Barkha Falls Deeper

For a long time, though NDTV's reporting was dubious no one could say anything as Prannoy, Barkha and Rajdeep had become stars. Arnab then was left to anchor smaller shows by StarNews/NDTV. As it went on I instinctively knew there is something wrong with the channel and its reporters. They weren’t merely critcising the ABV govt, they were running a campaign against it. Even that seemed fine. On a different note to begin with - bear in mind, all the members of the Commie-media mafia routinely get awards of some kind by rotation. Arnab is the only one that doesn't get such awards despite having the highest popular viewership.

It was from Gujarat 2002 that I was convinced these guys were indeed out with sinister motives. I have watched Rajdeep and Barkha reporting from Ahmedabad and other cities of Gujarat and their reporting could be only be described as more incitement. NDTV became a separate, new channel around 2003. It has been downhill ever since then.  Arnab left for Timesnow around 2005 and Rajdeep for CNNIBN around 2007, I think. In 2004 the Congress came to power and Prannoy, Barkha, Rajdeep assumed extraordinary powers. Their BOSSES had come to power and there was no one to stop them. Since then, I have observed all of them and their reporting and their shows. Let’s keep the focus here on Barkha, since she’s the one who’s been ranting lately. Let’s do a roll call:

I have always wondered why the most tainted Congis or Muslims find a platform with her or with NDTV. Think of Suresh Kalmadi of CWG, Shashi Tharoor of IPL scam, Hindu-hater like Zakir Naik. It made me write “Tainted? Have a chat with Barkha”

Then there was this constant hounding of Narendra Modi, with no evidence, by hosting tainted characters like Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi, Sanjiv Bhatt. It’s a long list. They failed when the “SC exposed media’s clean shit”.

I could go on and on and on and this post would almost become a book. One of the most foolish moments in Barkha’s career has to be her reporting of the 26/11 attacks. She reached Mumbai on the second day and from the start she was panting breathlessly, dramatic, full of movie-like histrionics. She asked stupid questions to friends and relatives of the hostages and even disclosing their locations. Thus, that was the first incident of “Terror support service” even if unwittingly.

Chaitanya Kunte, a blogger, was so alarmed that he chronicled every act of Barkha with updates and indicated the damage she could have caused and how she and NDTV would have ended up helping the terrorists. Barkha sued him and forced him to remove the blog and even apologise for narrating facts. For all her tall talk of freedoms and FoE. The SC comments on media over 26/11 while sentencing Ajmal Kasab vindicated what Kunte had written. Kunte disappeared but his blog didn’t. You can read it here. This angered many people around the world, including me and more people started realising the dubious nature of NDTV’s reporting, political affiliation and influence. Barkha had instantly become ordinary people’s enemy in media. That was merely the start. Before long NDTV came to be perceived as “Anti-India” and it’s not people’s fault at all:

The Congress returned to power again in 2009. By now Barkha had acquired Queen status in the media and anyone who criticised or questioned her was termed an “abusive troll”. The Congress successfully managed to build a coterie of reporters, activists and assorted Babus and legal guys who worked to keep any other formation from coming to power. Barkha could walk through any corridor of the govt anytime, she could eat Golgappas at the PM’s party and through connections had also become an international personality. No matter what her crime, nothing bothered her. Then Radiagate happened.

In November 2010 her conversations with PR broker Niira Radia were out in the open. She was constantly on phone with Radia on Cabinet formation and ministries to be shared between Congress and DMK. For all the dope she knew, Barkha reported none of it as any journo should have. And all Barkha nonchalantly said was that she was “Stringing along” a source and had done nothing wrong. Brazen! When outrage grew NDTV ran a Kangaroo court with a bunch of other journalists and Barkha merely said it was “an error of judgement”. No regrets, no apologies – Nothing! By now SM started growing and more and more people could see that she was brazen, vicious, had no respect for any ethics and didn’t care two hoots about any ordinary opinion. She had reached the pinnacle of political power. In other words, she was “untouchable” with close relations with politicians on every side. In any other democracy, she would have been sacked and prosecuted for Radiagate. Not under Congress. This cartoon exposed the deadly nexus of journos-brokers-politicians better than anything else:

