Karnataka & After

Of all the states that the Congress party has lost to the BJP in recent history, two have bothered them the most. One is Gujarat and the other is Karnataka. States like MP, Chattisgarh or Rajasthan haven’t upset them that much. All the last three named were often included in the BIMARU states and are not major cash cows for Congress hence lesser worries. This is not true of Gujarat and Karnataka, both big cash cows.

Over 15 years the Congress has tried every trick in the book to dislodge the BJP from Gujarat, especially since Narendra Modi became CM. They filed bogus cases through proxy NGOs, used media houses like NDTV, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and their group outlets to throw muck against Modi but couldn’t manage to dislodge him. When the BJP returned to power in Karnataka in 2008 there was a danger that it could go the Gujarat way and Congress may never be able to recover that state. Therefore, Congress, their parrots in the media and a few handpicked officials set out in earnest to undo BS Yedurappa. Even the Governor Bharadwaj was playing his part. Santosh Hegde managed for the Congis what no one could manage against Modi. He linked him to some corruption cases and Yedurappa resigned in August 2011 and was even arrested under the Lok Ayukta police. That the Congress cause was helped by the BJP top leadership is also noted by people. LK Advani and Ananth Kumar have increasingly become unpopular for the mess in Karnataka. The churning in the party in Karnataka finally cost them the recent elections.

The vote in Karnataka against BJP is being peddled by the media as a vote against corruption. This is a BIG LIE being deliberately perpetrated by channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN and their sisters. Their attempt is to somehow balance the BJP as a party that is as corrupt as the Congress, like the sheep in the pic (via @Surnell). It is simply impossible for any party on earth in any democracy to be as corrupt as Congress. Sonia Gandhi has now surpassed the likes of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Albert Fujimori, the late Marcos couple of Philippines or the late Saddam Hussein in corruption by her party. It is not just corruption, Sonia Gandhi & Co have destroyed many institutions in the country. The Supreme Court has called the CBI a “caged parrot” of the Congress govt. The only one that can match Congress in terms of corruption in India is our MSM. Naturally, the Barkhas, Sagarikas, Nidhis, Rajdeeps, Chaubeys & Co. were more thrilled than the Congress that the BJP was defeated in Karnataka. Maya Sharma of NDTV Bangalore was glowing and resplendent with smiles since the morning of May 8.  I’m not joking, she looked happier than she has in months.

I have written earlier in Breaking Rules that people have a gut feeling of whether there is progress and whether there is development. It’s not corruption but the fact that the internal wrangling in the BJP led to a break down in governance that appears to have cost them the elections. One must also note that for all the screaming from people like Rajdeep, Sagarika Sreenivasan Jain and Barkha about corruption in Karnataka they have never even remotely covered the corruption by YSR in Andhra Pradesh. YSR was easily the most corrupt CM running the most corrupt state govt ever in the history of India. His corruption story could easily run over 1Lakh crores. The proof of YSR’s outrageous loot remains his son Jagan Reddy, who reportedly acquired assets over 40000 crores from nothing, and is being prosecuted after YSR’s death. In Karnataka, from what I gather, people were simply fed up with the frequent theatre in the BJP govt and changing CMs. This was too much political capital spent on achieving too little for the state. NDTV even has a tie-up with Jagan’s media house for consultancy which pays them a handsome return. It says a lot when a media house has ties with a man being prosecuted for corruption, doesn’t it?

The pic from a programme on CNN-IBN says it all when the bimbo anchor asks the question if corruption is the main concern for voter. Sure, corruption is indeed a concern but I doubt that was the case in Karnataka. At least, for a change it is nice to see the usually dour Manish Tiwari smile. He is smiling not because of the Karnataka win but the Congress has brazened it out over Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal. Corruption becomes a bigger concern in the national elections as has been seen in 1977 and 1989. In the states there are multiple local issues that dictate the outcomes of an election along with corruption.  

History has it that when the Congress has been pushed out of a state it has rarely managed a comeback. It has been wiped out in Tamil Nadu, in Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, in Orissa and even MP and Chattisgarh are having second terms of a Non-Congress govt. In Bengal, although they claim to be part of the ruling coalition the Congress is really not in the reckoning at all for 35 years and TMC doesn’t need them. Even Punjab broke with history by giving the BJP-Akali a second term. Congress has been wiped out in Gujarat too. It is this fear of the same happening in Karnataka that has seen the huge media campaign against the BJP in Karnataka. The bigger danger for the media is the Congress losing out at the Centre in the next general elections. The lives that the media celebs now live through generous doles may come to an end if Congress loses the centre. Is that really so hard to fathom? Does it take an Einstein?

