Horse Sense & The Macaulay Putris

There is nothing in the life of George HW Bush that would account for his rise to the office of US President. A successful WWII pilot, a successful oil-businessman he had almost no political victories to speak of. He didn’t win the nomination for the presidential election of 1980 either. But GB had something; he had ‘horse sense’. He tagged on to Ronald Reagan for a long time and was picked for the latter’s VP candidate. It is as Reagan’s follower and VP for 8 years that GB finally got elected as president. “Many people assume that success in life involves "trying harder". Nothing is further from the truth”. That’s the publisher’s line for the book ‘Horse Sense’ by marketing gurus Al Ries & Jack Trout.

From Hollymonroe.Com

The most successful people are those who "find a horse to ride": the one idea, the one company, the one thing, or even the one person that can propel them to the top. Most of our media celebs ride these horses; either political or business. Lately, some of these female celebs have been quite aggressively helping us understand how Arvind Kejriwal’s agitation is a class-war. A war between the elites and the middle-class, between the Macaulayputras and middle class! Just one problem; these MacaulayPutris keep imagining these elites are other people and not them. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that they are indeed the MacaulayPutris and elites and nothing about them qualifies them as “middle class”. Buckle up…

“At the traffic lights - where our cars came into enforced confrontation with poverty - and we saw a small hand stretched out for alms, or a disabled man trying to wave a red rose or a magazine at us, imploring us for help - we would barely look up from behind our over-sized designer sunglasses. We would, in fact, sink back into the plush leather of our seats and be extra determined that the story of India would no longer be told in picture-postcards of poverty”. Barkha Dutt: “Writes of passage” Hindustan Trolls  April 13.

So you see, most Indian middle-class people wear designer sun-glasses, drive cars with plush leather seats. They ignore the beggars and the disabled selling magazines or roses at traffic junctions. Mind you, the only place a “middle class” lady like Barkha can now eat “Gol-Gappas” is at the PM’s party. Not on the streets like “upper-class” Indians. Let’s hear another similar heart-breaking story.

"The moralistic virtuosity of Team Anna rankles many of us. We who have made our compromises, we who speed our cars when we see beggars approaching, we who roll up our car windows when vendors sell us agarbattis at traffic crossing, we don’t see children who are rag pickers, night soil lifters and tea vendors. We are morally, spiritually, physically depleted, exhausted and blind. This revolution that Kejriwal talks about isn’t for the likes of you and me. We have made our compromises". Smita Prakash: “Who has the stomach for a revolution?” MidDay August 6.

Damn! What’s with these two ladies and cars and traffic signals? Compromises? Read that as: “we have chosen our horses”. Don’t despair! I managed to find someone who doesn’t talk about cars and traffic signals. Instead, she talks about “Tits, Clits and Elephant dicks” and “The Vagina Monologues”. Who could it be but our very own Social Genius:

“No wonder this neo Macaulayputra now faces a quintessentially desi revolution, a revolt is brewing, something is stirring in the air. Kejriwal versus Vadra is as much a class war as it is a war against corruption, it is a war between an elite class—containing within it undoubtedly many many examples of excellence and achievement—and an aspirant class of dhartiputra for whom the moral crusade is sharpened by class anger…. Hindutva rage against so called “English speaking secularists” has been manufactured as not just rage against those who are supposed to love minorities but against those who are perceived to be members of a left liberal aristocracy who practice vote bank appeasement in order to maintain their own political and social monopoly of public life". Sagarika Ghose: “Vadra vs Kejriwal: This is also a war about class” FirstPost October 10.

There you are, it’s not just class wars but also Hindutva rage against ‘English speaking secularists’. That’s from a woman who wanted ‘female orgasm’ to be a Constitutional right. We get the humour, of course. For her and the elites, the Hindutva folks are the biggest enemies who are constantly in the “manufacture-rage” mode. All three, Barkha, Smita and Sagarika seem to forget they are indeed the ‘Elites’. They are indeed the MacaulayPutris who seem to trigger the middle-class outrage being channelled by AK. Why do their writings smack of so much hidden guilt? Barkha has umbilical ties to Hindustan Times. Smita is the daughter of a Principal Information Officer of GOI. Sagarika is the daughter of a Doordarshan director and her relatives include judges and ambassadors. All very “middle class” eh?

