Mallika Sarabhai's Toilet Musings

On September 17, 2011 when Narendra Modi began his fast under the Sadbhavna mission there were some who protested, some who said he was flexing his PM ambitions and some called it a 5-star fast. There was one 5-star human rights activist though who was busy doing something to prove a point. Yes! Mallika Sarabhai, the 5-star activist decided that she would feed poor slum children on that day to protest against Modi’s ‘5-star’ fast. I am wondering if that was the first time Mallika ever saw slum children from close ‘quarters’. You can usually tell human rights activists by their 'truck' – usually a very large blood-guzzling SUV.  A day later on September 18 Mallika was busy again hurling accusations against Modi of bribing her lawyers. Of course, her lawyers denied that. And then she got busy in leading a group of protestors to petition Modi about justice awaited in the 2002 riots. Then the fast was over! Modi went back to work and Mallika .. Oh I don’t know where or what she went back to.

A few days later that ‘whistler’ cop, Sanjiv Bhatt, is arrested and Mallika was back on the scene. This time she went a step further stating “even judges in Gujarat are influenced by Modi”. There are the usual SUV types like Shabnam Hashmi, Teesta Setalvad and others with Mallika with candles and balloons to support Sanjiv Bhatt. After a court battle for about 18 days Bhatt finally got bail and his family celebrated. So everyone went back and Sanjiv Bhatt went back to his family. And Mallika .. Aha! This time I know where she went and what she did. Yeah! Just like any other 5-star activist she went abroad. She dashed off to wonderful South Korea. Wonderful place to forget Modi, Bhatt and slum children. Well, didn’t quite turn out like that it seems. She had to confront the horrors of South Korean toilets. And that was enough to bring back strong toilet memories for her.

So Mallika writes the ‘Last word’ in that magazine called ‘The Week’ and it’s quite appropriately titled ‘Flushed with confusion’. For all that money I could have told Mallika that her head was flushed with confusion right here in India. Anyway, let’s understand her toilet travels… I mean toilet travails… (quotes in blue).

“We were at a roadside stop, somewhere in the south of South Korea, in a very clean public toilet. I looked around the toilet stall. Behind the commode, around it, under it. No, there was no sign of a flush. By this time several other voices had joined in this chorus, each with an explanation, but no solution. At last a triumphant voice, “There is a button on the right of the door as you exit.” Phew. I hadn’t fancied leaving a clean toilet dirty for want of reading Korean”. Hmmm! Somewhere? Somewhere in South Korea? That rush to toilet must have been so bad she even forgot the name of the place. I think usually when we go into a toilet in a foreign country we carry some basic info. And discovering a flush button really can’t be part of the tour plan. But 5 star activists aren’t used to it and some poor soul had to shout ‘eureka’ there’s the flush button. Oh and I’m still wondering.. if finding a flush button would have been easier if one knew Korean I wonder how they decided the place was a toilet if it was probably written in Korean. Must be some intuition! 

Toilet House, The Museum, South Korea

Oh by the way, the Koreans (And I mean South every time I mention Korea here) absolutely love their toilets. Don’t believe me? Okay, you see this little house once belonged to someone. They had shaped it like a toilet and now it is some kind of toilet museum. I am not kidding, this toilet house is in a town called Suwon in South Korea. As a tourist Mallika should have cared to know this.. LOL!

“A few days later, in the even cleaner toilets of the offices of the Korea Foundation, the Korean counterpart of Indian Council of Cultural Relations, I sat on the toilet contemplating a series of graphics. One had wavy lines, horizontally placed. The next one had dotted lines, like upward moving waves. The third one had the same but moving downwards. Knowing a couple of my colleagues were in next door stalls I mused aloud about what they meant. Pat came a reply, “Whatever you try, try it while still seated, otherwise you will get a shower.” More cautious than is my wont, I refrained”. What a pity! The Indian Council of Cultural Relations must be pulled up for sending people to places without a guide on the graphic indicators in toilets. Wavy lines, dotted lines.. now thanks to Mallika, if I ever go to South Korea I will now try them while I’m seated. But wait a minute.. those were toilets in ‘offices’ so it does surprise me why they’d have showers in there to be warned by Mallika’s toilet neighbours. I, for one, haven’t seen showers in office toilets. Alright, maybe the Koreans thought there might be special Indian guests who might even consider taking a shower while being in the toilet in their offices. Quite possible hahahha!

