Hunting Season - Phase 2

The origins of dirty tricks go way back to the 18th century during American presidential elections, including Thomas Jefferson. Even back then it was a journalist who was involved in the slandering. Any surprise? However, the modern-day DTD (Dirty tricks dept.) owes its evolution to Richard Nixon. Most would frown if I said the infamous Watergate scandal had precious little to with the Watergate burglary but that is the truth. The real thing was the massive DTD operation that included the White House, the intelligence agencies, the FBI and also some parts of the media. In short, Nixon corrupted the entire establishment for his political benefit. Nixon’s DTD used campaign money to destroy opponents. A part of the infamous DTD operation was called “RatF***ing”. Under this programme fake letters and documents were created to tarnish Nixon’s opponents. A famous letter being the ‘Canuck’ letter which falsely discredited Edmund Muskie who pulled out of the 1972 presidential race. Canuck was meant to be a racial slur for Americans of French-Canadian origin. All these operations were funded by Nixon’s campaign funds. Does all this ring a familiar bell in India? Here’s more from the Watergate days, something even more dangerous:

 

George Wallace who was campaigning in the presidential race was shot by one Arthur Bremer. Nixon & Co. wanted to discredit George McGovern (another Democrat presidential-race candidate) by planting his campaign literature in Bremer’s house so that McGovern could be linked to the shooting of Wallace. This and many other such dirty tricks are what Watergate is all about and not much to do with the break-in at the building itself. The Watergate burglary was a mere cover-up and distraction. In the end Nixon won the 1972 election but had to resign in August 1974. For a decade now, this is what is going on in India to discredit one single man; Narendra Modi. And when the chance presents itself to discredit other BJP or Opposition members. As with Nixon, the entire establishment in India is put to work for this singular goal.

So what exactly does the DTD do? A) It discredits the opponent to an extent that his supporters withdraw their support. B) Even if it doesn’t discourage the supporters it pushes them into apathy so that they don’t vote and there’s a low voter turn-out. C) Phenomenal amount of money is poured into the Mainstream Media so that they are co-opted into the DTD and gladly indulge propagating lies and D) Encourage all NGOs, Activists and sundry crusaders with money to indulge in mud-slinging and spurious court cases.

You can keep expanding this list. Where the media is concerned DTD is also used to black out important news items on corruption of the ruling party or other news damaging to them.

Almost everybody is aware of the Teestas, Shabnams, Mallikas, Tehelka Sisters, Top Cops, Rajdeeps, Barkhas, Sanghvis, Sreenivasans, Arnabs, Nidhis and assorted side-kicks who have been in the business of targeting Modi. But in the last few months, with general elections approaching, the MSM has become even shriller in this campaign of DTD. The TOI group has been leading from the front with many spurious articles about Modi starting with the “Rambo Act” story for which they apologised. Then another writer of TOI wrote nonsense about Arun Jaitley and apologised. A few days back they ran another fake story about BJP spokie Smriti Irani walking out of a programme in the US because of a snub to Modi. There was nothing of that sort. It was pure unadulterated lie. Take a look at these two tweets:

In the first one on top Smriti proves with a letter from the US organisers of the programme that the TOI report was bogus. Alright! What happens later? Rahul Kanwal allows Abhishek Singhvi to repeat the nonsense on his programme knowing well that the story was bogus but later replies to Smriti that the charge seems bogus. How clever, isn’t it? First he knowingly allows the bogus charge on his show and doesn’t call it a lie but later tweets that he is aware it was bogus. Lie BIG, Retract SMALL! That’s a rule under the DTD.

Prior to this, for 10 days the media was busy chasing Asaram Bapu over a molestation case. They shouted rape even when the case wasn’t about rape. The MSM desperately tried to link the Asaram witch-hunt to Modi but failed to get a connection. The witch-hunt was similar to those of Nitin Gadkari and N. Sreenivasan. We have to wonder what the media was covering up in this non-stop screaming and chasing. After that died down, on September 3 morning, Ajay Maken held a presser screaming his head off over a suddenly discovered CD which claims BJP spokie Prakash Javdekar and some other BJP members were trying to cover up prosecution of the encounter case relating to Tulsiram Prajapati. The sting was reportedly made some 10 months ago and the CD suddenly surfaces with the Congress on September 3. That took up the first part of the day and then died when another blast came up suddenly. This was accused Gujarat IGP D. Vanzara’s resignation letter complaining against Gujarat govt, Amit Shah and Narendra Modi for not protecting the cops involved in encounters.