All 3 women seem to be obsessed with Kejriwal and class-wars. Coincidence? Would these women have gotten to where they are any differently from Vadra or Kejriwal? Not in terms of multi-crore deals or anti-corruption fights but in terms of position and influence. And all three are stupidly, terribly wrong about AK too. They’re either simply too dumb or unwilling to see how AK got where he is and they confuse his war as one of class.

By reports AK first approached former president APJ Abdul Kalam for his IAC movement. A Prominent TV panellist told me Kalam said “I’m all for this anti-corruption thing but I love eating so don’t ask me to fast and blast and all that”. AK then approached Narayana Murthy of Infosys. NM’s response was: “Look Mr.K, we must evolve our social structure supported by a massive overhaul of our systems which bring in investment and expands our capabilities to compete in the world and take progress to the grassroots without upsetting the balance in our industrial position in the world which can badly impact the morale of both the govt and the people as also our fight against corruption and our methods must be secular without offending the rightwing, leftwing, centrists, media, politicians or neo-nazis”. Got it? I’m sure AK must have returned from NM with his head spinning. So he went to Anna Hazare. AH was known for anti-corruption agitations and fasting. AH was willing. AH was willing to fast and be the face of AK’s movement. Ride the right horse! Can you now imagine AK carrying out his IAC on his own? He was more or less a “nobody”, not even 20 people would have turned up for him. Picking Kalam, Murthy or Anna is what’s called Horse Sense. Vadra, the national son-in-law, is the horse that DLF rides as do many other business entities.

Consciously or unconsciously Sagarika luckily picked a horse too. The moment Rajdeep Sardesai got to head a channel of his own she was Deputy Editor at the channel. You think anyone else would have expected that? Out of the blue some guy called Ashutosh Varshney was a panellist frequently on NDTV. Except for stray comments here and there I hadn’t heard of this guy before. Well, what do you know! Before you could say ‘horse’ he had turned Barkha into a ‘Sabbateur’. Er.. That’s my description of someone on a sabbatical as Barkha now claims to be at Brown University under some fellowship. Varshney is Director, Brown-India Initiative. Wait a minute! It could be the reverse too. It could have been Varshney horsing around. The two can decide which one it was. Of Smita, I don’t see a new horse to identify and I hope it stays that way.

Most people in public life in India strongly rely on horse sense. It’s not a bad thing and not a bad route to the top. Think Ahmed Patel, think Rajiv Shukla and make your own list. Some, unfortunately, take it to the level of slavery. The entire clan and cult of Macaulay Putris and putras are essentially outcomes of such horse sense. Calling themselves ‘middle class’ is another of way of somehow defending their elitist guilt. 

Note: Responses of APJ Abdul Kalam & Narayana Murthy to AK are imaginary and shouldn't be confused for real. 

 

FTN: The Gandhis & Vardabhai

Even when one wishes to give some credit to the Social Genius for finally picking up courage to talk about the Gandhi family she spoils it by inviting panellists whose views on the topic are already well-known. Still, she does deserve credit for breaking the silence. Unlike a debate for an election contest or winning a prize, a debate on TV need not be for and against. It can simply be on established and verifiable facts against myths or lies. So Sagarika Ghose picks up the flavour of the season in “Does the Indian media steer clear of reporting on the Gandhi family”? Ordinarily, that question shouldn’t even need a debate. It is now established beyond any doubt that the Gandhi family is shrouded in secrecy except for old clips and some stray sound-bites, mostly from election campaigns. Secrecy about their travels, meetings, health – nothing is in the public domain.

You’ve got the home team in S. Vardarajan, (SV) or Vardabhai for short, of The Hindu. Varda and Vadra have a nice ring to it. You had Vinod ‘Smirk’ Sharma of Hindustan Trolls. You have Madhu Kishwar, Activist and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I got that wrong, it’s Jonathan Shainin of Caravan magazine. A what? Yes, that Caravan is a magazine of some sort. What a start from SG: “Charges are swirling around, we don’t know the veracity..”. That’s the first untruth from the host herself. Veracity? The charges, as she claims, against Robert Vadra, are based on public documents. Now, anyone can use help and verify authenticity of those documents and the contents of those documents. Those documents do suggest an absence of fair play in the financial dealings. Whether that is criminal or not is another story. Since RV has called the nation a “banana republic” he knows best how to harvest the bananas from the system.

