Radia's Parrots See Twitter Conspiracies

Ignorance! It’s the one word that describes the outpourings of certain writers in the MSM who have absolutely no clue what Social Media (SM) is really all about. Lately, a certain Radia parrot seems to have joined the battle in concocting conspiracies and plots about the SM that can make Don Quixote proud. Vir Sanghvi is desperately trying to get back into TV studios through the bathroom window. HeadlinesToday is trying to help but like RahulG would have said: “Boss, not happening”! We will get to VS but first let’s go through some delightful blasts from the past.

Vikram Chandra of NDTV is more or less conducting an outreach programme trying to reach out to Tweeple from the Right Wing to appear on his shows. NDTV’s group editor Barkha Dutt has long held the SM in contempt. After all, she made no secret about her dislike for bloggers and Facebookers in the past. Sometime back Vikram Chandra lamented the degeneration of TV news. He stopped short of naming those responsible for it, but I did. Then there’s another guy who called me a ‘terrorist’ at an SM event and then asked me to a debate and then disappeared. Then again, remember the rants against SM by the comic duo of Rajdeep and Sagarika? Add Sanjay Pinto, of NDTV again, who mourned the social network with alarming contempt. Some of these people seem to be slowly starting to realise that SM is here to stay and may even dictate the course of discussions in the national MSM. They lived in fear of “power to the people” so far but there is an air of inevitability to uncontrollable events and technology. News reports even suggest SM may impact elections in as many as 160 Lok Sabha seats. Does that explain the sudden interest of the MSM in SM people?  

In the post “How to buy friends & influence elections” I had tried to explain why the 100Cr programme of the Congress to influence the SM may not produce the desire results. The party has already accepted not getting very far and there were reports of outsourcing the task to ‘professionals’. After the recent speeches by Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi at various events many MSM writers have been crowing about how the Congress supporters have attained puberty on the SM. There is one such writer who goes beyond that, he imagines there are organised gangs operating on Twitter. That Vir Sanghvi is prejudiced against BJP is not such a big secret, after all he is the one who originally came up with the “mass murderer” tag for Modi. He is also one of Radia’s parrots. It is his ignorance about SM and Twitter that now convinces me the man belongs where he is; in the kitchen and not in the news media. Here’s what he writes (In “This means war: BJP, Congress get nasty on Twitter”):

“It has long been suspected that the preponderance of so-called Internet Hindus on social media is not an entirely spontaneous phenomenon. Thanks to journalistic stories and TV discussions, we now know that the Sangh coordinates strategy with several hundred ‘volunteers’ and tells them what the targets for the day are. This has been admitted to, on television, by the head of the BJP’s Internet wing. We also know, thanks to investigative articles in such magazines as India Today, that the BJP runs control rooms staffed by hundreds of boffins who are directed to create Twitter storms. When the boffins succeed, BJP leaders go on television to announce that as the Sanghi targets are trending on Twitter, the people of India have spoken”.

IH is not a spontaneous phenomenon? Haha! Sanghvi, the ignoramus, first uses a term coined by a CNN reporter to describe a bunch of unconnected people and then calls it a spurious phenomenon. Okay! Then he claims India Today ran an investigation to discover the BJP runs control rooms who direct Twitter storms. I always knew these MSM celebs were hollow and lacked intelligence but VS just about confirms it. I have no connections with the BJP or Congress or any political party as anyone knowing me will tell you. I have not even met any political leader of any standing at all. My limited interactions with politicians have been on Twitter with people like Shashi Tharoor or Smriti Irani who are both on Twitter. So let us educate these media morons on how topics trend on Twitter.

