CNN-IBN - The Dirty Awards

J.Jayalalitha, Jairam Ramesh, Mamata Banerjee, Salman Khurshid, Arun Jaitley/Sushma Swaraj and Tarun Gogoi. What do these names have in common? Easy – they are all politicians. Some of them are chief ministers of some states. And they are all going to be part of a most shameful act in a democracy – sham awards titled “Indian of the year” by a news channel. Of course, this is not the first time that CNN-IBN is handing out these awards and also not the only channel. Their mirror channel NDTV was the one to start this shameful practice some years ago. A few weeks back NDTV hurriedly gave out these awards in October, although they excluded politicians this year.

One must recall the Indian of the year awards handed out to Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar and other politicians by these news channels. Can’t say there’s a connection but under the Congress govt. at the centre people like Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai have received the Padma awards. That’s like politicians and news media scratching each other’s backs. Ironically, the new tagline for CNN-IBN is “the most awarded channel”. (They seem to have dropped the previous “whatever it takes” line.)

Last year I wrote the post “CNN-IBN– Indian Of The Year–The Sham Awards” on the same topic. It is one thing for a news channel to hand out awards to sportsmen, businessmen and others but altogether a different thing to hand out awards to the very people they are supposed to keep a watch on and report. Jairam Ramesh is on the list of CNN-IBN for the second years running. Arun Jaitley & Sushma Swaraj are clubbed together as one entity. The reasons are not important. The Radiagate incident has exposed the nexus between media and politicians and these sham awards are a furtherance of the continuing nonsense by CNN-IBN.

Since giving the ‘Indian of the year’ award to Rahul Gandhi for 2009, CNN-IBN has subsequently questioned whether he has a vision for India. The channel is on record stating they have no idea of his views on various national issues. None of this occurred to them before bestowing a silly award on him. What is equally shameful is the manner in which media celebs like Barkha and Rajdeep address various politicians. Barkha addresses CM Nitish Kumar as ‘Nitish’ like he were an old classmate of hers. The news media is yet to evolve a protocol on how to address public servants and politicians. Rarely do you hear them addressing senior public servants as sir, mr or madam. That is the kind of superior and powerful position they have accorded to themselves.  A previous article by regular blogger V. Gopalakrishnan on the topic, “Media awards to public servants – a crying shame” is also worth reading.

What the politicians, who equally, shamefully accept such sham awards from the news media,  miss is an important aspect of who funds these awards and shows. These are ‘sponsored’ honours which no politician or public servant should ever accept. The list is long: SRM University (a university?), Hindustan Times, ONGC, Mint, Hindustan, Swarovski, Ford, Parker, Sensodyne, Chivas (liquor brand), GE and some more. In short, it’s just another money-making business for the channel which public servants should be avoiding.

The practice of news media handing out awards to public servants and politicians while they are still active is one of the most unethical practices of the Indian media. You may not find this in most mature democracies. TIME magazine does have a ‘Person of the year’ lead story but that is only to acknowledge the impact of an individual on the world during the year. It does not involve handing out some award or some ceremony. I can’t also understand the title of ‘Indian of the year’! What the hell is that? Fair to have a sportsperson of the year or businessman of the year from India but that certainly doesn’t make the person Indian of the year. This is clearly an insult to all other Indians, many of whom do make extra-ordinary contribution to society. Which is enough reason for me to call these the ‘Dirty Awards’.

Most of all, in the politician category, I can even predict the winner. Well, it’s a simple toss-up between Mamata Banerjee and J. Jayalalitha. Why? Because they have swept the state elections this year. And all possibilities are it will be Mamata Banerjee for her accomplishment of ending the three-decade old CPM rule in Bengal. If you know any of these politicians or can communicate with them do make sure to advise them not to accept these awards. These dirty awards are merely another form of media corruption.

India Undone

I am an admirer of Gurcharan Das’ writings. A marketing expert, a good journalist and an insightful writer. Sometime around 2000 I read his wonderful book ‘India Unbound’ about India’s journey from political independence in 1947 to economic liberation in 1991. The book was written nine years after the economic reforms were started by the Narasimha Rao government. Of course, the Congress and the media have connived to deprive Rao of any credit and continue to tout current PM Manmohan Singh as the architect of reforms. This lie continues to be perpetrated by the media. Gurcharan Das’ book is quite a must read to understand how people of an entrepreneurial nation were shackled by communist tendencies and the licence Raj. The book is a journey of frustration, hope, inspiration and aspirations of a nation. Indians were just about turning the corner.

India Unbound

If one goes back to 1991 it was just about the time when new TV channels, newspapers and magazines started coming into the market, followed by the internet and dot com boom. Coke and Pepsi were back. Star TV, Zee TV were among the first to hog your TV. Since then we now have well over 300 channels, national, regional and local. Even the local cablewallahs ran their own channels. These are just a few examples. Hope floated for millions. IT industry opened up the global age for Indians and talk of India becoming a super-power was being touted. A few years prior to 1991 the Telecom revolution was the first to touch the lives of Indians in every corner of the country. That was a singularly great accomplishment.

