Friday, March 16, 2012

Before You Die, Call The Media


I, Spin Master, do swear in the name of God that I will faithfully execute the office and functions of Editor of the News of India, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Truth and that I will devote myself to the service and dissemination of facts and accurate information to the people of Republic of India”. Does any editor or journalist have to take such an oath of office? People in the judiciary (Yes, even lawyers), political office, public office have to take such an oath but not our editors. They have the absolute freedom to say or write anything and not be held accountable in any way whatsoever. And this freedom is mostly used to spin, for propaganda and in extreme cases, utter lies.

With hardly any facts, with little information on what exactly happened our news channels have already concluded that the death of Narendra Singh, IPS officer, who was crushed by a tractor in MP (on March 8), was the work of a mining mafia. Fact: Narendra Singh was reportedly fighting to curb the mining mafia. Fact: he confronted a tractor laden with stones from a quarry. Fact: in what followed the confrontation Narendra was crushed and killed by the tractor. Tragic. For a young, reportedly upright and honest, police officer to die in this fashion is a devastating blow to the force and for his family. His father made a very emotional statement: “I gave MP a diamond, they gave me a dustbin of ashes”. And he is right. Narendra’s wife also feels an organised mafia is behind her husband’s death. Quite understandable given her loss and grief. But much before full facts are known the media terming it as an act by some mining mafia is bewildering. For a change, I too write without the full facts out in the open.

Like politicians, media too relies on the fickle memory of the public. Still, most will remember the Aarushi murder case, the more recent Shehla Masood murder case where the media simply went berserk with speculation and their own motives for the murders. The Aarushi case remains unsolved and the Shehla Masood case has turned out to be a crime of passion rather than a Land-Mafia snuffing out a RTI activist as the media originally spun it. They even tried linking some BJP members in the case. In the case of Narendra Singh, predictably, the media went to party with the ‘mining mafia’ angle. Not even one reporter knew whether he was crushed by the front wheels, rear wheels or crushed by the stones as the tractor wobbled or fell sideways. Nothing! What’s the reason? Simple, once again a pro-Congress media mafia was targeting a BJP CM. Not just the CM, it allowed others to allege even the CM’s family was involved in the mafia.

Some channels (I think either TimesNow or CNN-IBN, I do not recall now) even pulled out reports from a long time ago on the mining mafia in the Morena area for an “I told you so” spin to the gruesome death. Off in a flash to the Stonehenge in Morena was Arunoday Mukherjee of CNN-IBN to show us the stones, why they are valuable, their properties and so on. Everything to establish a mining mafia was involved in the death of Narendra Singh. Not one single media outlet bothered to investigate the incident or verify any facts. You see, we haven’t taken any such oath to do so. Not one single media outlet bothered to check if the story was corroborated or if there is any other side. No sir, ours is the only story and we are right.

Dr. Ved Pratap Vaidik, a social activist and a frequent supporter of Baba Ramdev, had this to write on his blog about Narendra’s death: “The other angle”  (This summarised excerpt is a loose translation from Hindi but I believe it is accurate and I am open to correction):

There are now varying reports in the newspapers. Manoj Gujar, the farmer driving the tractor was confronted by Narendra Singh, who asked him to stop at gun point. Fearing for himself Manoj started speeding the tractor. At this Narendra Singh jumped on to the tractor and tried to take control of the steering wheel. In the ensuing struggle Narendra slipped and fell and was crushed by the tractor. Manoj’s brothers say Narendra was a good police officer and they had no conflicts with him and that people speed up tractors to escape the police who demand huge bribes. As far as any mafia is concerned the driver is not serving any and his family has a good farming business. His family was constructing a second house for which he was carrying stones on the tractor. Police state his family is not even remotely connected with crime and no there is no question of working for any mafia.

I have provided the above excerpt for an alternate view of the incident and cannot vouch for the accuracy of Dr. Vaidik's notes. I do have doubts on why a criminal backed by a strong mafia would want to mow down a police officer. Given their clout, the mafias usually take care of their wiseguys from police trouble even after arrests. We haven't seen anyone being affected in any of the mining mafias and scams from Goa, Karnataka or AP. Have we?

