Separate Laws For Celebs Please

Billy Hayes is an American writer and actor. But there is more to him than that. Hayes was arrested in 1970 at Istanbul airport for smuggling 2kgs of Hashish. This was a time when many countries in the world didn’t even have ‘Anti-Drug’ laws. Hayes was sentenced to four years in prison for cooperating with the authorities in nabbing the original supplier. But the law doesn’t work honestly in some places. Before he knew what was happening Hayes was told he was sentenced to life, which is 30 years in prison. He was tortured frequently in prison. Hayes finally escaped from the prison in 1975 to Greece and returned home to his family in the US a few months later. This extraordinary story is captured in the movie Midnight Express. His story and the movie got Turkey bad publicity throughout the world for their poor justice and prison systems.

Closer home, Sanjay Dutt was a known drug addict. He must have surely been in possession of drugs to be consuming drugs. Yet, to my knowledge, there hasn’t ever been a single case ever filed against him for drugs. His father packed him off to the US for rehabilitation programme which seemed to have worked and set Sanjay back on the road to his career and family. There are other drug offenders who have been let off too. So when the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Sanjay Dutt in the shadow of the 1993 Mumbai blasts case for illegal possession of arms it wasn’t surprising that most of his clan sympathised with him. Let me correct that. They went beyond sympathy, most of them were declaring him “innocent”. From Jaya Prada to Mahesh Bhatt to many others, they were all narrating how Dutt has suffered for 20 years. This included his own lawyers and others like Majid Memon who claimed he had just made a “foolish mistake” and the SC should have been lenient.

Bollywood members describe SD as a “clean boy, kind soul, a good Samaritan”. Nice! And that he had acquired an illegal weapon just for self-defence. This is where the lies start. Acquiring assault weapons, hand grenades, a large amount of cartridges, helping store the arms, then destroying some of the weapons aren’t exactly deeds of a kind soul. Are they? And what were Sanjay’s own reasons for all of this? In his own words: “Because I have Muslim blood in my veins.I could not bear what was happening in the city”. That does seem like he was acting in preparation of self-defence, wasn’t he? And once again the foolish logic by the Bollywood mafia is that a lot of money is riding on his movies, these movies generate a lot of employment, hundreds of lives at stake and so on. All emotionally appealing but sheer nonsense! The undeniable fact is SD not only stored a cache of weapons enough for a small battle but was frequently hobnobbing with terrorists and the underworld. There have been taped conversations of his with the criminals available in public domain.

What should really worry us is that Sanjay Dutt may just be the tip of an iceberg in Bollywood. It is no secret that the underworld finances Bollywood heavily. Sometime back when CNN-IBN carried out a sting operation exposing black money in Bollywood people actually laughed. They laughed because it didn’t need a sting operation to know underworld money and black-money is the lifeline of Bollywood. Nobody needed a sting to be convinced. Here’s a small report about events in 2003 on Preity Zinta from ZeeNews that should stun any normal person:

Hmm! Thirteen other celebrities including Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan retracted their statements in the case. Sanjay Dutt is not a child who was playing with a toy. He was playing with a lot more than just a gun. He is just unfortunate to have been caught. The sympathy from Bollywood is so overwhelming because everyone who sympathised with SD was sometime or the other probably connected with criminals or their funds in some way. Maybe they too have misdeeds that haven’t come out in the open. One has to be a nutcase to believe Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul Bhatt met David Headley at some informal meeting. If the ways of terrorists are any guide, they are smart enough to pick their “Bakras” very carefully. David Headley too would have picked Rahul Bhatt with some thoughtfulness.

The media morons are upset too. Naturally! One of their “sales-boys” may be packed off for a few years. When he returns he may not be saleable anymore. Wise-up crooks! There’s another one in line who may end up with a similar fate. Salman Khan, who is now being called a great-hearted, kind, friendly, children-caring man may head the same way. I believe Salman Khan is all of that except when he shoots black bucks or runs over people on the footpath after a few drinks. If Salman is smart he would learn a lesson and speed up hearing of his cases and not dodge summons. Sanjay Dutt is returning to prison at 53. He would have been smarter in finishing a major part of his sentence while he was younger instead of frequently seeking bails and hoping he will escape. He might have even been granted parole. Salman Khan has been dodging the law with bail, disappearing when summons are served and evading the prosecution of his case. It may be painful for him too if he is finally unable to escape when he is 55. That would be most certain to end his career.

