The Hindu - Of Baggages & Queens

Guy even sold out on Jesus for 30 pieces. “Judas Iscariot agreed he would hand over Jesus to the priests for 30 pieces of silver”. Thus writes Jyoti Malhotra (JM) in The Hindu (TH) on October 23, a day after James Bevan, UK High Commissioner, met Narendra Modi to regularise ties between UK and Gujarat which were cut off since 2002 happened. JM quotes the New Testament. Nice! Except that JM won’t tell you that by records available the New Testament was written anywhere from 50 to 200+ years after Jesus died. Definitely not by actual witnesses. Not that it matters. In a different way the story of Gujarat 2002 is also written by many with extra-ordinarily fertile imagination. Given the corruptions in our history written by Commies, in 200 years you can expect to read how Modi himself chopped off the heads of Muslims and danced over their dead bodies. Far-fetched? Leave a note for your great grand-kids to check. They might be the ones to read the baggage of history of lies left behind.

TH, which carried JM’s article titled “Embracing the darkness”, and its editor S. Varadarajan (I fondly refer to him as Vardabhai) are not exactly great admirers of Modi. So TH, as with many other media dealers, goes way overboard in the crap they have peddled over a foreign govt’s decision to right a historic wrong. In ‘The Insider’, tobacco industry whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand wonderfully describes a cigarette as a “delivery vehicle for nicotine”. You see, most of our MSM, including TH, are not very different from cigarettes. They are delivery vehicles for “nicotine of a different kind”. There will, hopefully, come a time when the MSM papers and TV channels will have to carry a ‘statutory warning’ on the toxic material they deliver like cigarette packs. JM first wrote on her anguish over UK’s ‘new best fraand’ in the Business Standard (BS). That had a lot to do with the UK’s economy, stats and so on. But when TH hired her to write on the same topic it soon turned to human rights and 2 UK muslims who were killed in the 2002 riots. Like a Bollywood masala TH probably laid out the formula: Human rights, emotions, Muslims killed, money over people and, of course, laced with the usual ‘pogrom’ classification. Vardabhai likes!  

Unlike the rants of JM and TH over human rights and their prejudices, nations act mostly on the basis of their national interest. This is what James Bevan said too, that UK’s dealings with Gujarat and therefore with Modi are purely in the interest of Britain’s national interest. Since JM, and many others, wail over human rights, killings and pogroms let us ask them a few questions. In the pic is MMS affectionately hugging Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmedinejad (often joked about as Ahmed-in-a-Jihad). This is the guy who denies the holocaust which saw the death of millions of Jews. This is the guy who heads a govt that brutally kills opposition members and dissenters. Iran is a nation that doesn’t have any record of human rights worth the mention. So why should India even have relations with Iran? Can JM and TH explain? The UN approved a resolution condemning an alleged plot by Iran, to assassinate Saudi envoy to Washington. India abstained! Law? Human rights? In 2010 the same UN passed resolutions condemning human rights violations in Iran, North Korea and Myanmar. India abstained! What say Jyoti? What say Vardabhai? Should we believe that in the eyes of Jyoti and Vardabhai Iran is a paragon of human rights for India to deal with that country?

Let’s move on. Here’s a pic of MMS with the Saudi King Al Saud. Looks nice, doesn’t it? Of course, Saudi Arabia is another paragon of moral uprightness when it comes to human rights, religious freedoms, women’s rights. There is no way JM or Vardabhai can disagree with that. Can they? Er.. it’s just that very frequently they have this unusual practice of beheading people in public as punishments. Hmm! See the pic below MMS and the Saudi King and read this from the Indian Express (June 9, 2012):  “A Pakistani man convicted of drug trafficking has reportedly been beheaded in Saudi Arabia…. The latest beheading brings to 31 the total number of executions in the conservative kingdom so far this year… According to the report, nearly 76 people were beheaded in 2011, while rights group Amnesty International put the number of executions last year at 79”. I suppose this falls within the moral nonsense of JM and TH for India to have relations with Saudi Arabia. I guess it does!

