Redemption For Fearless Cowards

Like any other ordinary Indian I am fond of movies. Some of the posts on this site have used movies as analogies or to demonstrate a situation. The best directors and screen writers tell a story amazingly well when the plot is simple or even if there is no plot at all. Something many of our media celebs would do well to learn. For once I will borrow from Nidhi Razdan, and we can look at the “larger picture”.

Aspiration and passion drive people. Passion drives them to live, to fight for justice, to fight for freedom, to power and to greed and corruption. Redemption comes in many different ways. History hangs on tiny chances. On the left is an iconic image of a man who has found liberation and redemption. Heavenly rains clean the shit off his body. At Shawshank everybody is “innocent”, they joke. Everyone, except ‘Red’! He sucks up to the parole board many times but is never allowed parole for a murder he committed as a stupid young teenager. Red had already served 20 years in prison when Andy Dufresne arrives; sentenced for murdering his wife and her lover. Andy is sentenced to two back to back life sentences for each murder (life sentence means “for life” in the US and not 14 years).

It’s a corrupt system, a corrupt prison and headed by an equally corrupt but religious warden who welcomes Andy and his honourable colleagues to prison: “Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank”. Sounds like someone in the news lately, doesn’t it? The ‘man-for-everything’, Red, is “institutionalised”; he grows to the idea of prison. The cold and aloof Andy is a problem-solving banker by profession. He helps the prison staff with their tax returns and saves them money. Being a banker he is also an expert in money laundering and he provides that service gladly to the warden. First Rita Hayworth and then Raquel Welch adorns Andy’s cell. Turns out Raquel revealed more than her sexy poster did. An incident that could have changed his life from prison brings out a profound message from Andy to Red: “Get busy living or get busy dying”. Watch an excerpt (6 mins):

 

The Shawshank Redemption is a movie about crime, innocence, friendship, human endurance and redemption. Andy Dufresne didn’t kill anyone; he was wrongly sentenced to prison. The one witness who can establish his innocence arrives at the prison and the warden kills him because that witness would mean the end of his money laundering. Dufresne finally escapes; with all of the 300 thousand dollars of the warden’s money he laundered. Some sort of severance pay for 19 years of wrongful imprisonment. The warden’s safe of loot is covered by a very profound religious quote about the lord: “His judgement cometh and that right soon”. Red finally gets a parole when he stops sucking up and tells the board he doesn’t give a damn. Both friends unite and live a free life in Mexico. The warden shoots himself when his corruptions and crimes are exposed by Andy. “Geology is a study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes, really. Pressure and time!”.   

Power and passion play a double hand. Power and corruption are also a study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes, really. Pressure and time! Ask Tarun Tejpal (TT) all about it. The ‘senior’ inmates at Shawshank had a practice of laying bets on the new inmates; on who will crack on the first night in prison. Red spots Andy as a “tall drink of water with the silver spoon up his ass” and places his bet on him to crack. Andy never cracked. At Tehelka some employees are coming out and probably saying “we were all just prisoners here of our own device”. TT may have won his bets in the past but this young 23-year old lady (V) didn’t crack. She stood up for herself and redemption for a “fearless” coward is at hand. Today TT hides in a hole but he’s not the only fearless coward around. If ordinary laymen like me could see the crimes of Tehelka since the first THINK in 2011 and their politically-motivated articles and stings; how is it that his fellow fearless cowards in the media couldn’t see it? Hammam?

There’s Hartosh Singh Bal who was associated with Tehelka at the resurrection in 2004. We shouldn’t forget that resurrection was on personal intervention of Sonia Gandhi. Bal tells Firstpost: “It didn’t last. As soon as funding issues starting cropping up, editorial compromises followed. What happened with my story in the media was in keeping with how events unfolded in the magazine once a fund crunch hit the organisation. I witnessed stories in other departments being killed after advertisers came and directly spoke to Tarun. And I had seen attempts made to slant political coverage not out of commitment to a certain set of values, but out of an obligation to a particular political party”. Any surprise why the Congis are very upset and will go all out to protect TT? They are behaving as if one of their own was caught in a sting operation. V only happens to be the latest but a courageous victim. What about others earlier?