Japanese Toilet signs

She mentions a diplomat who had problems with a Japanese toilet. A what? Yes, a Japanese toilet. So for her benefit and that of the diplomat I’ve put up what is a Japanese toilet guide that is pretty common. Then she goes on to narrate some more experiences, some of which I prefer to censor but I couldn’t help picking on this particular experience of hers: “Then there are the automatic sensor devices. At Paris airport, this meant getting up and sitting down on the pot several times till the sensor kicked in. I tried getting up and down straight, sideways, by jumping out of the sensor’s eye.... Finally it worked, but I still haven’t figured it out”. Up, down, straight, sideways? I have imagined Mallika is a dancer and also the daughter of a famous danseuse but I certainly can’t imagine her dancing in a toilet just to get the flush going. And she says she still hasn’t figured it out. Well, there are a lot of things, like the lies, that is hard to figure about Mallika too. Of course, I don’t think the toilets of the world are in a conspiracy against her though.

And finally she says: “If my readers are surprised at the topic of this week’s column, let me tell you why these thoughts come to mind. A five-star deluxe hotel I have just checked out of, had nothing at all—no bum shower, no mug, not even the possibility of reaching the tooth glass and the water at the basin without twisting your back. Was this a plug for the (toilet) paper industry, I wondered. Or just one more way we stupidly ape the west?” No Mallika, no one is surprised at all. And not everyone stupidly apes the west. Some of us have even lived in the west without aping them. Look at the bright side Mallika, the 5-star hotel you visited could well be the equivalent of the no-star slum that goes through such things every day. You face such toilets some exciting days in your life… they do that all the time.

Okay, so next time I travel abroad I won’t ask for a travel map or guide but will first seek out Mallika and get toilet tips from her. Well, so much for our 5-star activists! Their hearts bleed for justice, for slum children, they want to see Narendra Modi hanged and what not. But they can’t even flush their own bullshit down without dancing in the toilet!

Sanjiv Bhatt Needs A Bonfire, Candles Not Enough

On Tuesday night (Oct 11) it seems gas balloons burst on being singed by candle flames outside Sanjeev Bhatt’s house. It scared the small crowd there, Bhatt’s father-in-law fell down and rumours of a blast had a short life. Hard to fathom what the candle light activists were doing with balloons. I suppose gas balloons are symbolic of the gas bags that have pronounced Bhatt completely innocent of any crime and a victim of a witch-hunt.  Never mind. All the candles in the world are unlikely to end Sanjiv Bhatt’s troubles soon.

So who are these gas bags? All the usual suspects, of course! There is Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi, Mallika Sarabhai, the leaders of the pack. All three are established and exposed liars. One can sympathise with Mrs.Shweta Bhatt (Sanjiv’s wife) and understand her dismay on these events. But instead of taking saner counsels to work for her legally she has allowed gas bags to holler and shriek mindlessly in defence of her husband. The three angels on her side have acquired so much disrepute that anything they now utter is suspect.

Shweta stated that her husband was not a criminal and does not have a history of offences. That Bhatt was being treated like a ‘terrorist’ in custody. That his life is in danger. She writes to P. Chidambaram and complains about the threats. None of these seem a natural response but more a tutored act that has all the ingredients of a drama that the media so loves. The story of Sanjiv Bhatt is not that of a ‘whistle-blower’ as the media so dearly likes to call him. It is an extraordinary case of how and why an IPS officer chose to reveal information and file affidavits against Narendra Modi, nine years after the Gujarat riots of 2002.

The one lesson that is lost on many activists is that whatever the media crooks hype usually turns out to be a huge propaganda of untruths. The SC order on September 12 sending the Zakia Jaffrey case to the lower court stunned many of these media mullas who had hoped the SC would rap Modi. It didn’t happen. Latest information also suggests that neither the SC nor the SIT had considered Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavit in the SC. This only means that his affidavit does not contain reliable evidence against Modi. The motive of Sanjiv Bhatt to come out of the blue and file that affidavit incriminating Modi in the riots must remain under serious question. It doesn’t help that some Congress politicians have been revealed to have lent him support in his misadventure.