It’s not just Bollywood but quite a good section of the MSM that may be thriving on mafia money. Oh by the way, nobody is seeking any action or investigation against those media celebs and activists who splurged on anti-India campaigner Ghulam Nabi Fai. In January I wrote why “Media Loves Criminals, Makes Crime Attractive”. The media encourages convicted criminals like Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan and gets a whole generation to believe the law is a frivolous thing that can be broken and escape is possible. The stunts of actors who get away could even be inspiration for major crimes like armed robbery and even rape and murder. What Bollywood and our MSM are telling us simply is that they need a separate law for themselves. They want that their crimes should be overlooked because of the huge money implications of their business or stardom. Sanjay Dutt is only unfortunate that thousands of people like him in Bollywood, Media and Politics have gotten away and he paid a price.

Billy Hayes suffered enormously in an alien land with poor justice systems. What started as a four year sentence turned into 30. His escape from that prison is justified and admirable. Sanjay Dutt, on the other hand, is lucky. The SC knocked off a year from his original sentence of 6 years. Maybe the govt will now consider a separate law for celebrities to avoid “victimhood” and “criminals turned kind-souls”. 

The "Incremental" Fallacy

(This is a maxi-post)

Some days back I was chatting with a friend about the media. Towards the end of the discussion we were talking about “incremental changes” happening in the media but we had run out of time and couldn’t take it further. Although it seems like a minor mention the issue of incremental change is an important one which affects almost all policies in our country. Big changes don’t happen incrementally, they happen dramatically through choice or by circumstances. This incrementalism has seeped so deep into our decision-making process that even minor extensions of FDI are referred to as “Big Bang” by the media. A decision to hike rail fares is being termed “reforms” by some. In reality, incrementalism doesn’t change much for anyone. The Radiagate incident, dramatic as it was, hasn’t brought about too many changes in the media. In fact, nothing at all! The same tainted people carry on with their propaganda work. Our lawmakers and govt have also chosen to completely turn a blind eye to Radiagate. Incrementalism requires sustenance and bad habits have a great gravitational force about them. They tend to pull us back to the same situation over and over again.

Incremental changes require sustenance and if there are repeated events and incidents that disrupt such sustenance, the desired change will never happen. Clearing all the clutter from your drawers in one shot is a dramatic or radical change. But to keep it neat and orderly requires a good habit. When that fails, the drawers return to clutter in no time at all. The gravitational pull of habits is quite powerful. It requires the power of a rocket to shoot out of such gravitational pull. That is called dramatic or radical change. Ever met a smoker who said he will quit? Ever heard him say he will cut down slowly and finally quit in a month? Has it ever happened? At the most he may have cut down a few smokes but unlikely he would have quit. But if he runs into trouble and sees the doctor who tells him “You smoke another pack and you’re dead” then that’s a dramatic insight about his health that could force him to quit. The quitting doesn’t happen incrementally, it mostly happens radically.

Rajdeep Sardesai (RS) is now leading an Image-makeover campaign for CNN-IBN. For the last two months he and other anchors at his channel have been screaming they are changing. They’re telling us CNN-IBN is about “News, not noise! Sense, not sensationalism! Intelligent, not extreme”! Nice! They are trying to raise the BAR of journalism as RS himself says. Well, who got you to the bottom in the first place? It now dawns upon RS that in the game of noise and sensationalism someone else turned up who played the game better. So RS now wants to choose a moral path of upright journalism. This is not voluntary change, this is change forced by circumstances. Even this is merely incremental. Forgive me, but any channel that has Sagarika Ghose cannot even remotely claim they’re NOT in the “noise” business. Sacking her would imply dramatic change but I doubt RS really wants change. And sack her not because she is noisy, but she is not really a journalist who measures up to any BAR. He just wants you to think better of him and his channel. Here’s what RS wrote in February 2013 (edited excerpts) Making sense of sensationalist TV journalism: (A word of caution: I am using RS’s quotes because he talked about change but this is not to single him out, his quotes are used for the whole media).