Any trend cannot be dictated by a group of people whether in a control room or in the Ministry of Twitter Affairs. Satire and cheeky tweets spread like wildfire on Twitter. Take a look at this tweet from February 24. If I recall right, it was on a slow Sunday evening that I used the tag #IfMahabharatHappenedNow for a sarcastic tweet about a media diva. Before one knew it had caught the fancy of Tweeple and they started using the tag to describe a Congress-BJP battle where Congress took most of the stick. The hashtag trended on top for nearly 2 days. Is VS suggesting the BJP “control room” invents these hashtags? If he does, he must be an idiot of the first water. Maybe VS would like to read how this happened at the Chirpstory page by @Equateall where he has listed a treasure of related tweets.

Next, when RahulG spoke at CII, I wasn’t aware of any trending hashtag. I was tweeting under #RaGaCII, RaGa being the nickname given to him by TimesNow. But I saw many tweets with #PappuCII so I shifted to that tag which also trended for almost 2 days. Even Sagarika Ghose was tweeting with that hashtag. Is she too directed by the BJP Control room dear VS? Is the Social Genius part of the BJP Twitter conspiracy? Now Pappu is not really a new name for RahulG, it has been used for him from the time I have been on Twitter and there are other tags like #YoRahulSoDumb which had trended in the past because of RahulG’s silly utterances. Is VS really crediting BJP control room with such great intelligence in creating funny hashtags? If he does, then I have to admire the party’s control room. Twitter started gaining currency in India during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008. Most people, including me, have joined Twitter much later.

The BJP IT cell is not something new it has existed since the days of Pramod Mahajan but may have added a lot of new activities to it. The Congress too may have an IT cell but its activities are not very well known. So on April 8, when Modi gave his twin speeches at FICCI and ThinkIndia the MSM came up with a spurious theory about #Feku Vs #Pappu. Mind you, there was no Pappu trending on that day. If #Feku was trending at the top it was merely because both Congress and BJP supporters were fighting and tweeting under the same hashtag. Nothing wrong in a good fight, is there? Don’t the MSM love it? I hadn’t tweeted one single tweet under #Feku until much later when HeadlinesToday and NDTV were doing spurious programmes on this battle, which I called ‘Fekulogy’. But what was the other trend during Modi’s speech? It was #ModiStormsFICCI which started with this tweet I made while a discussion was being conducted on TimesNow before Modi’s speech when there were other tweets with the tag #TrustNaMo. Now, is VS the parrot seriously suggesting the BJP control room dictates these tags like #ModiStormsFICCI? It seems evident that VS thinks that like his MSM world everyone can be bought. No dear VS, not everyone is up for sale.

There is often a Twitter discussion on what could be the opposite of InternetHindus (IH). Some have jokingly coined IM (to imply Indian Mujahideen). Some have joked with other tags. On April 10, someone sent a tweet to me with a suggestion on the clueless tweets of some Congress supporters and a name for them. I turned it into a hashtag and started using #InternetPappus in my tweets starting with the one in the pic. Given the funny tag it naturally caught the fancy of Tweeple and became and remained the top trend for 2 days. I wonder if VS thinks this #InternetPappus is also a conspiracy by the BJP control room. I can assure you #InternetPappus is going to be used frequently. Even an SC lawyer referred to some in the judiciary as “Pappus” in another context. So the Pappu tag is not going away anytime soon till such time RahulG shows some performance or his supporters on Twitter show some humour.

While the MSM and their parrots see conspiracies and wars on Twitter I see this is as an extremely good sign. It is better for both sides to fight battles on Twitter and SM than to fight on the ground killing people, destroying property and burning furniture as they are currently doing in Bengal. This is the way ahead for political battles by ordinary people and will get refined as it goes along. The MSM’s basic fears stem from the fact that the SM is gaining influence and dictating public discourse. It probably worries them that even elections may be impacted by SM and eat into advertising share. Why is that not a nice thing? The MSM finds it hard to believe that there are ordinary people in the world who are on SM whose conscience is not up for sale unlike their own Hammam. In the meantime, Vir Sanghvi, and others like him in the MSM, may like to find a cure for their schizophrenia.

