NaMo Inspires New Comedy Channel

In a very harsh criticism of those defending the failed economic policies and actions of the UPA, R. Jagannathan of FirstPost slams a defender of the faith called Mihir Sharma of more or less being blind. It appears Sharma called the UPA critics “unqualified”. Jaggi goes on to write that Sharma blames everything for UPA failures but the UPA itself with the stinging line “The UPA’s foolishness, for him, had little to do with it”. Let’s put aside Jaggi for the moment as an “unqualified” critic. How about someone who loves “Doctoring and nursing the Congress”? I’m quite certain Mihir Sharma doesn’t consider Shekhar Gupta “unqualified” but even this long-time defender of the Congress has turned harsh. SG slams the Congress in his article “Current accountability deficit”. Well, as you would expect, SG slams all senior leaders of the Congress except, yeah you guessed it, except Sonia Gandhi. So with nothing to defend their failures the Congress now believes the best defence is targeting their biggest roadblock for 2014. In the process some of their defenders have become great comedians.

In my posts I often refer to Mafia ‘Wiseguys’. They are the foot-soldiers of the mafia who do all the dirty work, also sometimes known as ‘Goodfellas’. Contrary to what that title may indicate, these guys aren’t bright or wise but have a weird sense of humour and are mostly oblivious to their own stupidity. No matter how badly they goof up the Mafia bosses never kill these wiseguys (except from a rival gang). Even if they are fondly called by certain numbers they respond positively. Take a look (11 secs):

See what I mean? You know, the bosses even have numbers for them: Moron No.1, Moron No.2 and so on. The wiseguys don’t realise it or mind it in the least. It’s all love and affection. The other thing about wiseguys is they are fiercely loyal to the bosses no matter what. Politics is a lot similar when you consider a bunch of hate-mongers start off some venture without knowing how to do it. They don’t even possess the basic skills that the wiseguys possess but they possess all their stupidity.

This is not so much about the Congress as a political party but what kind of people they allow to represent them. On August 22 it seems the party held a national workshop on Social Media. Apparently almost all their Twitter, FB and Blogging supporters were there and then some more. Considering the party spokies, like Kapil Sibal and Manish Tiwari, have often dismissed SM as an anarchic platform which has no impact on elections the party must have done a U-turn in trying to educate their foot-soldiers with this workshop. The Congis forget one cardinal rule: “recruit for talent, train for skills”. Talent cannot be transferred, skills can. No matter how many workshops and trainings you put some people through they aren’t going to acquire talent they don’t have. They might, at best, acquire some juggling skills.

Take a look at Rajdeep Sardesai and his writings. For a chronic Modi-hater who for over 11 years made Modi his “Roji-Roti” (as Modi told him) with hate-mongering, even he seems to reluctantly acknowledge Rahul Gandhi is not the youth’s inspiration. This must be a hard pill for RS to swallow. But Rajdeep grandly states “In the normal course, 43-year-old Rahul Gandhi and his youth 'managers' should have been the natural mascots of this new India, and not a 62-year-old Narendra Modi and his Sangh Parivar. Rahul is younger, English-speaking, telegenic and tech-friendly. And yet, as most recent youth surveys suggest, it is Modi who is the preferred choice of young Indians. Where has Modi succeeded where Rahul has failed in attracting younger India?” English speaking, telegenic and tech-friendly? I have to wonder if Rajdeep wants a political leader or another shrill TV anchor. This is his problem. He thinks all of India wants telegenic, English speaking guys for inspiration. Nowhere does the word “PERFORMANCE” figure in his entire article and he suggests youth are looking for quick-fixes. And this tech-friendly RahulG who addressed the Congress’ SM workshop is nowhere to be found on it (unless he’s travelling on FB or Twitter incognito). Therefore, it’s left to his bumbling and comic wiseguys to target Modi.

