Slavery By Any Other Name

Sometime last year I wrote the post “Independence not the same as freedom”. While we are an independent nation some have still willingly chosen slavery over freedom. In the US, where slavery was legal for long, some believed slavery is neither sinful nor immoral, was natural and inevitable. Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in the 19th century. In India there are still many who find slavery a natural and inevitable state of mankind. People are still called Nawabs or Rajas, Begums or Ranis, by a slavish media. The ones who set the worst examples are actually from public life. Here is an extract of the speech from the video I carried in that post last year by former US president John Adams:

This is a recent issue (of the Executive Review, from President’s office), and there's an article in here written by a "keen mind of the South," … who asserts that:

"There has never existed a civilized society in which one segment did not thrive upon the labor of another. As far back as one chooses to look -- to ancient times, to biblical times -- history bears this out. In Eden, where only two were created, even there one was pronounced subordinate to the other. Slavery has always been with us and is neither sinful nor immoral. Rather, as war and antagonism are the natural states of man, so, too, slavery, as natural as it is inevitable."

Now, gentlemen, I must say I differ with the keen minds of the South, and with our president, who apparently shares their views, offering that the natural state of mankind is instead -- and I know this is a controversial idea -- is freedom. Is freedom! And the proof is the length to which a man, woman, or child will go to regain it, once taken. He will break loose his chains, He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try against all odds, against all prejudices, to get home.

It doesn’t take a wizard anymore to understand that ‘freedom’ is the natural state of mankind. So what makes some behave in an absolute slavish manner? “Blood” worker Salman Khurshid says Rahul Gandhi’s cameos aren’t enough and they need ideological direction from him. From Rahul Gandhi? Haha! “10 out of 7” times RG is not even in India as his Congress foot soldiers point out anonymously. Permanent sycophant Digvijaya Singh demands RG be given “decisive” responsibility, even PMship. In September 2012, Khurshid again asked people to expect an “exciting greater” role for RG. Then as recently as October 20, Rediff reported a makeover for RG: “Congress leaders are toying with several ideas to lift the morale of the party and the government. They are finding ways to make glamorous RG's much-talked about promotion”. A makeover? From what? To what? You can change his appearance a bit, here and there, but I doubt you can change the way RG thinks (if at all) and all his public utterances so far have been worse than a 3rd grader. No wonder Congressmen are disillusioned with him as various reports suggest. But still, to some of these people RahulG is the great white hope for India.

Even after royal titles and privy purses have been abolished our media can’t stop being slaves to so-called royalty. Be it a Saif-Kareena wedding or to the Dynasty itself. Home Minister Sushil Shinde is willing to “shoot to kill” if ordered by Sonia Gandhi. Salman Khurshid is “willing to die” for her. In the previous post I mentioned a Mungeri who equates SoniaG to Mother Teresa. What is wrong with all these people? I can understand Khurshid though. You see, he is steeped in history of Mughal durbars. He writes novels and plays on the Mughal kings and nawabs. Even so, one can forgive wanting to be a durbari but willing to die? Naturally, Arvind Kejriwal lampoons him and asks if Khurshid is India’s Law minister or Sonia’s Law minister. If they make a Die-Hard 5, there are many options in India to replace Bruce Willis.

Nothing, nothing though beats B. Raman. The man is supposedly a former intelligence bureaucrat from RAW. No, not all of them are the James Bond types, so don’t picture that image please. He has lately discovered that Priyanka Vadra (aka Gandhi) is probably the one saviour that India desperately needs. The pic is a stunning tweet from him (August 30). I can understand the NaMo and darkness part. For long, the Congress, the media, some NGOs and lately Raman, have painted Narendra Modi as ‘Rahu’ who gobbles up the sun during an eclipse. That part was easy. You know, NaMo is dark, from an OBC community, not of royal lineage, was a tea-vendor at one point and it’s disgusting that he can even be a successful CM. To the likes of Raman, no court, no SIT is authorised to declare NaMo innocent of any crime. Trust me, that part I get. But it does baffle me why a reasonably educated man would call PriyankaV brightness at night. I truly hope for Raman’s sake it has nothing to do with her fair skin that would radiate brightness even in power-less dark nights in the constituency she usually campaigns in. Reminder: “Slavery has always been with us and is neither sinful nor immoral..”.