In 1998, there was only one 24x7 news network. Today, there are more than 300 round the clock news channels, carnivorously devouring every morsel of news, the noisier the better… News has been replaced by noise, sense by sensationalism, history by histrionics; the medium is the same but the message has drastically changed.

It is convenient to forget the misdeeds of that ONE 24X7 channel that RS talks about. The BAR set by the members of that channel have contributed to degeneration of TV news. What RS doesn’t acknowledge is that now there a million eyes watching over these noise-mongers. It’s commonly called “Social Media”. Even today RS and his gang of noise-mongers refuse to accept a watchdog that will ensure they maintain quality standards. RS still believes he is still his own best policeman. And so does the BAR.

Take the recent Indo-Pak fracas at the Line of Control. The dastardly beheading of an Indian soldier and Pakistan's reflexive denial rightly led to indignation in the country. But when justifiable anger threatens to turn into uncontrolled jingoism in TV studios, to the point where the Indian government is forced to send back Pakistani hockey players, stop trade relations and almost rupture diplomatic ties, then we must ask ourselves whether war-mongering hysteria is what must define the media's collective responsibility.

I have always said there are two RSs; one on TV and the other off it. The one off it sometimes thinks profoundly like a monk. I agree, stopping hockey games is a knee-jerk reaction. But RS doesn’t ask the question why we started hockey, cricket or any other relations with Pakistan in the first place. The reason we fail to deal with Pakistan is the same incremental crap with which RS hopes to change the image of his channel. Even so, if RS is really serious he should first look at the hypocrisy within his own group. His water-less Holi sermon for ordinary people and his deputy rollicking in a swimming pool should tell him something. The comic duo never fails.

Let’s see, 65 years, 3 wars, number of major and minor skirmishes, LOC beheadings, terror attacks, hijackings, bombings and we are still worried about hockey games. Where have all the incremental steps taken us with Pakistan? First we said peace and cricket. Then more wars. We said peace and cricket. Then came terror attacks and ethnic cleansing in Kashmir and other places. We said peace, let’s play cricket. Mumbai 26/11 and we exchange dossiers and the media starts “Aman Ki Asha”. We say peace, let’s play cricket. We say let’s build confidence building measures (CBMs). Bollywood says let’s get some Paki dancers on our shows, let’s play cricket. And I have lost count of all the morons who never stop saying “peepull to peepull contact”. Our media says let’s frequently suck up to war-criminal Musharraf and maybe we will get peace. Let’s play cricket. Ever seen anything more incrementally foolish about a nation? When it comes to Pakistan, India too is like that smoker who says he will cut down slowly and quit. It has never worked. Incrementalism in tough situations gets you nowhere.

RS talks about 1998. Imagine, around that time there was no Google. The arrival of Google dramatically changed the world. The Yahoos and MSNs may have gotten better incrementally but Google brought dramatic change through innovation. Then followed Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and a host of other innovations, people changed, not the MSM. RS and news channels did not change. It’s the world around them that changed and forced introspection on him. Can he admit that honestly? Can he take his message of change to all the other crooks in his own Hammam? I doubt it. They don’t want change, they want to “appear” better. Try ‘Fair & Handsome’.

In the unfortunate incident in Kashmir involving an all-women band, did we make enough of an effort to seek out the voices of reason and moderation or does it suit us to paint every Kashmiri with the brush of religious extremism? A fulminating Asiya Andrabi-like anti-India figure fits a stereotype we wish to create of the average Kashmiri; the voices of young Kashmiris who express solidarity with the girls get blanked out.