One would have thought they would have come out wiser (no pun intended) from the workshop but the results have been disastrous from the word go. It looks like the singular objective coming out of this workshop is how to target and tar Narendra Modi. He appears to be their only fear to an electoral loss and gaining another term for Congress. It seems 11 years of work by the MSM to destroy Modi has failed so a new venture was called for; a dedicated website. So some ‘Modi-hunters’ got together and created a site called ‘Pheku.In’. The prime mover seems to be famous Hate-Engineer Shabnam Hashmi but the supporters list reads like a whose boo. Here’s what the TOI reported on August 23 (a day after the workshop) under ‘'Modi haters' to launch website on Friday’:

“The site is endorsed by journalists Amit Sengupta and Seema Mustafa, scriptwriter Anjum Rajabali, professors Anuradha Chenoy and Apoorvanand, filmmaker Arma Ansari, poet Ashok Vajpayee and dancer Avni Sethi. Mahesh Bhatt, Mallika Sarabhai, Naseeruddin Shah, Ram Rahman, Shabnam Hashmi and Vivan Sundaram have also pledged support”.

This formaldehyde army (they call it “formidable” though) headed by Shabnam Hashmi created the website with nothing that we haven’t seen in the past many years, including the period prior to the December 2012 Gujarat election. Mostly lies, lies and more lies that everyone knows by now. But they made one big change. They are now telling “stories in pics” like TheUnrealTimes. One must applaud their attempt at comedy. Remember Congi Arjun Modhwadia putting up pics of children from UNICEF site as being from Gujarat? He was caught and had to take down those pics. Now take a look at Comedy No.1:

So they pick a pic from Chennai stating sewage water goes into regular water supply and try to pass it off as one from Gujarat. The morons only forgot one thing; that “social media is the real watchdog” now and I would be surprised if the Congress workshop didn’t cover that part. When I saw it first I could tell the red-striped walls are typical in Tamil Nadu and some parts of the South. The original report is contained in Merinews. (The boss must have picked up the phone and asked for Moron No.1 I guess). We are lucky, the comedy didn’t end there. Here’s another one:

In this one the hate-mongers try to pass off a pic showing children working at a Delhi stadium (in a state ruled by Congress) from a report in The Guardian, as one from Vibrant Gujarat. I wonder if these people take others to be idiots like themselves. That looks like a serious possibility. So why would Congress want such morons to campaign for them? That mystifies me even more. (I’m sure for this the Boss must have called up and asked for Moron No.2).

With eggs on her face (and maybe some others too) Hashmi put out an apology on her Facebook page. She blames it on her technical team and some low-resolution of pics. So even the content search is left to the “technical” team? Laughable! I doubt any technical guy would goof up the way Hashmi & Co have. She calls herself a “social activist” and if this is how activists conduct themselves in the political domain you can imagine why she deserves a phone call from the boss. It doesn’t occur to these hate-mongers that in their quest to tar Modi, they are slandering the state of Gujarat itself with fake pics and information. Hashmi guarantees there will be more pics from Gujarat. I think we should be ready for some more comedy shows.Oh yes, on a site titled "Pheku" it is quiet appropriate the comedians use "fake" pics.

When he was in a good state of mind RahulG did advise his spokies not to talk about Modi but only question his claims. Looks like the memo didn’t reach the hacktivists who are bent on making a laughing stock of themselves and therefore the Congress too. Media channels like NDTV and CNN-IBN have caused their own reputation irreparable damage by their constant anti-Modi campaign. They have burnt their fingers. Even Salman Khurshid ended up being called a ‘cockroach’ after he called Modi a ‘frog’. The more they try to lampoon the more they end up looking like comedians themselves. This is no way to politically combat Modi. But hey, if Modi is going to inspire comedy shows such as the latest one Hashmi & Co. produced, I’m not complaining; I gladly welcome it.

Note: Video clip from "Midnight Run", Pics Via @TajinderBagga.

 

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! 

The 'Hang-Modi' Weekend

Yes, it’s that time of the year. This year it’s even more special because it’s the 10th Anniversary of Godhra and the Gujarat riots. Throughout Monday, February 27, you can expect newspapers with specials and TV news channels to carry on endless debates on Gujarat and Narendra Modi. Expect to see sepia toned images of violence, deaths, burnt train compartments. Expect to see special documentaries on the plight, anger and anxiety in certain pockets of Gujarat. Expect to see how muslims from adults to school kids to new-born are systematically being discriminated against in Gujarat. Mind you, some of these stories aren’t unique to Gujarat but exist in pockets of many states in India. But once again, you will be reminded that it’s only in Gujarat alone that sufferings are magnified and state-sponsored. For the record, some of the lies about the Gujarat riots spread through the last decade have been exposed enough for the propaganda to change course. This is particularly the number of people killed, fake rape and torture cases and fake affidavits.