PS: The book “Social media as watchdog” is now available. You can order a copy from HERE.

NDTV: Vikram's Anguish, Barkha's Ire

In a series of tweets on November 23 Vikram Chandra, the Executive Director and an anchor at NDTV, wondered about the reason for deterioration in TV news. VC who usually appears mild-mannered and soft-spoken on TV is probably genuinely wondering about a serious situation. My instant reply was that it was those from the NDTV stable who had contributed considerably to lowering the BAR. Er... That BAR is Barkha-Arnab-Rajdeep. There are two ways to look at news. You either look at it as public service or as a regular business. The choice defines who the target or customers are. The choice also defines the content, methods and coverage. Without a doubt, since all three channels which these celebs represent have chosen business over public service the model was destined to fail. There’s a golden rule which most successful businessmen in India know: ‘If you want mega success in India, learn to do business with the poor and the middle class’. 

When Reliance was about to embark into the mobile communication business Anil Ambani recalled how Dhirubhai had told him: “We must find a way that a villager in Chorwad (Dhirubhai’s hometown in Gujarat) can make an STD call in 40paise”. Do NDTV, TimesNow or CNN-IBN look like they want to deal with any guys like that? I have often joked that channels like NDTV and CNN-IBN are meant for those with a mini-bar at home. Calling these channels ‘News Channels’ is like calling Cosmopolitan or Vogue newspapers. The mindless debates, Bollywood, tamashas, slanted news items, nothing-to-fill for 24 hour news channels but repeats were bound to cause damage.

These channels were simply driven by agendas and money and nothing else. The concept of news as public service has escaped them completely. I can write a model for VC but that can wait. It won’t work unless NDTV comes out of its celebrity-cult management style. They refuse to the see the truth that Barkha Dutt has brought about a lot of negative views about NDTV. No amount of screaming and ranting can alter that. If VC really wants to introspect, that’s where he will need to start. All the three celebrities are not only at odds with the public but also with the social media. Instead of harnessing social media profitably to extend their reach they see it as an evil that threatens them. To the celeb that villager in Chorwad is an anonymous moron whose needs or opinions don’t matter. Rajdeep went all the way to Ramlila to take a picture with Anna Hazare but I doubt you would find a pic with him and some folks in the crowds that had gathered there. And then these folks want all the media platforms to rant: TV, Newspaper, Social Media, Conventions, Seminars; everywhere. So Barkha’s latest Divine rant is titled “To each his own”. Where did it appear? Of course, in Hindustan Times.

She writes about 66A and the arrest of the two girls over their Facebook comments on Bal Thackerays funeral and Mumbai shutting down. I do not recall a single comment anywhere which supported the arrest. But the media, while blowing up this case, overlooks the other similar cases. Ah, I guess there must a special reason for this. But 66A and the case is just a side-story. The main story returns to her defence of her action against Chaitanya Kunte, the blogger who nailed her “Shoddy Journalism” during the 26/11 attacks. I have watched the 26/11 attacks on TV from 10pm on 26/11 right till the end with just a few hours of sleep. Like many, I cannot help agreeing 100% with what Kunte wrote. Yet, Barkha lives in denial. Fine! But cleverly she chooses to pick a point from Kunte’s blog that doesn’t refer to her directly at all. Here’s what she writes:

“Four years ago, I sent a legal notice to a blogger for, among other seriously slanderous comments, suggesting that my reportage on 26/11 was somehow linked to the death of police officer Hemant Karkare. Apart from the irresponsible, sweeping nature of the comments, it was low on facts. As a Delhi-based reporter, I wasn't even in Mumbai the night Karkare was killed”.