This document here chronicles the extraordinary history of offences by Sanjiv Bhatt. He is not the whistle blower or the angel that media has tried to portray him as. But he suits the huge anti-Modi industry propelled by the three stooges (Teesta, Shabnam, Mallika) and comedy channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN and TimesNow. It would also appear that much prior to his affidavit in the SC, Bhatt would probably have been extensively communicating with these activists. Since the exposure of fake affidavits of Teesta Setalvad the media didn’t really have much to shout about against Modi. The Bhatt affidavit gave the campaign a new lease of life for the anti-Modi propaganda.

It is not just Sanjiv Bhatt but the law will sooner or later catch up with Teesta Setalvad. Here’s more from DeshGujarat: Public prosecutor S.V.Raju says “.. Bhatt’s allegation against Modi was simply to divert the attention from the main offense he had committed. Raju also said that adding involving the names of Modi and late Haren Pandya in affidavits was to attract media attention….Bhatt had suppressed the fact that he had approached the Supreme Court for bail on the very next day of his arrest on October 1. The bail plea was later withdrawn from the SC registry on the same day and Bhatt’s lawyer Syed placed the fact on record only after filing bail application in local court here on October 3”.

And if that is not enough a case of murder has been registered against Sanjiv Bhatt for a custodial death in 1990 in Jamnagar (Guj).  The Jamnagar court will soon file a charge-sheet against Bhatt and other accused policemen in the case. Still, the defence for Bhatt continues to pour from none other than Team Anna. This Team Anna is slowly turning out to be a political tool for unknown elements. Suddenly, its member Shanti Bhushan announces Modi is the most communal person and he is willing to defend Sanjiv Bhatt as a lawyer. Bhushan goes on to add “Bhatt was being persecuted only because he had filed an affidavit against Modi”. No sir, he is not being persecuted, he is ACTUALLY being prosecuted. And as a lawyer, this moron should let the law prevail instead of  making political statements about the Congress or the BJP or Modi.

As for the media the best comment yet comes from Rajeev Srinivasan in an article at Firstpost. He describes how this cottage industry of hate and manufacturing consent operates: “Then there are the various characters who keep popping up like jack-in-the-boxes. The Fiction-Writers Posing As Journalists. The Activist Accused By Witnesses Of Tutoring Them To File False Affidavits. The Angry Dancer. The Police Officer 1.0. The Police Officer 2.0. That Police Officer 1.0, who was once the media’s favourite, has trashed Police Officer 2.0, its current favourite, does not seem to bother the media at all”.

Sanjiv Bhatt has spent 12 days in jail and is still fighting for bail. Whether he gets bail or not a long legal battle awaits him. Candles will not be enough, he may well need a bonfire.

The Value Of Modi's Skull

By Guest writer Ram Valmiki

Lot has been already said and written about the “Hate Modi Brigade”. One can clearly see that this brigade is suffering from Ostrich Syndrome. As their lies and misdeeds are being exposed, they find new ways to manufacture new lies. Even though they have been caught pants down with their lies, they still are seen on TV and even in print media, still trying to propagate hate against Modi.

When Modi refused politely to wear a skull cap, “seculars” saw an opportunity to take shots at Modi. They gleefully grabbed it and went around the town crying how it proved that Modi was not serious about “Sadbhavana”. Fortunately they did not get as much audience as they would have liked to. No one was interested in their rants this time. I would like to ask these “seculars” a simple question.  Could Modi wearing a skull cap have made him acceptable as Secular leader in their eyes?

There are no doubts that had Modi accepted the skull cap, these same set of loud mouth activists and journalists would have cried hoarse , accusing Modi of “Drama” to appease Muslims. Modi  and his government have always maintained that they believe in  – “Justice to all, appeasement of none”. He succeeded in proving again to the country that he is not a leader who would stoop down to the level of appeasement for political gains.

