Vir-Gati – Vir Sanghvi Suspends HT Counterpoint, Takes a Break...

Vir Sanghvi bites the dust.

“...I have no desire to subject Counterpoint to this filth. It deserves better. So, Counterpoint will be taking a break. When life returns to normal, so will Counterpoint.” Thus wrote Vir Sanghvi in his column.  I doubt life will ever return to normal for this journalist.  Fortunately, he does have an alternate career in the foodie category.

A few days back Vir Sanghvi defended himself, unconvincingly in a post on Counterpoint :  “My response to the  Radia transcripts”. He claimed the tapes were selectively leaked and some parts doctored. Hindustan Times had distanced itself from his comments and his connection to the Radia tapes.

This is the man who has consistently proclaimed a prominent politician “mass murderer” for many years. One can understand dislike for Narendra Modi, but characterising him as “mass murderer” reeks of malice, prejudice and lack of discretion for a wimp who passed off as a journalist.  He is fortunate he wasn't dragged to court for such defamatory charges. He had figured in my list of India’s worst journalists in a post on August 31. (Read Here)

On Counterpoint post Gujarat elections of 2007 Sanghvi refers to the ".. north Indian slur that Gujaratis are effete" and then goes on to add  "So as a Gujarati, I am proud that we finally have our pride and confidence back. But it is a sad commentary on our state that it took a mass murderer to achieve this".  Ironically, it is a Gujarati woman (Nira Radia) who screwed Sanghvi.

One hopes that during his break Sanghvi will reflect and introspect on the consequences of being a biased and influenced journalist. The first martyr of the Radia tapes has truly achieved ‘Virgati’

We might now get to hear the line "what kind of food do you want?" Now who can complain about that.

Rajdeep Sardesai : “Hammam Mein Sab Nange Hain”

“Hammam Mein Sab Nange Hain” has to be one of Rajdeep Sardesai’s favourite lines. He has used it many times before and more recently in the Adarsh Society scam. And he is probably right, especially when it comes to his own media clan.

No major mainstream newspaper or TV channel has even mentioned the X-Tapes containing conversations between Barkha Dutt-Nira Radia, Vir Sanghvi-Nira Radia and much more. During the conversations some other names of journalists are also mentioned. Rajdeep Sardesai jumped to defend Barkha Dutt on her Twitter page. “CNN-IBN's Rajdeep Sardesai says, conversation between source and journo is legitimate. if quid pro quo is shown, expose it. else, dont destroy hard earned reputations”

Maybe Rajdeep’s idea of quid pro quo has to be in some tangible form. I for one believe, gaining a position of “power” and being able to influence politicians and the course of government itself is quid pro quo. Many have wondered how Barkha Dutt managed to get a Padma Shri (as did Rajdeep) when more senior and notable journalists have not been rewarded with any such honour. But that is hardly important to the current situation.

Rajdeep might like to explain why his own channel, CNN-IBN, or Times-Now or many newspapers in the mainstream media have maintained an eerie silence on the tapes. One wouldn’t have a problem with a TV channel or newspaper defending the tainted journalists but a complete “black out” of the news itself is wrongful and reflects a poor sense of journalistic ethics. Therefore, one has to imagine or conclude that most journalists in all of these TV channels and mainstream newspapers are corrupt, power brokers and indulge in the same activities that Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi are accused of. And Rajdeep’s line “Hamam mein Sab Nange Hain” applies to the media itself as much as he applies to corrupt politicians. The media crooks will therefore defend or suppress misdeeds of their own clan.

Unfortunately for Rajdeep and also for the tainted journalists they quite fail to appreciate the power of the Internet today and that even if the mainstream is made up of crooks, the net still has honest reporters, bloggers and writers without illicit motives. Both Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi have consistently rubbished the blogging community. Hopefully, they will now deal with online news channels and bloggers with the same respect they demand for themselves.