Can you believe the media’s luck? Even on a bright day they would be delightfully climaxing if they could lay their hands on something small to target Modi with and here they had two in a day. Call it multiple…? Now, I have not known this Vanzara to be so fluent and poetic in the English language to write a 10-page resignation. Who in hell writes a 10-page resignation letter anyway? Never mind that. But it does seem that the letter was dictated or drafted by someone else and signed by Vanzara. That should be enough, even if Vanzara didn’t write it he signed it so he owns it. He also sends a copy to the CBI “for information”. What the media fails to tell you is that if Vanzara has complained so much it clearly means that the Gujarat govt or Modi are not protecting any of the accused cops or interfering in the investigations. This disproves the entire theory so long held by the Congress, the propagandists in the media and sundry bootlickers like Tehelka and others. But Maken wanted Modi to resign because the CD (made by a fake-sting specialist called Pushp Sharma who has been arrested before for such fake stings) to avoid interference in the investigations. 

Naturally, I had to tweet and ask this question that given the logic that Maken applies who should be the people who should really resign? A CBI officer wants to even examine the PM on the Coalscam but the boss says ‘not now darling’. The current DTD works a two-way street. First, the media desperately wants to slander Modi and BJP, led by the TOI group, and second cover-up all the bad news for and about the Congress party.

In the last few days there wasn’t one single mention of a Delhi court ordering an FIR against CM Sheila Dikshit for misuse of public funds in her 2008 election campaign. The Delhi Lokayukta has already indicted her for this. Yet, not one news channel carried the news or reported it. When they finally reported on September 4, the report lasted all of 2 seconds. Flash! And gone! Here is where the people get luckier. Although the court ordered an FIR the Delhi Police doesn’t want to file one. It obtained a stay against the lower court order. Oops! This is a lot like that Imam Bukhari who hasn’t been arrested for many zillion years despite a non-bailable warrant on his head. And they will tell you the law is equal for all. The justice-loving folks at NDTV, CNN-IBN, TimesNow and others don’t even have the guts to talk about Bukhari. Of course, they are scared of the swords that might smite their necks and bodies and the raids that will burn their offices down. Applause! Sheila Dikshit stays on despite being indicted but Modi should resign because every Soma, Salma, Sabrina, their aunties and uncles make allegations.

Then the other important thing that is being covered up is the Telengana mess. For over 30 days there are strikes, bandhs and some riots continuously on in Andhra Pradesh. The national MSM has completely blacked out the news. From what I hear the News Broadcaster’s Association (NBA) which I call the Union of Snakes has decided not to broadcast any news about the Telengana-Andhra agitations and strikes. Do you need a govt censor anymore? When the poodles in the media themselves decide to censor news you know they are part of the DTD and not entitled to call themselves editors and journalists. Timesnow, NDTV, CNN-IBN, HeadlinesToday and the rest only have “self-styled” editors who do the bidding of Bharat Nirman. For over a year the Thorium scam was being relayed on Twitter but no one in the MSM paid attention. Suddenly TimesNow scored it as ‘Breaking News’ with 60-lakh crore ‘Nuclear fuel scam’ and now it has been put back in the closet again. 60-lakh crores? That would be the greatest scam in the history of the world. But you won’t hear much about it any further from the MSM. Cover-up!  