Let’s assume Raman was just being poetic with his “brightness at night” tweet. But it’s not just a tweet, there are whole articles. He recalls the innocent childhood of Priyanka and Rahul on his blog. Ahem! In the book 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Harper Lee does say at the opening even "Lawyers were children once". Everyone was. I guess even Raman was. And this is not the first time he is raging. In an earlier post ‘Raman Rage’ I mentioned how he went berserk in his defence of Sonia Gandhi, Barkha Dutt and Sagarika Ghose. He went to the extent of calling those ridiculing them Jihadis, Extremists and Neo-Nazis. He is also on record calling NaMo supporters ‘Nazi storm-troopers’. Now where does such hatred come from?  He is known to be a great fan-boy of Barkha, which is fine and understandable. He lately dislikes NaMo or his work or policies. Fine too. Does that make others Nazis? The number of times he has called others Nazis is phenomenal. And then he feels offended if he’s called senile? That is quite a light insult compared to his frequent outrage and calling others Nazis. Never mind!

Let’s ask why Raman sees PriyankaV as a possible saviour of the nation. An opinion? Fine! But even if he is peddling a mere personal opinion that surely needs to be backed by some logic. There is nothing that PV has done or demonstrated that makes her the saviour when compared to many other individuals. There may be any number of such individuals within the Congress itself. But why Priyanka? Only one thing explains it; Slavery! Mindless, senseless slavery to a dynasty. He calls himself a ‘strategy analyst’! Surely, one has to be Ravi Shastri to see any strategic analysis behind Priyanka as saviour. That wasn’t the first time though. In June 2012 he came up with some astonishing absurdities. He recommended MMS be made President and Priyanka be made PM (see his letter to Sonia Gandhi). Isn’t this nation lucky? Promote a non-performing PM as President and promote a no-work, no-experience, no-performer as PM. Someone who isn’t even an MP yet. Logic? Slavery! How is it different from Laloo appointing his wife, Rabri, as CM? And we know what happened to Bihar, don’t we?

Now that the Robert Vadra land deals are more in the open Raman must feel a thousand eggs on his face. Of course, the argument might be put forth that Vadra may be involved in irregularities but Priyanka is still the brightness at night. This is the tragedy when slave mentality forces public figures to pick leaders for the nation without reason and without accountability. Raman even suggests Sonia panicked over Vadragate but Priyanka calmed her and the Congress. He must still be in the "intelligence" business or must be getting daily secret briefings from the Congress eaves droppers. We are yet to get past the MMS disaster. There is a big difference between admiration and slavery. Congress minister, Ramesh Bagwe, even carried RahulG's shoes to protect it from bombs. Take that!

People admiring Sonia Gandhi is one thing; they may have valid reasons. She has done and at least demonstrated a few things. But if mindless slavery is to determine the course and leadership of a nation then one need not write long letters and argue or try to pass slavish nonsense as logic. It’s any day more appropriate for such slavish minds to simply put out an ad like that Chennai dealer. All it takes is to say “Madamji at your feet”. This nation has been a slave to many forces in history. One would have expected intellectuals and public figures to ensure “never again”. Instead, evidence grows that these very intellectuals may well be the admirers and causes of slavery and they even love being slaves. Slavery by any other name still remains slavery, it can’t be cloaked with intelligent claptrap.

