Delhi Protests - Lumpens In The Media

A few top guys in an office on the sixth floor of a semi-govt company used to work late often. This was at Nariman Point in Mumbai. So these 4-5 guys use to dip their hands in the office petty cash and order beer. The peon used to go and get the stuff for them. It was a regular practice and was on for years. The vouchers were made with fake bills and the auditors never found anything wrong or unusual in the expenses. This went on for 7 years till a junior auditor came along and found some vouchers with unfair expenses. The peon regularly claimed taxi fare to and from the company’s bank for daily transactions. On seeking a clarification from the manager, the auditor got the reply that there are no autos around Nariman Point and buses take a long time so it was fair for the peon to take a taxi every day. The junior auditor said “no, no, I’m asking why is he claiming taxi fare and why does he need a taxi”. The irritated manager again explained the difficult situation around Nariman Point with commuting. The auditor then told him: “But sir, your office is on the 6th floor and your bank is on the ground floor, so why a taxi at all”? Oops!  

If the management guys are looting the company then they have to take care of the little guy. They have to allow the peon his little share of looting. That’s a reasonably good value system, isn’t it? Be fair in looting! It’s a value system that govts share with the media too. The govt is the big guy and some channels are like the peons. So if the govt is into misdeeds then it allows some news channels to have their share of misdeeds and corruption. These news channels are the peons of the management in the govt. It is rare for the little guy to expose the misdeeds of the boss. That driver screwing his boss with a video of his sexcapades is an oddity. The guy was an unusual lousy boss who didn’t pay well for his secrets. But not the govt peons from the media, they’re paid well. They are paid well not only to keep secrets but also to defend the govt no matter what. The story in the first para is neither a joke nor fake. It’s time to take a detour.  

On December 22 people of Delhi were out on the streets protesting the brutal gang-rape and assault of a 23-year old woman on a bus. Thousands were out at India Gate and up the path to Rashtrapati Bhawan in protest. Their outrage was justified and the protests seemed spontaneous. Delhi-ites are sick to the bone with crimes, especially rape and assaults on women. Yet someone in the media could only hear of “drunken lumpens” among the protesters. You know, like lumpens who rape and assault women on buses and throw them on to the streets to die. The police had to lathi charge some of these lumpens. Yeah, why not! Take a look at the two pics below:

One is of a gentleman using a lathi and destroying the AmarJawan memorial in Mumbai during the Azad Maidan protests in August 2012. The police were kind to the civilised protesters at Azad Maidan then. The second pic is that of a lumpen element being lathi-charged by a policeman. You can take one look and tell that the lady being beaten up is drunk. Can’t you? Well, many such “drunken lumpens” had infiltrated the protesting crowds in Delhi so naturally Barkha Dutt was very disturbed. She went on a tweet-spree about these lumpens.

Barkha got feedback from her reporter that drunken lumpens had infiltrated the crowds and was naturally keen to let her friends know about the dangers. She first tweets quite pragmatically. Then she tweets to another friend called Prasanto. Both Barkha and Prasanto are “rabid mutual ass-lickers”. Don’t ask but I can tell these things. So it is safe to assume that the guy at Azad Maidan is a nice gentleman because he is “secular” and the lady being beaten up by the policeman is probably a drunken lumpen. In any metro city it is quite likely there are always certain lumpen elements hanging around in some corner, lurking for the moment and their prey. They can be on the streets, on trains and buses and even in media studios. So why is it so shocking for Barkha? No, wait! First, outside Safdurjang hospital it’s only drunken lumpens and no protesters. Dangerous, isn’t it? But on second thoughts, in the next tweet, she makes concessions: “some of the crowds” are lumpens, not all.  

Chaprasis have to often defend their bosses at all times. They may have various incentives to do so. If necessary, they can create suspicion, spread alarming falsehoods and even outright lies. It comes with the job. You try and point a finger at their boss and you will find yourself painted as the most uncouth, uncivilised character that possibly could be. Sometimes it can be mere loyalty. Let’s move on.

