IBN & Raghav Bahl's Motley Crew

One of the media mysteries that defies me is how Raghav Bahl, head of TV18 Group, managed to assemble a motley crew who are not only different categories of morons but exceptionally consistent in their moronery. It ranges from American elections to Israel, terrorism and any topic you can name. Th-th-th-th-the… po-po-po-po-point I’m trying to make is… Why would Bahl be so in love with muttering and stammering (apart from ignorance) which are clearly disqualification for any kind of news reporting or TV? Bu-bu-bu-bu-but you see TV thrives on those who talk nonsense half the time, on it and off it. And when people ridicule them they whine and complain they’re being trolled or abused. Let’s start with one who never fails to provide evidence of his ignorance or his half-cooked knowledge and yet sermonises people. It makes me wonder how much as an editor he inspires those working with him to be like him. Are all of them at IBN7 ignorant like Ashutosh? Take a look:

False nationalism? What exactly is false nationalism? Like you pretend to be a proud Indian and desire India to be a great country but secretly want it destroyed? Umm… I would think Ashutosh is referring to “Hindu Nationalists” and they weaken India so they are more dangerous than cross-border terrorism. This pathetic comment comes at a time when 5 Indian jawans were martyred at the LOC by Pakistan forces. So the witless chap indirectly justifies the killing of jawans stating ‘false nationalism’ is more dangerous. Even if the concept doesn’t exist one has to wonder how ‘false nationalism’ is killing soldiers or anyone else. The thing is, like all of his IBN family, this little one believes dialogue should go on with Pak so he cites the Israel-Palestine “rivalry”. You know, rivalry like the Ashes series or England-Germany football. This is the ignorance that is dangerous to the discourse.

Since the time Israeli athletes were killed in Munich 1972 and many planes with Jewish passengers were hijacked Israel has a policy of “no-deals” with terrorists. Most of the Munich terrorists were hunted down and killed but Israel has never owned up to that story. If someone attacks them, they not only retaliate but hunt down the perpetrators where ever they are holed up in the world. In the case of the Air France plane that was hijacked to Entebbe in Uganda in 1976 everyone was allowed to go except Jews. Israeli commandos raided Entebbe and rescued all hostages with the loss of one of their soldiers. The commando who was killed was Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of current Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Would Ashutosh or any media guy ever care to ask MPs/MLAs if they have their kids in the army? Most people may not know that while the hijacked plane landed at Entebbe, Idi Amin, then President of Uganda was managing the terrorist act with Carlos the Jackal (the notorious world-terrorist) at the airport lounge while playing interlocutor. (Source: David Yallop: The hunt for the Jackal). France later kidnapped Carlos from Sudan, brought him to France and he is now in prison. So what exactly is this Ashutosh blabbering about Israel-Palestine? Had enough? No?

In January 2010 Israeli commandos hunted down Mahmoudal-Mabhouh, the Hamas founder, whose group has carried many terror attacks on Israelis. They hunted him down to Dubai and eliminated him according to reports. Israel does talk to Palestinians under mediation but they aren’t spineless like Indian govts. They do take action when required, so this Ashutosh needs to read history before tweeting rubbish. Is Benjamin Netanyahu or all those Israelis acting under “false nationalism”? Even Yasser Arafat, the inventor of modern-day terrorism, made some amends and received a joint Nobel Prize in 1994, but not much changed. In 1974 the UN recognised PLO as a member and in his first speech at the UN Arafat said: "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand." (He was only allowed to wear an empty holster though, not carry a gun inside the UN). Arafat had warmly called IndiraG his sister.

So fake Israel-Palestine experts like Ashutosh need to learn that Israel and Palestine may talk but Israel does not put its guns to rot. Arafat expressed the same sentiment. It is only when Indian govt has repeatedly ignored the price of terrorism, infiltration and LOC killings that people are asking where the gun is. This time, when 5 jawans were killed the GOI at first even exonerated Pak of responsibility in a devious plot. Talks with Pakistan should have clearly ended after 26/11 but despite repeated attacks and killings the govt does nothing. And “false nationalism” is the bigger danger? I would be tempted to call Ashutosh an unpatriotic person wearing Indian clothes lecturing people without knowing the context of history. Hope he doesn’t ever compare Israel-Palestine to Indo-Pak.