Thus, the media has to paint the only challenger to the Congress as an equally corrupt party which is a big lie. None of the regional parties like SP, AIADMK, DMK, BJD, JDU, TMC and others pose a serious threat to the Congress. Not like the BJP does. Therefore, the task assigned to the media is to destroy the BJP by hook or crook. Paint them as corrupt, communal, and fascist and use all kinds of tags. For the Congress, parties like the TMC or the SP are “manageable”, especially by using CBI so far. In fact, most of the regional parties in the Congress alliance have had a fair share in the corruption and loot. 2G, CWG, Coalgate are all part of shared loot. And then if the BJP has to be destroyed, it is natural that the media targets the strongest BJP leader that threatens the Congress and the Gandhis; Narendra Modi. Therefore, every media channel has proclaimed Modi magic has failed in Karnataka. They are desperate to imply that Narendra Modi does not have a national appeal and thus dissipate the threat he poses to the Congress. Fact is BJP did better in areas where Modi campaigned in Karnataka in a short burst but that is hardly important. BJP was bound to lose even if Jesus and Moses had come down to campaign for the party. And which channel screams most about it? Of course, the Congress bureau called NDTV. Take a look at this headline:

Desperate to show some win for Rahul Gandhi after all his failed campaigns in major states, NDTV (which is a specialist in “evolving” the Gandhi through Barkha Dutt) puts up his pic and that of Narendra Modi as if they were the main contenders in the Karnataka race. Hilariously, NDTV even puts up a “Purple Lotus” for the BJP. Looks like the anchors beat up the flower so much that it turned purple. It would have been nice if they had shown Modi with a black eye too… No? Well, you might see that in the next round of elections in Delhi in October or in MP, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan at the year end. People who have permanently thrown out the Congress from their state have realised that the party does precious little in terms of governance or development. Their only election winning tactic is plenty of doles for the poor under schemes named after the Nehru-Gandhi family and creating more monuments in their names as a “brand” reminder for people. I jokingly tweeted that ‘Namma Metro’ in Bangalore may now be renamed ‘Rajiv Gandhi Amma Metro’.

It is not so much that the Congress defeated the BJP in Karnataka but the BJP defeated itself. Most fair observers agree with that. Consequently, the party needs to sack those responsible from top positions. Their top leaders have to prove they are not the “Saffron Gandhis” and non-performers have to pay a price. As for the media, the ghost of a corrupt Congress is not going anywhere because of Karnataka. Where ever RahulG or SoniaG campaigned in Karnataka attendance was sparse. That national mood against the Congress doesn’t look reversible and that is bad news for NDTV, CNN-IBN and their unholy trinity. 

Never Rat On Your Friends & Always Keep Your Mouth Shut

In a strange turn of events, Kapil Sibal the Congress Minister, called the media “corrupt”. This was in Bhopal and must have come as a shock to our media friends. So far whenever the Congress was confronted with its massive scams they always pointed fingers at the BJP or the past NDA govt. Now they are so tired and frustrated they are pointing fingers at the media itself. This is like a love-story gone terribly wrong. But we’ll get to it a bit later.

Take a look at the pic on the left. This is not a scene from some mafia movie. These are Congress goons walking the streets of Kolar (Karnataka) on election-day on May 5, 2013 with swords and rods. This would intimidate any voter but our Election Commission recorded that polling was “peaceful” perhaps because the goons didn’t need to use the weapons. While some local channels in Karnataka carried a report on this, not a single national media house reported it. What should interest people is that there is a cop walking alongside these goons. The pressure of keeping off the hail of scams and misdeeds of the Congress is indeed telling on their media friends. The party and the govt hadn’t gotten past the Coalgate CBI affidavit scam and a new one broke out in the form of Pawan Bansal’s nephew. It is how our media deals with these scams that should be a bigger cause of outrage.  

The media friends of the Congress, like NDTV, CNN-IBN and Headlines Today, and I’m sure quite a few other channels, describe the conduct of Ashwini Kumar in dictating the CBI affidavit to Supreme Court as “interference” with the investigation. Interference? That’s a mild word to describe the crime. It is actually “obstruction of justice”. And then the party itself describes the changes dictated by Kumar in the affidavit to be “negligible”. What will our media friends do? See this tweet from Pallavi Ghosh of CNN-IBN. Ever seen a bigger blooper? Why would anyone question a reporter criticising the govt, unless it’s her friends from the Congress party? But that is hardly what her channel does as we shall see. And then she complains that she is lampooned for defending the govt. Really? Since when is it the job of a reporter or a channel to defend the govt? This is what convinces me that those who call themselves journalists probably didn’t complete the right course.