The case has now been handed over to the CBI which has registered a case of murder against unknown persons. I am not thoroughly convinced this could be a murder in the usual sense of the word. A murder is usually pre-meditated with a strong motive. I don’t believe Manoj Gujar started out with his tractor and stones that day with the intention of running over a police officer. I also believe that the IPS officer may have indulged in avoidable bravado but this is going to run against popular opinion. I also do not believe a large organised mafia is behind this incident. I also know police officials on the highways harass freight carriers and indulge in extortion. I have seen this not just in MP but also in Rajasthan and UP. And this is money for no particular reason at all – it’s not even a bribe to overlook some irregularities. This is just milk money. Honest polices officers like Narendra Singh maybe exceptions but the sight of them still scares drivers. 

A few days after this incident in MP another one happened in Tamil Nadu. A young 23 year old man was mowed down by a truck carrying sand. This time the noises about ‘sand mafia’ came up but died down quickly. The man must not have been significant or the political dispensation in TN maybe of no interest to the media. The media didn’t feast on the young man’s death as they did on Narendra Singh. Maybe these heroes should call the media before they undertake any confrontation with the mafia and not let media run riot with imaginary causes of their death. After all, media is the super mafia.

21 comments :

  1. In Chennai, Traffic constables/Policemen walk through the roads(even when traffic flow is faster) to catch motorcycle riders without helmet.
    I guess they think themselves as Singham!!

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  2. Brilliant, both this one and your earlier post.

    All these anchors behave as though they are stars from the sky. Rubbing shoulders with people in power gives them the kick of a stimulant and when the same stimulant becomes an overdose it kills their brains and they run amok in their studios.

    Arnab has crossed all limits of insanity. Frustration was writ large on his face after Cong's debacle in UP. Anybody who dares Cong becomes Arnab's natural enemy...be it BJP or Cong's ally Mamta. His support for Cong is no more covert. His theatrics of shouting and screaming gives me a terrible headache. Times Now boasts of 47% of viewership on the day of elections results and claims that it is more than the viewership of two channels put together. I think it is time now to put Times Now in its proper place. We need to start a campaign against Times Now on the social media - "Time now to switch off Times Now".

    All these English news channels thrive only on the viewership of urban middle and upper middle class population. Once this section of the people stop watching these Channels, their rating would come crashing down. That is the best way to teach these thugs a good lesson.

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  3. (Received on email from Emmaarcee)

    Hi Ravi,

    It is all humbug. As the politicians, so the Govt servants. Way back in 2004, I was with my family driving to Goa from Mumbai on the Mumbaiu Pune newly constructed express way. My destination was Goa. I took this wrong express way instead of the one which I should have taken at Panvel which is by the side of the Express Way.

    Some distance into the highway, my inner sense warned me that I was on a wrong route. A little distance ahead, I saw the Expressway Patrol Police. I asked for direction. They directed me but on a second thought asked me to follow for some distance and after that they cut across the expressway, took a 'U' turn at a particular place and they helped me in that.

    After driving few minutes, they stopped and asked me to go near to them. I did that. They told me that I had to drive about 10 minutes and that I would find a left turn to follow to take the Goa route. I was happy.

    As I was about to turn back to my car, they called me and asked for my license which in all aspects was complete. They negotiated for an amnount for the help rendered and squandered from me Rs 600/ which I remember till date. Sir, where does corruption start and end?

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  4. I also wondered how a tractor with speed ranging from 15 to 25 km/hr can mock down a person. I think anyone can avoid vehicle with that speed. Why an IPS officer personally needed to confront with the tractor driver. Where were the constables with him. These are some of my doubts.
    Counterpoint:
    The Hindu paper reported that The mining Mafia who is a ZP member was seen on the dias with the local BJP MP/ MLA.
    But, they haven't mentioned the exact relationship between the driver& the mining Mafia.
    But, I strongly agree with your point of hypocritical media. They always report without property study/ facts& in biased manner.
    BJP should also strongly defend themselves with the facts. But I see weakness of BJP in here. They get easily succumbed to the pressure of media & help in tarnishing their image of party with the difference.

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    1. Dear Anonymous, Simple and easy answer to your problem is: Go and lie in front of one. KRV

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  5. Our main stream media is a piece of crap. Do not believe anything they write. Complete falsehood. We indians are need to wake up and reject it.

