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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CNN-IBN: How To Misunderstand Advani & Deceive

“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see…” is a line from a famous song by an artist who is often credited with being the creator of modern pop music as we know it. On Sunday, August 5 if there was one statement that should have been lampooned and ridiculed in the news media it should have been the one by the new Home Minister Sushil Shinde. “I am a foot soldier of Sonia Gandhi.. if Sonia asks to shoot… will shoot to kill”. This was in an interview to Prabhu Chawla in the New Indian Express. 

Such stupidity and sycophancy seem to come naturally to many Congress leaders. It is just that it’s not from a low-level ‘darbari’ but from the Home Minister of a vast nation. However, one did not find a single mention of Shinde’s chivalry in any news channel or even online media, except the NIE itself. CNN-IBN is usually a good judge of character as Rajdeep Sardesai’s tweet about Shinde’s arrival clearly indicates. After all, didn’t an eminent Social Genius tweet that when it comes to political analysis “Rajdeep Sardesai is Numero Uno”? And they’re also good at ‘misunderstanding’ all they see. But let’s come to CNN-IBN later. Let’s first misunderstand BJP leader L.K. Advani (LKA). I promise you, it will be fun.

Since the BJP’s election loss in 2004 LKA has made a series of comments which have caused embarrassment to his party or even some damage. The first one was about M.A.Jinnah being a secular man. Naturally, this was enough fodder for not only the Congress but even the BJP and the Sangh Pariwar. LKA had to pay some price for this folly even if he considered it his honest assessment of Jinnah. This statement was made in Pakistan around May-June 2005; the first year after the election loss. Things went quiet for a while after this. Then in 2008, in an interview with Arnab Goswami, LKA was asked what he thought about Rahul Gandhi and about LKA Vs. RG as an election battle in the 2009 General Election. LKA then narrated how he ran into RG at an airport and I quote from the interview:

“He (RG) met me in the VIP lounge of the airport and he asked, "What do you think will happen in the country?" … I said to the PM that after the UP verdict, there is a growing feeling in the political circles that the two mainstream parties are shrinking. Caste based parties and regional parties are occupying that space. Rahul asked, "What can be done about this?" I said that the only thing that strikes me is that the two mainstream parties should not regard each other as enemies. Political adversaries, yes. Political opponents, Yes. But not as enemies”. There is absolutely nothing wrong in LKA’s advice to RG. But I have to wonder why LKA only blames regional parties for the caste calculations. The Congress is the pioneer in dividing the nation by caste, community, linguistics and religion which indeed has been the inspiration and motivation for regional parties. That was, of course, casual conversation but would LKA have put similar sentiments in writing independently? About the same Sushil Shinde CNN-IBN tweeted, quoting him: “Caste is important to be Home Minister”. So there! So you can judge how CNN-IBN analyses LKA and Sushil Shinde.

Alright, the BJP then puts together a Task-force on Black-Money and on February 1, 2011 released a report: 'Indian Black Money Abroad in Secret Banks and Tax Havens'. The report said that Sonia Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were among Indians who held Swiss bank accounts. Oops! So SoniaG writes to LKA expressing her heartburn over this allegation and that neither she nor her family had any Swiss accounts. LKA instantly writes back to “express regret”. That was enough to set off another round of misunderstanding over what LKA actually meant. The media naturally called it an “apology” by LKA while BJP and others defended that LKA just expressed regret Sonia and her family were mentioned in the report and it wasn’t an apology. At this incident LKA should have already appointed a Secretary of Clarification. It’s been long overdue.

In the background of the Anna Hazare agitation against corruption LKA decides to go on another Yatra in October 2011. Though the yatra was meant to be over issues of corruption the media constantly and cleverly keeps asking him questions on whether he is still a PM candidate of the BJP at the next election. LKA smartly ducked and dodged the question but never made a single strong statement to shut the media up once and for all over the question, one way or another. The PM issue clearly dwarfed his anti-corruption yatra. Then, again in May 2012 he skips BJP’s national executive meet and the media suggested he was “sulking” at being side-lined. After this meet LKA goes home and writes a blog slamming party president Nitin Gadkari and others for failures in UP elections and many other crucial decisions. Again, absolutely nothing wrong in writing that but a top leader of a political party would be expected to calculate the consequences of his public outbursts.

So, knowing how media crooks in India are known to twist any statement in favour of the Congress party, LKA writes another blog titled: “Speculations about Congress fate in 2014”. Let me quote critical excerpts from this particular post which the media, particularly CNN-IBN, is toying with (Emphasis mine):

In an informal chat with two senior Cabinet Ministers before the formal dinner, I could clearly perceive an intense sense of concern weighing on the minds of both these Ministers. Their apprehensions were as follows :

a) In the Sixteenth Elections to the Lok Sabha, neither the Congress nor the BJP may be able to forge an alliance which has a clear majority in the Lok Sabha.

b) In 2013 or 2014, therefore, whenever the Lok Sabha elections take place, the Government likely to take shape can be that of the Third Front. This, according to the Congress Ministers would be extremely harmful not only for the stability of Indian politics but also for national interests.

My response to the anxiety voiced by these Congressmen was: I can understand your concern, but I do not share it.  My own view is:

i) The shape which national polity has acquired in the past two and a half decades makes it practically impossible for any government to be formed in New Delhi which does not have the support either of the Congress or of the BJP.  A third Front Government, therefore, can be ruled out.

ii) A non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister heading a government supported by one of these two principal parties is however feasible. This has happened in the past also.

But…. Such governments have never lasted long…..