Twenty years since the reforms began it now seems that the reforms haven’t dynamically changed lives for most of our common men, women and children. It is hard not to deny that the reforms have led to nothing but crony capitalism. Population explosion, farmer suicides, stock market scams and corruption are the items that make the most headlines. If not these, then it’s the obsession with Cricket and Bollywood though these aren’t harmful in anyway.

The new century is dominated by two significant traits – the sacrifice of ethics and a culture of greed. We have people in politics, business and the media who constantly claim to love India and yet do everything that is anti-Indian. The PM, the leader of the nation, is seen as a wimp who will tolerate anything to merely survive in office. We have an extra-constitutional office called ‘Chairperson of the UPA’ with enormous powers and absolutely no constitutional responsibility.  In the face of dying farmers we have had campaigns like ‘India Shining’ and now in the face of unprecedented corruption we are still running  ‘Incredible India’. The single biggest debilitating crime has to be corruption. Corruption eats away a nation, destroys patriotism, breeds terrorism and destroys the security and defence of the country. And there are media-men like Raghav Bahl who talk of ‘Superpower’ as do many others. 

The media, like Rajdeep Sardesai stated before, is under an illusion that people crave only for sensationalism, cricket and bollywood. A crumbling, deceitful and power-brokering media are sure indications of a banana republic. The number of journals or TV channels owned by politicians is on the rise, particularly in the south. Communist-style propaganda is what our media practices. And to top it all people like Rajdeep Sardesai even blame ordinary people for all the corruption.

I am reminded of a famous scene from the movie ‘The American President’, where in a crisis situation an aide tells the president how people ‘drink sand’:

Presidential aide Lewis Rothschild (Michael J. Fox): You have a deeper love of this country than any man I've ever known. And I want to know what it says to you that in the past seven weeks, 59% of Americans have begun to question your patriotism. They don't have a choice! Bob Rumson is the only one doing the talking! People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

The President (Michael Douglas): Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.

That’s right, a majority of Indian people don’t know the difference Mr. Sardesai and Mr. PM. If they are constantly fed a diet of scams, masala news, false promises and a blatant disregard for the law, they will be tempted to get used to it and drink the sand. Not because it quenches their thirst, but because people in the public domain have fed them nothing else.

Some statistics are daunting. Unemployment has grown from around 6% in 1995 to around 9% in 2010 in the employable workforce. From a ranking of 66/85 in the Corruption Perception Index in 1998, India is now ranked 87/178 countries in 2010. Constantly talking about the GDP growth rate or the boom in the stock markets is the kind of ‘sand in your face’ that hides everything else. Corruption has become the staple diet of all major players in the public domain. There is nowhere for the common man to turn to. This fallen complaint box says it much better than words can.

At this current state of the nation the most important reform required is not in the economic domain. It is our justice system. A revolution is required to modernise and reform our justice system and courts. Freedom and liberty mean nothing when the judiciary has crumbled. The media and those in public life should be clamouring, campaigning and shouting from the rooftops for urgent reform and modernisation of our courts and justice system. This should be the highest priority for the government.

We will now have over a month of Cricket to put everything else on a back burner. You can rest assured our media will faithfully splurge on the big bucks of Cricket. It could also well be a much desired respite for the UPA government from all the scam and corruption charges. And at the end of the tournament we can get back to where we were. It may not be long before Gurcharan Das is forced to write a sequel to his book I referred earlier. 

This time I have chosen the title for him – ‘India Undone’!

                                                                                                                                                                    

Anti-Indian Of The Year 2010

I must clarify at the outset that being Anti-Indian is not the same as being Anti-India. Since TV channels and many media outlets offer sham awards to politicians like ‘Indian of the year’ and so on, this was an exercise to measure who could be Anti-Indian of the year 2010. Not surprisingly it was Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi who polled the most votes. Though reasons are not hard to see, prominent among them has to be their silence on the scams, anti-Hindu rhetoric and, most of all, deserting the ‘Aam’ Indian. Hit by severe price rises, shocking scams, corrupt party members, these two have a lot to answer for. If Sonia Gandhi is the winner of this poll then I might dare to say that in the runner-up, RahulG, India awaits its biggest disaster yet.

       Sonia Gandhi-Anti-Indian Of The Year & Rahul Gandhi-Runner Up

The poll results on the right margin of this page and it is not scientific by any means but it is definitely a reasonable indication of people's opinions in the current scenario of scams and scandals. Surprisingly, even A. Raja, the spectrum-crook, came in third when one would have expected him to top the chart.

Having ignored the ‘Aam Aadmi’ and presided over the most corrupt government in the history of India, Sonia Gandhi has also watched over Congress history being written. How this party usurped the legacy of the Congress of the Independence movement is a telling story of the conniving media and spineless opposition parties. This Congress (I) cannot equate itself with that Congress that fought for independence. If anything, this exercise in history was probably meant to white-wash the sins of Indira Gandhi. The Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, subversion of the constitution by her, imprisoning opponents and silencing the press has to be a dark blot that will forever remain in the history of India. To blame Sanjay Gandhi alone for excesses of the Emergency is like blaming the son for having gotten a bad mother. Congress (I) was always a party of sycophants, P. Chidambaram only helped to confirm it with his ‘Rahul reminds of Rajiv’ line. 