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  6. Ravinar it is great. You are bold enough to write against popular opinion. But correct and precise. Any where if media can connect any thing against BJP/RSS it goes whole hog.

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  7. arnab goswami broke the sound barrier and became supersonic when dealing with this topic on times now . the sale of earplugs went up next day . it is a pity though , from merely being rude and obnoxious he seems to have become absolutely partisan . no hippocratic oaths to be taken here.

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  8. Hello Ravi,
    Thanks for a wonderful, studied article. What I wonder is: why people comment as Anonymous? It is annoying to say the least. I think, that's our National Creed...we are scared of calling spade a spade. That's how most of the real life Corrupt & Crooks are crowned as Messiahs. KRV

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    1. Haha, it is funny that anons annoy you. Just Focus on the content of the comments. It does not matter whether it is KRV or ABC !

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  9. does the national print and visual media have any conscience - they have done an immeasurable damage to the daily life of the farmer and his family ., while they continue with their comfortable life elsewhere

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    1. Fiddler-on-th-roof is so very correct. But you have to remember that corporate demons(corporate MEDIA being just one of their SWORD-ARMS)have no conscience, especially when they happen to be partners of Western super-corporate hegemonists which seek control of all the mineral and agricultural wealth of India plus every aspect of Indians' lives including their political administration, their education and livelihood. 21st colonial dictatorship, supercorporate-style. The 0.01% traitorous and inhuman ELITE Brown HOUNDS to control the 99.99% masses on behalf of Western corporate White Hunters. See comment of 6:15PM on March 16. Spot on !

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  10. Brilliant! great follow up removing skin out of MSM.

    It's very disturbing though to see/watch/read such third class reporting by Indian media. Until I read your blog I was unaware of the other angle of the story (there will be many like me I guess!) and more convincing as well.

    Your blogs have always been small but great "antidotes". I wish someone takes them head-on big way someday!

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  11. It is the world-devouring super-corpratist, militarist Western establishment(which is nothing but a farcical government-cum-Church-cum-Media coalition that in reality is a mascot for unbridled, limitless Corporate lust) which via its surrogates inside India including the slavish racist Churches, the foreign-colonist Brahmin-supremacist mass-media and the Italian vice-regent MANIFESTS INCREDIBLE INNATE ANIMOSITY towards the rank-and-file Indian masses including the peasants like Mr. Manoj Gujar. Baba Ramdev, himself one of the masses, has been doing a yeoman's service to the cause of the potentially rich but superlatively pillaged Indian masses, the real soul of Bharat Ma. The traditional oppressors, foreign colonists from ancient times, have fully ganged up in suzerainty with their new overlord:-Western racio-religio-hegemonist Corporatism in their quest to bleed the Indian masses to decimation. The old carnivorous demons know fully well that the masses are their prey and it suits them best to strike common cord with the Tripurasur of all demons:- the corporatist holier-than-all-gods Western oligarchic establishment. It is just not the least surprising to expect the kind of wickedly depraved and maliciously false brainwashing media coverage from the likes of Goanese brahminical Rajdeep Sardesai, Arnab Goswami of CNN-IBN etc., but the courts and the police should not be permitted by the system to fall for their bait and become their instruments for crushing the masses, who have already suffered unimaginably from the "scorched-earth" rape at the hands of the brahminst crypto-Anglican enemies of Bharat Ma. The oppressor corporatist media houses glorify the expropriation of forcible expropriation of lakhs of acres of Indian farmland by Brahminst tycoons aided by the corrupt arm of the law; but scoff at the victims of genocide perpetrated by the Maoists who feign allegiance to egalitarianism but are actually deceptively cunning rabidly racist footsoldiers of European corporatism in India. They are not content with forcible expropriation of the minerals and gems(diamonds) which rightfully belong to the Indian masses, but now want absolute colonial control (like the Roman Justinian or Hadrian) over every single bit of earthly soil they stand on and every bit of their lives. That includes the stones which farmer Gujjar was carrying in his truck which earned the perhaps envious ire of brahmin journalist Arnab Goswami.( Why the hell does any village folk have the cheek to fetch his food, shoes, cloth or even a darning needle from anywhere else but from maybe a super-corporate WALMAART or METRO super-store!).Their should be a trustworthy system in place for exemplary punishment to members of the higher judicial and police services in the event of malicious conspiratorial collaboration with the corporate-oppressors and their mediamen bedfellows, without the statute of limitation.