That’s truly clever. She wasn’t in Mumbai on the night of 26/11. Nobody said she was. She was there probably from 27/11 onward. And some of the content in Kunte’s blog is an exact reproduction of the transactions Barkha was involved in. Nowhere, I repeat nowhere, does Kunte even remotely link Hemant Karkare’s death with Barkha. Although Kunte has since pulled his blog you can read the particular post in question here or on many sites where it’s reproduced. Far from suppressing his views Barkha only managed to enlighten the whole world about that post with her silly legal action. In fact, Karkare’s name doesn’t even appear in the main post but in an update. Here’s what Kunte actually wrote:

“Update: In fact, I am willing to believe that Hemant Karkare died because these channels showed him prepare (wear helmet, wear bullet-proof vest.) in excruciating detail live on television. And they in turn targeted him where he was unprotected. The brave officer succumbed to bullets in the neck”.

Now that will make it clear to anyone reading it that Kunte was referring to “all news channels” and not specifically to Barkha or her channel at all. So her mindless outburst is based on nothing but fake righteousness. She cleverly omits the main contents of the post which actually reproduces her reporting during the attack. She probably assumes no one will look back or remember the episode and she can get away with some spurious defence of her conduct. Vikram Chandra fails to estimate how much damage this particular episode has done to NDTV not just in India but across the world. Barkha’s contempt for bloggers is all too well known. Twitter and FB were still new to India in 2008 but have caught up strongly. Here’s what Barkha laments further:

“The misogyny of some online discourse is now well established. Earlier this year, writer Meena Kandasamy tweeted about attending a beef-eating festival. The volley of abuse that followed included calling her a bitch, a whore and a terrorist”.

Barkha uses what may be a few abusive tweets to tar the entire Twitter group that is not so friendly to her and doesn’t present her with “accolades” all the time. Now remember, there are media celebs who have called Lord Ram a D***, who have called people “guttersnipes”, who have called “Indian males ugly”. Suhel Seth in DMs on Twitter is a specialist in showering abuses on mothers of Tweeple. He is a friend and regular guest of NDTV. Should we conclude all media celebs, including Barkha, are abusive idiots? Barkha uses such stray tweets, as do others, to smartly follow her agenda of tarring all her critics with the same brush. This is her way of spewing venom at the so called “right wingers” or those not falling within her definition of “secular”.

Is that all? Not at all! A former NDTV colleague of Barkha called me an “anonymous, unreachable terrorist” in a very public forum. I had never written about or even mentioned this guy anywhere. Umm.. I guess if one were Barkha he would have sued the guy. I demolished his nonsense in a couple of posts and he knows it too. But are we at war? Not at all! Today, that person and I follow each other with a lot of friendliness and without any bitterness. Barkha is yet to grow up. Such a huge ego and so much arrogance are hardly suited for public service. For all my stinging criticism Rajdeep calls me “paid-media”. Haha! I laugh but I don’t grudge Rajdeep and I understand his grief. Barkha’s cronies have called me “rabid” and she joined in too. Should I now call her and her followers abusive morons? One doesn’t make a mountain of mole hills and stray abuses. Vikram Chandra doesn’t realise how much damage his celebs are causing NDTV through their conduct on the social media.

Barkha and NDTV haven't come to terms with social media yet. But the one thing they can definitely learn is how to use social media productively. Even Modi uses Google+ hangout and now seeking ordinary folks as brand ambassadors for Gujarat through his FB page, These are surely innovative methods on the social media. In contrast Barkha continues her tirade against unknown people and critics and continues to lose fans for NDTV. If Vikram Chandra seeks to improve NDTV’s TRP or innovate in their business models, his celebs certainly aren’t helping his cause. All his well-intended anguish gets destroyed by irate behaviour of his celebs. Barkha’s latest article has nothing to do with 66A or those stupid arrests. It is another silly attempt at getting rid of the albatross around her neck. Neither Chaitanya Kunte nor Radiagate are going to disappear in a hurry. Anger and arrogance won’t do it, some genuine remorse will.