Nobel Pursuits For Sonia

Myths are important to society. What would life be if it were just full of facts and nothing but facts? Facts count for a lot in courtrooms. In the movie ‘Philadelphia’ the judge tells Denzel Washington, defending an Aids-infected Tom Hanks sacked from his job: “In this courtroom, Mr.Miller, justice is blind to matters of race, creed, color, religion, and sexual orientation”. That’s a nice line and could be true. Washington responds: “With all due respect, your honor, we don't live in this courtroom, do we”? Courtrooms can claim to be blind but society isn’t. Lies, prejudices, propaganda, myths count for a lot in society! Without these our lives would be incomplete. Perhaps even boring! Take a look at the man in the pic. Would you leave a child in the care of this man? There are times when he was “Wanted” as a terrorist. He is reputed to have unleashed some terrible acts of violence as head of a terrorist group. These are written about him. Well, I will leave you to wonder who he is and what happened to him.

There are other myths that are even funny. For instance it’s a myth that Hindi is our only National language. It’s not; it’s just one of many. Now, hold your breath this next one will shock you. We don’t have a National game even. Most of us were brought up thinking Hockey is our national game. It took a young girl to establish the fact and destroy the myth, and probably the happiness of some. This same girl had previously established that the title of ‘Father of nation’ wasn’t conferred on MKGandhi by anyone (See report). That seems alright though. Titles like “Mahatma” or “Father of nation” can’t really be official govt titles. But having created the myth of the “Father” nobody dare question it for fear of rebuke or censure. It does sound, though, as if all others who fought and made sacrifices for the nation were toddlers. It can even be argued that it would be more realistic to call Sardar Patel, who is credited with uniting India as we know it, the real “father of the nation”. Historians often lie, media sells propaganda and school text books are manipulated to create many myths. One of the modern day myths perpetrated in India is about Sonia Gandhi. Umm.. she’s the equivalent of Mother Teresa as some would have us believe.

Don’t laugh, this is serious. I got to know recently that Sonia Gandhi was recommended for the Nobel Peace prize this year. That’s not all. This is the 9th time in a row that she has been recommended for that prize. The organisation consistently recommending her is called ‘International Awakening Centre’. Oops! Another IAC! So I tried to find out what this particular IAC is and didn’t get very far. All I could learn is that they have an office somewhere in Delhi and do all kinds of social work. Ah! I guess one of those nice NGOs. Now hold your breath! In the latest letter recommending SoniaG for the Nobel this IAC’s head Majaz Mungeri equated her with MotherTeresa for her global work for peace. Global work? For peace? Mother Teresa? Suddenly I feel like a poorly informed citizen. SoniaG presides over the most corrupt govt India or any modern democracy in the world has ever seen. There have been various incidents of police brutalities. A Nobel Peace Prize would be quite a political coup, wouldn't it?

In over 100 years since its inception only one Indian has won the Nobel Peace Prize: Mother Teresa (MT) in 1979. Even she is considered an Albanian and not an original Indian. Despite my best efforts I have never found anything that in anyway constitutes MT’s work as contributing to peace. Not relevant though. MT herself is surrounded by a lot of myths. Not all agree on her “saintly” deeds. In one particular instance her staunch critic, the late Christopher Hitchens, recalls:

Mother Teresa “has checked into some of the finest and costliest clinics and hospitals in the West during her bouts with heart trouble and old age.” The author mentions her visit to Haiti and her endorsement of the Duvaliers, the source of much deprivation of the poor in Haiti. Also, her acceptance of stolen money from Charles Keating, “now serving a ten-year sentence for his part in the savings and loan scandal.” Keating, a “Catholic fundamentalist”, gave Mother Teresa one and a quarter million dollars and “the use of his private jet.” During the course of Keating’s trial, Mother Teresa wrote Judge Ito asking clemency and asked Ito “to do what Jesus would do.” One of the prosecutors in the trial wrote her telling her “of 17,000 individuals from whom Mr. Keating stole $252,000,000.” He added, “You urge Judge Ito to look into his heart–as he sentences Charles Keating–and do what Jesus would do. I submit the same challenge to you. Ask yourself what Jesus would do if he were given the fruits of a crime; what Jesus would do if he were in possession of money that had been stolen; what Jesus would do if he were being exploited by a thief to ease his conscience.” The prosecutor asked her to return the money, and offered to put her “in direct contact with the rightful owners of the property now in your possession.” This supposed paragon of virtue never replied to his letter. (Also read articles here and here).