Just as Ashutosh brings in “false nationalism” to target Hindutva, BJP or non-Congress politicians with his tweets, the other big news-misfit in the IBN family wonders if people have become “hawkish” in the Indo-Pak process. Expectedly, after every Pak killing of Indian jawans the candle-burners are on TV or hold debates like “Aman Ki Asha”. Sagarika Ghose predictably held a stupid discussion on whether Indian public is getting hawkish over the killings. False nationalism, hawkish; all words that are meant to ridicule the righteous indignation that people feel at their jawans and fellow citizens being killed (or wash away the Pak killings). Her show provides an alarming piece of statistics that should make every Indian angry. It says there were 57 violations of the LOC, a 50% jump from previous year (and 2013 isn’t over yet). Is this lady even fit to be on TV anchoring anything? Her idiotic topics are not only meant to deceive but a vain exercise to please communists, HR hacktivists and anti-nationals who will condone any atrocity on India and its soldiers. Each and every time! Madhu Trehan at Newslaundry shows why she is unfit for TV with her “Face the echo” show:

(Any answers to Sagarika’s stupidity, Raghav Bahl?) And that ends with Uttarakhand is a tragedy that “God has sent us”. Well, instead of so many debates, IBN can simply conclude jawans too die because God sent them death. Maybe IBN itself is a tragedy that God cursed India with. Oh well! If Numero Unee permanently wants to play the queen can the Numero Uno be left behind? Nope! Here’s Rajdeep Sardesai tweeting everybody takes pride in our army but nobody wants to send their kids to the force. Frankly, there is nothing wrong in his tweet except that he tweeted it when irony was scratching the back of his neck with nails. This was the time when the army guys were in a rescue and relief operation in Uttarakhand. Rajdeep and Sagarika had just finished getting their son admitted to a medical course at the Manipal University. So naturally, people were asking why he didn’t consider getting his son into the army. Still, nothing wrong with the tweet, children pursue their own dreams and ambitions. But considering he was tweeting around the Uttarakhand tragedy, Numero Unee was tweeting pics of her visits to beaches near Manipal. And she finds people are “hawkish” over killing of our jawans? I wonder if Raghav Bahl holds any courses on “sensitivity” for his editors. Or does Bahl permit these editors consider it their birthright to sermonise the nation and behave hypocritically? Having realised his tweet was absolutely foolish and hypocritical, Rajdeep then tweets you just have to be good whatever you’re doing. Swell!

There’s still one more editor of the IBN group who often is the toast of stupidity. His name is Nikhil Wagle! And that’s his primary fault! He’s another sidekick like Ashutosh who continuously tweets anti-Hindutva stuff, anti-Modi stuff without even a semblance of camouflage for his mindless hatred. Like Ashutosh, this Wagle is another editor who never learns despite being slapped many times. In the latest episode he tried another of his foolish tricks with noted columnist Minhaz Merchant over the Pak killings. Here’s the exchange:

All that Merchant stated, as many others did too, that the Congress govt’s response to Pak was basically intended as appeasement of their Muslim vote-bank. Wagle tweeted rubbish accusing Merchant of talking nonsense and targeting Muslims. Is talking about the Congress appeasing Muslim vote-bank the same as targeting Muslims? Mr. Raghav Bahl, don’t your editors ever have to go through any medical check-up?

The unfortunate truth is that all four of these IBN editors consistently spew hatred against Hindutva, sometimes Hindu culture and, of course, non-Congress politicians. In pursuit of their vicious agenda they will even bring scumbags like Manishankar Aiyar or similar gutter-mouths to fuel their venom. To ridicule the anguish and outrage of Indians at the frequent killing of our jawans as “false nationalism” or being “hawkish” requires being blessed with Himalayan ignorance and moronery. This is a pic of the funeral of one of the martyrs, Vijay Kumar:

Rajdeep, in all probability the little one doing the rites will join the army. He will probably never have the resources to join a medical school. So spare the country and keep your crap to yourself. The father didn’t die for fake nationalism. He wasn’t a hawk, he was a soldier. It is usually the poor and from small towns and villages that join the army as frontline soldiers. The discourse indulged in by IBN editors is nothing different from the idiotic statement by a JDU minister, Bhim Singh, who said people join the army to die. Forty former army chiefs, IB and NSA officers have signed a petition to stop talks with Pakistan. One has to wonder if these are also fake nationalists or hawks. That is how out of touch with reality the IBN family is.

So Mr. Raghav Bahl, now that you’ve seen the stupidity, ignorance and mindless hatred being spewed by your IBN family, it’s time you repaired it. Or better still, buy a new family.

