What Goes On Within Four Walls Of NDTV?

Comedian Stephen Colbert, the host of Comedy Central's ‘The Colbert Report’, coined the term "Truthiness" as the notion that truth doesn't lie in books and facts but rather, in your gut. Before his own show Colbert frequently appeared with Jon Stewart on ‘The Daily Show’. Both lampoon the American media and politicians and expose their lies on a daily basis. Neither Stewart nor Colbert interpret news reports. They just quote reports and statements and nail the lies behind them or their funny side. What should be even more amusing is that most US citizens trust satirist Stewart for real news. On another front Bill Adair, the chief editor of Politifact states: “Whether the fact has actually died or is just on its death bed, I think it means it's a great time to be in the fact-checking business”. Yes, that’s right, given the lies that our news channels and papers spread, for many in the social media it’s a great time to be in the ‘fact-checking’ business. And may I add, they are doing a great job of it. Most can sense the absence of ‘Truthiness’ when they watch TV reports, especially where it concerns NDTV and Gujarat riots and Narendra Modi.

There has to be some motivation for NDTV, also other late-joiners like TOI and Indian Express, for the extra-ordinary mud-slinging they have indulged in against Narendra Modi and Gujarat. So much that the SIT closure report which absolves Modi of any wrong doing on the riots is unpalatable for them. And now their entire faith in the prospect of screwing Modi hangs on a tiny fable. It’s a story concocted by Sanjiv Bhatt that he was present in a meeting held by Modi and that the CM had made statements encouraging “Hindus to vent their anger” against Muslims for the Godhra train  horror. The SIT has established, through witnesses, that Sanjiv Bhatt was not present in the meeting of February 27, 2002. Not just witnesses, other evidences – factual and circumstantial including mobile records, clearly establish the lies of Sanjiv Bhatt.

There’s some history to this. It is not just as a channel that NDTV has been campaigning against Modi. It is some of its members who have been in that business long before NDTV came into existence as a separate news channel. Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai were the pioneers in this endeavour even while they were with StarNews. But now it’s the newcomers on the channel who have been delegated that assignment. Which should explain a statement by NidhiRazdan, which she reportedly made, on her show Left,Right,Centre on May 10: "Some would say Hafiz planned 26/11 in the four walls, hence it is not an offence".(Thanks to @ssudhirkumar for reporting this ). Even on a live show that looks like a well prepared and well rehearsed statement. This followed an article on NDTV website “Gujarat riots: Illegal orders within a room no offence, says SIT report on Modi”.

Truthiness in an observer’s gut will explain that the headline itself is mischievous and intended to camouflage the actual explanation of the SIT. The SIT only hypothetically stated that even if the ‘alleged’ statements were made by Modi then such a statement within four walls does not constitute an offence. More importantly, circumstantial evidence and subsequent actions by Modi do not in any manner suggest or imply that he made that statement or carried it out. So the wisegal Nidhi tries to equate the “alleged” statement with possible statements by Hafiz Saeed, the wanted Pakistani terrorist, within four walls with Modi. Make no mistake – the unstated implication is that Modi is as much a terrorist as Hafiz Saeed. I am surprised Nidhi stopped at Hafeez Saeed and did not go on to make a comparison with the ‘Viagral’ adventures of Osamji within four walls.

By Nidhi’s logic Hafiz Saeed would not be guilty of terrorist activities if he plotted them within four walls. “Take that, all you goats who died in 26/11”. It doesn’t matter to NDTV or Nidhi Razdan that Saeed, by subsequent conduct and actions, had carried out whatever he may be accused of plotting within four walls. This is how our news channels compromise our actions against terror. Oh wait, NDTV is the only channel that also broadcasts in Pakistan, to my knowledge. Is that a motivation? I have stated in no uncertain terms earlier that the manner of reporting and lies spread on the Gujarat riots by our news channels may have even inspired many terrorists and terror attacks. Balance and sensitivity has long been lost on NDTV. No wonder Chetanya Kunte after the 26/11 carnage accused them of ‘Shoddy Journalism’.