The brigade is currently active in undermining the spectacular growth and development of Gujarat under   Modi.  They have now come up with figures and want us to believe that Gujarat under Modi rule is no different from Gujarat under congress rule.  I am not interested in the figures or what statistics are being used to propagate this new lie. One has to just look at various programs the Gujarat government has undertaken to bring prosperity to the State and its people.  Had earlier congress governments achieved what Modi has now, would people of Gujarat have chosen Modi as their Chief Minister continuously? The activists and journalists who doubt the Gujarat growth story surely suffer from loss of mental faculties.  They are insulting the people of Gujarat by not acknowledging their prosperity.  The Supreme Court recently praised the way Public Distribution System works in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. It even asked central government to use implement similar model across the country. None of the MSM reported or had panel discussions about this model.

When Modi was on fast, all the MSM channels had panel discussions and as expected the debates would feature the gruesome Gujarat riots. The MSM and “secular” Activists have succeeded in separating Gujarat riots from Godhra train burning.  The activists project as if one fine day Hindus of Gujarat decided to go on rioting spree and Modi gave them freehand. Never in the debates have we seen the panelists discuss the case of 57 charred bodies of kar sevaks.  We hardly see Hindu victims being asked for opinions. It is as if the whole Media has decided that Hindu victims and Hindu pain does not deserve to be discussed about.

There wee 740 Muslim and 250 Hindu deaths. Every death was unfortunate and riots should be rightly condemned. But selective projection of views and opinions is more dangerous for the country. By separating Gujarat riots from Godhra incident will lead to wrong conclusions.

Activists demand apology from Modi on moral grounds. Why not the same activists demand apology from congress whose municipality member and an MLA were accused of conspiring and actively taking part in Godhra carnage. Media should in fact be debating the conspiracy, planning and intent behind the Godhra which resulted in riots. Asking right questions lead to right answers and correct lessons learnt.

To cover the lack of ground support for their ill intended protests, like the one by Mallika Sarabai where she could gather only 20 or odd people, these activists accuse Modi government of intimidating the minority. They claim the minority community lives in fear and do not come out in open against Modi. Well, it’s a joke. If that is really the case, why not the dare devil Media and activists bring out those victims and give them assurance of full support if they open up? After all, with the kind of Media and Congress support they enjoy, activists are in better position to ensure safety of the “would be” whistle blowers.

Media's Complete Loss Of Decency

The three-day  Sadbhavana Mission of Narendra Modi ended on September 19 with a rousing speech that sought to set new directions for governance, equality and national policies. The mainstream media had no option to be there. After all, no matter how much hatred they continue to heap on him, Modi simply stands tall where leadership and governance are concerned. It also helps that he is a great orator. But make no mistake, the MSM wasn’t there to just cover the event. It was there to see if any more muck can be raised against Modi and to remind him that in the ‘supreme court of the media’ he has already been declared guilty of crimes. Much of the transactions at the Sadbhavana event were live and will also be available to read in newspapers, magazines and online pages for quite some time. So let’s try and understand the orchestration to disrupt the event by the media and other charlatans. Mine is not to discuss the merits/de-merits of the event or its political impact but to understand the orchestrated campaign of hate from some in the media and some activists.

Here’s a tweet from @shammybaweja from September 16 (She is Harinder Baweja, Editor Investigations of Headlines Today):  “Off to Guj for Modis sadhbhavna. Remorse and legal justice needed for 1984 and 2002. Fast track justice, not cong bjp fast wars”.

Well, one would have thought like others she too would land up at the Gujarat University grounds but where does she land up? Naroda Patiya, a site of mob violence and killing in the 2002 riots. Hmmm, so what was cooking? In the morning of September 17 Mallika Sarabhai, another crusader for justice, suddenly summons a presser and accuses Narendra Modi of having bribed her lawyers to scuttle her PIL on the post-Godhra riots. The crusader-come-lately, Sanjiv Bhatt, backs up her allegations as being true. Then later she too lands up at Naroda Patiya. A small group of people, riot victims, are organised to protest and march for justice by Mukul Sinha, a lawyer. So, by strange co-incidence, Mallika, Mukul and Baweja all turn up at Naroda Patiya. Headlines Today was the only channel telecasting live from the site. The protestors were also carrying printed pamphlets that must have been organised overnight. Ordinarily, there would be nothing wrong in such protests except for the timing. Mallika could have made her allegations and led these protests many times over in the last few months but she did not. But the objective was simple – to rekindle and continue the hate-NaMo campaign during the Sadbhavana event.

