It’s been sometime since I visited Rajdeep
Sardesai’s Friday Blogbusters. The latest one is called “Don’t play it safe”. I am quite
impressed how he describes Salman
Khurshid. I call SK a smooth double talker, Rajdeep describes him thus: “Salman
Khurshid is easily among the brightest politicians in the country: a former
Oxford don, he became a union minister at 38. When he speaks, it is with a
certain elegance and intellect that is all too rare in public life today”. NO!
You don’t get any prizes for guessing – it’s about SK’s comment about Rahul Gandhi’s cameo. Remember Sarah Palin? On November 1, 2008 just
three days before the presidential election she got a call from French
President Nicolas Sarkozy. Here are
excerpts from that phone conversation:
PALIN: Oh, it's so good to
hear you. Thank you for calling us.
SARKOZY: Oh, it's a
pleasure.
SARKOZY: You see, I got
elected in France because I'm real and you seem to be someone who's real, as
well.
PALIN: Yes, yeah. Nico, we
so appreciate this opportunity.
SARKOZY: You know I see you
as a president one day, too.
PALIN: Maybe in eight years.
SARKOZY: Exactly, we could
try go hunting by helicopter like you did. I never did that. Like we say in
French, on pourrait tuer des bebe phoque s, aussi .
PALIN: Well, I think we
could have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done. We can kill two
birds with one stone that way.
SARKOZY: I just love killing
those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun. I'd really love to go,
so long as we don't bring along Vice-President Cheney.
PALIN: No, I'll be a careful
shot, yes.
SARKOZY: Yes, you know we
have a lot in common also, because except from my house I can see Belgium.
That's kind of less interesting than you.
SARKOZY: Thank you very
much. You know my wife Carla would love to meet you, even though you know she
was a bit jealous that I was supposed to speak to you today.
PALIN: Well, give her a big
hug for me.
SARKOZY: You know my wife is
a popular singer and a former top model and she's so hot in bed. She even wrote
a song for you.
PALIN: Oh my goodness, I
didn't know that.
SARKOZY: I just want to be
sure. That phenomenon Joe the Plumber. That's not your husband, right?
PALIN: That's not my husband
but he's a normal American who just works hard and doesn't want government to
take his money.
SARKOZY: Yes, yes, I
understand we have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France. It's called
Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit.
SARKOZY: Gov. Palin, I love
the documentary they made on your life. You know Hustler's Nailin' Paylin?
PALIN: Well, good.
SARKOZY: I really loved you
and I must say something also, governor, you've
been pranked by the Masked Avengers. We are two comedians from Montreal.
Even when the comedians refer to Hustler’s
Nailin Palin she doesn’t remotely get an inkling she’s being pranked. That
happens to be a porn video by Hustler with a Palin look-alike. Listen to the
full prank-call on YouTube
and read the transcripts HERE.
Fortunately for RG comedians and ordinary people don’t have such access to him,
else he would have been pranked many times over. Even otherwise the number of
jokes based on his silly utterances so far would have exceeded those made about
any other politician so far in Indian political history. The Twitter hashtags
#RahulFacts #YoRahulSoDumb far outnumber the jokes about Palin. Look them up
and enjoy.
This is the reason I find it extremely stupid that media celebs, many
of whom have studied in Oxford or Cambridge, cannot see RG for what he is and
still expect he will take up great challenges. Listen to Rajdeep again: “That
leaves, frankly, Rahul Gandhi as the only mascot available to a party in
crisis. Unfortunately, rather than see opportunity in adversity, Rahul has
chosen to play it safe …. As a start,
how about becoming the party leader in the Lok Sabha, a post lying vacant with
Pranabda’s exit”? Now tell me, how is this very observant and Numero Uno political analyst (Certified
as Numero Uno by India’s leading Scientist Sagarika Ghose) seeing anything
different than the cronies and sycophants in the Congress? Leader of the
Congress in Loksabha? Haha! RG’s record in the LS is perhaps the Koran for
Rajdeep. What else can explain the foolish suggestion to make him the Congress
party’s LS leader? One hand Rajdeep talks about young leaders in Congress and
like the sycophants his best option is a bimbo. And for all his lament, he and
his channel were the one who awarded RG the sham “Indian of the year” award in
2009. If you were the CEO would you hire Rajdeep as a talent-spotter in your
organisation?