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    1. I fully concur with the comment of 10:13 AM on March 18.
      The perverse lustful predatory attitude of the racist Western slaves in the farcical TV media towards the common people is aptly reflected in their TV-Reality Shows. These shows betray the true essential nature and the larger savage mindset of the MEDIA oppressors and fortunately for the naive masses, can serve as an eye-opening Window-into-the-hearts of the corporatist media:-so utterly bereft of both moral-intelligence and divine grace.
      Oppressive and sexually predatory media bosses threaten unwitting participants of reality game shows with criminal prosecution for "breach of trust" in case they withdraw from the shows aimed at their self-ridicule and humiliation vide the contractual obligation of "Doing everything(including purposeless dawdling:- a waste of time and of creative potential) as ordered by the show-producers/choreographers".
      The social message to viewers is peer-sanction to derive immense unparalleled SADISTIC pleasure from putting other humans in misery, debt, tribulation and helplessness and gets heavenly pleasure from watching their tortured ramblings. Virtually trapped prisoners are per-force subjected to health-damaging 24 hr influence of aromatic cancerous synthetic perfumes, brain-cancer-causing microwave-transmitters strapped to their heads, and psychosis(insanity)-engendering effect of perpetual displays on gigantic TV screens which can produce psychosis via "conflict of psychology" mechanism owing to flashing stimuli in peripheral visual field concomitant with a mental state of intense contemplation, perplexion or anxiety. Far more disastrous than passive smoking !
      Misused mass-communication is a Social-engineering tool of wide-reaching ambit meant to metamorphose human spectators into demons, in the process subverting democracy and social institutions.

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    2. Devastated by ignominous abusive rebuke meted out to him by the mean judge-host of a reality TV show (tantrum-throwing, foul-mouthed ill-tempered item goddess Rakhi Sawant on brahmin-dominated NDTV-Imqagine, a Hindi-speaking participant Laxman trapped under force of demonically immoral contract died after he went into depression, stopped taking his food and died in Jhansi Med College. Lured by hope of resolving Laxman's marital problems with wife Anita, Laxman got trapped under force of demonically immoral contract of coercive partcipation. Sawant publically hurled beastly abuse and unfounded charges instead of helping solve problems.
      Moleika Aurora admonished a confused and vacillating female participant of a GAME-SHOW that she must faithfully (? amorous flirtation) WOO AND BEHAVE AS A SUITOR to one of the MALE CONTESTANTS because the "VIEWERSHIP" expects them to behave that way and also because that is WHAT THEIR CONTRACT with their PRODUCER was for.

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  12. Ravinar :
    I had read the Hindi article via a tweet some days ago. I hate to say this and with all due respect to the late officer: There is a thin line between Herogiri and Heroism. The tractor is not a race car, its not built for speed, yet Sharma jumped on it and tried to take control of the steering wheel. Also why did he get out of his official car and pursue the tractor on foot?

    These are some of the questions which would come to a normal educated person but alas I am indulging in wishful thinking here as far as our journos are concerned.

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    1. The Western corporatist imperialist media thinly disguised as pseudo-Indian-sounding TV channels is obfuscating the issue of Nagender's accidental death by wild speculation, even accusing the accompanying constable and driver of criminal dereliction of duty in "not having opened fire" on the bewildered hapless farmer to "protect the IPS officer from death". A clear instance of maliciously perverse wish run amock. Now that a Ghaziabad court has sentenced over a dozen policemen(including clerks) for alleged "fake encounter" killing, the public needs to applaud the strong-willed moral courage of the subordinate policemen in having resisted the temptation to "kill in a fake encounter" just to ingratiate themselves with the IPS bosses. After all, Nagender's jumping on the tractor seat to wrest control from the farmer was an irresponsibly careless act that could well have led to the death of the farmer. The conscientious policemen that accompanied Nagender stand out in stark contrast with those who sought to please their bosses Misra and Sidhu by massacring terrified villagers huddled inside their homes in cold blood during the police's stand-off with Mahender Singh Teotia in a land-aquisition row. But It is sadly very true that some brown English Sahibs, raised in a snobbish alien convent "deracinating" upbringing, reared to vehemently despise and detest Bharat Maa and her progeny, cannot reconcile themselves to the spectre of the "wretched" subordinates thinking and making moral decisions for themselves instead of blindly committing sins to appease the sahibs.