This is not the first time that NDTV has perpetrated reports lacking in Truthiness. In February 2012, just around the 10^th year of the Godhra horror they pulled out another fairy tale. Not surprising, considering their group editor is frequently obsessed with Alice In Wonderland. They put out this report: ‘2002 Gujarat riots: Former judge says there's audio tape with evidence against Modi’. Both reports are by NDTV reporter Rohit Bhan, but these days anyone can draft any report or even affidavit as a TOI journalist will tell you. The atrocity of this report can be measured by the following content in it:

Justice Suresh says that during his trip to Gujarat, he met Haren Pandya, who was then a minister in Mr Modi's government. Mr  Pandya allegedly said that the chief minister had called a meeting in February, hours after a train was set on fire at the Godhra station. Justice Suresh says that Mr Pandya' conversation with him and retired Supreme Court judge PB Sawant was recorded on an audio tape. But Mr Pandya pleaded with both judges to not attribute this information to him. "He said he will come and meet us provided its kept confidential and his name should not be disclosed ...we agreed on that...only some of us Justice Sawant, myself and one or two others were there ..and then we heard him, recorded his statement but we kept it very confidential," Justice Suresh told NDTV.

Now, this judge was specially interviewed by NDTV in February 2012. Interesting how after Haren Pandya’s death the judge claims an audio tape that for “confidential” reasons cannot be disclosed or aired. Even if Haren Pandya did make a statement to these judges, they claim to have already discussed it with the SIT. So what NDTV was trying to imply by this report and the interview is for you to figure out. But hey, it helps to add any fuel to the fire started by NDTV.

If Politifact were to assess NDTV’s reportage over the years I am quite certain that they would have scored “Pants on Fire” on a number of occasions. Facts established by special investigating bodies do not seem to count with NDTV. So what exactly is NDTV’s motive behind such a long witch-hunt? So much that there is a sharp and militant unwillingness to accept even the SIT’s report. Looks like they will not be happy unless and until some kangaroo court of their own choice pronounces Modi guilty and sentences him to death. Of course, they aren’t alone but they are the most voluble in this campaign. Far from justice for any riot victim or justice for the sake of supremacy of law, the motives surely have to be something else and somewhere else.

The most apparent motive is obviously the decimation of BJP as a political party through their anti-Modi campaign. This becomes even more obvious with elections in Gujarat around the corner and general elections in 2014. The increasing noises about Modi as PM candidate is probably also sending chills down their spine. The most disturbing aspect for me is that there might be very powerful forces behind NDTV’s campaign. The blatant violations and disregard for routine norms of ethics in journalism suggest a “larger” (A term Nidhi Razdan would love) conspiracy that only time will tell. The involvement of many Indian journalists and their being beneficiaries of Ghulam Nabi Fai must be borne in mind. One never knows how many such Fais are lurking around the shadows and feeding our journalists and media outlets.

There’s only one question that hasn’t been answered for a long time. How does NDTV, a channel which has constantly lost share value, consistently made losses still manage to stay afloat? Well, Deep Throat did say “Follow the money” and I hope someone will. Only that will finally reveal whose war is being fought by NDTV and what goes on within their four walls. Going by Indian media ethics it won’t be another journalist or media outlet that will bring the truth home. It will be probably be some comedian who has a gut feel for Truthiness.

SIT: Nero Never Fiddled

The Mahatma Gandhi memorial at Rajghat, Delhi has the epitaph “Hē Ram”, the words he spoke just before he died after being shot. Thousands pay their respects to Gandhi here every day. Every one of them reads the epitaph and the Mahatma’s last words have been taught to us in schools and history books. But did he really say those? No one has compelling evidence that Gandhi did say ‘Hē Ram’ and none has ever been presented. He could well have said anything else or maybe even nothing at all. This is how myths work. It starts with somebody’s imagination or hallucination, somebody influential. Then it creeps into history books and the media dishes out propaganda. Before long the myth becomes the established and accepted truth.But not forever.

Closer to present day, for years some in the Indian media have reported that the Supreme Court had rapped the Gujarat govt over the 2002 riots with: “Neros were looking elsewhere when Gujarat was burning". Did the SC actually say that? Let’s assume they did. But Arjun Modhwadia, Congress leader in Gujarat has promised to prove the SC statement is true in the Gujarat Assembly. He is struggling to establish this though. He is searching for evidence and so am I. Whether Modhwadia presents the evidence in the Gujarat assembly or not, over the last decade many celebrity media anchors have used the supposed statement of the SC to equate Narendra Modi with Nero. Story is that the Roman emperor was famously fiddling while Rome was burning so he could make a palatial complex out of the ruins. So much was invested in painting Modi as a murderer and looking the other way during Gujarat 2002 that the SIT Closure report must have come as a shock to a huge industry of liars. The SIT investigation is neatly summarised by Offstumped and to cut a long story short I am just quoting his summary here:

... the thrust of CM’s speech everywhere was that the incident was heinous, organised and that the culprits would be brought to strictest punishment.. . . .it is not the case that the Chief Minister made any assertion concerning- the obligation of any religious community to do such acts, as are likely to cause disharmony. He did not make any appeal to Hindus or Muslims to take up arms against each other.’it is reasonably concluded that no utterances on part of Shri Narendra Modi could ‘be attributed suggestive to any intended promotion of hatred ill-will etc.. amongst religious groups…

… the Learned Amicus Curiae has agreed with the various recommendations made by the SIT on the different issues inquired into /investigated by the SIT. However, the Ld. Amicus Curiae is of the view that, at this prima facie stage offences u/s 153A(I )(a)& (b), 1536 (I 166 and 505 (2) IPC are made out against Shri Narendra regarding the statement made by him in the meeting. In this connection, as discussed, above SIT is of the view that the offences under the aforesaid, sections of law are not made out against Shri Narendra Modi. In the light of the aforesaid facts, a closure report is being submitted for favour of perusal and orders…

Since the SIT closure report did not suit their taste the media typically hung on grimly to the utterances of the Amicus Curae (AC) and kept suggesting Modi could be prosecuted based on the AC’s report. The AC has offered his opinion which does not constitute evidence. His opinion has also been considered and reported upon by the SIT. Let us do a roll-call of the vicious actors in the decade long campaign against Modi – Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi, Arundhati Roy, Harsh Mandar, Sanjiv Bhatt, Mahesh Bhatt, Mallika Sarabhai … where do I stop? It’s too long. And then there’s another list from the media. Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose, Arnab Goswami, Vinod Sharma, Vir Sanghvi…. Again too long a list. All of these characters should hang their heads in shame and should actually apologise for the untruths they spread about Modi and Gujarat. In their Hate-Modi campaign they have even scoffed at the development of Gujarat and the progress the state has made under him. Such a campaign cannot be anything but ‘motivated’ and requires huge funding to sustain.

SIT makes the biggest bonfire of media lies 

The lies, the half-truths have all come to haunt the biggest personalities in the media. It is even unfortunate that some of them, also involved in other scandals, continue in their jobs. Many members of the Congress party have also wilfully indulged in encouraging the lies about Gujarat. After the SIT report, the next investigation has to be into the funding of NGOs like those of Teesta, Shabnam and the activities of Sanjiv Bhatt and many others. And what do we do with all the fake reports by the media over the decade? I have a modest suggestion! Put them all together and burn them in the biggest bonfire in your neighbourhood. The other lesson people should have learned by now: Never trust one word of what the news media says except for the bare news they report. They have lost all credibility and if they wish to regain it, the 5-star criminals must resign. The SIT has burned their lies and deceit. And let the bonfire of their reports and vanities be as hot as the fires of Rome.

Of the gang of crooks in the news media there are a few who still have people’s respect. One of them, Ravish Kumar of NDTV (Hindi) recently tweeted and I translate his statement: “Government’s lie and the media turns those lies into truth”. That’s the modern media’s daily job. In all of this the activists and media crooks have even forgotten that if ever a case were to be indeed brought against Narendra Modi he has every right to legal defence. Whether Modi will ever need it is a matter of conjecture but no man in Indian history has been so held guilty by suspicion, accusation and propaganda as he has been. Even known and convicted terrorists in our prisons have got better deals. Narendra Modi was and remains an innocent man in the eyes of the law as of now. From CMs to PMs there have been instances of negligence during agitations and communal riots. That may be true for Modi as well but the myth of him being an instigator, conspirator or supporter of the 2002 riot ends here. This particular myth, like the ‘Hē Ram’ of Gandhi, will not go on to become gospel truth.

And yes, what about the liars in the media and NGOs? There has to be a law by which such campaigners should be prosecuted and brought to justice. What about the supposed statement of SC comparing Nero fiddling while Rome burned to Gujarat or Narendra Modi? Although I doubt SC actually made that statement even learned judges can sometimes use myths as an expression. There were many fires in Rome during the period of Nero’s rule. The famous fire in which he fiddled was during the year 64 in the first century. Awful truth is: Violins weren’t invented till over 1000 years after Nero’s death. Oh well! Since that was a myth the historians suggested he must have played a stringed instrument called the ‘Lyre’ but even that turned out a hoax. Rome didn’t have an SIT then. If there had been one, the SIT would have established the Truth: Nero Never Fiddled!

