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.

Modi - The Real Game-Changer

In a few weeks it will be the tenth anniversary of the Godhra incident. Ten years! And as with the past ten years the media will be there with the usual suspects on February 27 with special programmes to target Narendra Modi in a fresh effort. In the past decade the media, aided by Congress, rogue cops, NGOs formed overnight and hate engineers have tried their very best to send Narendra Modi to jail. So it was with great disappointment that the media greeted the judgement of Gujarat High Court rejecting a petition seeking Modi’s appearance before the Nanavati Commission probing the riots. In the same period Modi has gone from strength to strength with the development agenda in Gujarat. Most people who targeted Narendra Modi have painted themselves with indelible taint of wrong doings. Teesta Setalvad with fake affidavits, Barkha Dutt with Radia tapes, Rajdeep Sardesai with Cash4Votes, Sanjiv Bhatt with false affidavits and a lot more. Other actors like Shabnam Hashmi, Mallika Sarabhai, Javed Akhtar have fallen by the wayside.

To put the record straight the Gujarat HC has merely observed that the Nanavati Commission has the discretion to call Modi to testify if they considered it necessary and the court need not direct the commission. Naturally, the crusaders for justice at NDTV and CNN-IBN had to sell this bad news. So we first had Sandeep Phukan of NDTV explaining how there were so many adverse judgements against Modi which Congress had tried to use to politically malign him. Is that so? Now, how many “adverse” judgements were passed against Modi? The SC had dismissed the one petition seeking Modi’s prosecution by referring it back to the lower courts last September. Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavits have been more or less thrown into the dustbin by the courts. The Lokayukta judgement by the Gujarat HC is also been quoted as a “setback for Modi”. The latest petition to summon him at the Nanavati Commission has been rejected. So the lies that media spreads about adverse judgements on Modi is another myth that has been propagated over the years. Truth is, there isn’t a single FIR or a single case against Modi to even have any grounds for adverse judgements. The “Setback for Modi”, “Blow to Modi” are headlines concocted by the media to imply that each time Modi is just another step away from prison.

Well, if NDTV is on the prowl its twin sister CNN-IBN isn’t too far behind. On this day their reporter, Meghdoot Sharan, went far enough to state that the riot victims have lost faith in the Nanavati Commission after the HC judgement. Well, as always, it’s not justice unless it is the justice the media wants. What about HeadlinesToday? A few days ago HT carried the results of a survey which indicated people preferred Narendra Modi as PM over all others. Now, in a Sadbhavna meet at Anand in Gujarat Modi mentions this survey in his speech and Rahul Kanwal quickly terms it as Modi’s PM ambitions. Not that there is anything wrong with such an ambition but a reference to their own survey had Rahul Kanwal spreading lies that Modi was “baring his PM ambitions”. Having created the lie, Kanwal then goes on to discuss this spurious topic with panelists from BJP and BJD trying to sow seeds of disharmony, political speculation and another attempt at tarring Modi.

As if the media’s comedy wasn’t enough the Congress first releases an ad about Gujarat which also lists Modi’s achievements and his skill and ability as an organiser. Then Delhi CM, Sheila Dikshit, further confounds her party and the media by praising Modi before retracting the praise. Never mind all that. Its election year in Gujarat and one can expect the Congress, aided by a servantile media, will come up with more fake stories and allegations. Both have been unable to digest the series of electoral losses in Gujarat. The CBI has been thrown into Gujarat with cases against Amit Shah, former Home Minister, and every attempt has been made to concoct false affidavits through rogue cops and NGOs against Modi. What if the BJP were actually defeated in 2002 or 2007 in Gujarat? One just has to imagine how many fake cases would have been filed in the state to destroy Modi. The entire state machinery would have been used to politically destroy what has not possible to do legally. It is in this context that the emergence of Modi as a serious contender for the PM job is disturbing for the media. Ten years of maligning him has only made him emerge stronger and be recognised for the development agenda in Gujarat.

There isn’t a single state in India where CM candidates and political parties have been able to win elections without quotas and freebies. It is only Modi who has dumped the out-dated ideas of such election-winning calculations based on caste, community, subsidies and freebies. Of all his achievements as CM, this is quite easily the most outstanding one. The media war against him has made him raise the development agenda even higher resulting in greater achievements by the state of Gujarat. Naturally, many across the country have found this form of governance and delivery far more attractive than mindless appeasement policies and promises. It is only after 60 years of independence that all political parties are talking of development and governance as the key issue. This is where Modi has been a game changer. The contrast becomes even sharper when measured against a corrupt Congress govt at the centre and a hopelessly failed PM.

The lessons that the media and Congress refuse to learn is that the more they abuse Modi the more his popularity rises with people in Gujarat and across the country. They’ve called him a “mass murderer”, “maut ka saudagar” and even a “common criminal”! After screwing up badly by showering praise on Modi the Congress is desperately seeking damage control. The foul-mouthed Manish Tiwari hasn’t learned any lessons from the past and here’s what he came up with comparing Modi to the Nazis (on NDTV’s show with Nidhi Razdan):

"The Nazis also built autobahns (German expressways) but what defined the Nazi regime wasn't those autobahns. It was Auschwitz (concentration camp). It was Treblinka (extermination camp). It was ghettos (where jews were forced to live)…..Notwithstanding the complete myth of a vibrant Gujarat, ultimately in the final analysis what is going to define the BJP government in Gujarat is the inaction and the culpability in the Gujarat carnage. I am not drawing any parallels but yes there are certain lessons, which history teaches us."