Chartered flights. Not recognising corruption or responding to it. Treatment in costly hospitals in the west. Aha.. I can see where the comparison of Sonia Gandhi to MT comes from. MKGandhi was nominated 13 times and rejected (read full details here). Even Jawaharlal Nehru was nominated 11 times and rejected (read here). That must have been tiring. I’m not sure if Indira Gandhi was nominated but the Congress govt went one better in 1986. They just created the ‘Indira Gandhi Peace Prize’. Well, if Nehru-Gandhis can’t win a Nobel Peace Prize (NPP) what stops us from creating one in their name, eh? Isn’t it an irony that a national peace prize is named after the lady who imposed Emergency, throttled freedoms and jailed thousands of dissenters? There are many Mungeris in our society who like to create myths.

The NPP has been mostly awarded to Europeans and Americans with stray exceptions from the other parts of the world. Without ascribing any motives it does appear that Europe matters most to the NPP. So no surprise that this year, 2012, they awarded the prize to the European Union. Why? Oh.. it seems they hung on to their ‘economy’ or saved it or something like that. So either this NPP committee is blind or Norway doesn’t like us. (Remember that child custody thing?) How in hell did these folks forget Sonia Gandhi’s contribution to saving the European economy? Time to remind those folks. Let’s catch up with respected journalist M.D. Nalapat (Sonia’s $12B gift to Europe):

“The latest gift to Europe is a cash transfer of $10 billion, evidently on top of the $2 billion already committed to the IMF. That the euro is in a terminal state is obvious. There is no way that Italy and even France can escape monetary and economic disaster.... Rather than throw money away by giving funds to an IMF controlled by Christine Lagarde for the sole purpose of getting the rest of the world to hand over their surpluses to the profligate in Europe, it would have been better to invest in gold or in assets, including assets abroad. Instead, PM Manmohan Singh, who knows the mind of his political boss well and has therefore been able to continue in office without interruption, has handed over a further $10 billion to the IMF. This at a time when the fiscal deficit of his recklessly extravagant government is reaching crisis levels. The Indian economy cannot afford to gift - for that is what any loan to certain European countries is - even $10 million. The economy is just two to three years away from bankruptcy. The decision of the Sonia-led ruling coalition to throw taxpayer money away is in line with other policies that favour Europe at the expense of India”.

The man whose pic you saw in the first para is none other than Menachem Begin, former PM of Israel (on the right in this pic). He played an important hand in the liberation and creation of Israel. In 1981 he bombed Iraq’s nuclear facilities in a pre-emptive attack. It’s the 50th anniversary of 1962 Indo-China war. Peace cannot be achieved and maintained without the willingness to fight for it. Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t too keen on the idea of having an Army, Navy or Air-force for the country. A former army man tweeted Nehru stated police are enough to take care of the defence of our country. In the face of most violent terrorist attacks from Pakistan on Indian soil the SoniaG led UPA is busy making peace without any justice for the victims. Some crazy folks even want to play cricket with Pakistan. Some in the media don’t tire of telling us about people-to-people contact and their love for “Aman Ki Asha”. Even if one overlooks all that, SoniaG is responsible for the attack on a peaceful, sleeping crowd at Ramlila grounds on the midnight of June 4, 2011. One woman, Rajbala, died. But hey, we like myths and some will keep nominating her for the NPP. You just have to wonder who these people are.

Menachem Begin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 jointly with Egypt’s president Anwar Sadat. This was after a peace accord signed at Camp David, USA and after Egypt finally recognised Israel. Begin died in peace in 1983 and was buried in Israel. Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981 for making peace with Israel. Back home one will see more myths of SoniaG’s global work for peace.