Throughout her career a common thread was the way she reported events in Kashmir. She constantly portrayed terrorists as victims, security forces as aggressors and frequently featured separatists and Hurriyat guys on her shows. She let them present their views without too many hard questions. And by now she had become a close chummy of Congress guys and later the AAP guys (when Congress started fading):

It is fair for a journalist to keep good relations with all politicians and interact with them as needed. But to become as chummy as Barkha is with many politicians is the typical Lutyens-Power-corridor-crawler. She is not alone, there are many, but she exemplified it the most. No law, No professional code, No editorial norms could touch her. And she continued her merry ways – Reporting from conflict sites, easy and unlimited access to armed forces installations and high officials, biased reporting in favour of Muslims, turning Dadri like incidents into a political campaign, reckless leaking of army movements and locations. She got more and more brazen with each passing day. She was confident even the new ModiSarkar couldn’t do anything.

Come July 2016 another terrorist called Burhan Wani was shot and eliminated by our armed forces. He was supposedly the “Commander” of the Hizbul Mujahideen (God knows how many factions these terrorists have out there). This was Barkha’s response to it in a tweet:

Wani was the son of a headmaster. He was a “Commander” of an army maybe Barkha recognised as official. He was SM-savvy and used it as a weapon of war. Mind you, he didn’t use guns or grenades – he used “SM as weapon of war”. The shit had really hit the fan this time and there was no more any doubt whose side this woman was on. Any lingering doubt was removed. Let me introduce you to this honourable “Commander” Wani:

Those SM bullets of his are from a site called “Satyavijayi” since his account is as dead as he is. Not once did Barkha describe this guy as a terrorist or a militant. She received a sound thrashing from SM over this but when did public opinion ever matter to her. She had her vast coterie of media friends, political friends and connections and public opinions were best suited for the garbage bin unless they were showering accolades on her. So she went on again to Kashmir after Wani’s death to report on the unrest. She even tweeted mobile and phone networks were down but only WIFI was working at her hotel. She leaks such information at a sensitive time. She interviews boys hurt by pellets and creates an emotional story of how educated boys, toppers of their stream had to pick up guns and so on. All typically histrionic, dramatic and laden with melodrama as has been throughout her career.

A few months prior, reporting from the Pathankot site of a terror attack she was still doing the same drama. Reporting on incidents she shouldn’t have and breaking all codes of reporting from a conflict site. The GOI issued a notice to NDTV for this breach. What could GOI do? NDTV and Barkha were powers way beyond anyone and above any law. She even tweeted additional forces were being rushed to Kashmir to quell the unrest and bring back law and order. I am quite certain that all the terrorists, trouble-makers do read tweets on the issue and they rely on the likes of Barkha to educate them on troop movements. It’s a gift.

And then the pin dropped and the grenade exploded

Maybe JuD chief Hafiz Saeed too reads her tweets and articles regularly. NDTV is also the only Indian channel allowed in Pakistan (at least it was). Later in July on a TV show Hafiz showered praise on Barkha for her great work on the struggles Kashmiris face from an aggressive BJP govt which has no respect for human rights. All her awards, her Padma Shri and all paled into insignificance in 20 seconds flat. She had received the highest accolade no journalist has ever received – recognition from a dreaded terrorist. Journalists have interviewed Osama Bin Laden but received no such recognition from him.

Elsewhere Arnab Goswami, who was earlier trolled serverely by the Commie-media mafia because he got an interview with the PM in June was now armed and red-hot. He would let fly his most aggressive tirade against the pro-Pak stooges in Indian media, NGOs and politics. His 4.28 minutes tirade with the tag #ProPakDovesSilent over revelations by Hafiz went viral and found applause from a vast majority of Indians who were tired of the Pak stooges all around Delhi, the media and NGOS everyday trashing our Jawans and sometimes the country itself. This was one serious and deadly blow to the entire filthy lot. And it wasn’t the govt or a court that did it. It was the one the Pak stooges were indirectly feeding and supporting through their statements, articles and tweets – A terrorist chief. In slamming the pro-Pak slaves Arnab did not mention any names.

