Patriots & Psychopaths

In an unusual survey by AOLJobs on which occupations attract psychopaths by Kevin Dutton, guess which is third on the list? Journalism! Read the article: “Journalism is Among Top 10 Occupations to Most Likely Attract Psychopaths”. The article goes on: “a number of psychopathic attributes [are] actually more common in business leaders than in so-called disturbed criminals - attributes such as superficial charm, egocentricity, persuasiveness, lack of empathy, independence, and focus” So, maybe it makes more sense now that we think how objective broadcast professionals and journalists must be to distance themselves from reporting. I’m not surprised at all. Most editorialists and TV anchors say things that they forget and they hope others forget too. I’ve said before that the Social Media is unforgiving and has a vast memory. Some of these celebs get themselves into a tangle quite frequently.

In my previous post, ‘Media loves criminals’, I made a gentle reference to Rajdeep Sardesai (RS) defending Dawood Ibrahim as a ‘patriot’. The reference came up in the post on how and why media promotes criminals and over the recent issue of Javed Miandad being a given a visa to visit India. Naturally, Rajdeep who discussed the issue on CNN-IBN with as much vigour as anybody else didn’t expect that his defence of Dawood as a ‘patriot’ would come up somewhere. Rajdeep, like all media amnesiacs thought no one would remember his Dawood connection. Fail! It started on Twitter with a quote from Swapan Dasgupta’s blog (see image). Not only does SwapanD record Rajdeep defending Dawood as a patriot he also mentions that Rajdeep was defending Dawood against “nasty saffronites”. Hmm! Saffron! The colour that Rajdeep and his Fiberal community hate. SwapanD also writes about the “editorial savagery” that greeted any links of ISI and Dawood with the Bombay blasts. Mind you, he isn’t recalling it as an observer; he is recalling it as an ‘insider’ who worked with TOI then. So when this ugly blast from the past came back to haunt Rajdeep he quickly tangled himself in a flurry of devious tweets and danced on burning coals.

Rajdeep went round and round in circles with tweets trying to escape but he couldn’t. First he accused “some” on Twitter (he cleverly didn’t name MediaCrooks) for lying and defaming. So, I presented him with more facts about his TOI article (April 2, 1993) and his statement of Dawood being a patriot being raised in the Parliament. Ouch! Parliament lying and defaming too? Expectedly, no response! He finally gives up the ghost and tweets Dawood is a patriot by the “Thackeray” test. The reference is to the late Bal Thackeray who isn’t around to comment on this cheap theatrics by RS. Note, RS hasn’t anywhere denied that he defended Dawood as a patriot. Dawood is India’s most wanted terrorist, is an accused in the Bombay blasts of 1993, is accused of links with Pak ISI, suspected of links with Al-Qaeda and also of master-minding many terror attacks on Indian soil from Pakistan. But when most in Bombay clearly suspected Dawood of the 1993 blasts RS was busy defending him as a ‘patriot’. Instead of acknowledging his bungling because of his hate for “saffron” Rajdeep continues to dodge. Now, if this guy is airing his crap on TV every night, you can imagine how much potential prejudice he may carry while discussing issues related to national security, Hindu culture, Saffron parties or Islamic terror. That’s the “secular” way of climbing ladders.

Rajdeep likes seeking apologies from others. If he is “masculine” enough he should acknowledge he made a terrible mistake and say: “I am sorry, I made a mistake” (Oh! Don’t repeat “error of judgement” please). Only a psychopath in India would call Dawood a patriot or refuse to acknowledge his past mistake, if it indeed were one. But the survey did say psychopaths are attracted to journalism. Right! So let’s talk about more psychopaths.

Somewhere in the 9-volumes of his life-work, to his Western audience Swami Vivekananda responds to a question on women. Not an exact quote but I recall from memory that he explains that when westerners think of a “woman”, they usually think of the girlfriend or wife. But for Hindus the first idea of a woman is ‘mother’. We refer to our homeland as “Bharat Ma” or “Bharat Mata” and sometimes picturise her as in the image. Quite a few on the social media have this pic as their ID.  Swami Vivekananda is a Hindu icon and is respected as a patriot. However, a psychopath in a newspaper that ironically still calls itself “The Hindu” had some hatred pouring from it. The latest episode had to do with Swami Vivekananda. We’ll get to it.