Economics Of Deception

Transparency! It’s something that the news media demands from everyone; particularly public officials, businesses and other institutions. This particular news item, although not from India, makes fascinating reading. In response to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rulings that require TV stations to keep a log and publicly declare political ads received by them there have been strong objections. And guess who’s objecting? The TV channels and the media themselves! “Meet the Media Companies Lobbying Against Transparency” would not be very different if the article were to be written for the Indian media. It is the news media that of late has been guilty of sacrificing transparency, especially when it comes to reporting about Gujarat. Naturally, given that Narendra Modi is the CM, a good number of agenda-driven journalists try their best to drive a stake through the Gujarat story. On May 2 we had another such extraordinary deception, this time on the economics and the growth story of Gujarat.

It’s not even a month since the social media put an end to the career of Abhishek Singhvi when the MSM chose to hide behind legalese. This time it was the turn of journalists who were bent on twisting Gujarat’s economic growth story to be dealt a severe blow by keen observers on the net. So let me quickly run a summary of the story from Kartikeya Tanna who wrote this in Firstpost (Excerpts):

Yesterday the nation woke up to several articles belittling the Gujarat growth story. Relying primarily on the Business Standard op-ed by AK Bhattacharya placing Gujarat’s average growth rate between 2003-04 and 2011-12 at 6.3%, Rediff published a state-wide comparison by the same author quoting similar data, while Soutik Biswas  in a BBC Asia cynical op-ed popped the question whether, in view of this revelation, the Gujarat story was a “myth” and Modi a “spinmeister”…. though the 6.3% rate “puzzled” Bhattacharya, he did not quite bother to double-check. Worse, both columnists ended up making several conclusions and raising severe doubts on how and why Gujarat lagged behind. This led many intellectuals and commentators to gloat over how Bhattacharya had “punctured” Gujarat’s growth claims. Modi was accused of “peddling” the Gujarat myth. Many independent online forums picked up these articles and continue to host them. And, all of that was based on a serious error of fact. Fact, not inference.

Then as has happened often in the recent past, all hell broke loose on Twitter. Vijay (@centerofright) busted this grossly incorrect assertion by pointing out the data available on the Planning Commission’s website. It so turns out that the 6.3% figure peddled around by many was, in fact, the growth rate of Jharkhand. Gujarat’s average growth rate over the past eight years has been 10.08%. Repeated efforts by Twitterati to point this out to Business Standard, Rediff and BBC Asia resulted in corrected versions of the articles being put up on the websites. Bhattacharya substantially modified the analysis from statements like “the performance of Gujarat in this period is a puzzle” and “how does one explain Gujarat” to “Gujarat’s story is well-known and shows what sustained growth-oriented policies can do to a state’s economic fortunes”. Biswas had a bigger problem. Having chosen a rather direct title in undermining Gujarat’s growth, he had to change the title from “Is Gujarat’s red-hot economy a myth?” to “Gujarat IS a red-hot economy”  stating how he “had also wondered whether there was something amiss with the data on Gujarat in the Business Standard article”.

The screen shots and the original articles and the revised ones can be viewed here, detailed by @centerofright (Vijay). The idea that the Gujarat story is a myth or mystery because its growth is 6% (even if a false number) and that other states like Maharashtra, Harayana etc. had higher growth is first and foremost mere academics. Numbers never tell the whole story but economics writers do make sense out of them. In this case though, they made nonsense out of numbers. Tanna has been kind to the writers and probably treats the blunders as ‘honest mistakes’. I don’t see any honest mistake. When quoting numbers it is not only the job of the journalist but also that of the editor of a journal to double-check facts. The double-digit growth story of Gujarat has been around long enough to ring alarm bells for these journos when they came up with 6%. And to be deliberately peddling a story with wrong numbers can only be ‘motivated’. AK Bhattacharya didn’t write his piece in Filmfare or Cosmopolitan, he wrote his piece in a business journal. These guys are supposed to keep a watch on numbers even in their sleep. What about Soutik Biswas of the BBC? He comes out as an absolute dunderhead.

Economic stories ARE often deceptive

It’s a cardinal sin in statistics to use second-hand information as the foundation of your entire thesis. This is what Soutik Biswas is guilty of. But hey, this was probably second-hand information that was handy for him to rubbish Gujarat and Narendra Modi. He is the economics version of Teesta Setalvad or Shabnam Hashmi or even Sanjiv Bhatt. The fact that Biswas had no intention but to simply paint Modi as hiding behind fake numbers is evident from the title of his bullshit itself: “Is Gujarat’s red-hot economy a myth?”. Usually, titles with a question mark are used by journalists who don’t care about facts. The second-hand liar, on being pointed out facts, quickly goes on to change the title to the exact opposite of his original one: “Gujarat IS a red-hot economy”.