Let’s go back to September 12, 2011 when the Supreme Court returned the Zakia Jafri case to the lower court. Here’s how one politician still holding Modi criminally responsible for the riots responded: Sitaram Yechury of CPM stated that it does not absolve Modi of the “communal ri…” and then he paused, thought for a second and said “communal pogrom”. That is one of the major lies that was being spread. 790 muslims and 254 hindus were killed in the riots; far from features you would associate with a pogrom. The communal riots were terrible but creating a political agenda out of them is just as bad. The second big lie were the numbers themselves. All the reporters and political activists like Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vir Sanghvi, Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi, Sanjiv Bhatt, Arundhati Roy, Harsh Mandar and many more have consistently fabricated the numbers killed between 2000-3000. Some still and will continue to do so.

What to expect? Well, one of the reporters who was instrumental in spreading untruths about the riots, Rajdeep Sardesai, is already off the block with a blogpost “Modi's 'Sadbhavana' and the horror of 2002” on February 24 and he wonders if there’s closure and if Gujarat has moved on. Rajdeep continues the same refrain from the past of how muslims have become second class citizens in Gujarat. There is a major change though. In his post he doesn’t use the word “Guilty” for Modi and he doesn’t use the term “mass murderer” which he had frequently borrowed from his HT colleague Vir Sanghvi. But well, old habits die hard so Rajdeep does start his post with a lie: “Has Gujarat really moved on ten years after the terrible violence of 2002? The answer depends on who the question is asked to. Chief minister Narendra Modi, for example, claims to have moved on to the point where he refuses to take questions on the past”. Well, during the Sadbhavna mission in September 2011 Modi did speak to a lot of reporters including on the topic of the riots. T.M. Veeraraghav of Rajdeep’s CNN-IBN also got an interview with Modi. So you can expect Rajdeep to use newer, different lies to promote his sentimental clap-trap.

Fast off the block from Hindustan Times (whose former editor could have been in jail for slandering Modi as a “mass-murderer”) is another opinion from Shiv Vishwanathan. Like Rajdeep, he too, starts off with a bang and it’s pretty easy to miss his gentle twist. He states: “In recent times, we had a Special Investigation Team report into the Gujarat riots that claimed that Narendra Modi was not guilty of the riots. If the media were to be believed, the way is now clear for the BJP to anoint him unofficially as prime minister”. This when the SIT report is not even officially released. But that is not the point. The wording of Shiv’s line is “SIT CLAIMED”. Haha! SIT claimed? One should remember that the SIT is an investigative body appointed by the SC and they don’t make claims. They just submit reports on whether they have found evidence to prosecute someone. Claims are usually made by opinionated columnists or TV panelists. For them, unless some legal body or court finds Modi guilty everything is just a “claim”. And then Shiv goes on to wonder whether Modi will fit the bill as PM or not.

Isn’t it amazing? From calling him a criminal, mass-murderer, pogrom manager, Hitler, Nazi, fascist almost everyone in the media is now discussing whether Modi will make it as PM or not. Haha! During the last state elections in Gujarat these very people were wondering if he should even continue as CM. Now they don’t even have the remotest doubt if he will win another state election this year. The fake opinion polls for Gujarat election won’t be published anymore. They would be horrified if they looked in the mirror and noticed that Modi has silently led them up a path where they would be discussing his PM candidature.

Hindustan Times also published the transcripts of Modi’s deposition with the SIT in March 2010. That document contains all the responses of Modi to the questions raised by the SIT. None of the MSM appears to want to discuss or debate that. TV channels have been quiet on that front. The reason is pretty obvious. The answers contain many facts which were so far conveniently hidden from the public. That Modi had appointed Congress leaders to watchdog committees after the riots must come as revelation to the public. The number of times he had appealed for peace and called for the army in time is all facts that were twisted by the media. Having failed to politically or legally hang Modi the media crooks started a weird campaign seeking an apology.