So the friend tweets and asks Barkha “how will social and physical disorder in public spaces achieve public order”? Good question! And Barkha instantly agrees. “Exactly” she says, like she was making the same point. Considering drunken lumpens had infiltrated the crowds the danger of some impending disaster was palpable. The protest was for security of women, to prevent crimes against women and it would be a tragedy if some crime were to happen during the protest itself. Wouldn’t it? I guess, they should have first consulted Barkha and her cronies on what would be the best way to protest. After all, Barkha does have experience of being in the midst of protests and reporting, doesn’t she? No, no, not from Jantar Mantar or India Gate but from another place. It’s called Tahrir Square and it’s in ancient Egypt. These people should have learned from Barkha about “secular” protests and how to treat women and stuff.

In February 2011 Barkha tweeted and dismissed fears about the Muslim Brotherhood, the radical Islamic group, taking over Egypt. Barkha and her Fiberals were convinced Egypt was turning into a liberal democracy. But that’s hardly the point, eh? The point is about those loverly protesters at Tahrir Square. “Woh Tahrir waale kahan aur yeh India Gate waale kahan”. No comparison at all. Tahrir wins hands down. You see, at Tahrir the young people cut across all class types. Oh, not to forget, they were “secular”. Which in the words of our Fiberals means they are cultured and well-behaved, unlike the uncivilised lumpens at India Gate or Safdurjang who deserved to be lathi-charged and water-cannoned by the police. Egypt, as an Islamic majority nation, frequently targets Coptic Christians for violence, burns their churches and is now turning into more of an Islamic state than it ever was before. But to Barkha, they are “secular” and there were apparently no lumpen elements in all the crowds she met. Is that really true? And despite the massive presence of Army at Tahrir who didn’t assault the crowds, our police with their water-cannons and lathis were far more civilised. Right?  

We had our drunken lumpens in the bus who raped and have nearly murdered a woman. Lara Logan of CBS, a woman who belongs to Barkha’s professional community, had a very different experience though. On February 11, around the same period Barkha was in Egypt, Logan was attacked by Barkha’s “secular” crowds at Tahrir. She was assaulted and molested. In Logan’s own words:  "For an extended period of time, they raped me with their hands. My clothes were torn to pieces...what really struck me was how merciless they were. They really enjoyed my pain and suffering. It incited them to more violence”. Writing anymore on this incident would be too graphic. But hey, they weren’t drunken lumpens like the ones at Safdurjang or India Gate and they were “secular”. Of all the Tahrir Square reports, I’m not sure I’ve read one from Barkha about Lara Logan.

Someone mentioned the term ‘MacaulayPutras’ to describe the elites. The Delhi protests brought out the contempt that one such MacaulayPutri, Barkha Dutt, holds for ordinary people when they are up against the govt she serves through her channel. Oh yes, if the govt is the boss it is fair to call NDTV the Chaprasi. The Chaprasi that will speak for, twist and spin issues on behalf of the govt. Not surprisingly, the only ones seeing lumpens are from NDTV as Maya Mirchandani tweeted. And the guy the channel was speaking to when the lathi-charge and water-cannons fired? Of course, MoS for Home, the Honourable RPN Singh! Yes, the same guy who kicked people on November 14, 2011 when RahulG started his UP campaign at Phulpur. In any other democracy RPN would have been in jail but he’s a minister in the Congress govt and, of course, Barkha is a Padma Shri.

Even a foreign journalist, Andrew Buncombe didn’t miss it. Vishnu Som, who was on the ground and reporting, perhaps suggested the ‘protesters have lost the plot’. Like most ordinary people even Buncombe didn’t miss the disgusting moronery of NDTV. He tweeted to call NDTV govt spokies. He is being kind. I have called them for what they are; peons. On December 22, the real drunken lumpens weren’t on the streets; they were in the studios of NDTV and in the heads of their propagandists, led by their chief-propagandist.