There’s Sayeema Sahar, formerly of StarNews (now ABPNews). She claims to be sexually harassed by the bosses at StarNews (Avinash Pandey and Gautam Sharma). On protesting she was harassed and finally thrown out of the company it seems. Her complaints went unheard and even the “we-cry-for-all-women” NCW did not respond to her complaints. The NCW did nothing. Sahar is a Muslim woman but she hasn’t claimed being harassed because of that. Maybe she made a mistake. Maybe if she claimed she was harassed because she was a “woman and a Muslim” she would have got the attention of the NCW, the Congress, Minorities Commission, the AIMPLB, Digvijaya Singh, the Babri Committee, Teesta Setalvad, Barkha Dutt, Mulayam Singh, Nitish Kumar, Vrinda Grover and Javed “SAAB”. NOTHING! She was just thrown out and no one still wants to talk about it. I believe both Avinash Pandey and Gautam Sharma should be questioned by the NCW and the Police. Sayeema was pregnant when she was thrown out of the company after being harassed. (Read here, here, here, here).

Then there is another case at AAJTak. A letter from Rukmini Sen (read here) to Aroon Purie, the plagiarist-head of IndiaToday group, makes astonishing reading. She claims harassment but even as she is quitting her boss has odd questions on her reasons for leaving: “So Are you leaving this job for that man? Where does he live? Oh I know because you changed your FB status! Why are you in a long distance relationship? Will you marry him? Boyfriend waala maamla bekaar hai. Oh but I am sure you have many boyfriends. Which number is this one? Will you never get married? Live like this? with many”? I wonder if this boss wanted to discuss her resignation or write the story for some movie of a multiple-boyfriend heroine. Why don’t the grand pontificators of media like Rajdeep, Barkha, Swapan, Rahul Kanwal notice? What did they do about this? These editors are prisoners of their own selfish, greedy devices. Everybody is “innocent” at Shawshank. Let’s hear a sermon from Numero Uno Rajdeep Sardesai:

Imagine CNN-IBN without Rajdeep. Imagine TimesNow without Arnab. Almost every channel has promoted a personality cult rather than the news organisation. Yes, it is good to have stars but dangerous to allow them to grow so big that the organisation’s survival is put at stake with them. TT reflects the disease with most media outlets. NDTV’s credibility has been permanently damaged with Barkha Dutt’s Radiagate episode. Rajdeep is 3 years late. Here’s what I wrote when I responded to her self-righteous and shrill protests in her self-defence:

“Barkha is also extremely fortunate that NDTV has chosen to respond to this expose in her support. Does it mean the conversations Barkha was having with Nira Radia was approved by or in knowledge of NDTV? Any major organisation would have typically stated that the conversation Barkha was having was in her “individual and private” capacity. This is also a warning for all media channels not to have their brand names be so heavily associated with "personalities". A media channel needs to be bigger than personalities. Else, one flawed celebrity would be enough to bring the house down”.

Following the TT scandal everyone is now talking about the trail of Tehelka’s finances and the maze of its funding. Why now? Where were Indian Express, TOI, India Today and the latest FirstPost and many others hiding all this while? Even prominent columnists are now left in a quandary over their silence. The culture of vague and ambiguous writing must now come to an end. Honest journalism requires writing with names of offenders and not innuendos. The media is still shielding the former SC judge who has been recently accused of sexual harassment by two interns. Rajdeep did wonder why it takes outsiders to write our story (The Siege 26/11) but he doesn’t want to even talk or write about stuff that is so easily in front of him and doesn’t even need any great investigation or huge research. The extortion and blackmail tactics of Tehelka were visible since 2011 (and probably earlier). And how much cash has flowed into Tehelka from dubious sources is anybody’s guess. Take a look at the sponsors of KINK2013:

There’s BHEL, a PSU, there’s DLF whose chairman calls bribes as “payment for speeding up” service, there’s govt departments like Maharashtra and Kerala Tourism (in Goa??) There’s RIICO, the industry promotion organisation of Rajasthan. Every media celeb knew how Tejpal & Co. got their funds and how their severe loss-making magazine survived. It’s more like an under-hand “Ponzi scheme” without the promise of returns. Why would anyone believe that many other media houses are any different? Tehelka wasn’t paying salaries for months while the top management was enriching itself. Exceptional greed for power and wealth!