What to expect? Well, I think one can also expect a special bout of ‘We the poodles’ by Barkha Dutt with the usual peddlers of the drug called ‘untruth’ on Sunday, February 26 or a special programme of some kind. After all, she and Rajdeep were the ones who fuelled the spectacular anti-Modi campaign which provided refuge for all kinds of liars. Arundhati Roy has more or less disappeared from her campaign of lies. Teesta and Sanjiv Bhatt are struggling to keep untruths alive. Vir Sanghvi has been mass-murdered by Radia. Barkha has been tainted by Radiagate, Barkhagate, Barkhabarks, shoddy 26/11. Barkha has now been reduced to a sorry mouthpiece of the Congress party and the Hurriyat (As Swapan Dasgupta jokes). To her credit she did manage to improve her wardrobe during this time though. Rajdeep, apart from Cash4Votes also got trashed for the fraudulent telecast of Sri Sri debate by his wife. Rajdeep has already announced a programme ‘Revisiting Gujarat and If Gujarat has moved on’ on CNN-IBN for the weekend. Expect another round of selective story-telling by him. And yes, Rajdeep will actually CRY!

They say truth is the first casualty of the war. Our media claimed Gujarat was different because it was the first time riots were on camera and on TV. That is only half the truth. The other half is that this is the first time a great campaign of lies and untruths was carried out by the media for political ends and sustained for the better part of a decade. Now the lies and the liars are falling apart. But brace yourselves – the ‘Hang-Modi’ weekend has just started and expect some new concoction to be served.

Also read:  1) Gujarat riots - The true story   2) SC exposes media's clean shit.

Mallika Sarabhai's Toilet Musings

On September 17, 2011 when Narendra Modi began his fast under the Sadbhavna mission there were some who protested, some who said he was flexing his PM ambitions and some called it a 5-star fast. There was one 5-star human rights activist though who was busy doing something to prove a point. Yes! Mallika Sarabhai, the 5-star activist decided that she would feed poor slum children on that day to protest against Modi’s ‘5-star’ fast. I am wondering if that was the first time Mallika ever saw slum children from close ‘quarters’. You can usually tell human rights activists by their 'truck' – usually a very large blood-guzzling SUV.  A day later on September 18 Mallika was busy again hurling accusations against Modi of bribing her lawyers. Of course, her lawyers denied that. And then she got busy in leading a group of protestors to petition Modi about justice awaited in the 2002 riots. Then the fast was over! Modi went back to work and Mallika .. Oh I don’t know where or what she went back to.

A few days later that ‘whistler’ cop, Sanjiv Bhatt, is arrested and Mallika was back on the scene. This time she went a step further stating “even judges in Gujarat are influenced by Modi”. There are the usual SUV types like Shabnam Hashmi, Teesta Setalvad and others with Mallika with candles and balloons to support Sanjiv Bhatt. After a court battle for about 18 days Bhatt finally got bail and his family celebrated. So everyone went back and Sanjiv Bhatt went back to his family. And Mallika .. Aha! This time I know where she went and what she did. Yeah! Just like any other 5-star activist she went abroad. She dashed off to wonderful South Korea. Wonderful place to forget Modi, Bhatt and slum children. Well, didn’t quite turn out like that it seems. She had to confront the horrors of South Korean toilets. And that was enough to bring back strong toilet memories for her.

So Mallika writes the ‘Last word’ in that magazine called ‘The Week’ and it’s quite appropriately titled ‘Flushed with confusion’. For all that money I could have told Mallika that her head was flushed with confusion right here in India. Anyway, let’s understand her toilet travels… I mean toilet travails… (quotes in blue).

“We were at a roadside stop, somewhere in the south of South Korea, in a very clean public toilet. I looked around the toilet stall. Behind the commode, around it, under it. No, there was no sign of a flush. By this time several other voices had joined in this chorus, each with an explanation, but no solution. At last a triumphant voice, “There is a button on the right of the door as you exit.” Phew. I hadn’t fancied leaving a clean toilet dirty for want of reading Korean”. Hmmm! Somewhere? Somewhere in South Korea? That rush to toilet must have been so bad she even forgot the name of the place. I think usually when we go into a toilet in a foreign country we carry some basic info. And discovering a flush button really can’t be part of the tour plan. But 5 star activists aren’t used to it and some poor soul had to shout ‘eureka’ there’s the flush button. Oh and I’m still wondering.. if finding a flush button would have been easier if one knew Korean I wonder how they decided the place was a toilet if it was probably written in Korean. Must be some intuition! 