Why exactly does India want relations with the Saudis? Surely, it can’t be money or national interests, eh? We love their human rights record, don’t we? We are fraands with Iran and Saudi Arabia. Tragically, unlike these nations who have a history of human rights abuse Gujarat 2002 is an unfortunate tragedy that is not an everyday feature. That apart, UK might have realised its decisions, on Gujarat in the past, may have been as influenced by writings and petitions of filthy minds that abound in our MSM. Their prejudice and hatred for Modi is bent upon making Gujarat appear to be a monster much larger than Libya even. And with no evidence, legal or moral, they will continue to scam Modi with their lies no matter what. JM argues in her article, with the help of a BBC report, that the Gujarat violence was state sponsored. Hard to refute, the BBC is the final word of God. Where Gujarat is concerned the BBC relies on as much evidence as their prejudiced ground reporters, made up of the JM types, who are persuaded by the same prejudices. They will not ever rely on our SITs or Judiciary. Who knows, this might even qualify JM and TH to write another testament.

But hey, what’s this got to do with Saudi Arabia and Iran? This is about UK, isn’t it? So let’s talk about UK instead. That should make our media morons more comfortable. Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was dragged through the streets and brutally killed by his own people. Britain didn’t have diplomatic relations with Libya since 1984 and then Gaddafi owned up to the Lockerbie Pan-Am bombing of 1988. Read the entire timeline of UK-Libya relations on this page by The Telegraph. (I recommend you do). In 2004 PM Tony Blair visited Tripoli to normalise relations with Libya. Nothing but pure “national interests” drove the Blair govt to normalise relations. I’m sure many in our MSM would love to see Modi being equated with Gaddafi and see him meet a similar fate. Unfortunately, that doesn’t hold the truth as they themselves would know. Modi, in contrast, is revered by a large population and his model of governance and corruption-free govt inspires many others in India as well as the world. The lies of our MSM weren’t meant to last forever. They never do!

As against the lies about Gujarat and Modi peddled by our MSM, especially some very motivated players, India does deal with many tyrannical countries in the world. We do so for our own national interests. We do not possess the power or the right to intervene in all of their problems. 

India refused to even vote against Burma’s human rights situation in the UN. So the trash that Jyoti Malhotra and Vardabhai peddle is just another episode in the long campaign of vilification of Modi and Gujarat. Our MSM may be dumb, the UK and many other govts aren’t so. UK had slipped to 7th in economic standings 2011 and by 2020 is expected to fall to 8. If the slide is not arrested UK may not even figure in the top 10 in the decade after 2020.

If justice were the only concern for the likes of Jyoti Malhotra then they ignore the fact that while our judiciary moves slowly it surely has brought many criminals of 2002 to justice. This is unparalleled in the history of communal riots in India. But it is not, and never was, about justice. It was and will always remain political and about hanging Narendra Modi. Those who started the vicious campaign against Modi can never get past their baggage. It has become a ball and chain at their ankle. Some people in our country can be fooled by our MSM. Govts too get fooled but recover sooner than later. JM and The Hindu can carry their lament to their graves. The world will neither lament nor stop for them. I know of a lady who likes to frequently borrow from Alice. Oh yeah! But in this case there are no Cabbages, the Walrus tells a different story. It’s about the The Hindu and their Baggages and Queens.

Libyaberration

The protests in Libya and earlier in Egypt and Tunisia have fascinated the world. Rightly so. Ordinary people challenging dictators are always good to watch. Unlike Tunisia and Egypt, the protests in Bahrain, Yemen have turned ugly, more so in Libya. Defiant dictators unleashing the army on their own people. Then there is also a lot of drama associated with such uprisings. So can our journalists be left behind? After all, these are the champions of democracy. Aren’t they? Let’s see!

Liberation or Journalistic Aberration?

India can claim to have exported many great brains and professionals across the world. However, our journalists probably wouldn’t belong in that category. First, the ones that landed up in Egypt ended up reporting more about their own plight rather than the events there. How they were harassed by authorities, detained by police and so on. So I wonder, do we really need any reporting from clumsy Indian reporters? They do a bad job in India itself why take it out there? I have to admit, going to conflict zones does take courage and I do give them that. But beyond that it’s just comic relief.

First, it was Times Now that landed in Libya. Well, Egypt-Libya border if you like. And for the first two days last week what was it that Times Now reported? Their report consisted of one line repeated over and over again for two days: “Times Now is the only Indian channel on the Egypt-Libyan border”. Bravo! That’s the second biggest leap for mankind since the landing on the moon. I know what you’re thinking! Where’s Barkha Dutt? Well, while Kashif of Times Now was telling us how his was the only Indian channel there, our brave lady was tweeting her way right up to Libya. What followed from her could have been in a tweetathon.

