General V.K.Singh - With Honours

The Supreme Court today disposed of a petition filed by Army Chief V.K.Singh on the matter concerning his age. The govt had decided to go by records which had his year of birth as 1950 while other records had it as 1951. This meant that he would have to retire in May 2012 while 1951 would have meant retiring in 2013. Why the case landed up in the SC is a sorry story which is consistent with the poor handling of various issues the central govt is by now reputed for. On December 30 the govt rejected a second appeal by Gen. Singh to recognise his DOB as 1951 seeking the advice of the Attorney General. It was the second time the govt had sought the advice of the AG on the same issue. This rejection led to the General taking the matter to the SC. Now, that’s the drama that the media couldn’t resist at all. What should have been reported as case of serious nature was turned into a WWE wrestling match of sorts by the media.

Dignity V Ambition was the constant topic of debates in the media. Shameful! General Singh is in the final year of his career, he is over 60, has earned laurels throughout his career. So to even remotely suggest that there was some ingredient of ambition in his stand is an offensive mud-slinging exercise that the media revels in. And, of course, there were those media crooks who even suggested he should resign as soon as the petition was filed. The General acted out of a call of his conscience and the belief that the govt doubted his integrity by rejecting his appeal. So what do the SC observations hold in this case?

First, last week the SC observed that the govt procedure was faulty in rejecting the General’s appeal since it used the same advice (of the AG) that it had already used in a previous appeal. This therefore vitiated the principles of natural justice according to the SC. In the second hearing of the case today the SC recommended the General withdraw his plea since the govt had already agreed and decided to withdraw its controversial order of December 30. The SC also observed that basic documents such as his school leaving certificate used in UPSC records and other records showed his DOB as 1951. SC also observed that it was an issue of service records where the records showing 1950 were proper and that neither his honour nor integrity was in question and that he should have taken steps to rectify the anomaly long back instead of this late state in his career.

The SC maintained it didn’t want to intervene in an issue of service records and did not want dirty linen washed in public. That, in short, summarises the SC approach to the whole case. So it is neither a loss to the General nor a victory for the govt. In a case such as this it is obvious that the people were with the General because they definitely have far more respect for the Army than for the govt. Secondly, General V K Singh is reputed to be an upright officer who has fought corruption in the army. In contrast, the UPA is now seen as a natural friend of corruption. Effectively the SC just said: Your DOB is 1951 but let the service records stay as they are and not reverse what was accepted for over 30 years. That is all!

The implications of the SC observations clearly point to the following:

1. The govt. simply failed to resolve the issue amicably and let matters get out of hand.
2. That the grievance and dispute redress systems in the army procedures need to be looked into closely and revamped where necessary.
3. That in the future even the Army may resort to normal legal processes in the face of govt intransigence.

During the time when the dispute was being negotiated with Gen. Singh the govt could have come out openly and stated in no uncertain circumstances that they hold him in high esteem, respect his integrity, his honour and the 1951 date, but would stand by the records. Instead, the govt was constantly giving the image of a conflict. If the govt has to learn any lessons then these are the ones. The govt was saved by a slim lifeline today. What if the SC had ruled against the govt? That would have completely eroded the govt’s right to even continue with any credibility. The last thing a civilian govt would want is a conflict over such issues with the Army Chief.

The case was turned into a circus by the media as usual. From the time the SC observations were being relayed from the court the usual rants came out: Blow to Army Chief, Setback to Army Chief! Some TV channels even reported Singh's petition was "Dismissed" when technically that was inaccurate since he had withdrawn his petition. It is indeed shameful that such headlines are being used to indicate a loss for the general. It was not a loss. There are those in the media who are now suggesting that General Singh should now resign early. This is a faulty suggestion. It is up to Singh to decide on that. An unresolved disagreement was referred by him to the SC. That’s all. It is not a defeat or loss even in the slightest sense. This was not some property dispute. Finally, the fact is that a huge majority of India does believe Gen. Singh and that his DOB, as claimed by him, is indeed 1951. That’s a victory unavailable to the govt. which has been losing trust every minute. As the saying goes – the law is an Ass, though not all the time. General Singh came through with his reputation intact and with honours.

The Messiah's Transmitters

Sometimes a writer comes up with a brilliant line and wants to squeeze it somewhere in his article or story. Sometimes a film-maker likes to make an ‘Item-number’ the high-point of a movie. Yes, that sells! Then there might be a very thought provoking line like “Ask not…” by JFK which becomes immortal. And sometimes there might be the analogy that doesn’t fit anywhere but has to be used because the speaker was thrilled with the invention by the script writer. That’s what explains Rahul Gandhi’s statement on Monday, February 6 at Varanasi: “We politicians are just transmitters. Our job is to listen and transmit.  Our job is to understand and transmit”. Given that RG has been parading Sam Pitroda, the telecom specialist, here and there as a symbol of OBC progress I have a feeling the transmitter analogy might have come from Pitroda. There’s only one problem – Transmit to whom? The guy upstairs? Occupants of some inter-planetary craft? Well, whatever RG meant there are other ‘transmitters’ who do a lot of transmitting for him and about him. They are the wise, insightful ones who understand RG far better than lesser mortals like us. Some of them are in the print media and the others on TV. The 12 apostles. Collectively, they faithfully interpret and transmit the pearls of wisdom that RG frequently delivers us.