Disturbing Bee-haviour

Unlike those who call themselves journalists, ordinary people can see misfits immediately. They are able to spot silliness instantly while the so-called journalists thrive in bootlicking the most absurd.

There is a movie called “Lamhe” from the 1990s with Anil Kapoor and Sridevi. There was someone else in that movie; Deepak Malhotra. Now Deepak was a top model of that time and very successful but in an emotional love scene in the movie he fondly calls Pallavi (Sridevi) as “Pallo” and that one utterance was the end of his career. His utterance of “Pallo” was so comic and laughable that Deepak totally disappeared from the media, never to be seen again. In recent times Priyanka Chopra’s boyfriend made his debut in “Love story 2050” and people could again spot a dud. It’s not only Harman Baweja’s movie career that ended but also, unfortunately, his relationship with Priyanka Chopra. Love’s unkind, you could say. But what does it say about our media morons who still crow about Rahul Gandhi’s greatness? What does it say about our political analysts, the ‘Numero Unos & Unees’ who still can’t accept that they couldn’t spot a dud?

In this one, let’s just stick to one group: the wiseguys from TV18. And the best place to start is Rajdeep Sardesai himself, the “Boss” of CNN-IBN group. Youngsters at their first jobs are entitled to a fair bit of latitude. They are allowed to make mistakes and are expected to learn from those. So Rahul Gandhi enters active politics at age 32 which must be at least after an 8-year stint in some other domain. Right? RG probably entered politics partly out of his “DNA” and partly because he must have bombed at his previous endeavours. Because the Congress won 22 seats in UP in the 2009 general elections CNN-IBN bestowed upon him the “Indian of the year” award. Here’s what they said:

So Rajdeep the “Boss” had concluded back then that RG was IOTY material merely because Congress won 22 seats and then had to realise the horror of UP in 2012 under the same campaigner. So who lacks “vision and insight” Rajdeep or Rahul? The citation in the pic erroneously says “CNN-IBN facilitates RG” (instead of felicitates). I know it’s an error but it seems quite appropriate because that is precisely what Rajdeep & Co. have been doing all this while: “Facilitating RG”.

Many ordinary men and women (and I dare say that may include Congressmen), including yours truly, have seen absolutely nothing in RahulG’s words or actions that merit anything less than the #PappuCII trend that he got on April 4. Remember, if there is real substance it is not easy to deny and those who lie will be exposed. And political astuteness? Where did CNN-IBN find that in RG? He has not shown being involved in any decision making, any policies, has not confronted any opposition or agitation and doesn’t speak of anything except in vague terms and Rajdeep sees “astuteness” in the guy? Every time RG has opened his mouth he has only demonstrated more comic genius than political astuteness. So once again Rajdeep sees some non-existent first principles in RG’s CII speech on April 4. Facilitating? Even a regular economics panellist like Surjit Bhalla had to ask Rajdeep which principles he’s talking about.

The so-called “journos” are being fooled very badly or maybe they genuinely are. Here’s another one from the IBN group. Ashutosh found RG’s speech brilliant, very modern and introspective. This guy is dumbness personified and it will remain an eternal mystery how he became a journalist. Or is that the norm? I guess nobody taught Ashutosh that it’s not possible to trend topics on Twitter unless a whole lot of people join in. Trends by ordinary people are not a conspiracy against RahulG or anyone at all. They just reflect the instant reaction to an event or incident. In this case even international journals have recognised that the speech was without substance and the “beehive” was a major gaffe. If Ashutosh, calling himself a journo, finds it brilliant it is only possible if he is a die-hard Congress supporter. He doesn’t stop there. When others point out that he’s being silly he claims they are “paid supporters” out to demolish RG. Ashutosh doesn’t realise that by making such comic allegations he almost confirms that he himself is a “paid media” supporter of Congress. It never occurs to the likes of Ashutosh and his gang at IBN that if RG had indeed turned out a good thinker, leader and politician then even his most trenchant critic would have to admit he has talent and skill. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Someone accurately pointed out on Twitter (I think Vijay @centerofright) that had it not been for the social media a few reporters closeted in the CII hall would have splashed headlines all over the place calling it the “speech of the century” and how RahulG was ready to lead India to being a global super-power. This is the same reason why Rajiv Gandhi was awarded the ‘Bharat Ratna’ despite the Sikh genocide under his watch. If social media were around back then the lies of MSM around many events and individuals would have been exposed quite badly. And the fun is never over until the ‘Social Genius’ certifies herself as “neutral”. I think she has already forgotten her gluttony tour of Gujarat before the elections. She is truly the jewel in the crown of the IBN group. And I doubt whether Congress or BJP really want her endorsement at all.