Toilet House, The Museum, South Korea

Oh by the way, the Koreans (And I mean South every time I mention Korea here) absolutely love their toilets. Don’t believe me? Okay, you see this little house once belonged to someone. They had shaped it like a toilet and now it is some kind of toilet museum. I am not kidding, this toilet house is in a town called Suwon in South Korea. As a tourist Mallika should have cared to know this.. LOL!

“A few days later, in the even cleaner toilets of the offices of the Korea Foundation, the Korean counterpart of Indian Council of Cultural Relations, I sat on the toilet contemplating a series of graphics. One had wavy lines, horizontally placed. The next one had dotted lines, like upward moving waves. The third one had the same but moving downwards. Knowing a couple of my colleagues were in next door stalls I mused aloud about what they meant. Pat came a reply, “Whatever you try, try it while still seated, otherwise you will get a shower.” More cautious than is my wont, I refrained”. What a pity! The Indian Council of Cultural Relations must be pulled up for sending people to places without a guide on the graphic indicators in toilets. Wavy lines, dotted lines.. now thanks to Mallika, if I ever go to South Korea I will now try them while I’m seated. But wait a minute.. those were toilets in ‘offices’ so it does surprise me why they’d have showers in there to be warned by Mallika’s toilet neighbours. I, for one, haven’t seen showers in office toilets. Alright, maybe the Koreans thought there might be special Indian guests who might even consider taking a shower while being in the toilet in their offices. Quite possible hahahha!

Japanese Toilet signs

She mentions a diplomat who had problems with a Japanese toilet. A what? Yes, a Japanese toilet. So for her benefit and that of the diplomat I’ve put up what is a Japanese toilet guide that is pretty common. Then she goes on to narrate some more experiences, some of which I prefer to censor but I couldn’t help picking on this particular experience of hers: “Then there are the automatic sensor devices. At Paris airport, this meant getting up and sitting down on the pot several times till the sensor kicked in. I tried getting up and down straight, sideways, by jumping out of the sensor’s eye.... Finally it worked, but I still haven’t figured it out”. Up, down, straight, sideways? I have imagined Mallika is a dancer and also the daughter of a famous danseuse but I certainly can’t imagine her dancing in a toilet just to get the flush going. And she says she still hasn’t figured it out. Well, there are a lot of things, like the lies, that is hard to figure about Mallika too. Of course, I don’t think the toilets of the world are in a conspiracy against her though.

And finally she says: “If my readers are surprised at the topic of this week’s column, let me tell you why these thoughts come to mind. A five-star deluxe hotel I have just checked out of, had nothing at all—no bum shower, no mug, not even the possibility of reaching the tooth glass and the water at the basin without twisting your back. Was this a plug for the (toilet) paper industry, I wondered. Or just one more way we stupidly ape the west?” No Mallika, no one is surprised at all. And not everyone stupidly apes the west. Some of us have even lived in the west without aping them. Look at the bright side Mallika, the 5-star hotel you visited could well be the equivalent of the no-star slum that goes through such things every day. You face such toilets some exciting days in your life… they do that all the time.

Okay, so next time I travel abroad I won’t ask for a travel map or guide but will first seek out Mallika and get toilet tips from her. Well, so much for our 5-star activists! Their hearts bleed for justice, for slum children, they want to see Narendra Modi hanged and what not. But they can’t even flush their own bullshit down without dancing in the toilet!

Sanjiv Bhatt Needs A Bonfire, Candles Not Enough

On Tuesday night (Oct 11) it seems gas balloons burst on being singed by candle flames outside Sanjeev Bhatt’s house. It scared the small crowd there, Bhatt’s father-in-law fell down and rumours of a blast had a short life. Hard to fathom what the candle light activists were doing with balloons. I suppose gas balloons are symbolic of the gas bags that have pronounced Bhatt completely innocent of any crime and a victim of a witch-hunt.  Never mind. All the candles in the world are unlikely to end Sanjiv Bhatt’s troubles soon.