On Smirk’s comments, which go back to the Rajiv Gandhi era, I have this to say: __________. His comments warrant no further assessment, there is only so much you can comment on forty licks. Debate rules should have made it clear that this is about the ‘current’ Gandhi family and not Rajiv Gandhi and earlier. Then SG refers to the ET report of March 2011 and asks why the media didn’t pick it up and take it further. You see, that’s the real problem. The bitchy competition between our media houses makes them ignore competing media reports rather than focus on the issues that come up. And then they go around asking everyone else why they didn’t act on that report. Answer by Vardabhai? “The transactions were unorthodox, unusual but not illegal”. Really? Then why didn’t The Hindu, at the very least, post a report on its assessment at that time? Wasn’t that the question? From 6.30 onward in the video SV is clearly stumbling and fumbling for an answer.

Then, when asked about travels and expenses, SV churns out even bigger untruths. He states that when it comes to Indian leaders, media is sensitive to their privacy. This is the nonsense that a host should point out to a panellist. SV states that even when it came to AB Vajpayee, after his knee operation, media were reluctant to show him coming down a plane? I’m sorry but I do have to call this a load of BS. Was Vajpayee’s knee surgery itself a secret? Was MMS’ heart procedure a secret? Was Nitin Gadkari’s weight treatment a secret? There were and still are abundant jokes on Gadkari’s weight and he takes it lightly. This is how Varadarajan lays eggs of untruths in defence of the sorry absence of reporting on the Gandhi family. Madhu Kishwar points to the absence of “investigative journalism” in the country. She’s right, but I have to say that those living on crumbs are unlikely to possess the nose of a real hound.

So in response SG asks Kishwar, who has filed RTI applications, why it’s important to know about Rahul Gandhi’s travel information. Alright! Let’s imagine LK Advani went to Pakistan on a private trip. Sure, we have no business to ask for information on personal trips. That’s the argument being peddled by most. While in Pakistan, LKA also decides to secretly meet Hafeez Saeed. Does that matter to you? Does that matter to the nation? LKA can turn around and say it’s his “private matter”. Is it really private? If the host herself is dumb enough to ask a question like this the debate loses value. The nation has a right to know where its representatives go and who they meet. A detailed report is definitely not required on every trip and meeting but a small summary would do. It is enough to say ‘SoniaG was in Venice and spent time with her family and friends’. No further information is required unless it is of national interest.

The problem with Sonia, Rahul and the Gandhi family is that nobody even knows. Even in the Robert Vadra case, even after so many debates nobody in the public knows where he is. In other circumstances it’s not necessary but since RV’s case has come up it’s important. In contrast, when Varsha Bhosle, Asha Bhosle’s daughter, shot herself every channel reported Asha Bhosle was in Singapore (October 8). See the difference? Asha Bhosle is a very prominent public figure too, probably more than some Vadra. In case memory deserts us there was this book by a Spanish writer Javier Moro about Sonia Gandhi titled “The Red Sari”. Oversexed Abhishek Singhvi reportedly made sure it wouldn’t be available in India. This WSJ article should serve as a good story for Vardabhai.

Madhu Kishwar says the media is “fawning” or “petrified” or simply just “so charmed” that they lose their wits. “Anybody who has had a cup of tea or dinner with Sonia or Rahul Gandhi, their hormonal balance is finished and damaged for life”. Those two sentences by her about the Indian media sum up what a million words cannot. The absolute truth about our crony media! Some samples were on the panel too.

On being asked why Sonia, Rahul don’t give interviews SV has a “simple” explanation: “In any party that has multiple leaders… “. If you laughed, it’s your own fault, not mine. Congress has “multiple” leaders? And then the BJP is more open because there are “several contenders” for the top spot while the Gandhis have no such incentive. That is brilliant “intellectualism” for you. And then he says “that’s the nature of the Congress party”. Well, Vardabhai that is precisely what is being debated. Why such a secretive culture? Why such cronyism? Why such sycophancy? SG should have explained the question to SV twice over before the debate. At 24.04 Vardabhai asks “when was the last time Sushma Swaraj or Arun Jaitley were in live debates”. If he was ever guilty of moronery in the past, SV has exceeded that. Who said anything about being in live debates? Both Swaraj and Jaitley have given enough interviews in the last year, at least 3 each to major news channels that I can point to. After every parliament session they address pressers and both are regular speakers in the parliament. Of course, a “live parliament” debate does not constitute “live debate” for some foolish minds. Vardabhai would have you believe real live debates happen only on TVchannels. Once again, you laugh at your own risk.