When you assess the problem itself wrongly, you are bound to end up a Don Quixote. The Kashmir girl-band issue didn’t start now. It started it 1989 when the govt allowed extremists and terrorists to displace lakhs of its residents. It started when the media for over 2 decades continued to ignore the plight of refugees in their own land and still do. They empowered extremists by sending them a message that the Fiberals in the media will cover up their crimes and allow them to play victim. It has gone so far that the media has even coined the term “moderate separatists”. When I heard the CRPF Jawans who were killed in the last terror attack in Srinagar (March 13) were without guns I called it murder. A Kashmiri “youth” responds that he would have loved a 1000 CRPF jawans to have died. Who’s the voice of young Kashmiris that RS talks about? The one in the tweet? Or is that a lie too? What evidence does RS or media have that most Kashmiri youth don’t think like this guy? Asking CRPF Jawans to fight terrorists with Lathis is the incremental nonsense that costs lives.

In an article in Firstpost, Praveen Swami notes how the Fiberals are damaging the cause of India’s fight against jihadis. Er… Where Fiberals are concerned can Macaulay Putri Sagarika Ghose can be far behind? In her article that Swami quotes she laments Muslims being targeted by Police. This is as Bimboesque as it can get as Swami himself explains. But she feels we are soft on “saffron terror”. Now, she doesn’t have the guts or the honesty to confront Islamic terror because if she rants about that she knows the consequences. And then, when the Hyderabad attacks happened she was tweeting about “meat shops”? Why she wants to play one community as a permanent victim and her many other goof-ups are reasons why RS should first sack her if he is serious about change or his slogan about “news not noise” not being as hollow as “waterless Holi” with deputy in the swimming pool. Does he really want change? No! He just wants us to think better of him. If he wants his reputation to go up, he must demonstrate that change. Mere slogans like “waterless Holi” won’t sell.

Today, many states are competing with each other on who provides lesser power-cuts. Some have 8 hours, some have 16 hours. Is that the incremental goal to be fought for? Then they compete on who gives more water-hours. Forty years ago someone came up with “Garibi Hatao” and we are still doing “Garibi Hatao”. That’s how incrementalism fails. In contrast, a young democracy came up with the “Green revolution” in agriculture. That’s a radical approach, a revolution it was called. Revolutions are not incremental. The late Verghese Kurien came up with “Operation flood” in milk. An “operation” is not a call for incrementalism it’s a call for radical change on war-footing.

It would be easy for critics to blame the television rating point system as the 'evil' responsible for the declining standards. Yes, weekly TRPs do reduce journalism at times to tabloid-like box office, but would a more sophisticated measurement of content really change the manner in which we choose to do news? The truth is, we have lost the moral compass that should define journalism's priorities. Maybe we have got carried away with our celebrity status, maybe just being on camera is a drug that prevents us from separating right from wrong and rediscovering our inner conscience.

Critics are not blaming the TRP system. The TV channels are blaming the TRP system and filing cases against it like NDTV did. If the confession that “we have got carried away with our celebrity status” has any honesty then let’s see some radical changes. Viewers will flock to the channel that brings in dramatic change and so will advertisers. Many surgeries seem to be routine or minor but they aren’t. All surgeries are radical changes to a body. The only way incrementalism works is physically. If there are stairs you can climb one step at a time. If you’re ill you can recover in stages. From a child to old-age is an incremental process. If you’re fat you can diet, exercise and lose weight in due course. “One day at a time” is a good line to quote because we are uncertain of the certainty of death which will one day visit us.

In the current state we are in, incrementalism will simply not work. Italy slaps us, Sri Lanka slaps us, Bangladesh snubs us, Maldives snubs us and Pakistan keeps bombing us here and there. These can’t be solved with incrementalism. Even after 26/11 we said let’s play cricket. Radiagate didn’t change the media one bit in anyway. It only changed the way consumers looked at news and the anchors. They started using terms like “Paid media” and “Dalal media”. So if RS speaks for his clan and wants to be respected, he had better start doing the good things first. And that will take radical change not slogans like “Garibi Hatao” or “News, not noise, sense, not sensationalism”. Is it easy? No! No revolution, no radical change is ever easy. Paradigm shifts cannot happen incrementally.