Regardless of these foolish articles and foolish journalists there’s another angle to the story which most of these willful deceivers miss. It’s called ‘Experience’. Be it a restaurant, a rail company or an airline, people’s association with these is not driven merely by numbers. It’s the experience they go through that decides their opinions and relationships. Any marketer would tell you that customers buy and involve in enduring relationships because of this ‘experience’. I guess neither Bhattacharya nor Biswas understand that ordinary people don’t form opinions based on numbers, not even accurate ones. Kiran Shaw, the renowned businesswoman from Bangalore recently tweeted (May 3): “After putting up with B'lore's awful roads, its a pleasure to drive on Ahmedabad's roads. Wish Ktka's BJP Govt cd learn from Modi's BJP Govt”. That’s an ‘experience’ which mere numbers won’t tell you.

Fact remains, except for motivated liars, most people who visit Gujarat go through a very different experience than in many other parts of India. The govt is not in your face every day in Gujarat. Tribals are not in turmoil. Average Gujarati families live in decent homes with decent incomes. Your newspapers don’t headline the daily murders and crimes as routine. The girl child has more programmes than the rest. Your daughter, your wife or sister or mother is not under constant threat from goons on the streets. Immigrants from other states are not treated as unwanted intruders. Farmers are not killing themselves leaving dying declarations blaming some govt. Can it get better? Sure, Gujarat has many faults and problems of its own but hatred spewed by the media, either by fake stories or hate by numbers, is of their own imagination.

The other fact also is that the lies on other fronts have failed. The NDTVs, the CNN-IBNs, the Teestas and Bhatts have failed with their game of untruths and hate. All the fictitious cases haven’t found any merit so far in courts. What’s left to puncture? Maybe the Gujarat growth story is the last resort of the scoundrels. Of course, these stories aren't the first. You've had social scientologists like Dipankar Gupta or eminent distortians like Ramchandra Guha peddling such in the past. It’s an election year in Gujarat. But unlike the 2002 riots period and after there is a watchdog over the MSM. Social media doesn’t allow peddling of lies anymore. 

I started with a note on ‘transparency’ aversion of the media. On a different note here’s a report that further sounds a warning to MSM: “CNN Loses Half Its Viewers:  Corporate Media Downhill Plunge Continues As Alternative Media Explodes”. India’s net users are set to grow from the current 10 million to 200 million by 2014. So if the Indian MSM doesn’t get its act right soon and stop spreading lies or suppressing truth they will end up the second choice for news and facts. We’ve had a taste of social lies in the past by the Modi and Gujarat haters and now we have economics of deception. These won’t pass anymore.

Rahul Gandhi - Failure Analysis To Improve Learning

Failure analysis to improve learning is not a bad idea at all. That is what Rahul Gandhi is currently doing in the family backyards of Amethi and Rae Bareli. He is finally forced to listen to people who count. People on the ground! And they aren’t making music for his ears. I actually couldn’t find a good antonym for ‘Evolution’. ‘Devolution’ doesn’t exactly fit as an antonym. So the best I could come up with as a sequel to a previous post titled ‘Evolving the Gandhi’ was ‘Dissolving the Gandhi’. That one was about how NDTV wanted us to believe RG had evolved and was decimating every opponent in UP. This one is a lot more humble because it’s not nice to rub salt into wounds. So has the man learned anything? Well, first of all the Narcissist seems to be without his sycophant in chief, Digvijay Singh, for a while. If that riddance is permanent then it’s definitely is a good start. But has the narc himself changed any?

“It was a thoughtful, mature speech by young leader Rahul Gandhi. If you closed your eyes and listen to the voice, one could hear echoes of Rajiv Gandhi speaking 25 years ago..”. That was none other than Psychophant Chidambaram during the plenary session of the Congress in December 2010. And no, there’s no spelling error in the name. Any intelligent man would be seriously offended by such sycophancy, but RG either didn’t mind or let it pass. Then the titles of Yuvraj, Prince and all that probably led RG to believe all the nonsense being spread by a media fed and doctored by the ‘spinsters’ around him. Arrogance was further on display when a group of villagers from Ralegan Sidhi, Anna Hazare’s hometown, were led to believe that they were invited by RG for a meeting in Delhi. Sure, they turned up in Delhi in October 2011, only to be told no such meeting was scheduled and were sent back. That was an opportunity to build bridges with Anna but dealt with undiplomatically.