The only type of people Congress breeds is sycophants, not leaders.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop at the party level. This extends to the media
and includes Rajdeep, Vinod ‘Smirk’
Sharma, Shekhar Gupta and who
can forget Barkha Darwin herself.
Every time elections are around I expect one more instalment of her effort to “evolve” RG. Admire her perseverance. So
if RG hasn’t still fully got the message that he’s India’s Sarah Palin it’s not
his party or Digvijay Singh or Khurshid to blame. It is the media crooks who
hope against hope that he will somehow evolve into the Great White hope.
Rajdeep talks about Rajiv Gandhi as PM at 40 and other younger presidents in
the US. For all the history that the media celebs study in Oxford and Cambridge
they don’t seem to remember that the youngest PM ever was William Pitt at age 24, who went on to lead Britain as PM for 17
years. Leadership qualities aren’t acquired at 40. They are acquired at a much
earlier age and demonstrated beyond doubt.
It is not these media celebs alone who want RG to take up a ‘Larger’ role (to quote another nosey starlet)
there are even those ‘intellectuals’
who write open letters to him to take up “Tomorrows
Battles”. How else do you explain a Think-Tanker like Pratap Bhanu Mehta writing that open letter almost exhorting
Rahul to lead his generation? Rajdeep also complains RG doesn't talk to the media. Is that so? I guess he's already forgotten the wonderful breakfast he had with RG, even tweeting that he had to suddenly rush to that secret breakfast press-meet of his. Any editor worth his salt would have declined such a rendezvous but our editors rushed to that silly meet. Then, some of them dropped tidbits from that meet to the public like crumbs from the table. So much for media's integrity. That's not RG's fault, it's mere coincidence that he also happens to live on 'Tughlak' street.
The biggest problem with people like Rajdeep Sardesai and others is
that they cannot even assess the Congress party without a reference to other
parties. Invariably, the mess in the Congress has to be measured against the
mess in BJP, NDA etc. Why should a party supposedly called the GOP be measured
against others who have come in many years later? Isn’t there good enough cause
to measure the sycophancy and dynastic nonsense on sound principles of organised
political parties? All this talk when
none of the media crooks wouldn’t even dare to write about Sonia Gandhi, her
illness, her secrecy or question her leadership. Fact is backseat driving
does not work in political leadership or any kind of leadership. To talk about
RG accepting greater responsibilities or role is to talk about another puppet
instead of Manmohan Singh. If the media really wants to assess the real issues
with the Congress it has to start with the top and that top is only one person;
Sonia Gandhi. The scared chickens
instead of nailing Sonia Gandhi’s failures juggle with words instead of balls to
find something to lament. Salman Khurshid is not an intelligent or
courageous man. If he had guts he should have said about Sonia Gandhi what he
said about RG.
Rajdeep and other cronies of Congress in the media can stop washing fake issues. Unlike these celebs, cartoonists say it a lot better with a simple
picture. No matter how much they plead, exhort, holler and have wet dreams about
Rahul Gandhi, he has repeatedly proved only one thing that Satish Acharya
demonstrates in his cartoon – It’s hard
to imagine a Ward Boy playing doctor. RG might have played the
doctor-doctor games as a kid probably but something has to be mentally wrong to be playing games at
42. That mental part is equally true for Rajdeep & Co.
PS: Sarah Palin is not running for President in 2012. And Sarkozy isn’t
President of France anymore either. Sad!
.
.
In addition to the cong has its credits with impregnation of the psychophants and cronies but surely not leaders- a punch indeed, it has also to its credit that the entire populace of this nation is addicted for freebies with which the corrupted gets elected and rule the roost. Unfortunately the nation is not like Bihar who are hot blooded indeed else these touts will face the Pappu Yadave fate.