Then Jonathan Livingston Seagull, who flies too, majestically states: If citizens don’t demand transparency there will be secrecy. What exactly are RTI inquiries on travels and expenses of SoniaG and RahulG? Inquiries by foreign spies? Not by citizens? SoniaG and RahulG not talking is one thing, even the state machinery refuses to release or even answer queries of citizens. What does that say about transparency?

SG points out that in the past 14 years SoniaG has given only 3 interviews, Rahul Gandhi – Sibal! Now, let’s be honest. Neither Sonia nor Rahul have any obligation to give interviews. If they accidently do, our media morons will tom-tom it as “Exclusive, exclusive” for 26 and half days. All that is being sought is information on their travel, their medical fitness or health and who they meet abroad or anywhere. And sometimes their views on policies since they influence those. Some of that information is definitely of public interest. If Robert is only the tip of the iceberg as someone mentioned, then who knows how many such sidekicks have made a financial killing? Lastly, TV debates are fine but calling too many panellists definitely robs the debate of any depth and inquiry into the issue. As for Vardabhai, maybe he should forget the Gandhis and tell us the status of N.Ram & Co. on the land-grab case and report on it. Let him not say nobody asked for information. The TV channels might wonder where Kripa Shankar disappeared before some scandal surfaces again. That doesn’t require the Gandhis or Vadras, does it?

CNN-IBN: Twist & Shout

When the previous post ‘Robert Vadra & the innocence of journalists’ was pointed by someone on Twitter to Rajdeep Sardesai he, at his wits end, was naturally rattled. Instead of responding to the tweet Rajdeep sends the person a DM with a message about Media Crooks: “Now he is what is Paid Media. Paid to abuse media”. That is nice! Now all I have to do is to wait for Rajdeep to send me my cheque so his dry dream comes true. I have only one objection though. I have rarely used the term ‘Paid media’ and that too mostly in quoting someone or in the context of some report. I find the term is not as respectful as MediaCrooks which I coined to honour some of our media celebs. Oh there’s the “abuse” part too. Isn’t that the cover these folks use in defence when they have nothing to say? His deputy editor has even complained of being abused because she’s a “woman” after the Sri Sri episode. I wonder what Rajdeep’s excuse is. Abused because he’s a “man”? Haha! Anyway, the laughter challenge bit is over. Let’s get into some more of CNN-IBN’s “Twist” and “Shout”. Yep, twist headlines, questions and shout misleading information, even LIES.

What does one understand by the term “accused”? In casual conversation it can substitute allegations, finger-pointing and so on. But is the news business casual conversation? People in the news business would be careful about terms they use. ‘Accused’ is normally used when a person or entity is legally charged with an offence and is likely to be prosecuted. Umm ... not so when it comes to CNN-IBN! You see they have the license to concoct headlines the way they would like to see the story.

Given that the Robert Vadra (RV) financial allegations have had the media running for cover in defence they seem bent on somehow balancing the damage by desperately tarring someone from the Opposition. Narendra Modi would have been handy but they are still searching for some real muck on him. So they have to make do with Nitin Gadkari, the BJP president. On the night of October 6 the CNN-IBN kept scrolling a headline: “Gadkari is an accused in the Goshikurd irrigation project”. Really? This is, of course, in connection with the Maharashtra irrigation scam which has been in the news. Gadkari seems to be trigger-happy when it comes to issuing legal notices for defamation. I guess CNN-IBN just gave him one more reason. So Rajdeep and his channel have the license to concoct and twist headlines, abuse media power with even lies, and taint people and then cry “abuse” when challenged and exposed.

The twists of CNN-IBN didn’t start there for that night. It actually started some hours prior with the Karan Thapar (KT) - Arvind Kejriwal (AK) interview over the latter’s allegations against RV. Now, we are not going to deal with AK’s answers to Thapar’s questions or statements. We will dwell merely on some of what Thapar asked or said. The only thing that was disingenuous by AK was that he claimed never to have read or heard about the ET report on RV till the previous evening. Surely, AK didn’t wake up with a dream one night that said “go after RV”. There has been enough in the print and online media that would have motivated AK and team to go after RV. Even if AK didn’t actually read ET as he claims, one can be sure there are enough watchdogs in his team to educate him on the news.