NaMo Mantra & IndiaToday's Shameful Conduct

Ever seen the fine print in a public contest advertisement? There is always a clause that reads somewhat like this: “The following persons are not eligible to participate in the contest: (a) employee(s) of any company in XYZ Group and close relations of such employee(s), and (b) the employee(s) of companies that provide direct sponsorship of the contest”. This is to prevent any malpractice through insider information in the contest. This clause should be applicable to some aspects of the Summits and Conclaves that our media often holds. This is where I consider the recent India Today Conclave 2013 (ITC) quite shameful in its process. If the purpose of debates and discussions in these conclaves is to bring out new ideas and thoughts then ITC is a major sham. I cannot list even one new idea it has brought forth from any of its participants, except Narendra Modi. But then Modi doesn’t need ITC to throw up ideas anyway. All that the rest of ITC does is peddle more of the same mindless crap and nobody is any wiser.

What is worse is the less than honest conduct of the event by Rahul Kanwal and Aroon Purie. Pathetic! And we’ll see why. I’m not going to discuss the scratch-my-back type discussions or the Bollywood masala that is usually part of such events. Let’s cut straight to the panel discussion on March 15. The topic was something like ‘Future of democracy and youth’. Participants were Manish Tiwari, RPN Singh, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Aaditya Thackeray, Smriti Irani and Arvind Kejriwal. All are politicians so they are on the same page. The panel discussion was fine but it’s when the Q&A session started that I had to be suspicious. Naturally, a bit later I tweeted a single word: “Fixed”. 

In a democratic debate I personally consider it a crime to bring in a communist as a questioner. The ideology of communists does not fit into the democratic philosophy at all. It’s therefore that I consider it our country’s unique misfortune that much of our media is controlled by commie ideology. But why in the world would ITC get an absolute Commie like Kavita Krishnan to ask questions of a democratic discussion. The dishonest part about ITC and Rahul Kanwal is that they passed her of as a social activist. The introduction should have clearly mentioned that the woman is a member of the CPI (ML) and therefore her contempt and disgust for Hindutva and Right-wing parties must be seen in that light. KavitaK had questions for none but Smriti Irani and Thackeray. The CPI (ML) of which KavitaK is a member of the central committee is a known supporter of violent movements, Maoists and separatists. I called it “fixed” but I’m not the only one to see the deception. There were many as this tweet of Smita Barooah shows.

True to form KavitaK peddled nonsense like suffering at the hands of YuvaSena (to Aaditya Thackeray) when such a unit did not even exist in the time period she was referring to. But well, it didn’t stop there. It started all over again after Narendra Modi finished his speech. Whether you’re a BJP supporter or not only an extreme fool will deny that NaMo is an extraordinarily inspirational speaker. He speaks extempore with facts and figures at his finger-tips. He makes sense. What was the topic? It was supposedly “Namo Mantra for India”. What should the questions relate to? What’s the job of the host or moderator? This is where both Rahul Kanwal and Aroon Purie failed miserably and conducted themselves shamelessly and most unprofessionally. (Watch the video)

In the opening para I mentioned that members of the host organisation shouldn’t be allowed to participate in the process of an event. However, considering this is not a contest this too is fine. So who is the person allowed to ask the first question to Modi? PunyaPrasun Bajpai, a guy who has recently returned to the IndiaToday group. Modi immediately asks if this is some kind of press conference and Kanwal laughs and denies and even denies there’s any “fixing”. Aha! No match fixing? So what was the BS question by Bajpai? It was about what’s holding Modi’s license to the road to Delhi. Now, does the question relate to the topic or Modi’s speech at all? Nope! So the moderator should have said “Sorry Bajpai, don’t fool around, stick to the topic”. Although Modi answered and even ridiculed the moron, the hosts should know how unprofessional and incompetent they are to allow such foolish questions which don’t even relate to the speech, topic or agenda of the conclave.

So the IT group people got to ask the most questions. Sandeep Bamzai asked another one and then the worst to come was from a moron who passes off as editor at IT. His name is Javed Ansari. What does he ask? He goes back to the 2002 riots and the apology theme. This is criminal “fixing” by Rahul Kanwal and Aroon Purie. If it wasn’t “fixed” they should have honourably disallowed the question stating it is “off topic”. If calling Modi to every event on a different topic and then allowing questions to invariably lead to the 2002 nonsense is the agenda, then it is nothing short of “fixing”. Modi was naturally forced to retort that he knew and had seen the “games” of the media many times over and is not bothered about the hidden agendas of the media insiders asking these questions.