The transmitters are like a cricket team, 11 plus the extra man. You could call them the twelve apostles of the messiah. TimeGroup, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, IndiaToday group, NDTV, CNN-IBN, TimesNow, HeadlinesToday, StarNews, Tehelka, NewsX with a revolving 12th man. This time let’s start with the 12th man, former spook B. Raman.

It is one from the ‘intelligence’ gang who can analyse RG better than anyone else. Here’s a transmission from B.Raman: “If Rahul can avert a humiliation of the party in the forthcoming polls, that could be an achievement indeed keeping alive the political hopes and aspirations of the Party”. Aha! So the think tanks are constantly defining and re-defining what victory represents. If RG and Congress survive “humiliation” it would be an “achievement”! Mind you, not a majority, not a good chunk of seats but avoiding humiliation would be a victory. Surely, Mr. Raman sets the performance bar for the messiah really high. And we too should concede that if Congress is NOT humiliated then it’s a victory for them.

It is not disputed anymore that a huge majority of newspapers and TV channels are mere mouthpieces of the Congress party. NDTV and CNN-IBN lead the pack and have shed all pretenses of being independent news channels. This is good because they can now freely air their propaganda without being accused of being news channels. On February 6 a CNN-IBN beat reporter cooed a question “Why doesn’t Priyanka enter politics, she is such a natural?” Yes, everyone from the Gandhi dynasty is a “natural”. Lately, even Robert Vadra, Priyanka’s husband, has been campaigning and had some exciting sound bites to offer. He decided that it was currently Rahul’s turn, Priyanka’s would come in time and then he might join politics if people want him to. Of course, people want him to, so tonight at 10pm on NDTV Barkha Dutt will do an exclusive interview with Vadra and plead with him to join politics. And you’re dumb if you didn’t know that “She’s the people”!

Ya’ll are not born smart enough to understand RG. So here’s one more transmitter, Rajdeep Sardesai, the Feditor of CNN-IBN: “At the age of 41, Rahul Gandhi cannot be the eternal Peter Pan. It is time that we discover who the real Rahul Gandhi is. The odd combative press conference is clearly not enough to uncover the real Rahul. He has promised that he is in UP for the long run and has run a strong election campaign. We have just one simple question: would Rahul be tempted to become the UP chief minister if the Congress was in a position to form a government?” Damn! I thought ‘sad sack’ had already uncovered RG two years ago with an “Indian politician of the year award” when he explained Rahul’s great “vision” for India and how despite his young age he towered over senior politicians. And now he wants to discover the real Rahul, he wonders if RG would be tempted to be CM of UP. Funny, isn’t it? One transmitter thinks surviving humiliation is victory and another transmitter wonders if he would take up CMship.

And where transmitters are concerned nobody does it better than NDTV, the eyes, nose and ears of Rahul Gandhi. Quite faithfully they have transmitted 21 gospels by the messiah without fear or favour. These are listed here. What surprises me yet is that despite all the devotion and dedication neither Rahul nor Priyanka have given an ‘exclusive’ interview to Barkha Dutt yet. I expect Robert Vadra will compensate for that tonight. But don’t be disappointed! If you needed a comprehensive transmission of the life work and gospels of Rahul Gandhi you just got lucky. Only last month a complete biography of Rahul was released and it’s now available everywhere. This is just in time for election season.

Rahul’s biography has been transmitted by Veenu Sandhu and Jatin Gandhi. No no, Jatin Gandhi is not the great grandson of Nehru! The book will help you understand: “Who is Rahul Gandhi—the real man—beneath the hype and the hatchet jobs? What are the ideas and influences that propel him? Who are his advisers? And how will he tackle his new responsibilities as his mother, Sonia Gandhi, makes way for him?” Never mind that. It’s the lineage of the authors that should give you some idea of what the transmission would contain. Take a look:

Jatin Gandhi - Has reported from different parts of India for the last fifteen years for both print and electronic media, including the Hindustan Times, the Indian Express, Times Now, Star News and wahindia.com

Veenu Sandhu - Has reported on a range of subjects in a career that spans fifteen years and which includes stints at the Indian Express, the Hindustan Times and NDTV 24x7. She is currently Features Editor with Business Standard in Delhi.