NDTV isn’t done with their “Hammam” behaviour. Shoma was their “darling” frequent flier on their panels and NDTV’s “victims” being part of Tejpal’s corruption-ridden THINK escapades. The filthy minds at NDTV pour nonsense into the public domain. Here’s a tweet by their ‘Social Network’ crap which discusses “Voyeurs” of the Aarushi & V case. I do not recall anyone slandering Aarushi or V on SM. If there is a stray moron it is probably from NDTV itself. After all, these are the poisonous channels that got psychologists on their panels to discuss the “sexual habits” of teens because 14-year old Aarushi was allegedly having an affair with the family’s domestic hand. How sick are these people? When Shoma resigned today, their “Ethics” head Sonia Singh tweets another silly message. Sonia doesn’t realise that people aren’t delighted at just about “someone” falling. They are delighted a corrupt bunch of people and a corrupt media house is falling. It doesn’t occur to her that TT, Shoma & Co. as a group enjoyed a perverted thrill at entrapping people with stings and then gleefully celebrating their fall. Till their last day they were plotting the fall of “one” man. Unfortunately for them, fate and justice exposed their slimy character. Bad luck for NDTV!

A word about the “The Shawshank Redemption”: As with injustice in life the movie was nominated for 7 Oscars but went without a single one. A lesser movie like ‘Forrest Gump’ won a few. Shawshank has touched people across the world so deeply that since its release in 1994 it has permanently remained in the Top-10 of many charts of popular movies with viewers. Even this week it remains the No.1 choice of best movie of all time with viewers on the IMDB list. Knowing his fate after being exposed, the warden at Shawshank kills himself. Red observes: “I'd like to think that the last thing that went through his head, other than that bullet, was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him”. TT must be similarly wondering in his own literary style: “How the hell did a 23-year old chit of a girl get the better of a crook like me”. Tejpal isn’t the only one in trouble. The consciences of many others have been rattled too.

“Andy Dufresne crawled through a river of shit and came out clean”. V came out clean from the shit in the lifts at the Grand Hyatt. Tejpal and Shoma crawled through a different river of shit and didn’t come out clean. They ended up in an “ocean of shit’. Andy didn’t destroy just the warden; he destroyed the entire corrupt prison system. V didn’t destroy just Tejpal, Shoma or Tehelka; she has destroyed whatever credibility was left of the MSM. Many major media houses are a Shawshank with “prisoners of their own device” and corrupt wardens and innocent victims. It’s time the fearless cowards changed their ways. 

Ungrateful People

Namak Haram is a Hindi phrase which means "one who is treacherous" or "one who cannot be trusted" while Deorhi is a word in Hindi which means "gate". So the total sums up to "the gate to him who cannot be trusted". The gate in the image is called the “Namak-Haram gate” or the ‘Traitor’s gate”. It’s the place where Mir Jaffar lived in Murshidabad in Bengal. India’s history is replete with such traitors. It’s not just history but even now there are many in our politics, NGOs, media and other domains who may someday earn such an epithet. There are anti-nationals who roam around as intellectuals. There are Fai Fighters who still remain untouched by any process of investigation of their activities. This has become a country where, to some people, calling oneself a ‘Hindu, a nationalist and patriot’ is deeply offensive. We should continue to offend such people. Someday, there will be a gate built in their memory too. But let’s move on to a different story. 

Shoma Chaudhury is angry. She tweeted on July 18 that her “fearless” journo Rana Ayyub who dabbles with the Ishrat encounter case and “gets” juicy papers from CBI is being slandered. Shoma doesn’t admit that none of the crap of “Black beard-White beard” forms part of the CBI charge-sheet which her yellow pages and Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV so touted. Rana must be like Nadia, the fearless ‘Hunterwali’. Coming from a Congress poodle who has slandered quite a few as alleged editor that is surprising anger. She doesn’t name the ‘slanderers’ so you can guess where her fingers are pointed because the article linked in her tweet pertains to one who she despises with unbridled hatred. Maybe she should read the media guy’s post: ‘Pissy Poodles Can’t Be Angry Journalists’. First slander others and then play victim. It comes naturally to some people.