Remember, even in the Hindustan Times Summit of 2007 Modi was called to speak on State & Centre relations. There too Rajdeep Sardesai who was the host and anchor veered from the topic to disgusting comments about Modi. Since then Modi has won more elections and grown in stature while Rajdeep has now degenerated into a full-fledged troll and hate-monger. If these morons wanted to talk about PM candidate and 2002 their topic should have read “NaMo’s PM candidature & 2002”. Was that the topic? There were many important points that Modi made in his presentation and speech that have high value and relevance for India and her future. But do these hate-mongers and gossip-mongers at IndiaToday care about India? Their questions had no relevance to the topic and the speech. They really don’t give a damn about the future of India or NaMo’s or anybody’s mantra for India. Do they? If I were to ask Rahul Kanwal or Aroon Purie how India benefited from this Conclave in a single paragraph, I guarantee you they won’t be able to answer. Because they really don’t give a damn!

I would not be wrong in considering Rahul Kanwal, Aroon Purie and Javed Ansari continuing the trend of others in the media of “fixing questions” and “planting questioners” to fuel hatred for Modi and his party, while living off the crumbs that the TRPs his presence and speeches generate. While Smriti Irani, Aaditya Thackeray and Narendra Modi came off with flying colours from the event the IndiaToday group came off a shameless “fixer”. The joke of it all is Kanwal tweets that they had invited RahulG too but he had declined. IT and other shameless media groups forget that it takes courage to do what Modi does. These same people crawl and lick the ground on which RahulG walks and catch the spit of SoniaG before it hits the ground. If they had any decency or morals left in them they would ask many questions of the Gandhis. But the cowards will not. IndiaToday’s conduct of these two episodes in the event was most unprofessional and far from honest. Shame on the whole group!

RT If You Agree - Part 2

If you haven’t read Part-1 yet, I recommend you do. Story so far: Shashi Tharoor (ST) appointed Captain of the Light Brigade that will charge the Social Media (SM). He will be assisted by a team of 35 and other TwitterNREGA enrolments. There will be some celebrities according to the Indian Express report that I mentioned in part-1. Nice! So it mentions they will enrol Shabana Azmi. Huh? No comments. They will also enrol Shahrukh Khan. SRK? This guy agreed to be the Brand Ambassador for Bengal in February 2012. Any idea what he accomplished in that role? He was to do for Bengal what Amitabh Bachchan does for Gujarat. I guess we will have to wait and watch. There’s another problem though. Latest reports state that SRK has already quit Twitter over various controversies. Like I said, since the Captain was appointed it has been downhill. Never pin your hopes on a negatively controversial celebrity who is easy to pick on in a platform like SM. Even as the Congress TwitterNREGA gets underway SRK is embroiled in another controversy concerning IIPM.

A new recruit who is currently making comic waves on Twitter had a very innocent question to ask with this tweet. As a practice I black out names of private individuals and so no names will appear in certain tweets. While people had a good laugh over this comic question, it’s actually a very important question by a Congress supporter. Yeah, where is Rahul Gandhi? Why is he not on Twitter? Is he scared? Considering he is the ‘great white hope’ of the youth for the Congress how come the prince doesn’t find it necessary to be on SM but heads the SM committee? It’s not just RahulG. Where are people like Jyoti Scindia, Sachin Pilot and all the youth gang from Congress? Are they scared of facing the public too? Why does Congress have to recruit volunteers through Ministry of I&B and end up with people who are either comic or totally blank on issues?

Consider this: If the Congress doesn’t get positive reviews or tweets, the least they could do is request their staunchest supporters to stop tweeting idiotic stuff. But the party seems to like it. ST follows these supporters and makes sure they are emboldened to create even more comedy and laughter on Twitter. How can anyone explain these 3 tweets by a very devoted Congress supporter on Twitter? Silly mistakes and gaffes are not unusual anywhere. But this is an example of a pathological streak of moronery that damages the Congress. And they seem to love it. The first tweet implies RahulG is son of Sanjay Gandhi by the Mahatma’s design. The second one says SoniaG was killed by terrorists. The last one claims a prediction of Shinde being targeted by Hindutva at Pune. Mind you, I stopped at three, there are plenty more. Now Mr. Tharoor, do you blame all of this on the right wing or propagandists that the Congress complains about? This is your own guy. Why does anyone else have to make any effort to lampoon Congress at all?