And that was trigger enough for NDTV, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and others to start their chorus of abuse without even verifying the accusations made by Mallika. So let’s deal with the the lies of Mallika Sarabhai. This report based on comments by her own lawyers should be enough to nail her filthy lies.

From TOI: “Lawyers who appeared for…Mallika Sarabhai in the SCourt in 2002 for her PIL on the post-Godhra riots denied her allegation that bribes were paid to her advocates by the Narendra Modi government to derail the petition…….Advocate Mahesh Agrawala, the counsel who filed the writ petition number 221 of 2002 in the SC with Sarabhai as the petitioner, said it was "totally false that any money was ever paid to us by anyone to do anything or not do something relating to the petition. No money was ever paid to us and we did the case free of cost. Moreover, her case was argued on April 15, 2002, by senior advocate P Chidambaram before a bench headed by the CJI and comprising Justices Shivraj V Patil and H K Sema. The court had admitted the petition, issued notices to the Centre and Gujarat government and allowed early listing,"…….Agrawala said, "She got the relief she wanted on the very first day of hearing. It is unfortunate that after nine years, she is making the allegation about payment of money, which is patently false."

So the TV channels had a blast with the lies of Mallika Sarabhai. And if lies are on the menu can Teesta Setalvad be left out? Naturally, this washing machine of justice was back on TV all through the last three days hurling abuses and spreading untruths once again. Acts for which she was awarded with a Padmashri, of course. And where else to go but on the channel that has been the worldwide platform for the lies against Narendra Modi and about the Gujarat riots, NDTV. It is widely believed that the only channel that Narendra Modi refused an interview to is NDTV. Barkha Dutt herself laments that the CM would not entertain her. There’s a good reason too. Anyone who knows well enough that NDTV and, in particular, Barkha Dutt has carried out a systematic campaign of calumny about Gujarat and Modi wouldn’t trust that channel to be honest or relate to facts.

Long before the Gujarat riots Teesta Setalvad was funded by the Congress, CPM, CPI and others to campaign and carry out ads against the BJP during the 1999 election campaign. She had asked for and received funds from these political parties for her campaign. And she did advertise and campaign against the BJP in her magazine ‘Communal Combat’. Therefore, the lie that Teesta is a ‘social’ or ‘rights’ activist is one of the greatest lies peddled by the media. She is clearly a political activist and her political persuasion and motivation is cunningly suppressed by NDTV and other channels.

Teesta’s campaign against the BJP in 1999 failed as the BJP+NDA returned to power. Naturally, the investments that the Congress made in her had to be recovered somehow. Come the unfortunate Gujarat riots and Teesta had to deliver her pound of flesh. She creates the CJP in April 2002 after the riots have calmed. What followed was the most extraordinary campaign of untruths, fake affidavits, rumour mongering – all gleefully accepted and churned out by the media crooks. How much money has poured into her CJP is not public knowledge. Even the SC had pulled her up for trying to internationalise Modi as a criminal by writing to the UN.

In my post “SC exposes the media’s clean shit” I have detailed the lies that Suzy Roy deliberately peddled about the riots. In case of Teesta her lies were exposed by the SIT itself. All the ‘copy-cat’ affidavits she engineered for the riot victims now stand thoroughly exposed. Her own former colleagues have also nailed her lies. Imagine, this washing machine of justice has twice sought anticipatory bail, something more common among politicians. Her organisation, Citizens for Justice and Peace, parades as an NGO while clearly being a political organisation. However, this campaign of lies did pay off in some way, coupled with many other reasons. The NDA lost power in 2004 and the Congress+UPA came to power. Rewarding Barkha Dutt, Teesta Setalvad (and also Rajdeep Sardesai) immediately would be a dead give-away. So a few years later all three were awarded the Padmashri. But every time Narendra Modi is in the news, these washing machines unfailingly get back into action.