NDTV - Malice Is Back

So after lying low for quite a while Alice is back. And I suppose there is no one better who could explain the violence or chaos in our modern times. Well, that’s not me but Barkha Dutt talking. In her latest post in Hindustan Times she gets Alice from wonderland to explain ‘Why this Kolaveri Di’. I would have thought the popular Tanglish song Kolaveri would have explained the slap that Sharad Pawar got from Harvinder Singh. Not enough, maybe! So Kolaveri and Alice collaborate for the first time to explain the growing intolerance in our society. This man who slapped Pawar is the cause of all this pain in her. Of course, Barkha does not find it worth lamenting that a few days ago some politicians violently kicked some men at the Phulpur rally of Rahul Gandhi. That group of politicians also had a man who is the spouse of a co-worker of Barkha at NDTV. I call it all “experience truth, my way”! But let me not make it all about Alice and our intolerance because this one is about malice in a maze of the financial blunderland called NDTV. Barkha usually relies on Alice to explain the toughest of issues so I wonder if Alice will be handy to take NDTV through its latest blunderland. Well, anyone alleging anything against NDTV is nothing but Malice, that distant cousin of Alice.

On November 25 news broke online about an affidavit filed by an IT Commissioner, S.K. Shrivastava,  in the special CBI court of Judge O.P. Saini. This application sought to make him a prosecution witness in the 2G scam trial. Among many other contentions, one that deserves attention is the allegation he makes that NDTV and group companies were involved in laundering over 2000 crores of bribe money from the 2G scam. The application also mentions attempts by then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to block investigations into the financial dealings of NDTV and group companies. That’s really the long and short of it. Should you wish to go into the entire 32 page affidavit you can find it HERE. It does make sorry reading to say the least.

But the story of NDTV's financial stories started a long time ago. Read the post "NDTV- We the poodles, Crime pays" to refresh an old case from the 1990s. How that case got buried is a mystery of sorts.

Ever since Radiagate broke in November 2010 NDTV has been under a scanner. In an article titled “NDTV juggles funds, shares abroad, avoids tax” (Dec 2010) The Sunday Guardian explains how a number of subsidiaries were set up abroad and used to violate Indian corporate and tax laws. Here’s an excerpt:

“…To trace the financial jugglery involved in the whole process light must be shed on how these companies have been operating. In 2006-07, New Delhi Television Limited set up a legal entity in the Netherlands under the name NDTV BV, which in turn set up the NDTV Network Plc in the UK. The Indian company invested around Rs 57.45 lakh in the shares of NDTV Networks BV, thus making it its 100% subsidiary. NDTV BV, in turn, set up Plc as an indirect subsidiary…..The UK subsidiary also raised $100 million by issuing convertible bonds through private placements. NDTV's annual report of 2007-08, under the category of "contingent liabilities not provided in respect of"…..Mention must also be made of a November 2010 report that says US based Scripps Networks is acquiring 69% stakes in NDTV Lifestyle for $55 million. NDTV Lifestyle is held by NDTV Network Plc, UK. Take another November 2010 report, which says, shares of NDTV shot up by over 7% after the company announced that NDTV Networks Plc, has repurchased the $100 million coupon bonds due 2012….Is wealth being created and retained abroad without any benefit to NDTV shareholders?”

That was after the same Sunday Guardian carried a previous story (Dec 2010): “NDTV-ICICI loan chicanery saved Roys”. “NDTV Limited and associate companies in which Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy have a majority stake have indulged in financial misdemeanours and malpractices in connivance with ICICI Bank, and raised funds by misdeclaration of the value of shares in NDTV. These shares were held by a company called RRPR Holding Private Limited. The deal took place between July and October 2008 during a "buyback" of shares from the stock market announced by NDTV Limited at the price of Rs 439 per share”. A lot more has been written and Sunday Guardian sent NDTV nine questions to respond to. NDTV CEO KVL Narayana Rao responded thus: “Your fax of 3rd December 2010, is riddled with innuendos and false accusations. While we have answered all your questions, we reserve the rights under civil and criminal law both against your publication and against any individuals in your organisation”. He then goes on with further explanation which doesn’t really seem convincing except for inferring malicious accusations. But threat of criminal defamation? Why is it that NDTV is so trigger happy with such threats? And while Barkha Dutt mentions there is a case in the courts I am yet to find any defamation case filed by NDTV against Sunday Guardian anywhere. That story rested there.