So let’s read some of the questions and statements of Thapar. I must mention that these are transcriptions and though I may have missed a word or two here and there, the essence of what he said has been kept intact. (All questions/statements from the interview are in blue):

KT: Was it politically motivated or morally improper? Huh? How do you answer this question? Pick either option and you’re screwed. Nice try. On the other hand since AK is now a politician where is the need to seek a political motivation?

KT: He (RV) is not a ruler, he’s an ordinary citizen, you have libelled him without giving him a chance to explain. Really? I have little doubt that every citizen in India would like to be as “ordinary” as RV. Any idiot can tell you that Vadra would be less than ordinary selling some handicrafts in Moradabad if not for his relationship with the Gandhi family. Now then, if RV is indeed so ordinary why is he entitled to exemption from security checks and screening at airports? I guess the wiseguys at CNN-IBN don’t rehearse the questions before they ask. This is a question many people are asking. Who knows what RV is taking out or bringing in through all the airports in this country. Also, do the media usually stand up so much for “ordinary” citizens? Amazing!

KT: If a newspaper or channel had done what you have done it would be accused of biased journalism. Will they? But then CNN-IBN and KT batting so much for RV doesn’t seem to them to be bias at all. The twisted headline indicting Gadkari doesn’t seem to be a bias at all. Is it?

KT: You encashed the fact that he is Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law. You are using RV to target Sonia Gandhi. To this I don’t even have to offer any comment. AK’s reply was stinging enough as he sarcastically asked: “Am I encashing … or is he (RV) encashing this fact?” That’s right! Between AK and RV who does the public think is encashing his position? AK may be politically encashing the hit but in the case of RV the term “encashing” could even be taken literally given the financial allegations.

KT: He (RV) became a pawn in your political ambition. Haha! I do have the choicest description of pawns in the media and have written about it elsewhere. But hey, does anyone remember who was called a “Tool” by presidential candidate P.A. Sangma? So any allegation going against the Congress political capital is either using a “pawn” or is being a “tool”. The shameless Thapar even called Sangma a “tool”. So what nonsense is he talking here? Twisting it like his channel’s agenda?

KT: You are being deliberately anti-Congress, you have a bias against Congress. So you see, this is really what hurts KT that the allegations are against Congress. Now, if RV is an ordinary, private citizen how do the allegations amount to a bias against Congress? But that’s what bothers KT and CNN-IBN. It’s hurting their own favourite political party. Elsewhere, KT even asks why AK is not targeting BJP leaders. All this after the allegations being aired against Gadkari by TeamArvind and even the fake headline of “Gadkari accused” being scrolled by the channel. Another shameful performance by both KT and CNN-IBN.

The rest of the interview went along the same lines. In a 20 minute interview, KT spoke for 11 minutes and AK had 9 minutes. When the host talks more than the guest you are assured that the purpose is not to know or educate but to defend the Congress. CNN-IBN and KT are getting to be good at it.

After being recently slapped by Mamata Banerjee with “you people don’t have guts” to ask Sonia Gandhi, then Subramanian Swamy again slapping Rajdeep with “innocence of journalists” AK too joined the party. He slapped KT with: “If you have guts, call him (RV) on this program and ask him for an explanation, you don’t have the courage..”. I wonder how many slaps it will take Rajdeep to understand twisting and shouting untruths and abuse of media power doesn’t sell anymore.

Robert Vadra & The Innocence Of Journalists

When Arvind Kejriwal announced a press meet on October 5 the media must have rushed to get some more interesting sound-bites on his new political party. They didn’t expect him to lay out alleged financial misdeeds of Robert Vadra (RV), the national son-in-law. All hell broke loose. Later, one anchor, who likes to see the larger picture, even asked if TeamArvind is going to target a BJP member next. I’ve never seen so many heavy weights coming out with guns blazing to defend one man. Some of them even claimed he’s a ‘private citizen’. Yes indeed, the sudden growth of RV to a billionaire is indeed a very private affair. There were Congresspersons of all voices and sizes. There was Rashid Alvi, Rajiv Shukla, Manish Tiwari, Renuka Chaudhary. They even threw in ministers like Salman Khurshid and also Jayanthi Natarajan, who made a sudden special appearance after a long gap. Khurshid even angrily stated: “We will teach Kejriwal a lesson”. Someone joked on Twitter if Khurshid is the Union Law Minister or the Union “In-Law” minister.