Many are convinced that the CBI has simply concocted a political-vendetta case under pressure by the Congress and some of its own officers have been stating the whole case is based on hearsay. A former Home Ministry official also claims he was pressurised to provide signed statements. Naturally, I had to ask the poodles at Shoma Chaudhury’s yellow pages why they don’t get any CBI papers when it comes to Congress members:

The Ishrat case will be blaring till Elections 2014 and then none of these champions are going to bother about it. That much is certain. But here is something that is being discussed in certain groups and circulated on mails. It’s a long mail and I have reproduced it with minor editing to shorten the article without taking away any of its essence. You read, you decide (This is from a Pan-IIT group on Yahoo).

Quote:

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The on-going ‘trial by media’ of the Gujarat Police Officers, subsequent to the filing of the ‘first’ charge sheet by the CBI in the ‘Irshat Jehan Encounter Case’ is disturbing. One writer went to the extent of a vicious calumny that “The police in Gujarat wear lawlessness as a badge of honour,  …”  and  another branded the Gujarat Police as “KHAKI DEATH SQUADS” .

The ferocity of the nearly unprecedented and allegedly unprincipled inquisition of the Gujarat Police, has raised counter-allegations that the Central Govt’s mechanism for investigation and litigation is disproportionately focused against the Gujarat police and also has led to a confrontation between the two central agencies (one for Investigation and the other for ‘Intelligence’). This allegedly is being orchestrated and the attendant attrition has led to the crossing of a Rubicon, wherein the functioning of the apex national Intelligence agency has been severely compromised.

“The spat between the CBI and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has become so openly unseemly that it can only hurt the Indian state’s long-term  interests. The IB argument, and a fair one at that, is that its officer exercised his judgment in evaluating certain intelligence inputs; in retrospect one can question or disagree with that judgment but it is an altogether different matter to insist that the IB officials were a party to the Gujarat Police’s cold-blooded conspiracy. Now, out of a sense of organisational loyalty, the IB finds itself having to reveal its hand; reporters are being allowed to “access” the armoire of intercepts, reports”  - Harish Khare

To place the current goings on in a historical perspective, it is essential to go back in time to a not dissimilar crisis which confronted the Punjab Police wherein also, a vicious campaign of calumny, hostility and the litigation route was adopted as the most convenient strategy for vendetta against the police. This occurred after the Punjab Police had contributed in significant measure towards the latter part of the Punjab crisis of the 1980’s and  ‘peace’ was ‘restored’ in that state.

The case of the then SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu of the Punjab Police (somewhat reminiscent of Mr. Vanzara of the Gujarat police, now) and the classic statement of the then Punjab Police chief KPS Gill, unknown to most Indians, require to become a subject of national debate in the context of the “current trial by media”.

SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu, during the 1980’s, was perhaps the police officer most dreaded by terrorists in Punjab, after K P S Gill. A. S. Sandhu came into limelight for liquidating some top terrorists and restoring peace, particularly in the once terrorist hotbed of Tarn Taran police district in Punjab.

In 1997, nearly a decade after normalcy was restored in Punjab, Punjab Police personnel and especially A.S Sandhu began to be probed by the National Human Rights Commission and the courts, for their alleged excesses during the militancy. What were once touted as ‘achievements’ suddenly became ‘excesses’? Reportedly, SSP A.S. Sandhu faced more than 40 cases of alleged excesses, killings and ‘stage-managed encounters’.

On 23 May 1997, at about 11.05 AM, SSP A.S. Sandhu (52), threw himself in front the Kalka-bound `Himalayan Queen' and committed suicide; 20 km from Chandigarh. He left behind two daughters and a son besides his wife.

The police recovered a suicide note written by the deceased declaring: "Jalil ho ke jeen to changa hai mar jana'' (It is better to die than to live a life of humiliation).

By citing the above, no case is being made out for ‘immunity’ for any member of the Gujrat Police. Nor is it being suggested that there will take place any ‘suicides’. It is only to iterate that the investigations and trials be held, according to the laws of the land, and also considering the special circumstances that prevail in dealing with “Terrorism”, while applying the statutes and also that trials should not proceed according to the processes that are seemingly being improvised on a day to day basis to implicate the Gujarat police personnel.

Two points before going on to KPS Gill’s statement .