The only one to take it as a personal attack was Barkha Dutt. Maybe guilt forced her too. She has been perceived as Pro-Pak, Pro-Separatists and Arnab appears to have hit hard at her guilt since she was the only one mentioned by Hafiz. Since that day, she has been ranting on Facebook, on NDTV blog and in over 60 tweets and RTs on SM. This time there is no going back. The damage is beyond repair. She sought the support of all and sundry from her coterie to help her make this a war against Arnab but not many were willing to come forward, not even her old chum Rajdeep Sardesai. 

It is obvious that she wants her stupid war with Arnab (who is not a participant at all) to be the news rather than the admiration of Hafiz for her. She spared no effort to paint Arnab as anti-journalists, anti-media and anti-freedom. Nobody was willing to buy her rubbish except a few of her handful cronies. Worse awaited Barkha. Turns out that the unrest she so passionately covered was orchestrated and paid for by none other than Hafiz Saeed. He revealed this in a speech that was aired on Timesnow. And local Khilafa-aspirant Assiyeh Andrabi coordinated it with Hafiz.

On her Facebook post many slammed her severely and the comments are harsh and too many for me to reproduce. Readers can check those on her FB page. Not many Indians stand with her. The ones most on her side appear to be Pakistanis. That should give her some solace. Perception matters. People called her a Pak stooge for a long time because of the perception she created. She could have altered course. She did not give a damn. But Hafiz confirmed what everyone thought she was doing. Reckless reporting, tweeting of information and whipping up of emotions that can even lead to more unrest. She didn’t care two hoots. Did she have access and contacts with guys like Hafiz? Maybe, maybe not. But a lot of journalists do have contacts with terrorists, militants and state enemies and they are entitled to it and to protect their sources for reporting. Look at this pic again of a moronic Track2 nonsense of which Barkha was a part:

The guy second from right, Ved Pratap, had even met Hafiz Saeed while in Pakistan. Arnab savaged this guy too on his show then.  Are people duffers to imagine others in the group did not know about his visit? If this not-so-known guy can have access to Hafiz why is it wrong to believe folks like Barkha, Padgaonkar or Sudheen Kulkarni too could have contacts or access. It is a reasonably fair assumption to make. She has made quite a few trips to Pakistan. As far as I know most of the visits were not journalistic expeditions. There are no reports from her on her trips or at least I am not aware of those. In a panel discussion on a Pak channel she stated that then PM Yusuf Gilani had told her the agreement on Sir Creek was ready and that he was just waiting for a visit by MMS to sign it. Such is her audacity to comment on disputed issues. 

Silence would have been a smarter move. But Barkha desperately wants to make Arnab the “villain of the whole Commie media mafia”. She even lies repeatedly that Arnab wanted to gag the media. She wants to get rid of the guilt of Hafiz Saeed recognising her as indirectly serving his cause and wants to make Arnab the villain. But Arnab, with his honourable silence over her stupid rants, has now become an even bigger hero for having exposed the slimy Pak stooges in India. The usual suspects to stand by Barkha in her mindless rants are the same who blow trumpets for Pakistan all the time and are featured in this cartoon by Kureel:

Now why does Barkha get appreciated by Pakistanis and even Hafiz Saeed? Pollster Yashwant Deshmukh had the most simple answer that common sense can understand easily:

What no law, no editors guild or govt could do, Hafiz Saeed accomplished in 20 seconds. And in her mindless stupid rants, bordering on vicious abuse of Arnab, Barkha falls deeper and deeper into her self-dug hole. Someone certified by Hafiz Saeed cannot claim to be talking about journalism, ethics, nuances, freedom of speech, freedom of media as a cover-up. Barkha cannot claim to speak for Indian media. It won’t sell. This time, there will no saviour or redemption. And there is nothing to save her from. At least not easily as in the past.