Zee News - Media Mafia Sinks To A New Low

Blackmail, extortion is not new to the news media. This is one of the reasons I call the media “India’sBiggest Mafia”. Here’s a report from Sucheta Dalal (from 2003) that I quoted in a previous post:

“Last week, the Mumbai police arrested Rishi Chopra of The Economic Times along with an accomplice (a former journalist with another business daily) in an alleged extortion attempt. The duo was trapped accepting a Rs 700,000 bribe which was the second installment of a Rs 2.5 million payoff to kill a report about the shenanigans of one Poonamchand Malu of Malu Financial Services. Worse, the pay-off itself had apparently been haggled down from an initial demand of Rs 10 million to Rs 2.5 million. Although corruption in the media is no longer news, the actual arrest of two scribes and the sums involved, marked a new low in this once honourable profession”.

We now have a new case where Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s company Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. (JSPL), in a reverse sting, has filed an FIR against officials of the Zee News group for blackmailing them to the tune of 100 crores for suppressing news related to their involvement in Coalgate. The FIR includes tapes of recorded conversations between JSPL officials and Zee representatives in at least three meetings. Currently, the blackmail is stated to be in the form of advertisements demanded by Zee. The tapes have been sent for forensic examination according to the latest reports (The Hindu – October 15).

This is what The Hindu states: According to the FIR, the meetings between JSPL officials and Zee representatives took place on September 13, 17 and 19 at a South Delhi hotel. On the first day, the FIR states, three JSPL officials met one of the journalists during which Rs. 20 crore was demanded in the shape of advertisements and in the second meeting the demand was scaled up.

None of this is surprising. I have been a witness to rival groups of publications blackmailing companies and seeking advertisements for many years. One can also safely assume that is a common practice in media. Some media outlets may be brazen and some maybe subtle but gentle arm twisting is a standard wide-spread practice. In this case, the sum being demanded or negotiated was huge (100 crores) and therefore it could seriously hurt a company already ravaged by accusations. The second aspect is that Coalgate is not a local or state issue. It’s a national issue. What I mean is that if there is a similar issue restricted only to Hoshiarpur or Coimbatore for instance, some local/state level newspaper can get away with blackmail for a smaller sum like 10-25 lakhs or thereabouts. In the case of Coalgate, even if JSPL had succumbed to Zee there is no guarantee some other news channel, a future JPC or SIT can suppress any real offences. So for both reasons the option with JSPL was not to succumb to the alleged blackmailing.

Here’s news that’s different from the past though. The Broadcast Editors’ Association (BEA) has quickly conducted an inquiry by 3-man bench. Livemint reports: “According to BEA’s press release, a committee comprising senior broadcast journalists N. K. Singh, Dibang and Rahul Kanwal arrived at the unanimous conclusion “that Mr. Sudhir Chaudhary is found to have acted in a manner that is unbecoming of an editor and in a fashion that is prejudicial to the interest and objects of the BEA”. Predictably, Zee News has stood by its employees and its editor. A legal process will have greater bearing on the end outcome as against the BEA decision. Of course, the BEA decision is absolutely right.

Now, I have some problems with that committee of BEA that conducted the inquiry. But before that here are some rants by a tainted journalist. Haha! Who else could it be? Her tweets are reactions that truly reflect the “Albatross” around her neck that I referred to in the post “Bark in the USA”. Barkha tweets about the Zee incident as if she possesses the “innocence of journalists”. Little does it occur to this media celeb that the crimes alleged against her in Radiagate are far more serious. The allegations of “lobbying and brokering” in cabinet and govt formation are far more serious allegations than the issue of blackmailing a company for advertisements in lieu of suppression of news. She even rants that nobody is talking about it. I wonder what stops NDTV from talking about it? Even channels and newspapers avoided Radiagate till it was inevitable. Worse, in her case (unlike the BEA in this case) the head of Editors’ Guild, Rajdeep Sardesai, even defended her nonsense. It looks like she has also forgotten her own tragic and disgusting program on NDTV when she tried to defend herself. So Barkha would do well to hold her horses. That “Albatross” around her neck is going to stay for a long time.

