu-cu-lar” instead of nuclear or “misunderestimate” instead of underestimate. In an interview he once said “I make decisions… I am the decider” in defence of Don Rumsfeld. In his final months of presidency, at the end of a climate meet in Japan in July 2008, he told the G-8 summit members: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter”. Those were silly ones. But GWB, a good friend of India, did leave the stunning and ever-lasting phrase for the world: “Axis of Evil”. Bush was strongly influenced by his Faith and even believed his foreign policy was influenced by God. So it’s a bit of a surprise that he didn’t use the term “Unholy Trinity” instead. But we do have an Unholy Trinity in our media and it’s often hard to tell where one begins and where the other ends; Hindustan Times–NDTV–CNN-IBN. This threesome is easily the most potent propaganda machine. Add to this their little ones like Mint, NDTV Profit, CNBCTV18 and their siblings. The TV18 group does have an online site, Firstpost, through which it tries to balance the propaganda work of its TV channels. But that’s not the point.

In an article titled “The new Ram and Ravan” in Firstpost, Anant Rangaswami explains how HT buried the allegations against Robert Vadra in the inner pages to fool the public. Well, that story still remains buried. Now even the National Herald scam of Congress and Young Indian of the Gandhis remains buried in the media. But this isn’t about any of these. Then there is this extreme obsession of this Unholy Trinity with a guy called Pervez Musharraf. The number of times Barkha Dutt has rushed to interview him is not possible to count. The number of times the media hosts him in their conclaves and summits is not possible to count. I don’t have to run a history of Musharraf which is already known. But that is not the point.

If leadership is what India has to learn from an army guy then there any number of honourable generals in this country to learn from. A recent retired General is quite anti-govt so not acceptable. But hey, someone who is predominantly anti-India is the one to lecture on leadership. While individual interviews are fine, where in the world would you find such disgusting media pampering of someone to whom India is a sworn enemy? Imagine the Washington Post or New York Times hosting seminars on leadership and inviting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lecture Americans on it. I guess these summits don’t pay unless there is some controversy, some glamour and some comics. Seriously, you need to learn leadership from Katrina Kaif? I guess you’d need to if you want to be in the glamour business or sell mango juice. But that is not the point.

So what exactly is the point? It’s about this Unholy media Trinity that seems to protect and serve the govt and the Congress at all points of time. Focus on tiny issues of other political parties and cover up major issues that concern the govt or the Congress. Who pays for HT’s ego trip with such frivolous summits? YOU DO! How? Let’s do some math. There were 34 speakers invited for HT Summit 2012, most of them from foreign countries. Most of them charge speaking fees and all their travel expenses are paid by the host. So depending on the pecking order you can make your own calculations of how much it would cost to invite 34 speakers, put them up in swank hotels, pay for their travel, pay for all the meals during the 2-day summit. Do you feel lucky? Okay! Now, it is normal for corporate bodies to pay and sponsor such events, get a little media mileage over competitors and maybe even some good display. They could even bargain for precious favourable columns and air time to be used in the future. You know, all those luxury cars, SUVs, high value real estate, consumer goods; any kind of competitive business. Right? Take a look:

Well, what do you see? I admit I was wrong; there’s no car company or real estate company or consumer goods company. Except for a couple there aren’t even regular major advertisers. Instead, we see a host of govt companies. Most of them are oil and power companies! Some of these companies are more or less in some kind of monopoly. The Associate partners are ONGC and LIC, both huge govt companies. Interesting, eh? Now let’s do a count of Summit partners too.

Of the 14 companies listed as HT’s Summit partners you have: 1) ONGC 2) NTPC 3) LIC 4) Petronet LNG 5) Power Grid Corporation of India 6) Oil India Ltd 7) Power Finance Corporation 8) ESIC 9) SAIL 10) BHEL. Simply stunning! Of the 14 companies who are Summit partners, 8 are PSUs/Govt companies or companies in which our govt has a sizeable stake, in addition to ONGC and LIC as Associate partners. Mostly, your money! Does that tell a story? I guess it does and a big one too. So companies that are largely funded by the public or survive on public money are sponsors of a major event of HT Summit, an ego trip for the private media outlet. That’s the first lesson in leadership to learn: How to use your smooth connections with a political party to have govt companies shell out money for your luxury trip. If you were in place of HT would you care to return the favour? And if you were HT and part of the Unholy Trinity, would you care to ensure this nice party stays in power?

I know what you’re thinking. That this maybe a one-off year. Well, can’t tell because I haven’t been able to go into the 10-year record of HT’s Summit sponsors since they aren’t currently available. That might require an RTI inquiry with the govt, DAVP or with these govt companies. But what I can tell you is that this is no isolated case. Back in August 2011 the CAG was reporting certain wrong-doings in the contracts awarded to many parties. By Darth Vader, you will find the Unholy Trinity in there too. Remember how Times Now and the whole TOI group went after the CWG scam and Suresh Kalmadi? Well it was suggested by many that the main motivation for TOI going hammer and tongs at CWG and Kalmadi was not getting certain media contracts from the CWG organising committee. That was estimated at some 12 crores. Not really a big amount considering the size of the event and the size of scams we are used to. But who got the contracts? You get no prizes for guessing – the same Unholy Trinity of HT-NDTV-CNN-IBN.

Most of us are aware of “paid news”. Most of us are also aware of the huge spend on various dynasty ads of the govt. What we may be missing out is on the other leakages that aren’t quite evident to us routinely. I’m no RTI specialist or activist but I’m sure if an RTI is filed with the DAVP and govt companies it could well reveal the amount of ad spend on certain dedicated media outlets. Well, I suppose we shouldn’t complain. After all, Leadership isn’t free to learn! Especially, if it earns a tidy sum for some.