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    2. In the post Godhra space, Dravid brahmin supremacist bureaucrats and media-men alleged that Gujarat CM Narendra Modi had "overstepped his mandate" & "circumvented the chain of command" by asking constables in police stations to disobey and report sadist orders by brahminist officers to torture arrested commoners. In a Delhi court, in Feb., evil Dravid Christian police officer DCP Kuruvila forced a constable to crawl in public view inside a court as a punishment for not saluting him & having donned a jacket to protect himself from pneumonia in frosty cold, ostensibly on the pretext to punishing him for violating the uniform attire code and for indiscipline(read slavish unthinking & unconscientious subservience to the diktats of officers Kuruvilla, howsoever immoral). The savage & hateful action of christian Kuruvilla was in total tandem with that of racist Brahminist Christian teachers who savagely inflict corporal punishment OBC Hindu students in convent schools on pretext of disciplining them for not strictly having adhered to "dress code" (tie etc, wearing a jacket in subzero northern cold over the official but useless school coat). Idea is to condition the psyche of kids into meek, unquestioning docility towards evangelist oppressors, via "REACTION OF Comfort" (ala TV Reality Shows).

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  13. Even when stones are mined from a 100% legal quarry, the West-controlled and West-manipulated Oligarchist Television media(which feigns all kinds of politico-ideological leanings from outright ultra-rightist Dravidian racist to sham leftist--communist) cries hoarse at the top of its voice, maybe out of secret lament that the small-scale industrialists owning and running the quarries are indigenous Indians and that those quarries have still escaped the clutches of Western global oligarchic enterprises like say the De Beers Diamond mining group. In special pseudo-documentarial broadcasts, some Western-managed TV Mafia channels broadcasting in Hindi(to brainwash the masses) lambasted Indian Hindi stone-cutters working in the Nainital-Haldwani region of the Himalayan Hindi-heartland saying that their work poses grave danger to the environment because it would gradually lead to the levelling of all land above sea-level( ? maybe in 6 centuries??) and thereby disrupt the age-old monsoon pattern. The Western cannibal vampires simply cannot come to terms with a situation wherein even a single needle-tip speck of earth, soil, stone or water-stream remains in local indigenous hands, outside of the rapacious ambit Western oligarchic colonial imperialistic control. The media-crook TV channels are verily propaganda tools aimed at ennumbing popular resistance to the global emergence of TRIPURASURA COLONIALISM 2, the countdown to which has began in Libya with all Oilfields passing into American-European imperialistic corporate-dictatorial control after 40 yrs of nationalistic control. And the NATO croc. is all set to gnaw at the feet of Mother India by getting a military base in Sri Lanka through colonial imperialistic conquest which is being facilitated by the turbaned government of the Italian vice-regent via resolution to vote for a most shameful, anti-india RESOLUTION SPONSORED by Global Christian-super-imperialist god AMERICA TO PUNISH SRI LANKA for concocted WAR CRIMES (?against the Al-QAEDA-like Christian-terrorist LTTE). AMERICAN ENRON, mired in the filthiest corrupt corporate scandals, was given shamefully humiliating concessions by Indian establishment which amounted to surrender of peoples' legitimate traditional rights over Indian forests; but Supreme Court judges lambasted Shri Narendra Modi for merely articulating his wish for building a concensus towards evolving policies that would restore traditional rights over forest land to TRIBALS(who were divested of the same en-masse by British colonists, with entire village-fulls being transferred to dictatorial ownership into Western TEA-COMPANY hands which had oiled the murderous British OPIUM WARS and BRITISH GENOCIDE against FARM-GIRLS in BIHAR).

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  14. investigative journalism is dead in INDIA... its all hush hush and sob sob..... like daily serial ..all fake and filled with lies...

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