How does Alice find her way through such a maze of financial blunderland? One might even wonder what does an ordinary news and entertainment company, like NDTV, from India do with so many companies established abroad. There’s even mention of a subsidiary in Holland that has just a postal address with no office, employees or any operations. Surely, this maze of wonderland must have some purpose. Mystery! Even more intriguing is the fact that since NDTV went public it has consistently been making losses and its share prices have hit new lows frequently. Moneylife, a financial site managed by Sucheta Dalal, has a stinging report on its performance. Here are some excerpts from “Glamour stocks, ugly returns” (August 2011):

“NDTV got listed in 2004 and is trading below its listed price after seven years. It has given a negative return of 19% compounded in the past five years and a total shareholder return (TSR) of negative 66% for the same period…..Its credibility is at a nadir (after the recent phone-tapping controversy) and its finances are in a mess. NDTV has rarely made money from operations. For the past few years, its consolidated operations have been making cash losses and it has been running on money made by selling loss-making subsidiaries to strategic investors. But capitalism is not at work in India. NDTV won’t fade away in a hurry. Indeed, every few months, the financially-beleaguered NDTV manages to get ‘strategic’ investors with deep pockets and top-flight private equity investors to step in and pick up big chunks of its equity at fancy valuations. In the 3rd week of June, DE Shaw, a $20-billion hedge fund which prefers to call itself an ‘investment and technology development company’, picked up a 14.2% stake in NDTV providing an exit to Goldman Sachs, another blue-chip investor that probably exited at a loss. NDTV’s stock was listed at Rs100 in 2004; the stock rose to Rs511 in January 2008 on the promise of a financial performance which has never materialised. It is now at Rs63—down 32% even from the issue price, after seven years of listing—and down a whopping 86% from its peak. Interestingly, despite the DE Shaw acquisition, the stock has barely moved. Maybe, the market doesn’t quite trust this information. That says a lot about not just NDTV but DE Shaw as well. As happens with glamour stocks, DE Shaw could be a front for someone else. Coincidentally, DE Shaw has a tie-up in India with Reliance Industries to sell financial services”.

To on ordinary blogger accusing NDTV of shoddy journalism they issued a legal notice charging him with libel. NDTV threatened those who leaked the Radia tapes with defamatory action. NDTV threatened Sunday Guardian with legal action for defamation and false accusations. In the last two cases we have seen no record of any legal cases being filed by NDTV. To the current petition by S.K. Shrivastava, the IT Commissioner, NDTV has once again alleged malice and defamation. Their CEO Vikram Chandra, has tweeted that NDTV has filed a defamation suit against the man on November 25. A detailed report about such a case was not available anywhere, including their website, at the time of writing. To the Moneylife article one doesn’t know if there was ever a response. Vikram also stated that a previously similar petition of Shrivastava was dismissed with fines. But that was about other IT officers and this one need not meet the same fate. Charges for laundering 2G Scam money are not about some IT officers alone, it involves black money and a national issue.

Bankers and lenders usually have a 1000-day test for a business to break even or even make profits. Normally a business would find it difficult to survive otherwise. NDTV seems to survive regardless of all business failures and financial losses. Does it make sense? And whenever someone questions their financial dealings it’s either false accusations or worse, MALICE! The options are for NDTV to come clean against all the allegations and state their position in a detailed document. The allegations in Shrivastava’s petition are serious enough to send many people to prison. Time will tell! And that may certainly not be a wonderland Alice might want to explore.