Reading motives or even words where there were none, the MSM uniformly talked about NaMo’s PM ambitions. They sought an apology from him when their attempts to nail him legally haven’t produced anything so far. Interpreted Nitish Kumar’s absence from the Sadbhavana event as a snub and for that reason the event is not supported by all. They even employed fake tweets or manipulated them to heap further abuse. During the event CNBC-TV18 even carried a full interview with Teesta in its programme “Beautiful People”. Hahhaaa, that’s an irony and, mind you, I am not talking about her looks.

The Sadbhavana event can be criticised on many other fronts but that wasn’t the case. The entire narrative was built on continuing the hate-Modi campaign. Every media celeb that talked to Modi had not one question to ask about the development model of Modi. Not one had any question of how Gujarat coped with the historic problem of water shortages. Not one talked about the girl-child education campaign in Gujarat. Not one talked about how Gujarat grew without frivolous subsidies. Not one talked about how Gujarat got around to building such great roads and highways. Not one talked about how Gujarat manages to provide uninterrupted power supply. Not one talked about reasons why industrialists are thrilled to set up businesses in Gujarat. Nothing! Whether Modi gained by the event or not, time will tell. But one outcome has been clearly established. The media’s complete loss of decency, respect for facts and truth, and further erosion in their already low credibility. Modi was giving interviews to all and sundry and if Barkha Dutt feels snubbed by not getting her chance that should tell her how low her image and credibility has sunk. An interview with Modi would have given her some redemption, but I doubt that is ever going to happen.

For all the campaigns against Modi the same crooks are yet to even find what is wrong with Sonia Gandhi, her illness, her treatment, her whereabouts. NDTV has even comically reported her return to India at least 4 or 5 times. And I doubt they still know where Sonia is. Never mind that. But this mainstream media is hurtling towards greater decimation. The social network is already delivering it a severe blow. The online netizens have become a watchdog over the media in absence of an independent body. And if that isn’t enough, there is Wikileaks exposing all the information that the media may have covered up or suppressed.

The future of Narendra Modi doesn’t exactly concern me enormously as much as it concerns the media crooks. They live in fear that his rise to the top may completely destroy whatever is left of their credibility. Whatever else, but there is one thing that these crooks can learn from NaMo. In all this campaign of calumny he has conducted himself in a dignified manner and never shot back at any of his detractors. They called the Sadbhavana event a political stunt or gimmick. NaMo is a politician and the event IS political – what is so wrong about it? That is what politicians are supposed to do – mobilise political views and directions. Modi has successfully done that in at least one thing – ‘vote bank politics will not pay in the future’. The media even tried to make a big issue of Modi not wearing the muslim skull cap offered to him by a visitor. Here is the best response I found on Twitter to that by @Pari500: “…and Maulana says 'refusal of the cap is an insult to Islam', really? Now we know the honour of islam rests SOLELY on Modi's head!”

Here is an interesting observation by The Economist: “The biggest shift is that journalism is no longer the exclusive preserve of journalists. Ordinary people are playing a more active role in the news system, along with a host of technology firms, news start-ups and not-for-profit groups. Social media are certainly not a fad, and their impact is only just beginning to be felt. “It’s everywhere and it’s going to be even more everywhere,” says Arianna Huffington. Successful media organisations will be the ones that accept this new reality. They need to reorient themselves towards serving readers rather than advertisers, embrace social features and collaboration, get off political and moral high horses and stop trying to erect barriers around journalism to protect their position. The digital future of news has much in common with its chaotic, ink-stained past.”

If ever Bill Gates made a business error, the biggest one has to be his refusal or failure to see the potential of the Internet when it came about. Since that failure, his company has only been playing catch up. Google now reports that India will add 200Mn more net users by 2014. That’s a good sign for the nation but a serious warning for the MSM. If they don’t see the writing on the wall the social network will grow to a level that will make them obsolete where news and debates are concerned. The loss of credibility has already come about.. the best they can do is to attempt restoration of some decency and respect for facts and truth.