The anti-nationals and the pseudo-seculars have strived for decades to tar almost every Hindu symbol as an act of shame. Morons have responded to such idiots by appeasing them in the hope they will get greater support for their cause, whatever the cause may be. After the Delhi Gangrape incident some of these appeasers have regularly been on TV talking about safety of women, concerns for law and order and so on. Someone currently holidaying in London wants to finish off Hindus in 15 minutes. Page-3 activists like Nafisa Ali even equated an elected CM with Ajmal Kasab. That was on NDTV, the channel that loves patriots like Musharraf and Imran Khan. I wonder how long it will be before someone comes up with the “Idea of India” where Ajmal Kasab too is was a closet Hindu. Remember Anna Hazare’s Lokpal fasts in August 2011? One of the first things they tore down to appease “seculars” was a poster of Bharat Mata. Kiran Bedi & team were at the feet of that Syed Bukhari begging him for support. An Ex-Police Officer I respect, Kiran Bedi seems to have forgotten Bukhari had an arrest warrant pending on him since 2001. It seems Delhi police didn’t have the courage to arrest him. Kiran Bedi is never short on words for enforcement of law. They showed much respect for “Bharat Ma”, didn’t they?

The same hypocrisy exists in the commie outfit called “The Hindu” whose editor, S. Varadarajan, is an American and hasn’t exactly shown his paper’s name means anything remotely connected with Hindus. So Varadabhai, as I fondly call him, hires a journalistic-psychopath called Sanjay Srivastava to heap more trash on Hindu practices. If it were mere criticism, that could pass. But this psychopath writes in connection with the Delhi Gangrape: “Taking the aggression out of masculinity” which starts with the sub-line: “The Indian family has been a long-standing site for reinforcing and perpetuating male privilege and entitlement”. Indian family? Okay! But that ends there and suddenly turns to Hindus alone and, like many fools before, he trashes Hindu practices. So let’s accept that by the logic of ‘The Hindu’ that Indian simply and definitely means “Hindus”. Who’s gonna complain about that? The rest of it is nothing but another foolish rant but surprisingly brings up Swami Vivekananda’s “pose” as the symbol of this “masculinity”. He says: “Swami Vivekananda’s masculine photographic-pose was only one aspect of the cult of masculinity encouraged and tolerated by nationalism”. Huh? On their website this pic of Swami Vivekananda keeps flashing on and off.

So Indian family -->Hindus -->Swami Vivekananda’s pose--> Masculinity-->Therefore rapes. QED! Damn! This was so simple and we didn’t get it all these centuries. But hang on! This Srivastava has got a serious point. I’m not kidding. In a previous post I mentioned that in 2010 rapes in the USA were highest at 84767 so I decided to check out Srivastava’s theory.

I am truly stunned. You can see Abraham Lincoln striking the same pose as the Swami. So it’s fair to imply Lincoln’s masculinity inspires rapes in the US. I was wrong though, as someone pointed out that on the same page I have linked, South Africa has the highest rapes at 277,012. Oh hell! I had to check all over again. But there you are! Nelson Mandela has the same pose as the Swami. But hold your breath! While searching for these I also found Karan Thapar in the same pose for his programme on CNN-IBN. So by Srivastava’s logic Karan Thapar’s “masculinity” is a serious threat at CNN-IBN or where ever he works.

Out of sheer curiosity I also checked out the pics of Varadabhai and Srivastava. The similarity is striking, eh? So, next time you cross your arms across your chest be careful. You could be termed “masculine” and a “motive” or “inspiration” for rapists. Now, some have tried to demolish the foolishness of Sanjay Srivastava and ‘The Hindu’ with truth and logic. But hey, if logic and truth mattered at all would these people write such foolish articles in the first place? If logic and truth mattered would Rajdeep have defended Dawood as a “patriot”? Truth, facts and logic don’t inspire them. What unites these commie “sickulars” is their uniform and consistent hatred of Hindu culture and practices. Nothing complicated. Rajdeep’s deputy even hates seeing Saffron in our National Flag; she calls it “Orange”. You know, I’m starting to believe that survey that suggests journalism does attract psychopaths; with their hatred and twisted sense of patriotism.