And there is our “Numero uno” political analyst Rajdeep Sardesai. This pathetic editor wonders if a minister should resign for impropriety. Impropriety? That is all that it is? Impropriety? Even an ordinary guy on the street would call a thief a thief. But hey, it involves his friends from the Congress party whom he frequently showers awards with. Everything in the story of Pawan Bansal’s nephew’s bribery case indicates it’s a massive racket and a scam. Turns out the 10Crores bribe deal for a top job in Railways is because the position handles contracts worth 2000 Crores. That’s how the bribe-investment of 10 crores was planned to be recovered. Rajdeep (The English Lalloo that he is) doesn’t get it that top appointments in Railways cannot be made unless the concerned minister was involved. That’s not all. The assets of Vijay Singla, Bansal’s nephew, have gone up from zero to 150 crores in the last five years. To Rajdeep, that is mere “impropriety”.

When someone expresses shock that Rajdeep merely terms it “impropriety” he has an even more interesting answer. He says “Impropriety/ Criminality up for debate”. Is that so? So all that the rats will do is “debate” it? By what logic do the acts of AshwaniK or Bansal warrant a debate? This is where our editors have become puppies and doormats. What is truly required of the media is clear and strong condemnation of both AK and Bansal. Instead, they stupidly believe that if they conduct a debate they have done their job. Naturally, people ask embedded reporters like PallaviG how much is being paid because they suspect “paid reporting”. I have explained before that not all issues are matters for a debate. In the cases of AK and Bansal there is undeniable evidence of not only impropriety but criminality. Reducing their nonsense to mere debates on TV shows how desperate our MSM is to protect their friends? “Thoda Congress ke taraf se defend kar dena” as was overheard on NDTV sometime back.

The trouble with the news media being friendly or getting too close with the ruling party is that familiarity is sooner or later bound to breed contempt. Till a few years ago the media only had to contend with voices from the Opposition parties of covering up crimes of the Congress. They could easily cut off such voices. Now they are finding it difficult because the Social Media keeps breathing down their necks. While I have quoted Rajdeep Sardesai, the story is not different for other media celebs and the intention here is not to single him out.

On May 6 when the stench of misdeeds of AKumar and Bansal was still hanging heavily in the air another guy decided to go ahead with an expose on PSU banks. Doesn’t it sound strange? This is Anirudh Bahal of Cobrapost, the former Tehelka guy. The man has no record of ever exposing a single scam or misdeed of the Congress. Surprising, isn’t it? Considering that Congress is a treasure island of scams. While the contents of his expose may be genuine his timing is suspect and I have to wonder about the motive. Why would a cheap sting operator release his explosive story when the media is already burdened with two of the latest scams in Coalgate and Railgate? He would ideally want all the attention to his story and for it to run all day and night in the media. It didn’t look like that and the money-laundering story of PSU banks went cold in a few hours. Friends help each other, you know. Any distraction is gladly welcome.

Now that the corruption and its defence have become so brazen with the Congress they are now pointing fingers at their own friends and calling them corrupt. The MSM had this coming. Imagine, years of sleeping with the Congress, getting phony Padma awards, facilitation in funding and in the end the party calls their media friends corrupt. It doesn’t stop there. Livemint reports that the Parliamentary Committee on IT now wants to bring in a Statutory Regulator as a watchdog for the media. I welcome it only to the extent if the watchdog is a Constitutional body like the EC or CAG. No matter how much I condemn our corrupt media I would simply not recommend the govt ever appointing its own regulators for the media. That would be like two corrupt forces joining hands. We have already seen what the PCI has turned out to be. The PCI chairman is often busy attending ‘Mushairas’ with his Congress buddies.

On the political front the Congress brought in the Food Security Bill to counter the opposition to their scams. They suggested that BJP and others are “anti-poor” because they aren’t allowing the FSB to pass. This is trickery of the worst kind and the media should have called it as such. They won’t. Friends indeed! On May 7 CNN-IBN reported that Sonia Gandhi was against AshwaniK and Bansal continuing but MMS was opposed to it. Heard anything more absurd?

There’s a golden rule in the mafia: “Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut”. MMS is a man who keeps his mouth shut always. The media is the mafia that followed the golden rule so far and never ratted on its friends in the Congress and always kept its mouth shut. Even in a very obvious case of criminality they want to “debate” the misdeeds of AshwaniK and Pawan Bansal. That is as stupid as any editorialist can ever get. Editors should have been demanding both ministers to step down instead of “debating” obvious crimes. Well, they follow the golden rule religiously. Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut. Now that their own friends are calling them “corrupt” it has come to pass that the media now stinks for everyone.