Here is something even more dangerous that is not being reported or discussed on any news channel. A serious election roll fraud was being perpetrated with fake lists and ID cards. This is in Delhi with the elections just around the corner. The report was carried in MailToday which is a foreign-collaboration outlet. This is a pic from the article that summarises the scam:

It’s not just Delhi but we are nearing a general election. The question is why are these electoral or document frauds happening in Congress ruled states? Our media is not interested in finding out who is behind this fraud and who should be resigning. Ajay Maken obviously won’t ask that question. Surprisingly, even the Opposition is not making any noises about it. This fraud is prevalent in many states where illegals are being given ID cards, passports and legalising their citizenship. The MSM covers up these crimes. Money can buy anything now; it can buy fake allegations and witch-hunts and it can buy silence. There’s another thing about DTD. One must not miss how the language and terms used by the MSM are indistinguishably uniform in nature. “Self-Styled Godmen”, “Letter-Bomb”, “Fascist”, and more! This is called “Dog-whistle politics”. Under dog-whistle politics the terms are handed out to the media to repeat over and over again till the wrongful perception is entrenched among the masses. Keep calling the BJP “communal” every day is a message handed out to the MSM and you can see the usage and the effects. Keep repeating “Self-styled Godmen” as a campaign to tarnish all Hindu spiritual leaders in one stroke, even if only one or a few are accused of wrong doing. Don’t miss this “dog-whistle” trick.

Vinod Mehta writes in Times of India (where else!) in defence of Sonia Gandhi: “I have not in the last ten years at least, witnessed one individual being subjected to this kind of concerted assault”. Really? This big Luknowi Moron must either be blind, deaf or stoned. In the history of India there isn’t one single politician as vilified, maligned without evidence and held guilty without any trial as Narendra Modi. This is what slavery does to “Self-styled” judges in the media. Hunting season has entered Phase-2. Welcome back!

Note: In case you missed ‘Hunting Season – Phase1’.

Lumpens In The Media - Part 2

On the evening of September 2, TimesNow and other channels carried these videos. One on the right is that of Neeraj Jha, a Congress MLA-aspirant in Delhi dancing with hired women and showering money on them. The moron had the audacity to later tell Headlines Today that he was trying to stop the vulgar dance. Nice! The one on the left is a group of Corporators in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana surrounding and beating up a female BJP Corporator in the Mayor’s chambers. TimesNow asked the question “Is there a standard of decency for politicians”? Some callers on TimesNow had only one thing to say; that the Congress party was sick and this cannot be stopped until change of govt happens. Is there a standard of decency for politicians? Good question, wouldn’t you say? Sure, we will answer that one but before that, take a look at this pic which is now 16 years old. Most of the new generation may not be aware of what led to this tragedy:

That car crashed in a tunnel in Paris killing Lady Diana and her friend Dodi Fayed. It was the 16th anniversary of her death on August 31, 2013. The car was speeding away from the ever intruding and chasing paparazzi. Given that Indian reporters have now become more and more uncivilised and uncouth in the way they cover individuals with their mics and cameras it won’t be long before such a tragedy happens in India too. Remember the time when the TimesNow crew chased Meiyappan (Son in law of BCCI president N. Sreenivasan) from the Mumbai airport to the police station? That chase was asking for an accident on the ever-crowded western express highway in Mumbai. The media crowded the police station so badly that it took a good half hour for the police to get Meiyappan off the vehicle to the police station. Decency?

For the last 10 days or so all TV channels have been chasing Asaram (who is accused of sexual assault in a Jodhpur police complaint) at Bhopal, Indore and Jodhpur. The reporters were shoving mics and cameras all around him and at him. The most aggressive were the TimesNow and IBN reporters. This paparazzi-like behaviour is now assuming dangerous proportions. So much that it led to violence between the reporters and Asaram’s supporters. Naturally, the ones with the TV channels and mics screamed they were assaulted by Asaram’s supporters. To double their media-trial of Asaram they added a new story of assault by Asaram supporters to their shrill reporting. Rajdeep Sardesai, Ashutosh and others were quick to play “victim”. But who started the fracas? Let’s take a look at some more images.

The one at the top is from the time when TimesNow did a 19 part series on Nitin Gadkari. The reporters hounded him wherever he went. The middle one is of Pawan Bansal when he was forced to quit after the Railway scam. In both cases the rowdy reporters made it difficult for the individuals to even get into their vehicle. It is sheer decency of these men that they didn’t hit anyone. A Salman Khan, darling of the media, would have certainly beaten up a few. The one at the bottom is of September 2 when Asaram was sent to a 15-day judicial custody in Jodhpur. The crowds and reporters again made it a threatening situation for the police. This uncivilised behaviour by TV reporters continues unchecked and unchallenged. News editors like Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep Sardesai thrill in such coverage and then play victim claiming assault. In the case of Asaram supporters the video I saw on August 30 clearly had a reporter slapping an Asaram supporter who was pulled away to safety by others (I don’t have a link to that video which doesn’t appear on TimesNow web site). The reporters at Bhopal airport even made it difficult for Asaram to get into his car and the police had to somehow squeeze him in. Decency?