No one described Barkha’s experience better than B. Raman, the former bureaucrat and strategy analyst. Here is a sample of what he wrote on his blog:

“Barkha and her NDTV team made their way through nearly 700 kms of beautiful desert made famous during the second World War by the epic tank battle at El Alamein between the allied forces commanded by Field Marshal Montgomery and the Nazi German forces commanded by FM Rommel. Barkha has over 200,000 followers in her Twitter site. I am one of them. I keep exchanging Tweets with her from time to time on current developments...... The Twitter enabled us to follow Barkha and her team for nearly seven hours of their 15-hour journey. We kept encouraging her through Tweets and E-mails and advising her and her team to take good care of themselves and not to walk into a trap. I was touched by the gesture of even some critics of Barkha in praying for the safety of the team. One of her critics tweeted her: “May not agree with her opinions on matters ....but safety is paramount ..I pray for her safety... There were so many others who prayed for their safety. I tweeted Barkha: “ U see how many well-wishers U have in the sub-continent.”..... Even people in Pakistan tweeted her “good luck.” Ms. Munizae Jahangir, a journalist, who is the proud daughter of Mrs.Asma Jahangir, the famous Pakistani human rights activist, tweeted Barkha to say that she was E-mailing to her the telephone numbers of some Pakistanis in Libya whom she could contact if she needed any assistance.”

That’s exactly what Barkha described too. 15 hours of travel, beautiful empty highways and deserts, and tweets that said she hoped the internet and other stuff worked out there in Tobruk. (If you don’t know where Tobruk is just look up her tweets)Wait! Even ‘Pakistanis’ tweeted her goodluck! Isn’t that nice? (Just as some other Pakistanis were busy killing Shahbaz Bhatti) And so at the end of these exchanges we were all better educated about the situation in Libya. Both from Times Now and from Barkha Dutt. It doesn’t end there. Not to be out-done Headlines Today rushed their own team out there. So we had a Gaurav Sawant and Co. taking us through the strife. Playfully, if I may add. That’s it! Enough is enough said CNN-IBN! So by Sunday (Mar 6) CNN-IBN announced their team was there. Why in the world does CNN-IBN need their own out there? Aren’t they a sister channel of CNN with the likes of Nic Robertson and Ben Wedeman doing the reporting there? And these guys are hardened conflict-zone reporters. Unlike our ‘studio heroes’ who landed up in Libya, you are unlikely to find Robertson or Wedeman frequently in TV studios.

Am I famous now? Isn’t that how CNN got famous overnight on January 17, 1991 by being the only channel to report live on the first Gulf war? Yes, I was somewhere in Europe that night to watch it all. So you might see a Gaurav or Barkha or Kashif hogging international channels very soon. There is a reason why American journalists are all over the place. The US has a lot at stake in many countries and regions given its political and economic influence for a long time. India simply doesn’t have any stake in any region except for our citizens living there and general trade. And if you wanted conflict zones, those are in abundance within our shores. And yes I do hope and pray our journos remain safe and out of harm’s way.

Those who run channels like Aaj Tak and India TV may hold the strong belief that most Indians are stupid, gullible morons who will buy into the ‘Bhoot-Pret’  and ‘end of the world’ stories or Amitabh Bachchan or Shahrukh Khan’s previous avatars. Make no mistake, India TV is probably the most popular channel in India. But the English channels need greater sophistication in treating their audience to stylish tom-foolery. The funny part is just as these journos got into Libya the biggest stories were breaking in India. The SC judgement on the CVC and then the DMK pull out of the UPA or "what the hell is going on..." hogged the TV channels for the last few days. And their greatest achievement might simply be one of just having gotten into Libya, without visas. Other than that there is nothing much in their coverage that is not already there on CNN or BBC or such channels. Very soon Al-Jazeera maybe in India too. Yes, that TV channel whose post box the Al-Qaeeda love so much. Will be more fun then.

I seriously wonder. Just over a year ago, there were strong anti-government protests in Iran. None of these bravehearts dared to go there and do some reporting. Does Islamic rule have anything to do with that? Does courage stop at fully Islamic countries? It’s hard to say if Libyans will truly find Liberation. But with our journos I can say with some confidence that it has been a Libyaberration!

Sharia Justice? Where's Our Media?

This is from Iran. An 8-year old's punishment for stealing bread....

Well, to the credit of those Iranians involved they were merciful enough to soften the blow by wrapping a towel under the kid's arm. Is this the kind of justice Sharia wants all over the world?