In the ten years that RahulG has been in active politics he really has had nothing to show but frequent silly utterances. It’s even possible he’s a good guy and his cronies are forcing him to play a role he definitely doesn’t want. In politics, all that RahulG has demonstrated so far is ‘Disturbing Bee-haviour’ but cronies like Ashutosh or Rajdeep seem unwilling to see it. The obvious reason for this blindness is not such a big secret. There is someone disturbing the sleep of the MSM as much he is making the Congress burn midnight oil. Don’t take my word for it. It comes from none other than Pallavi Ghosh, who is CNN-IBN’s embedded reporter with the Congress party. That’s what disturbs Ashutosh and the rest in the MSM too.

Communal CNN-IBN Rants Against Social Media

Since the Assam riots followed by violence at Azad Maidan, exodus of NE people from many cities and more violence at Lucknow and Allahabad a shrill campaign is being carried out by both the govt and the Mainstream Media (MSM) to crackdown on Social Media (SM). The ones heaping the most scorn on SM are none other than the ones from the communal channel of CNN-IBN group. Sagarika Ghose, Ashutosh, Nikhil Wagle and, of course, Rajdeep Sardesai have been abusing the Twitterati for quite a long time now. Some of their messages on Twitter can even be classified as ‘hate speech’ and ‘threats’. There are too many such tweets for me to reproduce here so anyone who wants to go through those can scroll their Twitter timeline (yes, it’s legal).

Ever since the govt came to the magic conclusion that it was certain websites from Pakistan and from India that provoked Muslims to riot and agitate violently and provoked the NE exodus our MSM has adrenalin rushing through their spines. GOI has already blocked over 100 such websites from India and nobody knows which sites those are. The hate-mongers from the MSM also seem to deeply desire a crackdown on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Under the guise of inflammatory content the GOI has probably blacked out many websites which may have absolutely nothing to do with the riots, rumours or the NE exodus.

CNN-IBN, the hate social media channel, had Thapar the Tool asking the question on August 20 on his programme: “Should social media be subject to restrictions”? The question is as evil as the mind that concocted it. We, in the public, should be asking why CNN-IBN, a highly hateful channel, a channel whose editor compares riots and states, implies number of deaths determine coverage of riots and whose Social Genius frequently abuses Hindu icons and even Indian males in general shouldn’t be shut down altogether. Towards the end of his show The Tool even prods a panellist from govt repeatedly to answer the question: “Will you take legal action against Twitter?” Such is the utter contempt for social media which is a huge mass or ordinary men and women.

To my knowledge and all information available the violence at Azad Maidan wasn’t directly provoked by websites. There is enough evidence that activists on the ground used images from the web in printed leaflets to mobilise the protests which led to violence. As for rumour mongering leading to the exodus, the MSM celebs are probably as guilty of it as much as anyone else. In fact, reports of arrests in Bangalore indicate mobile operators SMSed the threats and rumours. The latest report today in HindustanTrolls has this to say: “Cyber security agencies have apparently detected the hand of radical groups, such as the Popular Front of India (PFI) in Kerala and Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehad al Islami (HuJI), while tracking SMSs that led to the exodus of Northeast people. They have been tracking SMSes — not all troublesome — from all sources. Of them, more than 60 million were sent on August 13 alone”.

Another report: “The Government has reportedly ordered 80 or more Internet pages and user-accounts on social networking sites including Facebook, Google and Twitter to be banned to avoid panic among people of the North-Eastern region living across India”. Reports NDTV. This must bring endless joy to the MSM and those who campaigned vigorously for such an action. Here is a twitter transaction between the Social Genius and Sadanand Dhume (They had earlier battled in a debate on Internet Hindus on AlJazeera). The response from Dhume is very telling. It is quite evident that these celebs from the MSM are tired of their spin, their lies and their propaganda being exposed by many in the SM. They are desperate to regain their monopoly of the airwaves and continue their free-run without being exposed. In short, they want to be the Tin-pot dictators of media that Dhume describes. And all these spurious arguments from a woman who abuses any and all persons and icons in her stupidity.