That’s not all. Asaram may well be a crook and guilty of a crime. But is there a need to hound him and witch-hunt the way the media did? There is obviously a deeper motive to this than may appear which most viewers realise. The media did the same thing with Nitin Gadkari and a quote from the Sunday Guardian (Hammer Gadkari to save Vadra and other scamsters) should underline the media scam:

“Apparently, a strong word was conveyed that they should leave Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law well alone. Ministers, including I&B boss Ambika Soni, are said to have reached out to the media houses, gently suggesting that further interest in the doings of Robert Vadra and his multifarious business activities would be most unwelcome”.

That “gently suggesting” currently could well be the latest series of Bharat Nirman ads which is like a saviour to all media houses wallowing in losses, retrenchments and victim-hood. In a manner similar to the Gadkari witch-hunt, the Asaram witch-hunt was used to cover-up many other issues adverse to the Congress or the “secular” parties. These two pics should explain it better.

The Muzzafarnagar communal riots is just another instalment in the over 50 riots that have happened in UP since Akhilesh Yadav took over as CM. And till the time of writing there hasn’t been one word, I repeat not one serious report on the FIR ordered against Sheila Dikshit over a long-running corruption case of misuse of public funds for her election campaign. The Delhi Lokayukta had already indicted her for this scam but no action was taken against her (remember the witch-hunt of BS Yedurappa over a Lokayukta indictment? But SheilaD is the media angel). Of course, the Asaram witch-hunt was also useful to cover up the severe economic crisis. The headless chickens of Congress are running around thinking of selling Hindu Temple gold or rationing petrol. Even if so called “God-men” are to be targeted it is singularly Asaram while other Mullahs and God’s agents get no coverage at all. I suppose the media has preferences in rape cases.

That is true; the media does have preference in rape cases. They carried on the Delhi Gangrape discussions for nearly a month while the recent coverage of the Mumbai Gangrape was done with and over in 2 days. Does it have anything to do with the religion of the rapists? You bet it does! In their coverage of the Mumbai Gangrape the media foolishly screamed she was a “photo-journalist”. That itself was enough for many to narrow down the identity of the victim. Decency? And then TOI reporters even crowded the residence of the victim to interview her mother. Shameless people demanding decency of others? So while Rajdeep and Ashutosh claim their reporters were assaulted this video (2.09 mins) which is only part of the whole episode does not really corroborate their nonsense:

  

The video shows an Asaram supporter bleeding. I am not suggesting that reporters weren’t injured but I do not believe that violence was provoked by the supporters. The sheer bad behaviour of reporters and their filthy line of questioning is enough to provoke somebody to push them away. After the HC judgement terming the BCCI IPL-Scam probe panel illegal the TimesNow reporter was badgering and screaming his head off at N. Sreenivasan as he was getting into his car. A frustrated Sreenivasan finally told him “if you stop shouting I can answer your question”. And Arnab Goswami wants to teach decency to everyone else. It says a lot for the media that they dare to crowd, shove, push everyone else while they don’t dare to get anywhere close to Robert Vadra. Take a look at the pic on the left. This is the same TimesNow that is filming Vadra from a good distance like thieves stalking a bungalow that they plan to burgle.

When the inquiry into the crash that killed Lady Diana was concluded the French authorities held seven of the paparazzi guilty of chasing her. They courts didn’t hold them responsible for the crash or the deaths so they fined them a token 1 Euro and let them off. However, they did make sure that this dirty seven were named and shamed as this report shows:

That’s right, reporters who get too close are guilty of invading a person’s privacy. No matter how criminal a person maybe, reporters are not entitled to push, shove and badger their target. That’s the first lesson in decency that reporters and media must learn before they lecture others. While Arnab, Rajdeep & Co. play the moral brigade they would do well to teach some decency to their own ground reporters. Right now, there isn’t much difference between the indecent politicians and journalists. At the moment, in most cases it is the media that is behaving like lumpens and someday a serious Diana-like tragedy might indeed happen. An independent watch-dog is needed which should outlaw any reporter getting within 10 feet of any person he or she wishes to report on. An interview or sound-bite should be sought only if the target agrees and not be forced. Till then, the most indecent public figures are mostly on your TV screens, posing as journalists.