Barkha quotes The Hindu on the Zee News case. That brings us to another question. Why are all major media outlets absolutely silent in the case of N. Ram of The Hindu and the land related FIR against him?  Reports indicated he has even sought anticipatory bail. Would NDTV care to report? Oh hang on, does NDTV have some business tie up with The Hindu? I haven’t seen any tweets from Barkha on this. Never mind! We are selective in our outrage, you see?

Now, the BEA needs to be commended to for action against Sudhir Chaudhary. However, it would have been fair if they had “suspended” him instead of “expelling” him. The final verdict on the tapes is still to be established by the police. They could have waited a bit longer before expelling him. Not very important, but the committee itself could have been differently constituted. It has at least two members who are peers of Chaudhary, Dibang and Kanwal. Instead, they could have chosen a committee of non-media members which would have made their decision even more respectable. Still, considering how deep the media mafia runs this response by the BEA is definitely a welcome change. Before cleaning up corruption in politics and govt, it’s our news media that needs a large broom. 

Funeral For A Sparrow

History hangs on tiny chances. The five gentlemen in the pic below have nothing in common now. From left: First is a tax-guru, next is a film-maker, 3rd is a politician, the fourth is a playwright and the last one is a lawyer. Yet, if you look up history, it will tell you that these guys do have something in common. They, with a few more, led the first and only successful mass agitation ever in the history of independent India. What will shock you even more is that the agitation started with what was a small, localised issue of hike in canteen charges in a college. The issue of corruption got added to the canteen issue.

History hangs on tiny chances. Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor, immolated himself over losing his stocks after paying a fine and that triggered in Tunisia what we now know as the Arab Spring. He died.

Cut to the present. What is it that TeamAnna wanted to change? Obviously, corruption in the govt system! Change the system to what? Bring in a Janlokpal. There is no specific incident or event that triggered Anna’s Lokpal movement. It’s not as if someone killed himself or self-immolated directly for corruption. This was a well-planned, well-organised agitation and not a spontaneous movement that brought people together. How to bring about that change? Hunger strikes, gatherings in Delhi, SMS for support, put up websites and so on. Then they made a fatal mistake. Following some minor success in terms of people’s response, they broadened their agenda. They added to their demands Lokayuktas across all states, Citizen’s Charter, CBI under independent control, Charge-sheets against certain ministers and a bit more. The menu had grown bigger.

The movement died the day Anna gave up his fast after 12 days in August 2011. That may be a bitter pill to swallow for some but that’s the fact. I may sound harsh but why did Anna give up his fast when he had the govt and MPs by the scruff of their necks? Especially since he kept repeating that he is a soldier who will “die” for his cause. No, I don’t regret it. I am happy Anna is alive and we hope he leads a long, healthy life. But there is no Lokpal. There is nothing to show as results for that agitation. In the end, when the Lokpal Bill does get through the credit will be claimed by some political party (just like with RTI) although that may not be that important.

Having failed to get the Lokpal Bill, the movement has now become some kind of a political monster. It has become the very thing that Anna’s agitation targeted. Irony! Not in terms of corruption but in terms of strategies and language. The “how to” change has become more of hurling charges at some politician or prominent figure every week. Mind you, the charges are not being discussed here. Arvind Kejriwal now leads a political movement. His tactics, though, haven’t changed. The only visible change is that AK has borrowed Anna’s ‘Topi’ which he never wore earlier. It’s once again an irony as some point out. AK wants new-style politics with old-style symbolism. The Gandhi-topi for long has become a symbol of the pot-bellied, corrupt politician and not the principles that Gandhi used to represent. The other grave and serious mistake that AK and his team are making is: fighting a battle in the media. By now AK should have been wise enough to learn that the media is not his friend. It is nobody’s friend. It’s a friend to those in power and those with money. If you have neither, they will make sure you are run down and destroyed. I have documented the media follies of TeamAnna long back in the post ‘Goodwill Blunting’