1. In 1997, when KPS Gill gave the u/m statement, “Low Intensity Wars” were being fought only in Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura. Having somehow dealt with the ‘Punjab Crisis’, the national leadership should have taken note of the existing pattern of the “Low Intensity Wars” in the country, that could only be expected to grow in the future. Unfortunately, they did not and continued to dismiss them as ‘non-military threats’ and the ill equipped police of the states and the Home Ministries (both of the states and the centre) dealt with them. The  result is that at present, the “Low Intensity War” Zone has got extended to an area stretching right from W Bengal, through Bihar, Odisha, Chattisgarh right down to Andhra and even Kerala( Maoists) ! But that is another subject all together. 

2. In 1997, when KPS Gill gave the statement, he spoke of “We are not far from the edge of the abyss”. But, presently, we are perhaps in a state of free-fall in that abyss. That too is another matter altogether.

Now on to “Is namard desh mein paida mujhe kyon kar diya'' [ Why was I born in this country where there are no men?] which is an excerpt from the classic statement of former Punjab Police chief KPS Gill  on the death of AS Sandhu.

Every word in the statement of KPS Gill, made way back in 1997 is very relevant and significant even. Those of ‘US’ who were young Captains’ and Majors’ during the peak of the ‘Punjab Crisis’ and were involved with it in one way or the other, would be able to better connect with the words of KPS Gill.

HERE'S THE CLASSIC STATEMENT OF FORMER PUNJAB POLICE CHIEF KPS GILL. READ IT AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF.

 I have not called this press conference to express my grief at AS Sandhu’s death. My feelings on this count are between his family and myself. What I have to say today is that we have already given up most of this country to criminals, to corrupt politicians, and to unscrupulous lobbyists who will work with any cause that serves their personal ends, whether criminal, political or secessionist.

Nonetheless, in a country dominated by those who prefer to criticise from the safety of their homes, or the comfort of air-conditioned debating societies at Delhi and Chandigarh, there are still a handful of people who are willing to risk everything including their lives and the lives of their family to protect the unity and integrity of their nation, and the lives of citizen’s terrorised by an utterly unprincipled and merciless enemy. I can say without reservation that AS Sandhu was one such man.

Tarn Taran, at the height of terrorism was sometimes spoken of as the rocket that would propel Punjab out of the Indian Union. The terrorists influence was absolute; for years, it was virtually out of the control of the civil administration, and even the police had no more than a nominal and symbolic presence there.

It was in such a situation that I was looking for an officer who had the courage to mount an effective campaign against militancy in this militant heartland. I spoke to several officers, and each excelled in the invention of ingenious excuses to avoid the responsibility. When I asked Sandhu if he was willing to go to Tan Taran to put down terrorism, he accepted without hesitation. Some will say that he went there to exploit and enjoy the “power of the state”.  But the state, when Sandhu went to Tan Taran, had no power there. I know that he was a hair's breadth away from death throughout his tenure in the district. I know he never compromised.  And yet, he achieved everything I could hope for.

Few, today, understand the significance of what happened in Tan Taran. Had we lost control over the district, Punjab's secession would have become an inevitability. Had we lost Punjab, Kashmir would certainly have followed. And once this process of fission began, every linguistic, ethnic and cultural group would have raised the standard of revolt. Pakistan would have been celebrating this 50^th year of its independence through the realisation of its dream of a balkanised India. Delhi and its “think tanks” would have no hinterland to analyse and exploit. The unending supplies of electricity, food, water, and a cornucopia of goods that keep Delhi’s elite in a state of luxury would have come to an abrupt end. And the Government and the Apex court of the land would probably have presided over a jurisdiction from “Delhi to Palam”. Judges may have still continued to write erudite and exquisitely worded judgements. But they would have no relevance for this country. This country, as we know it, would no longer have existed. The fact that this scenario appears incredible today is testimony to the achievements of men like Sandhu.

All men are heroes in a time of peace. But those who are heading the self-righteous witch hunt against the officers and men of Punjab police today should ask themselves where they were hiding for 10 years when terrorists roamed free, unchallenged by any but the Punjab police and their comrades in uniform from other services -  and a handful of courageous farmers who would not succumb to terror? For 10 years the judiciary remained in a state of unmitigated paralysis in Punjab. Where was their commitment to justice then? For 10 years, the press published on the terrorists’ diktat- with only a single exception that all of you know of. That is a long vacation for the ‘truth’.