PS: If you’re wondering why this is ‘Part-2’, you can read Part-1 here.

  

Eroding Institutions: Dead Souls Can't Report The Dying

For the first time since 1984 the earth shook in India again. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke in the Parliament after some three centuries, after he was chided to speak by the Opposition. Like a hen-pecked husband who finally vented, he gave out a Howard Beale scream: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore”. True to Congress culture he blamed anybody and everybody, including the Opposition and Syria for the broken and shattered economy, the fallen rupee and everything that’s destroyed. The GDP growth for the first quarter of this financial year stood at 4.4% but he said things would be brighter next year. For the last few years MMS and his party have been dragging the people through a desert to a mirage and are now making them drink the sand to quench their thirst. And the slaves in the MSM clapped like a box of parrots like they usually do. It is impossible to narrate all the failures of this Congress govt in a short post. It will take a ‘trilogy’ of epics.

Unlike the bootlickers on TV channels the online folks were quite harsh. Tags like #PMChorHai or #ChorPM trended for the last 2 days. On a TimesNow debate when someone asked how the PM still claims “fundamentals” of the economy are still strong the answer by Congress spokie Renuka Chaudhary replied that it’s the “BJP Fundamentals” that are weak. So you can imagine what kind of brains run this govt. The most appropriate comment on the PM’s conduct came from The Jaggi. His tweet explains the exact predicament MMS is in as also his misdirected madness. It’s not just the economy fundamentals that are rotting but democratic institutions too. On the economy front organisations like LIC have been used to fund the govt without much success. Many are being used to fund parties of private companies. Banks that were exposed for involvement in handling black money and hawala transactions face no punishment.

Whenever the govt has been in a spot, the media has used distractions and diversions to cover up real issues. On August 29 they found the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal a handy tool and the last 3 days have also been a celebration of the case against Asaram as if all other issues were redundant. The ET reported on August 30 that the IB didn’t want to release the information of Yasin’s arrest as they didn’t want to alert other sleeper cells. Your guess is as good as mine on who leaked the information to the media so that they could splurge on the event. And stupidly enough NDTV in a programme by Sunetra Chaudhary asked if UPA is tougher on terrorism. Who knows how many terrorists were alerted by the leak. The IB has been compromised to meet political ends. The CBI has become a mere tool in the hands of ministers who dictate its affidavits to Supreme Court. Nobody is even sure about the RBI anymore. While searching information about the new Governor-to-be of the RBI (Raghuram Rajan) their site makes a startling revelation. There is one Rajeev Gowda, a Congress member, who was nominated as a Director sometime in 2011. Interesting, eh?

This Rajeev Gowda is a well-educated guy and is also the co-founder of the website ‘Hamara Congress’. He comes from a prominent political family in Karnataka and his late father, M.V. Venkatappa was a Speaker in the Karnataka Assembly. He is also a professor at IIM Bangalore. Do IIMs allow their professors to become Directors in RBI or in other organisations? What should strike people the most is that Rajeev Gowda is also the official spokie of the Congress party.

Gowda (on the right in pic above) appears almost on all English news channels as the Congress spokie and is also a director at RBI. The media chases everyone, like N. Sreenivasan or MS Dhoni, on conflict of interest issues but they don’t ever mention that Gowda is also an RBI director. How does an RBI director get to be the spokie of a political party? The media doesn’t care to even ask or inform viewers that he is one. IIM-B  Board of Governors lists Mukesh Ambani as its Chairman. Wasn’t it a Mukesh Ambani man who grandly said “Congress toh apna dukaan hai”? I am not aware if a political party spokesman is allowed to be the Director of RBI but it does make me wonder how independent RBI is; as we do with other democratic institutions. Next stop: Judiciary.