That's a well-rehearsed statement. No, not  even great gutter-mouths come up with 'treblinkas' off the cuff. All these childish attempts at colouring reality don't sell anymore. The best quote comes from none other than Capt.Amarinder Singh, the Congress candidate for CM in Punjab who has reportedly promised  “Gujarat-like progress if his party comes to power”.

On January 31 the SC indicted the PMO for failure to respond to Subramanian Swamy’s letter to prosecute A. Raja in the 2G scam for over a year. The Congress gleefully claimed it was a vindication of the PM. Imagine, the board of directors is being indicted but the Chairman claims he’s vindicated. If that is the yardstick for leadership then clearly Modi is by far the most courageous CM to have ever held such an office. In times like these the nation desires strong leadership and the only person who seems to offer that appears to be Narendra Modi. And much as they holler and scream, the media celebs who were out to nail him have failed. Modi has emerged as the real game-changer in the political arena and people are not buying the lies of Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami, Rajdeep Sardesai, Nidhi Razdan or Sagarika Ghose anymore.

Ramachandra Guha – ‘Eminent Distortian’on Ahmedabad

If ever Chris Nolan needed to make ‘Inception-II’ no one could be more handy than Ramachandra Guha. Planting of spurious theories and dreams, Guha excels at it. He passes himself off as a historian and a cricket commentator. Hmmm! ‘Distortian’ may not be a word you’ll find in a dictionary but that is what Guha and his ilk are. Distort facts, distort truth, write history from figments of imagination and see ‘windmills’ where there are none. Paint places and people in colours that thrive only in the most prejudiced of minds, sometimes bordering on hatred. (Read my post ‘Ramachandra Guha’s Paintings’).

Ramachandra Guha - 'Eminent Distortian'

As a school kid you may have written essays on your trips. My trip to the zoo, my first trip to the railway station or even my first visit to an airport. Ramachandra Guha has now written an essay on his visit to Ahmedabad, probably the 21^st one. Well, it starts off with a few words on Ahmedabad and then as usual with the Distortians it degenerates into a rant about Narendra Modi. It’s called  ‘Delusions of grandeur - The curious transformation of Narendra Modi’ in the Telegraph. Delusions? Oh yeah! We’ll find out who’s deluded. Here are some excerpts from the distortian’s write:

“Ahmedabad is a city I know well. I must have made at least 20 trips there in the last 30 years. Going back last month, I found signs marking the distance to a certain ‘Mahatma Mandir’..... What was this landmark that I had not heard of and which was apparently so important that it had to be advertised every so often on city roads? My Amdavadi friends supplied the answer.....The first major building had been completed in time for the ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ summit held in early January; .....In this time, Modi has made a sort of reverse journey, from being a media-shy if hard-working Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak to the most self-confident and publicity-seeking of modern politicians. Viewing his position today, I am reminded of the one occasion, some 12 years ago, when I found myself in the same room as him. It was in a television studio in New Delhi, which was hosting a debate between Madhavrao Scindia of the Congress, Pramod Mahajan of the BJP, and myself (representing no party at all)....Now, of course, Modi is arrogance personified.....Narendra Modi may wish to compare himself to Mahatma Gandhi, but to this historian, he is more akin to another Gandhi, namely, Indira.....Between 1971 and 1977, Indira thought she was India, and vice versa. Modi merely thinks he is Gujarat.......Neither Mrs Gandhi then, nor Modi now, can allow that their critics may have a honest or valid point or two. By definition, all patriotic Indians had to be behind Mrs Gandhi, all Gujaratis (100 to 0) have to rally around Modi. The mandir being built 37.9 km from the hotel where I stayed in Ahmedabad is a monument not to Mahatma Gandhi, but to Narendra Modi’s megalomania....... Here is a tip to first-time visitors to Ahmedabad. If you go in search of the Mahatma, disregard the blue signs, and ask an autorickshaw to take you to the Sabarmati Ashram instead. The experience shall be nourishing, perhaps even transformative. For one thing, unlike that “mandir”, this ashram is on the human scale, with low, modest buildings and green trees around them. For another, there are no policemen either inside or outside the place. For a third, Gandhi actually lived there”.

I recommend you read the whole crap at the Telegraph so you know what this distortian is talking about. What starts off as a write on a trip to Ahmedabad turns into a deliberate and manufactured nonsense about Narendra Modi. Let’s see what Ahmedabad holds and I can confidently tell Ramchandra the spiteful that I’ve been to Ahmedabad a lot more than he ever will in his life. Here are some questions for the distortian:

1.   From your drive from the airport or railway station to your hotel, how many times did the traffic hold you up? Wherever you travelled in Ahmedabad or Gujarat did you find plenty of potholes on the roads? Was your drive smooth or was it bumpy? Did you discover that?