I am not here to defend corrupt or venal policemen. But the distortion and manipulation of legal process that is being resorted to by an utterly compromised ‘human rights’ lobby cannot be supported. This lobby understands the nuts and bolts of the judicial engine, and knows every method of the orchestration of the media and the new tyranny of trial by the press. A police officer can effectively fight their designs only if he has a great deal of money to buy the best legal advice in the country – and only the corrupt have that kind of money.

A sustained campaign was carried out by the Human Rights lobby against A.S. Sandhu on the Goebbelsian Doctrine that an untruth repeated endlessly becomes the truth. He was supposed to have made a lot of money.

I do not, despite these circumstances, justify the action of a proud Jat Sikh committing suicide. But I understand the reasons. This is not the action of a coward unable to face the dangers of life. Sandhu faced more dangers during his tenure at Tan Taran than many brave men could in several life-times. It was not fear that drove him to death. I do not think that the man knew the meaning of the word – it was ingratitude.

It is not, of course surprising that having lost the battle for Khalistan through force of arms, the terrorists and their front men should have exploited the human rights angle to target men like Sandhu. What is unforgivable is that the nation he fought to defend, the people who he risked his life to protect, simply turned away in indifference or joined the crescendo against him, when such a plot was engineered; without checking the merits of evidence, without even giving him the opportunity of a fair trial. 

The Indian state must start educating itself on how it is to tackle individuals and groups trying to destroy the State. And it must learn how to arm and protect those who put their lives at stake in the defence of India’s unity and integrity.

We are not far from the edge of the abyss.  Let this nation beware of the hour when no man will risk his life to protect another or to defend the nation, Josh Malihabadi once wrote, “Buzdilon ke ishq mein, shaida mujhe kyon kar kiya. Is namard desh mein paida mujhe kyon kar kiya''. When men of courage begin to say this, all hope will die. No people who treat their heroes as we have done can expect to survive.

K P S Gill

Chandigarh

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Unquote

Although the speech of KPS Gill has been reported in various sites, the full speech reproduced in the mail is not verified by me. Readers can make their own assessment and conclusions.

  

The Night Of The Scavengers

They were waiting. Waiting to commence their orgy of hate and venom. Nothing said it better than Sreenivasan Jain’s opening lines on NDTV last night: “Let’s quickly run you through the events which led to Balasaheb Thackeray finally breathing his last”. Yeah! You see, the scavengers who were hovering around Matoshree, the residence of BT, and in TV studios finally heaved a sigh of relief. BT finally breathing his last? Hmm! It’s as if for over 2 days the man was threatening to die and kept crying wolf. He finally breathed his last so that our TV anchors who had kept a script ready over the last 2 days could finally release their hatred and venom. Bal Thackeray died around 3.30pm on November 17 and gave the signal to people like Sreenivasan Jain, Rajdeep Sardesai, Shoma Chaudhury to vent their pent up disgust for a long time. Girish Karnad holed up his hatred for Naipaul for 10 years but hard to tell how many years these media crooks had holed up their hatred for BT. They were ready! They were prepared! They even knew who to call. I can’t help recalling this one from Robert De Niro in the landmark ‘Taxi Driver’:

“All the animals come out at night,

Whores, Buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies.

Sick! Venal! Someday, a real rain will come

And wash all this scum off the streets”

 November 17 was the night of the scavengers. They had waited patiently for over 2 days with their claws sharpened and their teeth waiting to bite into their prey. Today is just as special. November 18 marks the 2nd anniversary of Radiagate. It’s the day when the tip of the underbelly of our media was exposed. This time around the media celebs didn’t wonder “Oh God! So now what? What should I tell them? Tell me what should I tell them”? They were prepared with the script. It was being prepared since the evening of November 14.

The ‘Breaking news’ specialist, Bhupendra Chaube of CNN-IBN, stayed late in office on November 14 hoping to break the news. He wasn’t sure it will actually break. But hey, hope is a good thing, isn’t it? Nothing wrong when your boss is an inspiring character. So Chaubeji was taking a cue from his boss, Rajdeep Sardesai, who had to probably stay back even after his goodnight kiss. I wonder why Rajdeep frequently complains life isn’t easy as a journalist. I guess that probably comes from hallucinating that he’s a journalist. I’d have to say he may have been a journalist some 200 years ago, now he’s more of a BT’s caricature that passes for a journalist. And if he whines so much about even imagining he’s a journalist he does have the chance to quit and follow his more respected pursuit of…. you know what. BT will not be counted as the greatest of politicians who ever walked this holy land. Like all politicians he had his good bits and his bad bits. For a long time he was more of a trade union leader than a regular politician.  

