Bansal & Bed-ridden Media

In an article somewhat critical of Manmohan Singh Rajdeep Sardesai now finds his silence a curse. In June 2011 the MMS made an extraordinary promise that he would meet the press every week. He started off the first with a private, closed-door meeting with five hand-picked editors who were practically Congress spokies in the media. I had called it “friendly fire”. Nobody really knows what questions were asked and what answers MMS had offered. And that was that. Since then MMS hasn’t spoken to the media again except in his flights. A few months prior to June in February 2011 MMS had held a televised meeting, again with hand-picked editors. While Rajdeep writes “Silence as a curse” in his home paper of Hindustan Times I wonder if he ever reads the comments on his article. When I last checked a few days ago the following comments were on top of the list:

The third comment says Rajdeep is actually covering up the Himalayan deficiencies of MMS. The media had hailed an ordinary babu and a puppet as a great economic reformer and architect of the reforms. This is a lie that the entire Indian MSM, Rajdeep included, has peddled all these years. The Congress party had wiped out Narasimha Rao from their history because he was not a “Gandhi”. But people are indeed slowly starting to realise that Rao was the real architect of the reforms which were also triggered by other compulsions. MMS was just a senior clerk implementing these measures. It is now also widely known that far from being a free-market supporter, MMS was a socialist more suited to the large govt and doles philosophy of the Congress. And silence? That is precisely the reason Sonia Gandhi chose him as PM. To keep his mouth shut, to bury his conscience. Simon Denyer was more direct when he called MMS a “tragic failure”.

The first comment in the box drives home an important message. “Any journalist who is soft on ruling party is corrupt” it says. I cannot help agreeing. This describes the Indian MSM perfectly. They are slaves to the Congress and the ruling UPA. Rajdeep is nothing more than an English speaking Laloo who is a slave of the Congress party. Time and again, in every scam, in every crisis his channel and also other media outlets have spent their time finding faults with other parties instead of keeping a watch on the ruling party. And then Rajdeep gets upset because people question his “integrity and credibility”. Rajdeep forgets that all his staunch critics were also his one-time admirers. Frankly, if Rajdeep is such a moron that he still believes all the myths about MMS being honest, a great economist or reformer, then he’s not a journalist but a bed-fellow of the Congress. He is just another Mulayam Singh or Laloo Prasad. They support the Congress for the same reasons that Rajdeep defends the crimes of Congress and MMS and washes their sins with clever words.

Being an embedded reporter has its own problems. You soon become the team or the party. This is what CNN-IBN reporter Pallavi Ghosh frequently shows in her messages. When Pawan Bansal’s nephew was arrested in the bribery case for railways appointments she tells us how earnest the guy is. Surely, corrupt people don’t wear a badge do they? None in the media wants to ask how a nephew can effect senior appointments in the Railways Board without the connivance of a top minister. Secondly, the men who were paying such huge bribes are certainly not fools to pay these to a person unless they were certain he can deliver results. This was a deal running into crores and cannot be anything but a national racket. But CNN-IBN and their sisters will tell you “Pawan Bansal is innocent”. HeadlinesToday reported that his nephew, Vikas Singla, was a frequent guest at Rail Bhawan and was always closeted with Bansal. Ah well, I guess they must be discussing what to cook for dinner in the night or who to invite. There’s a reason I keep repeating that the MSM is the first line of defence for the corrupt.

What about CNN-IBN’s sister channel NDTV? Both are members of the unholy trinity that includes Hindustan Times, which is their mother-paper in print. When people from NDTV and CNN-IBN find time, you can usually find them in Hindustan Times. NDTV is now famous for giving clean chits to the corrupt, providing platforms for the tainted to shed tears and often quoting “sources” to plant stories in the public. By now almost everyone knows who their “source” in their cabinet is. A few days back NDTV put out news about Army’s proposals to the Cabinet on dealing with the Chinese incursion in Ladakh. You have to be a bed-mate of the Congress to be getting such leaks from the highest levels. I don’t think anyone needs to be an Einstein to guess who these “sources” are. And as with PallaviG of CNN-IBN they also claim Bansal is not connected to the bribery. The trick is to attribute the remark to some unverifiable “source” so that the channel can pass it off as “news” and not as their personal defence of Bansal.

The other trick NDTV employs is to always describe any crime or scam by the Congress or UPA as an “allegation”. They are all innocent, aren’t they? And some people are just making allegations. Take a look at this headline from the Bansal bribery case:

It is a report by Sunetra Chaudhary and another. It screams the bribery is an “allegation”. Wow! The CBI catches Singla red-handed with cash of 90 lakhs. Books him for bribery and arrests him and on May 4 he was presented in court. He is an “accused” with some serious evidence. But for NDTV, this is mere “allegation”. This “source” and “allegation” trickery of NDTV is now a joke on the social media. You sleep with someone in an illicit relationship you are naturally going to defend that person at any cost. Wouldn’t they? That’s what NDTV frequently does.

Our news channels, particularly CNN-IBN and NDTV, have gone far beyond being embedded reporters and channels. They are sick and termite-infested like the Congress and UPA. They have now extinguished any semblance of reporting or journalism from their menu. They are as bed-ridden as the conscience of Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and the Congress.