So it’s not just Rahul The Messiah, but sister Priyanka, her husband Robert Vadra, their little daughter who are all out to send “messages” to us. Well, if they had cats and dogs they would be out there too. There is just one little problem. After stating “We politicians are just transmitters. Our job is to listen and transmit.  Our job is to understand and transmit”, In the list of 21 gospels that NDTV faithfully reproduced you will not find this fantastic piece of transmission from Rahul Gandhi: “I don’t care about election results”. So much for listening, understanding and transmitting!

122 Reasons To Cheer

I had read somewhere that every afternoon about 7 members of the Congress media department meet to discuss the day’s issues and plan a media response. That would normally be a healthy practice in any political party. On February 1 the same group would have had an extended meeting discussing their response to the much-awaited SC verdict on 2G that was slated for February 2. What if P.Chidambaram was indicted? What if an SIT was set up to monitor investigations into the scam? And maybe a few more questions. But not in their worst nightmare would they have expected that the SC would quash the 122 licenses issued by the govt. Now that was something they hadn’t planned for probably. So once the verdict came out at around 10.30am the Congress spinners went into a huddle and not until 3pm did they come out with a response. That’s Okay! It takes time to come out with the worst spin; especially when most of them claimed they hadn’t read the full judgement.

So it was left to Zero specialist Kapil Sibal to break the good news to the media. And true to his established tradition of stupid utterances Sibal stated the SC endorsed the govt policies, blamed the previous NDA govt, led by BJP, for the whole mess. Why? It’s because the UPA followed the same ‘first come, first serve’ (FCFS) policy established by the BJP. So according to Sibal, the indictment of his govt was basically an indictment of the NDA which should apologise to the nation. Oh well! Let’s just say the BJP invented the Hammer and the UPA used that Hammer to commit murder so the BJP is culpable. True, the SC had faulted the FCFS policy but the clever spin by Sibal takes away from the real issue: That the cause for the reported 1.76 lakh crores was because 2001 prices were used for issuing licenses in 2008. The UPA had not just abused the FCFS policy but also used the wrong pricing. But that is all that the faithful poodles in the media needed to brighten their day, a spin from Sibal.

The second aspect of Sibal’s nonsense is that only A. Raja was responsible for the 2G scam and neither the PM nor P.Chidambaram were responsible. Imagine, the sales manager of a company concludes an extra-ordinarily huge transaction and neither the Finance manager nor the MD is aware of such a transaction. Normally, even a Chairman who doesn’t involve himself in day to day operations would know of such a transaction. But to expect our PM, then FM or UPA head Sonia Gandhi to be aware of the 2G skulduggery is supposedly far-fetched.

So, from 3pm onward the MSM on TV, online media and elsewhere kept playing the allegation of Sibal against the NDA and happily buried the issue of the loss of 1.76 lakh crores somewhere in their dustbins. Where the question of responsibility came up, the discussions focused on Raja. And the usual suspects who defend the govt even on the indefensible were on the panels all evening. Here are some interesting observations:

On the question why PM, PC or Sonia (or High Command) were unaware of what Raja was up to Vinod Sharma of Hindustan Times had this to offer (on NDTV): Raja’s High Command is in Chennai and not in Delhi. That’s a reference to DMK bosses and inference is that Raja, as a minister, did not have any accountability to the PM or the Cabinet. That’s how stupid media morons like Vinod Sharma can get.

Okay, the next one is from K.Tulsi, a lawyer with Congress sympathies, who suggested (again on NDTV) the PM and FM cannot be aware of everything. Everything? Haha! This is not some small-change we are talking about, this is a Himalayan transaction. To this nonsense Arun Shourie responded by asking Tulsi if the PM and FM don’t even read newspapers. That’s true, since 2009 the 2G scam has been in the news and some newspapers, particularly The Pioneer, were reporting it and yet PM and FM were unaware? Any idiot who reads newspapers would be aware of something brewing as a scam in the 2G licenses, yet the head of the Indian govt. was ignorant. Brilliant! This, when every man’s wife, children, relatives and dogs and cats knew about the scam.

Now, the best spin and deflection comes from none other than Rajdeep Sardesai, the devil on TV and preacher by night kind of journalist. He cleverly asks a panelist: So the NDA is not to blame and Raja has to be blamed for the whole scam? Journalism? Nope, Latinos might call this 'Whorenalism'! This little question would normally be missed by a viewer but if you read carefully he gives you a choice in deciding who’s guilty, its either NDA or Raja. The Congress, UPA, PM, Chidambaram are all exonerated in one single stroke. This is the same Rajdeep whose channel tried to tar and poke holes in the CAG report and claimed internal squabbles. That the loss in 2G was a mere 2645 Cr. and not the CAG figure of 1.76 lakh Cr. Motivation for the “Whatever it takes” channel!