Twenty Two Yards Of Dead Bodies

“He who joyfully marches to music, rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

According to a TOI report some 4000 soldiers have died since 1999 for various reasons when there has been no “official war”. There is something strange about soldiers being recruited in the Army. Quite a lot of them are from villages, rural towns and mostly from poor families. There are villages in Rajasthan and Himachal that have at least one veteran or soldier in the army. There are villages in Rajasthan where at least one member of every family is in the Army or is a veteran. You know… young men and women around the age of 21-22 willing to die for their country if required. Many, if not all, fortunate ones in the same age-group are addicted to the latest mobiles, malls and movie stars. The slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” does seem to have a deep meaning and prudence. It’s either the farmer or the soldier who is dying lately. Very frequently!

Last night some TV channels were discussing Captain Saurabh Kalia the soldier who first noticed the Kargil infiltration in 1999. He and five others were captured, tortured and their dead bodies returned to India by Pakistan. There was Arnab Goswami on TimesNow talking about him. And yes, there was Barkha Dutt, the Kargil heroine, on NDTV. Both channels had to discuss Capt. Kalia with some Pakistani guests also. Barkha was looking to an open and honest discussion and the Pakistani, Gen. Qureshi, decided he had enough and it was pointless. I’m even amazed that it takes him to tell her that it’s pointless talking to a representative of your enemy of that war about a situation. Well, Barkha and Arnab show you how intelligent our media is and how concerned our govt is. Barkha even ended her program with the words that it takes something sensational to talk about our war heroes. So what was this sudden reason to talk about Saurabh Kalia? Well, after 13 years of waiting his father, Dr. NK Kalia, has petitioned the Supreme Court to direct the GOI to seek an apology from Pakistan for “war crimes” in returning the body of his son tortured.

“Kargil martyr Saurabh Kalia's torture: Violations by Pakistan unacceptable, says government” says the NDTV report. If you read the headline you’d think our govt has suddenly woken up and it had nothing to do with the SC petition by Kalia’s father. Yeah, the UPA govt that doesn’t observe Kargil Diwas. The same UPA whose prince charming, Rahul Gandhi, claimed on November 4 that the Congress had generously supported the BJP during the Kargil war. We are just past another anniversary of 26/11. I remember during the 26/11 attacks TimesNow and Arnab had screamed “We will never forget”. And yet within a couple of months TOI was running a crap campaign called “Aman Ki Asha”. So much for never forgetting dead people and soldiers! And Barkha Dutt? Oh yes; the one who reported breathlessly from Mumbai during 26/11. In less than 48 hours, even before the blood on the streets and the targeted buildings had dried and were washed she was doing an episode of “We the people” right from Mumbai on November 30, 2008. This episode was angrily titled “Enough is enough”.

In a tweet on 26/11 this year Barkha called it an “act of war”. I suppose same as Kargil. She also states privilege offers no protection and terrorism is an awful leveller. If you decide to watch the video of that program you will find that except for one Shameem Khan, who lost 4 members of his family, all the rest could be categorized as the “privileged”. Of course, the panellists on the program were poor people who had experienced terror themselves – Ness Wadia, Simi Garewal, Bachi Karkaria, Ratna Pathak, Kunal Kohli, Luke Kenny etc. and one former police officer M.N. Singh. Barkha’s outrage over the act of war and her histrionics were on full display that night. After a heated exchange between Simi and a guy from the audience she even told everyone: “Will you all do what I ask? Can we have dignified silence please?”. Such was the outrage. Here are some quotes from her (in blue) at the beginning of the program:

Home Minister (Maharashtra) and many more heads are expected to roll. Oh yes. RR Patil, then HM did roll. He even said somewhere that such attacks happen in many cities. Well, what do you know; he’s back and is still the HM of Maharashtra. 

We are going to tell our politicians that we don’t necessarily trust them. And the politician she had on the program? Oh, that was Abhishek Singhvi. Yes, the same guy who was suspended for his physical escapades and is now back on all channels again as Congress spokesman. She also had Milind Deora, who is currently a minister.

Justice for this, justice for that! These are frequent campaigns run by our media. And in the run up to 26/11 what are some of the great deeds our politicians were busy with? 2G, Cash for votes, CWG scam, Hasan Ali and his black money which has ended nowhere, Adarsh scam, Aircel-Maxis. Within hours of 26/11 ending Vilasrao Deshmukh his son Riteish and Ramgopal Verma were on a terror tour inside the Taj hotel. At an all-party meeting the PM announced there would be four more hubs of NSG. That would mean more Saurabh Kalias and Unnikrishnans will be happy to serve. What happens once the war is over and all the patriotic screaming is over in the media? They get back to their games of hosting our enemies. Especially, the architect of Kargil – Parvez Musharraf.