So who are these gas bags? All the usual suspects, of course! There is Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi, Mallika Sarabhai, the leaders of the pack. All three are established and exposed liars. One can sympathise with Mrs.Shweta Bhatt (Sanjiv’s wife) and understand her dismay on these events. But instead of taking saner counsels to work for her legally she has allowed gas bags to holler and shriek mindlessly in defence of her husband. The three angels on her side have acquired so much disrepute that anything they now utter is suspect.

Shweta stated that her husband was not a criminal and does not have a history of offences. That Bhatt was being treated like a ‘terrorist’ in custody. That his life is in danger. She writes to P. Chidambaram and complains about the threats. None of these seem a natural response but more a tutored act that has all the ingredients of a drama that the media so loves. The story of Sanjiv Bhatt is not that of a ‘whistle-blower’ as the media so dearly likes to call him. It is an extraordinary case of how and why an IPS officer chose to reveal information and file affidavits against Narendra Modi, nine years after the Gujarat riots of 2002.

The one lesson that is lost on many activists is that whatever the media crooks hype usually turns out to be a huge propaganda of untruths. The SC order on September 12 sending the Zakia Jaffrey case to the lower court stunned many of these media mullas who had hoped the SC would rap Modi. It didn’t happen. Latest information also suggests that neither the SC nor the SIT had considered Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavit in the SC. This only means that his affidavit does not contain reliable evidence against Modi. The motive of Sanjiv Bhatt to come out of the blue and file that affidavit incriminating Modi in the riots must remain under serious question. It doesn’t help that some Congress politicians have been revealed to have lent him support in his misadventure.

This document here chronicles the extraordinary history of offences by Sanjiv Bhatt. He is not the whistle blower or the angel that media has tried to portray him as. But he suits the huge anti-Modi industry propelled by the three stooges (Teesta, Shabnam, Mallika) and comedy channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN and TimesNow. It would also appear that much prior to his affidavit in the SC, Bhatt would probably have been extensively communicating with these activists. Since the exposure of fake affidavits of Teesta Setalvad the media didn’t really have much to shout about against Modi. The Bhatt affidavit gave the campaign a new lease of life for the anti-Modi propaganda.

It is not just Sanjiv Bhatt but the law will sooner or later catch up with Teesta Setalvad. Here’s more from DeshGujarat: Public prosecutor S.V.Raju says “.. Bhatt’s allegation against Modi was simply to divert the attention from the main offense he had committed. Raju also said that adding involving the names of Modi and late Haren Pandya in affidavits was to attract media attention….Bhatt had suppressed the fact that he had approached the Supreme Court for bail on the very next day of his arrest on October 1. The bail plea was later withdrawn from the SC registry on the same day and Bhatt’s lawyer Syed placed the fact on record only after filing bail application in local court here on October 3”.

And if that is not enough a case of murder has been registered against Sanjiv Bhatt for a custodial death in 1990 in Jamnagar (Guj).  The Jamnagar court will soon file a charge-sheet against Bhatt and other accused policemen in the case. Still, the defence for Bhatt continues to pour from none other than Team Anna. This Team Anna is slowly turning out to be a political tool for unknown elements. Suddenly, its member Shanti Bhushan announces Modi is the most communal person and he is willing to defend Sanjiv Bhatt as a lawyer. Bhushan goes on to add “Bhatt was being persecuted only because he had filed an affidavit against Modi”. No sir, he is not being persecuted, he is ACTUALLY being prosecuted. And as a lawyer, this moron should let the law prevail instead of  making political statements about the Congress or the BJP or Modi.

As for the media the best comment yet comes from Rajeev Srinivasan in an article at Firstpost. He describes how this cottage industry of hate and manufacturing consent operates: “Then there are the various characters who keep popping up like jack-in-the-boxes. The Fiction-Writers Posing As Journalists. The Activist Accused By Witnesses Of Tutoring Them To File False Affidavits. The Angry Dancer. The Police Officer 1.0. The Police Officer 2.0. That Police Officer 1.0, who was once the media’s favourite, has trashed Police Officer 2.0, its current favourite, does not seem to bother the media at all”.

Sanjiv Bhatt has spent 12 days in jail and is still fighting for bail. Whether he gets bail or not a long legal battle awaits him. Candles will not be enough, he may well need a bonfire.