The mainstream media hardly fathoms the immense damage these two celebrity media persons have inflicted on them. Newspapers and TV channels were already suspect for quite some time. Their bias and slanted reporting of news and events is not difficult to see through. If NDTV and other media had openly claimed to be Congress (I) supporters that would have been more honourable and there would have been nothing wrong in it. Far from admitting any power-broking both Barkha and Sanghvi maintain a facade of “Everything’s fine”. No it is not! Everything is not fine. Both these journalists need some introspection. Do they believe any viewer or reader will ever take them at face value or with any seriousness? Will they ever believe these people are honest journalists? I have serious doubts.

I for one would not rush to hang just Barkha and Sanghvi. For long much of the entire spectrum of Indian media has been a gang of  crooks and liars. If they still believe they can moralise and sermonise a nation on ethics and talk about corruption they need to pull their heads out of their collective asses and introspect. And yes, Rajdeep Sardesai is right “Hamam mein sab nange hein” and it applies more so to his own journalistic gang and his own CNN-IBN.

Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi Should Be Held Criminally Liable...

Manmohan is no Saint and Sonia is no Prophet..

The latest scam-trilogy, 2G Spectrum, CWG and Adarsh Society had some heads rolling. Under the most severe pressure and no defences left this is now a standard practice. Why, though, should that be enough? The criminal ministers, politicians and bureaucrats should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and should be crammed up in jails with other ordinary criminals.

That is just one part of it. What concerns me even more is that the media morons cannot stop issuing certificates of honesty, integrity and character to the likes of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi.
Sometime back, the Bhopal Gas tragedy verdict had the media up in arms baying for the blood of Warren Andersen, then chairman of Union Carbide. Why? Did Andersen gas the people of Bhopal? Did he directly kill anyone? Was he directly responsible for the gas leak? I would think not. Yet none in our media spared the man of criminal culpability.

Closer to a citizen at home. Narendra Modi. For almost a decade the media has pronounced Modi guilty of genocide. They perpetrated lies and half-truths, almost anything in their attempt to seek Modi hauled into a court and sentenced to prison. Why? Did Modi himself kill anyone? Was he an active participant in the Gujarat riots? Did he burn any family or rape any woman? None of that. The only logic was that it happened under his watch and so the media concluded that Modi had approved it all.

"Head-In-Sand" Manmohan Singh

Now, come these scams directly under the watch of the oh so clean and honest PM and the the Prophet of the Congress Sonia Gandhi. She who cannot be blasphemed. If a PM is unaware of what goes on under his nose is he worthy of being a PM at all in the first place? Instead this PM sermonises the CAG on being fair and balanced and attempts educating the CAG on the process of decision making in the government. And why, if the media targeted Andersen and Modi the way they did, is Manmohan Singh being given a clean chit all the time by the left-liberal media?

And Sonia Gandhi as the chairperson is no less culpable. Where did all the loot go? It is hard to believe that much of the kickbacks from all these scams have not gone to the Congress coffers, or at least some part of it. The other beneficiary, one has to assume, has to be the DMK. What was so wrong in what K.S. Sudarshan (former RSS chief) said about Sonia? Nothing he said was new. All his allegations are already posted on various sites and blogs on the internet. Subramanian Swamy of the Janata Party has been following many such cases openly and these are no secrets. The only error that Sudarshan may have made was that he called her a CIA agent, when it should have been KGB as is widely being published on various internet blogs and sites. In response the Congress spokesman threatens violent protests and the goons from his party carry out his threat. Is Sonia Gandhi beyond question for the media. She may be the Congress prophet, but since when is she above blasphemy for the media?

As for the “head-in-sand” Manmohan Singh, the less said the better. He is fast turning out to be the most incompetent, incoherent and the most servantile prime minister that India has ever seen. He may be a faithful pet of Sonia Gandhi, but surely at his position one has to expect there will be times he will act out of his conscience. Wilfully allowing the looting and sacking of India under his nose has to be make him as criminally culpable as those directly involved in these scams. The same goes for Sonia Gandhi, the so called chairperson of the UPA. 

Both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi should be considered  criminally culpable for allowing the scamsters to loot the nation. And the media? Well, if they can stop their ass-licking reportage they might start introspecting their own role in the blatant loot of this country.