If the Sonia-Rahul duo should ever come to power again then I have to state that the future of this country is indeed bleak. I managed to lay my hands on the real Congress (I) history book they probably read all the time. A bird gave it to me !!

Happy New Year !

Anti-Indian Of The Year Awards

Our ass-licking news media does not fail to fall over each other in conferring 'Indian of the year' award each year to politicians and businessmen, among others. I consider it extremely unwarranted and inappropriate for any news media outlet to be giving out such awards. I also consider it a conflict of interest. You cannot be handing out awards to the very people you are supposed to question and monitor. That's the job of a 'watchdog'. When watchdogs turn into lapdogs, ordinary citizens must revolt and make their voices heard.

Therefore, in revolt against this repugnant practice Mediacrooks has instituted the annual 'Anti-Indian Of The Year Award'. The nominees may not be too hard to pick and some of them have also been conferred the 'IOTY' award by both CNN-IBN and NDTV. The lack of prudence on the part of these channels cannot be lost on anyone now.

Your poll and choices are available on the right side of this page. Please do go ahead and vote. If I have missed out any names, please add them in a comment and I shall be happy to add them to the list. Also, I do not have the kind of lavish money to conduct a grand ceremony but, hopefully, more bloggers and online media will conduct such a poll and institute such awards.

CNN-IBN – Indian Of The Year – The Sham Awards

Here’s the announcement on their webpage:  CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2010, the biggest and the most credible award of the nation is back in its 5th edition. Most credible? Right now, ‘credible’ is the last word to describe anything concerning Indian news media. Least of all a channel headed by Rajdeep Sardesai, the man who likes the line ‘Hammam mein sab nangen hain’.

The problem is when supposed ‘news’ channels start giving out awards, especially calling those awards ‘Indian Of The Year’.  This blog has consistently protested a news outlet giving out awards as this is a serious conflict of interest. News channels are not investigative or spy agencies who know the goings-on behind the scene in respect of some that they choose to award. And yes, I am referring to politicians in particular.  CNN-IBN’s award categories include Politics, Business, Entertainment, Sports and Public service. Awards for sports and public service categories are always welcome. Entertainment categories have plenty of their own but another award cannot cause much harm.  What does harm is the politics and business category.  Especially politics, one can still condone the business category.

A news outlet is meant to be a watchdog over politicians and businessmen. Therefore, instituting awards for them is a direct conflict of interest. Let us look at some past CNN-IBN IOTY winners since 2006 and current year nominations:

2006: Manmohan Singh -  Now that MMS has come to be known as the head of the most corrupt government ever in Indian history, will CNN-IBN stand up and give him that award? Ordinary citizens may learn facts by hindsight, but news outlets are expected to possess prudence. A fair and reliable blog, Sandeepweb,  lists MMS at no.4 on India’s most loathsome people for 2010. 

2007: P. Chidambaram - To quote CNN-IBN “For engineering a spectacular growth rate and being an astute economic manager despite coalition pressures”. Since then, PC has been shunted out of the Finance Ministry. My own blog has asked him to come clean on the phone tapping and Radia tapes. Allegations by Subramanian Swamy still remain unanswered.

2008: Nitish Kumar – In a tribe of ever growing corrupt politicians the Bihar CM is one who definitely appears to stand out. Much as he is worthy of admiration, there is no justification for a news channel to be giving him awards. 

 2009: Rahul Gandhi – “For energising the Congress and being the key strategist behind the party's revival in Uttar Pradesh”. So energising or reviving a political party makes him ‘Indian of the year’?  I can at best understand ‘Congressman’ of the year maybe. As for Rahul Gandhi the latest salvo has been fired by Ram Jethmalani and a lot of questions about Rahul remain unanswered. I am yet to be convinced the final skeleton from Rahul’s cupboard has tumbled out yet. My posts here and here express my reservations abundantly. Yet for the ass-licking news channels he must appear to be Godsend for India! The same UP strategy of Rahul was all too evident in Bihar elections. So much for his wisdom and the prudence of CNN-IBN. Sandeepweb lists him as the 2nd most loathsome person of 2010.

2010: (Nominations) Jairam Ramesh, Kapil Sibal, Mayawati (Mayawati?), Nitish Kumar, Pranab Mukherjee and Raman Singh. Some of these politicians may have done commendable work. But is it the business of a news channel to confer awards on them?

Is it any surprise that most of the winners and nominees are from the Congress?  There are wisecracks who have called CNN-IBN’s program ‘Face the nation’ as “Fool the nation’. Such awards are the greatest attempt to glorify corrupt politicians, with stray exceptions. ‘Fool the nation’ doesn’t seem very far-fetched. And CNN-IBN is not the only one, watch out for the NDTV awards too. When it comes to ass-licking of politicians my bet is on NDTV to outdo CNN-IBN. Both deserve the ‘Ass-Lickers Of The Decade’ Award!

Time and history are the best judges of politicians, not some biased and slanted news channels.