The list of extraordinarily silly utterances by RG  will make a very long list. There is a departure from the past though. For once, RG stepped up and stated he accepted responsibility for the thrashing in UP. What after that? Has he stopped uttering gibberish? Hardly! In a meeting in Delhi to analyse the UP disaster, to an angry member claiming Congress paid a price for ignoring upper castes, he proclaimed “I am a Brahmin too”. That gaffe was enough for another round of jokes on the social network and even in the MSM. That done, last week of April, he rushes off to Satara district in Maharashtra to visit drought-hit farmers and has lunch with some. Seriously, at age 41 do you have to visit every stricken area to understand problems? Droughts have been a permanent problem in India at some place or the other. And what do farmers have to say about his visit? “He has come, his father had come, Indira Gandhi had come but nothing has ever happened”. And Prithviraj Chavan, the CM of Maharashtra, tags along with RG on his trip like a small-time assistant.

Symbolic theatre like dressing up as a muslim or a tribal or eating at Dalit homes do not entice or impress voters anymore. It may have worked for RG’s grandmother and father but doesn’t work anymore. Even his greatest promoters in the media like Barkha Dutt of NDTV or Vinod Sharma of Hindustan Times have shut up after his moronic display and the UP results. Oh and where are the ones who cooed “She is so charming, so natural, should be in politics”! Well, that was about Priyanka Vadra who has simply disappeared from the scene after the elections for peaceful resort locations. Let’s see if she surfaces during the monsoon. In what should now be the most serious confrontation with truth for RG has to be his current visit to Amethi. For meetings to analyse the UP debacle RG had come prepared to give the little people a pasting but instead had to face a barrage of unexpected angry retorts from his own Congress workers.  All this came in response to Rahul's repeated warnings about taking action against erring party workers during the March election. Here are excerpts from Rediff.com

"Rahulji, you may fix the responsibility on us, but don't absolve yourself of the larger responsibility for the debacle." … According to an insider, one of the party workers in Salon, where the party nominee lost miserably, went to the extent of accusing Rahul of depending solely on "middlemen". He even sought to ask Rahul, can you recognise and name five workers who were closely involved with the electioneering process," to which Rahul confessed apologetically, "sorry". "How is it that your own party leader Pramod Tiwari managed to do so much for his constituency in the neighbourhood," asked another worker, leaving Rahul completely stunned. (That, in reference to lack of any development work in Amethi).

"What we needed urgently was ruthless surgery by plugging the loopholes and by restructuring the party well before the crucial Lok Sabha elections in 2014," observed Binda Prasad, the head of Chatoh Block in Salon assembly constituency. "It is high time our top leaders prepare themselves to listen to harsh truths if they sincerely want the party to stand up on its feet again," he added.

While accusing every other party of playing communal politics the UP election proved once and for all that the Congress is the most communal party in India and is hell bent on dividing the nation on religious and communal and caste lines. While he was visiting drought-prone Satara, RG’s mother was surprisingly charming the Lingayat community in Karnataka. If RG really wants to accept responsibility for anything he has to first act on something. First, learn about India and Indians. I mean seriously learn. People are not fools. Secondly, sack nation-dividers like Salman Khurshid, Beni Prasad Verma, Sriprakash Jaiswal who campaigned on communal lines. And, of course, he has to permanently get rid of muck-spewing Digvijay Singh. That’s asking for too much. His latest aide is a Jenny-come-lately called Meenakshi  Natarajan ,Congress MP, who wants to gag the media and wants a regulatory body with sweeping powers to ban and punish media. Hardly the wisdom learned from failures in choosing aides I would say.

Manish Tewari, in a debate last night on presidential candidates, suggested that in a nation of youth someone younger may be a better choice than APJ Kalam. Dr. Subramanian Swamy who was also on the debate pointed out to Mr.Head-To-Toe that it’s not how old you are but whether you are able to “inspire the youth” that matters. For a so-called ‘youth-icon’ Rahul Gandhi has failed miserably to inspire any confidence in anyone, young or old. Apart from a terrible poverty of knowledge RG is also handicapped by an equally severe poverty of ideas. Unfortunate, I would say, for a man who had so many opportunities. Another lesson RG must learn - whatever the media hypes, the opposite is usually the result. Failure analysis to improve learning is a good exercise, except that it has a flip side – the acronym is FAIL!