After the noise and drama over Robert Vadra and Salman Khurshid even the disappointed media called TeamKejriwal’s so-called ‘expose’ on Nitin Gadkari a “damp squib”. Naturally so! The media would have loved to see some serious charges against Gadkari. It would have suited them great and so too their Congress bosses. Haha! Not surprisingly, even chronic distorter Digivijaya Singh was unhappy with AK. He stated on TV that he would have liked AK to go after Narendra Modi. Why not! In the context of the forthcoming Gujarat elections nothing would have pleased the Congress and media more. Agitations and political battles are not fought on television. This is something that the IAC team doesn’t seem to have learnt and something Narendra Modi seems to have mastered. Even if you do not wish to pursue corruption charges in court it’s a lot better to take these to the people than to the media. As simple as that! Narendra Modi’s 1880 Crores charge against Sonia Gandhi is going to stick for a long time. The media will bury allegations against Robert Vadra, Salman Khurshid and Nitin Gadkari and move on. They need their daily “item number” and AK seems to be providing it for free. But if AK and his motley crew had gone to the people at various places they would have succeeded in creating “perceptions” that would be hard to dismantle by the media.

One of the stupidest arguments by fanatical AK supporters when he is lampooned or criticised is “what are you doing about corruption?”. This is as silly as they can get. Far from getting more support it alienates more. First, not everyone has chosen to fight this battle for their own reasons, not even the media. Secondly, how stupid would it be to ask a movie critic to go act in or direct a movie if he lampoons a movie? If Harsha Bhogle were to criticise batting or bowling, how moronic would it be to ask him to go out and play instead of commentating? The media has already targeted TeamAK by bringing out some builder-NGO nexus of corruption against Mayank Gandhi, one of members of TeamAK. Who can forget the frivolous travel bills issue about Kiran Bedi? That made more noise in the media than allegations against Gadkari. The question both AK and his supporters need to really ask is: Why has the biggest face of IAC, Anna Hazare, himself withdrawn? That has never been honestly explained. Merely borrowing the symbolic “topi” for the media doesn’t mean anything. As it gets tougher for their paymasters, the media is sure to raise more muck against TeamAK, real and imaginary. Symbolism has to connect with people.

The five gentlemen I mentioned earlier are Mukesh Patel, Manishi Jani, Umakant Mankad, Parthiv Vyas and Nirupam Nanavati. All were leaders of the Navnirman agitation in Gujarat in 1974. The agitation also found support from political parties, including some members of the then Congress govt in the state. Even Narendra Modi is reported to have been involved from the outside through RSS and ABVP. Except for Umakant Mankad, who is a Congress member, none of the others are in politics. They succeeded in their agitation; perhaps far beyond their expectations. It was the agitation that triggered Jayprakash Narayan’s movement which led to the Emergency in 1975 and eventual downfall of Indira Gandhi. The first pic on the left is of the agitators on Nehru Bridge in Ahmedabad. The second pic is that of stone-pelting. Haha! Ironically, it’s not by the agitators but by the police in retaliation to being attacked from rooftops. There was no TV then and most newspaper reports couldn’t be accurate because of months-long curfews. The Navnirman agitation brought down the Chief Minister and the state govt. All this by traditionally “effete” people as Barkha Dutt and Vir Singhvi call Gujaratis. Navnirman wasn’t fought on TV or in the media. It was fought on the streets by a huge number of people.

Symbolism matters. No, not on some stupid media channel but on the ground with people. During the Navnirman agitation a Sparrow was unfortunately killed in police firing or by stone pelting. The agitators symbolically took out a huge funeral procession for the unfortunate sparrow. Not even the police dared to stop the procession and allowed the funeral rites for the martyred sparrow to be completed. Over 100 people died in police firing in the Navnirman agitation. Each time Team AK hold a press conference for their ‘exposes’ it keeps getting bigger and bigger. The media gets a reality show without having to pay for the production costs or hire actors. Sooner or later this same media will destroy them. These shows aren’t as powerful as the funeral for a sparrow.

Note: The Late Chimanbhai Patel, Chief Minister, who was brought down by the Navnirman movement returned as CM some years later. He is credited with initiating the Sardar Sarovar Project (Narmada Dam) which is a lifeline for Gujarat. He remains a much respected figure in Gujarat politics.