If all that comedy is of Congress’s own making the bad sign is that ST himself is on course to erode his own credibility and respect. The SM and thousands of its members have convincingly countered the lies and propaganda of the media all these years against Narendra Modi. He remains the greatest target for the Congress and the MSM. There is nothing Congress or channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN, IndiaToday group, Times Now won’t do to cause liberal damage to Modi and through him the story of Gujarat. In this campaign they have resorted to thousands of distortions, wanton manipulation of statistical figures and even outright lies. A single example of how the media (Business Standard & BBC in this case) distorts the Gujarat story would be enough to demonstrate my point. In May 2012 the BBC had picked up an article from the Business Standard and carried a story. In less than 24 hours the story was challenged and the both media outlets had to make corrections. Silly BBC even had to dramatically alter their headline itself. From asking if Gujarat is a red hot economy the headline changed to a confirmation that the state indeed is a red hot economy. Does that tell Mr. ST that the MSM may pass spurious nonsense as gospel but it won’t pass on SM? So who is in the propaganda business? The MSM or SM?

ST himself has now fallen to levels he had never imagined he would. In his quest to make a mark for the party on the SM and impress the High Command he has inadvertently become the MSM himself. He now tweets untruthful stuff about Narendra Modi. They already have NDTV, CNN-IBN, AajTak and ABPNews to do that, why should ST resort to such cheap tricks? This tweet of Tharoor will go down as one the most hilarious tweets of 2013. ST uses a 6-year old blogpost from Sulekha.Com (which is a Classified Ad specialist). The post is 6-years old and the data in the post is over a decade old when Modi wasn’t even CM. Was ST assigned to improve Congress image on SM or to generate more comedy like the party’s supporters have been already doing? But hey, keep going, no one is complaining. But in the instant that ST tweeted this he got immediate responses from the ‘Fact-checkers’ and here’s some of it:

And the hits kept coming throughout the day on March 15. The OneIndia news website quoted @Janlokpal with this mockery: “India's "Twitter Tendulkar"(that’s ST ) out for a duck”! But the best tweet lampooning ST’s misadventure was the one that said his account was probably hacked and Sanjay Jha was likely tweeting from it (although the handle mentioned is incorrect, the actual handle being @JhaSanjay). As Gargi Rawat of NDTV mentioned (see part-1) the SM is far ahead of MSM where speed is concerned and deals with facts and figures far more honestly. The problem is not Social Media, the problem is that the Congress leadership is totally out of touch with people. SoniaG, RahulG and MMS can only speak through written speeches. There is no warmth or spontaneity in their communication. And the comedy that RahulG and MMS provide when they speak is now legendary.  

Seriously, at the height of Delhi Gangrape protests MMS finally spoke to the nation on TV. What happened? I know it’s a blooper but finishing with a comic “Theek Hai” had the whole nation laughing for over 2 days and that term will forever be used as a sarcastic remark for all failures. Does that have anything to do with right-wing, Communalists, fascists or propaganda by anyone? That’s coming straight from Congress leadership. What can you do? MMS probably doesn’t himself tweet from @PMOIndia but a smart aleck who should be doing good for the PM sent out this moronic tweet on March 4. “There should be responsible dialogue and debate in parliament” it says. Really? Who is the PMO tweeting to? Kindergarten? And once again there is comic genius in abundance when the tweet is prefixed with “RT if you agree”. Naturally, people are going to pick up such comic stuff and enjoy it like a free party. The line has become a personal favourite of mine. (It appears the PMO has now deleted this comic tweet).

So the truth of the matter is that people don’t need to carry out an anti-Congress propaganda. The Congress leaders and their supporters cause the party enough damage on their own. This damage can only be undone by some work that demonstrates that Congress cares for all people and doesn’t hold the ordinary folks in contempt. For a start, the party and the Govt could repeal 66A and other such silly laws. RT if you agree!