ReplyDeleteShame on the cong regardless of their academic talent, masculinity administrative acumen compromised with an uneducated good sex, a bar dancer who anointed a cook as president albeit criminal cases and a corrupt as HC chairman and now the ISI head as President thus the temple of all highest institutions have been reduced to absurd with the help of four remaining buffoons. It is imperative to add that the EC too is reduced to a mockery by shirking its responsibility on the apex court thus the supervisory institutions have become a cow shed
Infact, I experienced exactly the same emotions while reading this piece by Rajdeep Sardesai. I am totally surprised why the Congress cannot look beyond the "first family" while choosing the leaders of the future. That ass Digvijay and other sycophants try to ordain Rahul Gandhi with qualities that he clearly doesn't possess. They find it hard to admit that the emperor really has no clothes. In fact, my neighbourhood monkeys share with him the only "quality" with which the nation identifies him . Both of them can drop in unexpected at your house and snatch your food.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, excellent analysis. I hope that Congress and its paid media are chastened into abandoning their obsession with a pretty mediocre man.
Let me tell you the reason why congress cannot see beyond "First family". I live in small place in UP where people are not at all aware what’s happening in this world. They are so concerned/busy for their livelihood; they don’t have resources or time to look anything else.
DeleteFew days back I asked an old lady to whom she will vote, U know her answer was "Indira Gandhi". Other man to whom I asked which all candidates are there in your constituency, he said “I don’t know about all, but I know one of them is Rahul Gandhi.”
There are thousands and lakhs of people like that who will only vote for the name of Gandhi, and there vote is equal to your vote or my vote.
I wud disagree a bit bro...India has become independent but most of the rural India hasn't. And this is exploited by most Congressmen and sycophant media. Whenever he is abt to visit a village, local Congressmen tell ppl that INDIRA's heir (Indira is the only popular Gandhi in rural India), next RULER is coming, he is ABOVE ALL OFFICERS who dont solve their prblms and he WILL SOLVE all their prblms....Then Bablu comes, villagers surround him and tell him their prblms, Rahul PROMISES that he will solve them once his party is in power (that's why he never visits farmers in Maharashtra) and media reports that he is popular, villagers love him, this that.......
DeleteThey r not fools but helpless ppl who r made to beleive that Rahul can bring them out of despair.
Their are good young politicians in CONgress like Scindia who are better educated, have sound knowledge and speak extempore in public which RG doesn't have but still the party wants him only as their next gen leader. I am also amazed at the Scindia's & Pilot's who are willing to serve under a Moron than say that they are much better qualified to lead the party than RG or are they worried that they might meet the same fate as their fathers.
ReplyDeleteHow I wish that post-1947 the name ‘congress’ was banned from being used up for political reasons by certain individuals! Pandit Nehru would have surely survived as a politician on his own merits, so would have been , Mrs Indira Feroze Ghandy. The present-day lot of chums are stirring up leaders out of this lady-on-her-inner-voice and her son, 'Cameo’ Rahul hoping for
ReplyDeletetheir own survival. Without the name ‘Congress’, these people along with Rahul would have certainly needed the political wisdom of somebody like Nehruji on their own to be in public life and to be in the government for this long. As luck have
it, the name ‘Congress’ is still a business proposition with a good number of BPL citizens subconsciously propping up and hence it’s the era of you-scratch-my-back and we-scratch-yours-in-unison, going on. As if, a good lump of opportunists from other spheres like industry and fourth-estate wouldn’t feel like being left out. Good for many like Rajdeep that it’s gala time to be saying the right things at the right place.
Outcome of propaganda : Rajdeep is an icon. He is successful. he is famous. He is articulate. People are in awe of him. He is refereed to as superstar of media.
ReplyDeleteTruth : He does not care about nation. He cares about himself. He is classic case how 99.9 % of people in this country go ashtray while going up.
Summary : Only rare people tread the path of truth and courage like Dr. Swamy. Success is achieved by compromise with conscience in this era where people of high character and moralistic upbringing get lost today. Corruption is a feather in the cap. People thinking about nation, society, corruption less India are lampooned as impractical and moral police.
All I can do is : I take oath to raise awareness on my individual level and ask others to do the same without fear of embarrassment
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/shoot-me-the-messenger/974161/0
ReplyDeleteThen what is it that we want? And do we really need something to regulate ourselves, to hold us accountable? Why are we journalists — having come out in the open, and discovered the unprecedented, unchallenged expanse of our freedoms — behaving as if we are suddenly struck with stage-fright? Or, could it just be that we are carrying a bad conscience, which is making us talk of regulation of some sort, as if to seek anticipatory bail, if not a full plea bargain.