All this is nothing new. The Robert Vadra story has been doing the rounds for over a year now. It’s only the print media though, that was doing all the talking. TV news channels stuck to their Sharia which prohibits them from ‘blasphemy’ against the Sonia Gandhi clan. Private folks on Youtube showed greater courage and narrated RV’s story. You can see and hear it on this Youtube site or this Youtube site. Oops.. Sorry! If you opened those pages this is what you get:

Well, another Youtube page does carry that picture story on RV with a toxic warning about how GOI pulls any videos on Youtube that portrays the Gandhi family negatively. As usual, the worst debates did happen on NDTV and CNN-IBN. While the big pieces came out in force the small pawns didn’t fail in defending RV either. The worst one was clearly Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN. In trying to “balance” his stupidity Rajdeep never fails to ask why BJP didn’t bring up the RV case earlier. This time he got a reply asking why the media didn’t debate it when the RV reports have been out for more than a year. “Point taken” said Rajdeep. The Axis of Evil of TV news kept asking everyone why they don’t go to the courts if there are misdeeds by RV. This is where Rajdeep received another resounding slap. This time it was from Dr. Subramanian Swamy. Prabhu Chawla, once again did some homework (Why now? Why not earlier?) and suggested many politicians have got flats or property from DLF at throwaway prices.

First, a bit about Robert Vadra’s billions. Economic Times (Robert Vadra ties up with DLF) was among the first to do a full story in March 2011. Then Outlook magazine did an analysis of the ET article with reactions from Opposition parties including the BJP. Here’s what Outlook said on March 18, 2011 (Tweets are highlighted in red):

The story was summed up by Mr Swapan Dasgupta, a journalist known to be close to the BJP, on Twitter as: “ET's Vadra story drives home reality of crony capitalism. DLF pays Vadra 2 buy its own properties at sharp discount & get secure equity” Monday, March 14, 2011 10:47:38 AM via web

“According to 1 opp leader, after Bofors "winding up charges", IPL "sweat equity", we R seeing emergence of "political equity" in Vadra case” Monday, March 14, 2011 10:51:57 AM via web

On March 16, the TOI reported: BJP, Left to corner Cong on Vadra's rise:

On Tuesday, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said, "The matter is a serious one and the party is gathering documents to aise it with the prominence it deserves." She said the party had "entrusted" leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley to collect facts on Vadra's rise. CPM leader Sitaram Yechury was on the same track. "It looks like a serious matter and our party is ascertaining facts and will come up with a structured reaction on this," he said. But the story began to change, as Mr Dasgupta tweeted on March 16: Resistance in BJP on raising Vadra issue is from some a of its ex-Presidents. Wednesday, March 16, 2011 2:57:47 PM via Mobile Web

…Leader of Opposition in the Lok Saba Sushma Swaraj felt it would not be good form to target family members of political rivals. Since then, of course, the focus has shifted to the cash for vote wikileaks expose… Notice how many of those who helped the UPA win the confidence vote & also helped Vadra's business secured Padma awards? Not incl. media…. The controversy over Sant Singh Chatwal was public enough but perhaps Mr Dasgupta was alluding to Dr. Kushal Pal Singh, the chairman and CEO of DLF, getting a Padma Bhushan for 2009 and the prominent name in this list in his last tweet?

Hmm… yes, some of the Padma awards under the Cong-UPA govt are indeed surprising, including those delivered to media folks. In case you forgot, Robert Vadra was also voted “Style Icon” of 2011. He does have style, doesn’t he? Anyway, let’s read what RV said when the DLF tie-up was sealed: “The Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Saket is a small business hotel. I have interest in hospitality and am happy to be part of the hotel.”  Vadra also added, ”I have known the DLF people for a long time and they are friends of mine. I had wanted to invest in real estate and one thing led to another. Right now, I can only be part of a small hotel. If I were taking favours from people I would be doing far bigger things. But I am doing this on my own. I can’t expand immediately but I hope to expand a few years down the line”. Oh, these are just “small” things and RV hopes to “expand” in a few years. So you and I will have to wait for that “expansion”. Wonder what that is going to be like! Buying up real estate on the moon or mars?