Soothsayers are not wanting who predict that it may be the first time when the Congress Party’s score sinks to just two digits, that is, less than one hundred !

Well, in what is a severe castigation of the Congress in which LKA estimates less than 100 seats for them in 2014 the interpretation of his blog by some is quite interesting. Have to start with that BCCI guy, also a Congress MP and spokesman, Rajiv Shukla, who thinks with a ‘ball’ instead of brains. Shukla concludes: “LK Advani has conceded defeat in 2014 General Elections”! And like a faithful dog, without questioning their master, CNN-IBN reproduces that quote as a headline as if that represented the exact content of LKA’s blog. Not only does CNN-IBN ‘misunderstand’ but also hopes to mislead viewers and readers through such deceptive headlines.

That LKA has predicted Congress will be decimated in 2014 is not the headline but BJP has conceded the 2014 election is the headline. Shukla can be forgiven being a Congress-man. But how do you explain the “Numero Uno” political analyst’s channel that misunderstands? Take the earlier headline from CNN-IBN: “Non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister feasible in 2014: LK Advani”. Once again CNN-IBN while quoting the text correctly twists the meaning to suggest a third alternative seems more feasible according to LKA. Mildly, this would be deception and harshly I would call it lying to readers and viewers.

Fact is, LKA was responding to apprehensions by Congress Ministers that a third front govt in 2014 may be harmful. CNN-IBN and others have reproduced LKA’s response to these apprehensions without stating the context. Even Times Of India produced the same headline of a non-Congress, non-BJP PM being feasible as if LKA was ‘Predicting’ such a scenario. Again, a misleading and deceptive headline! No harm in calling it another lie by TOI. To their credit only NDTV reported LKA’s post and content quite accurately with their article: “Congress' score may come down to double digits in 2014 polls: LKAdvani”.

In summary, LKA has predicted a decimation of Congress in 2014 with less than 100 seats for them. In response to apprehensions by Congress ministers of a third front PM he has only stated that is feasible but going by history such govts do not last. His views are neither misplaced and do not in any way concede a BJP defeat as Rajiv Shukla or CNN-IBN would have the world believe. LKA probably needs to craft his posts in much simpler language for the morons in our media to understand, especially CNN-IBN. CNN-IBN media celebs were probably taught in journalism schools to misunderstand what is obvious to the world. They seem to relish misunderstanding simple posts and compose misleading headlines. But then sometime back #CNNIBNLies had trended strongly on Twitter. I guess there must be a strong reason for that tag!

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Indian MediaCrook of The Year Award...

Read my post on the 'Anti-Indian of the year' award. Since the news media outlets confer such awards on politicians and businessmen, it is quite appropriate that ordinary citizens confer such awards on the media outlets as also media persons. Both polls are on the right margin of this page. Go ahead, make your choice..

Nira Radia Tapes - Even Hitler Upset At Media Black Out...

As a kid, Adolf always wanted to be a journalist and become an Arnab Goswami. That didn't happen but he was on the Nira Radia tapes wanting his "melodious" voice to be heard. The media black out of the tapes (even in the village of Shekhar Gupta) has destroyed his hopes of even becoming a minister. He would have even settled for the dark Ministry of Black-outs, but....

This humorous piece of satire comes from the The Daily Tamasha ( http://thedailytamasha.wordpress.com ). Thanks to their humorous blog.

Radia Tapes - Now Prabhu Chawla Offers Defence..

Following Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi, the latest to offer a defence of his conversation with Nira Radia is Prabhu Chawla. Here is what he wrote on November 23:

"Much has been made about a conversation that Nira Radia had with me. This is just to put the record straight. The 13 minute conversation had nothing to do with the controversial 2G of A Raja. Nira called me as she said “to seek my expertise” on the Battle for Gas” between the two Ambani brothers. I merely told her that the earlier the brothers put an end to their private battle, the better it will be for the public good. I did not take sides........It is proof, if indeed proof were needed, that I have nothing to hide or be ashamed of. " Read his full blogpost Here.

Here's my response to Mr. Prabhu Chawla:

Firstly, I have not yet come across any media, electronic, print or online, accusing you of any "guilt" in these conversations. Then why this defence? Why this attempt to show you are "innocent" of any wrong doing?

You were at least one person to admit that these tapes are genuine in your "Ask Prabhu" feature on your group site (Read Here) And then you went on to state these were obtained "illegally"! Really? I would request you to substantiate your charge that these were obtained illegally. In other terms, are you suggesting that the magazine that exposed the tapes had "sources" that were illegal, unlike the "legal" journalistic sources that Barkha, Sanghvi and you maybe indulging?

You are a very senior and respected journalist. But if someone completely unaware of the background of the whole story were to be shown the transcript of your conversation with Radia, who do you think would be perceived to be the journalist? You or Nira Radia? In all honesty, in response to her clever line of probing you appear to be the one singing like a canary with delicate juice on the Ambani brothers. Is that how journalists do business? Who's doing the "Seedhi Baat" here? And were you completely unaware that this person is a corporate and political lobbyist that would make anyone cautious about what they say to her? Especially a senior journalist of some standing.Were you completely unaware of the overall nature of Radia's portfolio of work and assignments?

No one accused you of any guilt, Mr. Chawla. However, since you have offered a defence, the above are the real questions you need to answer. Will you? It doesn't cross the minds of the journalists involved in this story that it's not Radia who appears to be the "journalistic source" in all the transcripts. It is, unfortunately, the journalists who appear to be a "source" for a lobbyist's designs. Is that so hard to see?