Politicians and our media seem to have a strange love affair with those who plot the destruction of our nation. Even when Musharraf has ceased to hold any official position our media seems to believe he is the one with the wisdom on leadership and future of India. So you have the Kargil heroine running everywhere to interview him. You have the India Today Conclave hosting him, you have HT Summit hosting him. And he’s a frequent guest on both NDTV and CNN-IBN. These channels are often hyper-patriotic and even have special songs composed for some special occasions. A report from The Hindu in May 2012 describes certain incidents that the guys in the army seem to routinely experience. This was after a ‘Sahayak’, someone who’s like a valet, was beaten up. It talks about simmering class-tensions and feudal mindset in the army too. Musharraf comes to our land tells us he doesn’t regret Kargil, he tells us Muslims in India need a better deal and cracks jokes that make our media celebs laugh. During the India Today Conclave in 2009 Maulana Madani, an MP, gave a stinging response to Musharraf’s concerns about Indian Muslims and asked him politely not to worry. (See video) The host, Arun Poorie of India Today, was left dumb and speechless.

If not that Musharraf guy there’s always that other one. Yes, the other national pastime of our media folks, especially Barkha Dutt, is none other than Imran Khan. Our media seems to campaign for him as PM as much as they do for, say, Rahul Gandhi. He was here again this month and had reassuring words for India: If the Kashmir issue is not resolved there may be more 26/11s. And since we talk about “levellers” what levels everything better than Cricket, eh? Playing cricket with Pakistan with top politicians watching levels everything. In the 2011 world cup match at Chandigarh the Pakistan and Indian PM with their entourage were there cheering the players. After the match NDTV even put up banner with the jubilant Indian team and their lucky mascot Rahul Gandhi. And now the GOI has decided to honour Saurabh Kalia, Sandeep Unnikrishnan and many other fallen soldiers of Kargil and 26/11 by hosting another Indo-Pak series in December 2012. Idiots who scream patriotism every other day will, of course, turn out to watch the matches and the media will make another neat pile. It’s now called ‘Cricket Diplomacy’. Saurabh Kalia is dead while his father has been fighting a lot more battles. He’s taken the latest one to the Supreme Court.

If Saurabh Kalia had returned alive with his limbs broken or blinded he would have lived a miserable life running from pillar to post fighting for pensions and dues from the GOI. Fighting in Kargil was probably easier for our soldiers. If there’s anything left our politicians will make sure they will screw it up with an Adarsh scam over land supposedly allotted for Kargil heroes. Oh yes, how can we forget? There’s LK Advani, Dy. PM during Kargil, who went to Pakistan-Yatra to certify Jinnah was secular. Our Laloos and Bollywood celebs frequently go on a pilgrimage to that holy country. Lately, even the very secular Nitish Kumar was on a ‘Tirth yatra’ in Pakistan. A wag once commented Tamils in Sri Lanka don’t matter because they aren’t vote-banks but Pakistan matters because of Muslim vote-banks in India. I wouldn’t disagree. Pakistan is a vote-bank for our ‘secular’ forces.

What about our Cricketers? Aren’t they somewhat similar to soldiers? They wear India colours; often display patriotism covering themselves with the Indian flag. There’s a little guy who turns up at every match painted in the tri-colour just to support Tendulkar. Some of these cricketing celebs live under high security. The same security provided by the likes of those who die in Kargil or on the streets of Mumbai, like Tukaram Omble. People protesting is one thing, it is time these Cricketers stood up, showed some spine and said NO to playing Pakistan in a bilateral series. This is no world cup or international tournament where we don’t have a say. This is our own choice.

“The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonourably, foolishly, viciously.”― Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot.

Our policy towards Pakistan is not and never has been driven by a National Compass. It has always been driven by personal opinions, situations and stupidity. The cricketers now have a chance to stand up and do the right thing by the Kalias, Unnikrishnans, Ombles and many of our fallen men and women. They have the chance to show they not only have brains but also a spine independent of the BCCI and the GOI. They can imagine the plight and suffering of the families of those who died and imagine twenty two yards of dead bodies and not necessarily a cricket pitch.