On August 25, 2011 FashionScandal reported thus: “DLF, which is going through a financial crunch is also looking to divest its stake in the Hilton Group. Some feel that these divestments are aimed at distancing DLF from Robert Vadra owned Sky Light Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. DLF Hotel Holdings entered into partnership with Sky Light Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. but after that the group has been facing political heat from the Opposition parties”. So now that we have some background story we can get back to Rajdeep Sardesai. On pushing Dr.Swamy over why they aren’t going to courts, Swamy replied he had announced long back RV was third on his list after 2G and P.Chidambaram. This is correct. But it’s clearly shameful of Rajdeep to ask these stupid questions when TV channels even failed to discuss the RV reports in print/websites. Naturally, Dr.Swamy delivered a stinging slap to Rajdeep and others like Prabhu Chawla and Vinod Mehta when he pointed out the “innocence of journalists” in real estate scams. Ouch! That’s gonna hurt. What Swamy was clearly hinting at was that top media celebs and media houses were no exceptions when it came to real estate scams. Is it then a surprise that all the ‘media pawns’ were fighting so vigorously for Robert Vadra?

Here’s a tweet from Swamy from June 2011. He clearly states Shekhar Gupta, of Indian Express, has acquired 20 times the property to his known sources of income and therefore has to “behave” for Sonia Gandhi. Gupta, who sued his critics for 500 crores over the silly “Army coup” story has not uttered a single word over this allegation by Swamy. Not just Swamy, even Kuldip Nayar has stated that Gupta had become “abnormally affluent”. Did the media ask any questions? None! Hammam, you see!

Interestingly, when asked by Shekhar Gupta “Can you run a property business without bribing?” the DLF chairman replied: ‘In my terminology, what I call bribing, is in two parts: One, where you give money to somebody to facilitate quicker disposal. Second, you give money, if somebody asks you, to do a wrong job. Now in my terminology, bribing is to do a wrong job, which I have never done in my life”. Haha..“facilitate quicker disposal”. Yeah, that answer surely deserves a Padma Bhushan.

If RV is dabbling in real estate crores and is a private citizen, what exactly was he doing in UP in February 2012? He was running around on bikes campaigning for Congress. He even suggested Priyanka Vadra would do well in politics. “Point taken” is not an answer Rajdeep. Regardless of what political parties do or don’t do, it does not explain why the media is permanently silent on alleged misdeeds of the Gandhi family or its own media clan. Lately, N. Ram of The Hindu is accused in a land-grab case. A FIR has been filed against N.Ram and even a DMK member and Ram has sought anticipatory bail according to news reports. Why is the TV media and even major print media houses not debating or even reporting that? Sonia Gandhi has been named as the 4th richest politician in the world with assets over $2 billion. Do they want to wait for another Kejriwal moment to debate the story? Why does it take Narendra Modi to talk about SoniaG’s foreign travels for media to debate or report? The BJP had even constituted a special task force on black money and submitted a report. Did the media even discuss the report or its contents?

The answers are not very difficult to find. Rajdeep Sardesai and his clan of media pawns move only when moved by other forces. I had earlier written a post: “Why Is Indian Media Scared Of Sonia Gandhi? in June 2011. That deals with how Rahul Kanwal cut off a person asking questions of SoniaG’s assets. There was another debate when Rajdeep Sardesai quickly cut off former IT officer Vishwabandhu Gupta when he raised questions on SoniaG’s wealth. Rajdeep then chided V.Gupta “Don’t make wild allegations”. The allegations against Robert Vadra aren’t wild. In fact Prabhu Chawla’s analysis of the documents makes worse reading. Chawla states that the 65crores being referred as loan is actually an “advance” paid by DLF to RV for properties to be sold by RV. Hmmm!

Here’s the thing: Since it is recorded as “advance” in RV’s books it becomes a “liability” rather than his income. Secondly, being shown as “advance” it also avoids being treated as income and avoids capital gains tax, if any, that is applicable. Another journo, Vineet Narain, told Prashant Bhushan on NDTV that all property deals everywhere are “under-valued”. He may have “innocently” forgotten that he implies that both Robert Vadra and DLF may be dealing heavily in black money. Maybe it's time to make another movie: "Innocence of journalists" and that won't lead to any violent riots.
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