2.   How many beggars did you find in Ahmedabad during your stay? That’s right, how many beggars? Did they bother you all the time you commuted the streets of Ahmedabad? Unlike your communist states Gujarat does not breed beggars, no self-respecting Gujarati will ever beg. Did you discover that Mr.Distortian?

3.   How many times did the power go off in the hotel you stayed in? Did you see any UPS equipment or any generators asshole? Did you stay in comfort in your hotel with the power never going off? Gujarat is probably one state where generators don’t sell much except in case of emergency services. Did you discover that?

4.   Any average media man or so-called historian who follows the news knows about ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ and the Mahatma Mandir. Are you so dumb, ignorant and uninformed that you knew nothing about the event or the name of the place where it was being held? Are most of your writings laced with such ignorance of basic information about major events in this country? I feel confident that is how you write history too, with a jaundiced mind.

5.   In Ahmedabad, did you notice the BRTS (Bus rapid transport system) on the wide roads where good quality public buses run uninterrupted? Did you?

6.   Finally, since when did you become a shrink? You have diagnosed Modi as suffering from megalomania. What evil prejudices are you suffering from Mr. Distortian? So much that you made Ahmedabad all about Modi and nothing else! And all the other Gujaratis and other citizens are stupid puppets?

I choose not to make any comments about the nonsense Guha has written about Narendra Modi because it’s not worth it. However, imagine I had made a trip to New York sometime back and was writing about the place and my whole piece is dedicated to the sexual orientations of Rudi Guiliani. That’s how Ramachandra Guha has used his trip. He went to Ahmedabad for some purpose but the evil mind was so obsessed with Narendra Modi that he had to turn his trip into a rant against Modi. So much so that he could not see anything else about Ahmedabad and Gujarat that most visitors take back with them.

In implying ‘Modi is Gujarat and Gujarat is Modi’ like the sycophants of Indira Gandhi used to say about India, Ramachandra Guha chooses to insult the very intelligence of Gujaratis. Nobody in Ahmedabad or Gujarat puts Modi over the state. People respect him for his work, that’s all! It is Ramachandra Guha who has chosen to see Gujarat and Gujaratis through his evil obsession with Narendra Modi. Most of all Mr. Distortian, next time you go to a place, go to discover and not go with prejudices. If you want to write crap about Narendra Modi you don’t have to visit Ahmedabad, you can do that from a laptop anywhere. Which is what most of your likes do, don’t they?

15 Lakh Crores & The Business Channels Don’t Find It Newsworthy!

CNBC-TV18, NDTV-Profit and other mediacrooks of business news were busy all of yesterday with mundane statistics. How growth slowed down in November 2010 and blah blah blah! The only newsworthy story they carried was Indigo’s plan to buy 180 new aircrafts. That’s the single largest deal in commercial aviation history and one which can bring cheers. That would be worth around $ 15.6 billion. Cheers to Indigo! From from Paris where Indigo sealed that purchase there was an event in small time India that was far bigger, had big national and international players and has become some sort of roadmap to progress. Vibrant Gujarat.

If one were to go by the sound bytes of major business channels or news channels the Vibrant Gujarat event would appear to be some small time village mela for cattle trade. The only channels covering the event were local and some national Gujarati language channels. The major business and news channels only found space for the event on their websites, perhaps grudgingly so. For anything remotely connected to Gujarat or Narendra Modi is anti-India to them. So be it!

It is Gujarat though that is having the last laugh. Some minor details are mind boggling:

Mahatma Mandir - Venue of Vibrant Gujarat 2011

1. The worth of investment commitments is around 1/3^rd of the national GDP itself.

2.   Over 25000 international and national business, political and diplomatic delegates attended the two-day Vibrant Gujarat event on January 12

3.   2076 MOUs signed worth $333 Bn or 15 lakh crores.

In the season of scams this would have been something to cheer about. But as is the practice with our media, anything to do with Gujarat is a non-event. In an investment summit such as this, one would have thought that the central Commerce and Finance ministers would be interested as it makes a big difference to the Indian economy. Well, its not a Congress government in Gujarat so that doesn’t count for India to them.

Is there criticism? Sure, Shaktisinh Gohil, leader of Congress in Gujarat says only a fraction of the MOUs actually materialise and much of the land to big industrialists is given away at throw away prices. First, yes all of the MOUs may not finally translate into investments. However, even if a good fraction of the 15lakh crore ($ 333Bn) MOUs materialise it is still a huge investment. Compare this to the fact that Obama came shopping and went back home happy with commitments worth $ 10Bn. That should put it in perspective. And if land is being given away at throwaway prices as Gohil would suggest we are yet to hear complaints from those who sold their lands unlike in Singur (Bengal).Vibrant Gujarat and such events bring hope. Instead, the media is caught up with the nonsense of Rahul Gandhi’s utterances.

One would fervently hope that other states in India pick up this lead and set up events, systems and practices that put them and their people on the road to being busy with healthy economic activities. The good news is, Vibrant Gujarat may well recover the worth of all the UPA scams put together.