From July 18 this site itself was blocked by BSNL. Reasons? Unknown! For three weeks BSNL users were not able to access this site. There was no response to two mails that I sent them but before it could go any further they had restored access, after three weeks. There is an interesting ruling by a consumer court that should guide the blocking of all sites and maybe that woke up BSNL to its crime.

MediaNama reports: The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum at Shimoga (Karnataka) has penalised Airtel for deficiency in providing Internet access when it blocked torrent sites earlier this year, following a Madras High Court Order received by Copyright Labs. Ruling in favour of the complainant, Vinay B, a resident of Shimoga, the consumer forum has directed Airtel to pay Rs 20,000 to the complainant (and pay interest at 9% per annum till date of payment), for deficiency in service and for causing mental agony, and Rs 2,000 towards litigation charges. A copy of the Court’s order is available here.

Vinay B, a resident of Shimoga, filed a complaint against Airtel, alleging that while trying to access a torrent site from his mobile phone over a GPRS connection, he encountered the “Access to this site has been blocked as per court orders” message, in place of the web page. Following calls and e-mails to the customer service, Airtel failed to come up with a satisfactory response, and apparently misinterpreted the Madras High Court order blocking an entire website instead of a particular film clip, according to the complainant. Airtel’s nodal officer came up with a response that the court order did not specify if Airtel should not ban the entire site, instead…. It noted that for about more than one and half months, the illegal block was imposed by Airtel as the website was blocked in the last week of May 2012 and the block had been withdrawn from July 15th of 2012.

So even in the extraordinary case of a violation only the relevant pages need to be blocked and not the entire website. Websites can also be issued notices to take down pages and I am positive if a real threat is perceived any website author will oblige by putting nation over self. Regardless of this it is criminal that the media which should stand up for freedom of speech delights and thrills in strangling social media. Time will soon establish the ignorance of both the govt and the MSM that they simply cannot blame social media for provoking riots or violence or rumours. There is no solid evidence to prove that and the govt or media hasn’t provided any so far. The motive for the attacks on NE people, the rumours and threats that forced their exodus maybe much larger than what is known and reported so far.

Social Media will not replace MSM but sooner than later will become the more reliable source for news and information. This is what scares the living daylights out of hysterical celebs like Sagarika, Ashustosh, Wagle, Barkha and many more. The collective hatred they spew against certain groups and people in general can compare with the Ku Klux Klan or an elite Neo-Nazi group. A line from the article: “The art of rumour in the age of digital reproduction” in The Hindu pretty much sums up their desperation: “Older media like television remain powerful but increasingly fragile — hence the nervous hysterics of television anchors”. Social Media has truly arrived.

CNN-IBN, IBN7 - Criminally Communal Channels

There is something about our media celebs that makes them hate anything remotely connected with Hinduism or the Hindu religion. Any symbol related to Hinduism or their spiritual leaders or Gurus is an insult to the intelligence of these elites. Of the many media outlets that frequently ridicule Hinduism, CNN-IBN and its sidekick IBN7 are channels that are undisputed leaders. Not so long ago CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose ran a fraudulent live show about SriSri Ravi Shankar and his campaign against corruption. It was a case enough to ‘Sack Sagarika’. But just as in politics, nepotism prevails in the media too and she continues merrily on the channel, frequently spouting venom against Hindus, subtly on TV or more brazenly on Twitter. When the damage is done and she faces a backlash her typical response is to play victim. Here are some recent transactions by CNN-IBN’s Managing Director, Rajdeep Sardesai:

The tweet on the left was in response to many demanding coverage of the anniversary of Emergency on June 25, 2012. Now, what exactly does Emergency have to do with Babri? But unless a historic event of significance is not equated with some supposed ant-Hindu news Rajdeep’s equation is not complete. In reality, Emergency is a shame on the nation, destruction of democracy and is comparable with the tin-pot dictators of Pakistan, perhaps with Saddam Hussain, Pinochet or Idi Amin. Emergency was not an offence against any particular community. All communities paid a price. In contrast the Babri incident is one of many communal incidents in the country. If history is perspective, then Babri should be compared to Somnath and not to the Emergency. But such is the communal agenda of CNN-IBN.

On June 25 #Emergency75 trended all day on Twitter. So Rajdeep wants to know if tweeters will trend #Babri92 on December 6^.  While he actually doesn’t suggest it, it’s almost as if Babri happened as revenge for Emergency. It’s alarming that those who pass off as editors in media outlets cannot distinguish between a national tragedy and a communal incident. The number of people killed or permanently disabled during Emergency will neither be known nor be ever revealed because our current media would prefer another Emergency. They would like a censorship of all voices in the social media and would delight in peddling only the voice of the Congress and their ruling allies. The Justice Shah Commission report on the Emergency was buried and lost till recently a writer (Era Sezhiyan) put the pieces together in a book.