While there is a lot of praise for the great work the media has done in busting corruption, fighting social evils and improving transparency and accountability, our arrogance has grown into hubris. No medium can claim to be holier than the other. Paid news is the greatest crime in the history of the Indian media, it still goes on, is mostly monopolised by print. Sponsored pages, advertorials and product placements are published by many without even a hint of disclosure. People are not stupid. They notice and they are angry. There is no point then saying that, oh, this is a terrible thing, I know, but what can I do, at least I never do this. [b]But people do not make such distinctions between good and bad guys. They think that we, by and large, have become dishonest and greedy. People also know the growing new phenomenon in Indian media, where several owners have acquired interests in businesses much more lucrative than the media, but where their newspapers and channels can be force-multipliers. [/b]Think of mining, property, power plants, all kinds of new money-printing areas where governments retain great discretionary powers. Fourth estate to real estate (and also vice versa) is the new ticket to riches in the media. [color=#BF0000][b]You travel around the country, particularly the Hindi heartland, and ordinary people will let you know they are not missing any of this.[/b][/color]
People watch this too and, while they are angry with the political classes, they are getting fed up with our arrogance too.
Our lifeline, that social contract with the people of India, is, therefore, under strain. It’s not just a contract, it’s the foundation of our democracy, the guarantor of the people’s right to know. Regulation will have the chilling power of prior restraint, often considered the worst form of censorship, where you gag yourself, where you don’t publish because you don’t know how the regulator — government, judicial, expert, call it whatever — will react. Any regulator will, by its very existence, need to define who a journalist is — for him or her to be regulated. In other words, not just the newsroom’s freedoms but everyone’s freedom of expression will be put to test. The answers lie with us. We have to introspect, clean up our act, bring back the old-fashioned editorial intermediation to our newsrooms. Of course, we will only be held accountable to our own audiences, and we have to go back to them with some humility.
Rajdeep talks about Rajeev Gandhi becoming PM in a very tough period. But he fails to talk about thousands of Sikhs butchered by Congressi party workers. Had he got any opportunity to talk about say Y2K problem, or Kargil war or 9/11 or even Tehelka tapes he surely would have somehow linked the Gujarat riots with them.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful analogy...
ReplyDeleteUntil i started logged on to twitter and started browsing blogs like yours I kept thinking that I was missing something very obvious about the abilities and achievements of Rahul Gandhi. Why do Sonia and Rahul never comment on any significant matters related to the country? I kept imaginining that there was some deeper meaning to it. I now realize that it was case of incompetence and ignorance of the country's affairs. With the help of the MSM, Congress has successfully created a mystique around their first family duo.
ReplyDeleteHello Ravi, As usual cogent observations and lucid pithy comments. This reminds of - " The anachronism of modern liberalism is that it elevates scoundrels to be heroes, and denigrates heroes into scoundrels. And when it cannot do that, liberalism simply lies." No wonder the Liberal Secular Brigade lies...and lies daily, with a reason and without a reason too.
ReplyDeleteIntelligence and erudite qualities of SK are too well known and were on display when same SK - a freshly minted Law Minister, was reduced to a go-between Team Anna and Government. The way and the purpose for which his Intelligence or Erudite qualities were applied for is not so stale in our memory.
But come on Ravi...let us be liberal and accept that Rajdeep has his own choice. If his choices turn out not-to-our liking, that's a matter of our freedom of thinking.
And I say why talk about Acumen & Intelligence of Congressmen? Entire world has witnessed it often to deserve any repetition. Facts remain that Sycophancy is the principle attribute to enter, sustain and survive or rise as a Congressman.
Long live RG and long live [?] the Utopia of Unchallenged Rule of the First [and hopefully the last] Dynasty. Regards - KRV
Awaiting your analysis of Assam Girl Molestation story with regards to misdeeds of journalists.
ReplyDeleteDear Ravinar,
ReplyDeleteThe real problem with Indian democracy was & Is that Strong leaders are not allowed to come to power by the vested interest so that they can continue to plunder the system. Making Rahul Gandhi the PM is a dream of all such bastards. No matter how idiot or immature Rahul is he would still be made into PM by the rich & powerful.
Small mistake. William Pitt was 24 when he became PM.
ReplyDeleteThanks - Corrected...
Delete