Sometime back the Congress party organised a meeting for all its legal cell members and other sundry lawyers. The plans coming out of this meeting is nothing short of sinister. A stray mention here and there in the print media was all this news got. There have been cases in the recent past where the SC judgements have been leaked before being pronounced. This quote of SC lawyer Gopal Sankarnarayanan from a report makes dangerous reading:

“There is really no polite way of putting this. The Kabir court has seen a return to the questionable practices prevalent in the Balakrishnan era – oral mentionings of matters pending before other Benches, unexplained moving of cases from one set of judges to another, the return of the dalals to the registry and an overall erosion of the credibility of the Apex Court”.

When you read that in the context of the fact that the Congress wants to fill the judiciary with members associated with the party it has to be shocking how the judiciary is being toyed with. Here’s an excerpt from the TOI report titled “Cong to pack courts with party loyalists?” (March 2010):

Congress-leaning lawyers have raised the pitch for assignments from the government. A Congress convention, which brought together lawyers from Congress legal cells in the states, was set abuzz when populist voices were raised, with one directly asking for party-affiliated lawyers to be accommodated in various panels, and even in the judiciary. Union law minister Veerappa Moily urged the AICC's legal department headed by Abhishek Singhvi to create a national database of lawyers affiliated with Congress. ''... we can form domain expertise using their experience; we can train them in different fields and ultimately bond them into mainstream of judiciary,'' he said. The call, with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the dais, led to murmurs in the gathering as it was interpreted that there will be a preference for lawyers affiliated with the Congress in the selection for judiciary.

The organizing body headed by Abhishek Singhvi demanded that an Alternative Disputes Redressal system be formed and named after Rajiv Gandhi. Government sources said there is an International Centre for ADR lying dysfunctional and the Prime Minister is unhappy about it… DPCC chief J P Aggarwal got a thunderous applause when he said Congress needed to bring its lawyers on official panels and appointments. Aggarwal, speaking at a working session on ''Human rights, common man and contemporary exigencies'' chaired by home minister P Chidambaram, said it was found that lawyers who were with the Congress were ignored at the time of selection for various panels. ''Why will they carry your flag?'' he asked, making a forceful plea. At the end of the day, Singhvi assured the meeting that the law minister agreed with the demand made by Aggarwal and steps would be taken in this direction in future.

Hmm! Abhishek Singhvi is the AICC’s legal head. Is that a surprise? The Singhvi sex episode was completely buried by the MSM till Singhvi’s videos got posted on the internet for the whole world to see. The media dismissed that as a “private and consensual affair”. The affair may have been private and consensual but were any favours promised in return? Not just that, Singhvi demanded that the Alternative Redressal system be named after Rajiv Gandhi. Why don’t these people just rename the SC “Rajiv Gandhi Court”? That would be cheered by all the cronies in the Congress and media. One at least hears about the big institutions that have been eroded. No one knows how many smaller ones have been gobbled up.

The media willingly and deliberately covers up all acts of the govt that are eroding important institutions. They willingly accept a party spokie without disclosing full information about the positions he holds. They witch-hunted N. Srinivasan of the BCCI for a full 21 days as if BCCI was the Watergate of India but when it comes to the killing of democratic institutions they couldn’t find even one day to report or discuss the terrible dangers of such destruction. With the introduction of Bharat Nirman-2 ads which will run till the elections more cover-ups can be expected. NDTV will sell you passionate stories about Yasin Bhatkal. CNN-IBN and TimesNow will continue mindless ranting over Asaram and cover-up inaction of Ashok Gehlot. HeadlinesToday is running a stupid satire on Modi’s dreams of PM which are being smartly destroyed by MMS and Sonia Gandhi. Of course, HT won’t dare to report on the destruction of democratic institutions.

MMS recently applauded the media as a watch-dog. SoniaG said the “the media made the political class uncomfortable”. Both are wrong. The MSM is not a watch-dog. It’s just a bunch of lap-dogs who are comfortable in their studios with crumbs thrown by the govt and the Congress party. I have said it before and I say it again; pet poodles who survive on crumbs are unlikely to have the nose of a blood-hound. Collectively, the MSM is another institution that has been destroyed. Naturally, dead souls can’t report on other deaths.