That CNN-IBN was desperate to see BT die was reflected in the haste with which they are reported to have flashed his death at 7.12 am on November 15. A very observant viewer caught this flash and tweeted about it. And someone else picked up that flash too. Who could it be! Oh.. the ever-loving Digvijaya Singh indeed. Naturally, at 7.23 am November 15 he tweeted about BT’s demise and expressed condolences. Rajdeep responds to him stating BT is still alive. Although Digvijaya claims some friends informed him the news I have little doubt where he or his friends got that news from. Diggy can be forgiven for the goof up. But the media moron who clarified the facts to him or his channel didn’t carry the slightest bit of apology to viewers for flashing a wrong news item. Where in the world would one see such enthusiasm for death of a person? Only Indian TV news channels I guess. Rajdeep Sardesai, Sreenivasan mostly got the panellists they like and who can be expected to be harsh on BT’s political life. You had the pompous Dileep Padgaonkar (who once thought his job was the 2nd most important after the PM’s as he repeated an earlier TOI editor’s claim) and, of course, the ever foul-mouthed Shoma Chaudhury of some Tabloid. To rephrase the line from a famous song; they stabbed it with their steely knives and hoped to kill the beast.

In contrast to the raucous anchors at NDTV and CNN-IBN the usually noisy Arnab Goswami was quite sedate and sensitive given the occasion. He replayed some of his interviews from the past with BT (2007 and 2011). In both interviews BT made some very valid points:

On why all Muslims were being tarred as terrorists BT responds with the question that if Godse was the killer of Gandhi why houses of many Brahmins were burnt. That’s right! Merely because Godse was a Brahmin; why should other Brahmins be killed? In response to the Bombay riots of 1993 BT raises a very pertinent question: Babri masjid was in UP and was brought down in UP, where was the need to unleash violence in Bombay? And if that happens, BT is typically the person with the party that would retaliate. As recently as August 2012 a Muslim mob carried out acts of violence at Azad Maidan just over fake pics of killings of Muslims in Burma. BT is right! What entitles these people to riot, kill and destroy property in Mumbai for something happening in Burma or in any other corner of the world? This is a constant problem that Indian society faces. The brand of Hindutva that BT practiced was in retaliation to the govt and the spineless media covering up such crimes. But BT wasn’t always a Hindutva guy. I am not a great admirer of BT, his party or their methods but the kind of delightful orgy that some in our media went into over his death only strengthens the belief that these are the really uncouth, uncivilised ones in our drawing rooms.

BT’s politics and methods aren’t those that were ever meant to or will have permanency. These were responses to situations that confront societies or regions frequently and the Hindus too. This is situational politics, just as Arvind Kejriwal’s movement against corruption is not meant to be permanent. Regardless of what brand of politics he practiced it is undeniable that BT had a strong influence on Maharashtra and also national politics. So if not his Bimbo deputy editor, Rajdeep takes it upon himself to ask the stupidest questions in a bad time. He pollutes the airwaves with his ignorance and suggests when Netas die a city doesn’t shut down. Someone pointed out that when YSR died the whole state of AP had shut down. Of course, Rajdeep only talked about Delhi not shutting down. It seems fine with him if instead of shutting down, a Delhi Neta’s death can result in the death of over 3000 people. After all,for the moronery of Rajdeep and his ilk, a savage blood bath is not exactly the ‘shut down’ of a city, is it? People were out in Delhi in 1984 being busy with killing. No? That was a night of scavengers too.

So one hopes the scavengers had their fill and will have a great Sunday. Only one problem! This Sunday also happens to be the second anniversary of the Radiagate expose. How did our media fall to such lows in their discussions, debates and their hatred? Well, quite a few people deserve the credit for that. It is only appropriate that I quote someone who wonders about the same question too. Seriously, I don’t really think the “nuance” is quite lost on people. Reminds me of David Bowie: “Year of the scavenger, season of the bitch... (There's gonna be sorrow) try and wake up tomorrow... They call them the Diamond Dogs”.