Here’s another tweet from the same evening. Once again Rajdeep drags Babri and Gujarat 2002 to balance Emergency and the 1984 “Riots”. Mind you, he and others in the media continue to refer to 1984 as “riots” and Gujarat 2002 as “pogrom”. Most will disagree with 1984 being termed “riots”. That was a systematic killing of ONLY Sikhs in retaliation. It wasn’t a conflict in which both Sikhs and others were killing each other. Only Sikhs were being killed by Congress cadres. Still, what’s the connection? Unless the BJP’s so-called sins are called into the debate it is unfair to talk about Emergency. All the events Rajdeep talks about happened much after Emergency and aren’t connected in anyway. This is the media’s idea of “balanced” crap!

In another tweet Rajdeep laments being called a “pseudo-secular”. Why? Because he did a programme on 1984 on its 25^th Anniversary and about Gujarat/Godhra on its 10^th Anniversary. This is where Rajdeep comes across and establishes himself as an outright LIAR. And I do call him a LIAR. For long the media had buried 1984. It is only when the media was churning out lies about Gujarat 2002 that people wondered why a similar campaign wasn’t there for 1984. What the liar Rajdeep forgets is that from the day Gujarat riots started he, in whichever channel he was, has carried out a relentless campaign almost every day against the perpetrators and particularly Narendra Modi.The anti-Gujarat shows weren't on anniversaries - those were every week, every month, every year and still continue. Such were the extent of lies that media even reported as if February 2002 had 30 days and not 28. The stories are all in the open now and probably there is as much guilt that Rajdeep feels as other media crooks for stories about Gujarat.

If Narendra Modi were a Muslim I seriously doubt any of these channels would have mentioned Gujarat beyond 2002 or 2003. If Narendra Modi were a Congressman then Gujarat2002 would have been buried by the media as they did 1984. If Narendra Modi were a Congressman he would have been awarded a Bharat Ratna, streets would be named after him, airports named after him, govt schemes would be named after him. And would you see the media protesting? Make a wild guess! This is the communal nature of Rajdeep, Sagarika and all other bimbos in our mainstream media. Hate Hindus, magnify any Hindu crime and suppress the crimes of their paymasters, particularly Congress. Of course, when challenged about being anti-Hindu Rajdeep will claim he is a proud Hindu! Why? Because he eats beef! That’s his measure.

Now, while there have been frequent accusations of CNN-IBN and IBN7 being anti-Hindu and communal here is proof if you ever needed it. The latest catch in the 26/11 is someone called Abu Jindal. Umm…  no one seems sure about his real name! He is also called Abu Jundal, Abu Hamza and new names might crop up soon. On every channel and newspaper there is only one picture of his – the one with the same expression and the same check-shirt. Wait, all except IBN7. An observant tweeter (@AwakeIndian) sent me this TV grab from the channel. 

Out of nowhere you have Abu Whatever seen wearing a Saffron Kurta. IBN7 dressed him up him in ‘Saffron’ and that colour is symbolic with Hindus. The mischief behind altering a commonly circulated image is not lost on people. Of course, the journalistic-bimbo would disagree and suggest that isn’t Saffron but ‘Orange’. AwakeIndian also points to the saffron shirt the anchor is wearing but I wouldn’t read much into that. What exactly is the motive behind photo-shopping the image of a suspected terrorist? 

This can be a good case for a criminal act under section 153A of the IPC – Creating communal disharmony, insulting the religious sentiments of a community and so on. The managing editor of IBN7, Ashutosh, is also often accused of his anti-Hindu stance. Such acts only confirm the agenda of the CNN-IBN group as a whole. So Rajdeep, Sagarika and Ashutosh and their team can flush their ‘secular’ credentials down the drain and stop any pretensions. Their tweets, their images, their misguided sense of ‘balance’ have been frequently exposed. In the case of SriSri, Sagarika claimed it was a “bug” and a genuine “mistake”. Nobody buys that anymore. As with that episode I have to repeat: It’s neither an error nor a mistake, it’s just wilful deception. The sly, subtle and deceptive anti-Hindu campaign will continue on their channels.

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