Alright, notwithstanding all of that there is one important question that nobody is asking. What could be the motive for such a scam? Surely, behind every crime there has to be a motive. If Sibal feels the SC verdict finds fault with the NDA policy why is it that the govt chose to go for an auction of 3G licenses instead of continuing the FCFS route? Obviously, by early 2010 the govt was aware that the FCFS was misused and could have taken remedial action. It did not. Quite simply, the govt, as in many other scams, believed they could get away with it. They did not expect such a severe dressing down from the SC. The words the court used would shame any govt: “Illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and capricious”, but not the Congress. Which is why Sibal brazenly accuses NDA and defends PC, PM and by implication Sonia Gandhi too. And the media parrots that line.

Subramanian Swamy who fought the 2G case all along has stated many times over that there were kickbacks to the tune of 60000 crores and some of it has gone to Sonia Gandhi and family and some to DMK. But it is hard to believe that people who already have huge wealth would want to amass such further draconian amounts for personal gains. And there seems to be only one probable answer: Elections! The 2G licenses were given out in early 2008 with the general elections just over a year away. This was also a time when the Congress was in constant conflict with the Communists over the nuclear deal. Hanging on to alliances and allowing crimes to stay in power is not new in India. Elections are an expensive affair. Come general elections in May 2009 and both, the Congress and the DMK, return with a good number of seats. The Congress even manages to score higher than in the previous election. That is amazing considering the elections came in the backdrop of the worst terrorist attack on India in November 2008. Swamy’s allegations about the kickbacks have been around for quite some time yet not one single media outlet has talked about it, much less willing to investigate and report on it. Given the turn of events Swamy naturally commands a higher trust than any media house.

Narendra Modi during his Sadbhavna mission in September 2011 made an important statement: That some political parties come to power and their main agenda is not governance or development but has always been how to win the next election. In the last parliament session Ram Jethmalani quoted the improvised version of “Power corrupts..” as “Power corrupts, but the prospect of losing power corrupts even more”. That should explain the whole 2G scam. While political parties can battle over the value of 1.76 lakh crores of loss there cannot be any doubt that some of that would have been bribes and kickbacks to political outfits from the ruling coalition. Does the media have a stake in it? Maybe not directly but the Radiatapes exposed the media-politician-2G nexus so dirty secrets still abound. Also elections are a big bonanza for the media and consider all the Nehru, Indira, Rajiv, anniversaries and all the ‘Gandhi-Nehru’ schemes that get advertised. No other govt formation would benefit the media in such huge amounts. So why investigate a scam of this proportion and where the kickbacks went and bite the hands that feed them? The media’s sympathies for PM or Chidambaram apart, their motivation for trying to cover up the misdeeds of Congress is not very hard to see.

Any govt that takes a decision leading to the cancellation of 122 licenses by a court in a major policy issue should resign. The Congress and UPA have been brutally exposed over and over again for abuse of power and major scams and yet go around pretending they are fighting corruption. This is also a welcome blow to the corrupt corporate-political nexus which is slowly poisoning the nation. This is not an issue for mindless debates which the media indulges in. This is time for honest journalists to tell the UPA that it’s not about 122 licenses, these are 122 reasons why the UPA must die. For the nation these are 122 reasons to cheer.

Modi - The Real Game-Changer

In a few weeks it will be the tenth anniversary of the Godhra incident. Ten years! And as with the past ten years the media will be there with the usual suspects on February 27 with special programmes to target Narendra Modi in a fresh effort. In the past decade the media, aided by Congress, rogue cops, NGOs formed overnight and hate engineers have tried their very best to send Narendra Modi to jail. So it was with great disappointment that the media greeted the judgement of Gujarat High Court rejecting a petition seeking Modi’s appearance before the Nanavati Commission probing the riots. In the same period Modi has gone from strength to strength with the development agenda in Gujarat. Most people who targeted Narendra Modi have painted themselves with indelible taint of wrong doings. Teesta Setalvad with fake affidavits, Barkha Dutt with Radia tapes, Rajdeep Sardesai with Cash4Votes, Sanjiv Bhatt with false affidavits and a lot more. Other actors like Shabnam Hashmi, Mallika Sarabhai, Javed Akhtar have fallen by the wayside.

To put the record straight the Gujarat HC has merely observed that the Nanavati Commission has the discretion to call Modi to testify if they considered it necessary and the court need not direct the commission. Naturally, the crusaders for justice at NDTV and CNN-IBN had to sell this bad news. So we first had Sandeep Phukan of NDTV explaining how there were so many adverse judgements against Modi which Congress had tried to use to politically malign him. Is that so? Now, how many “adverse” judgements were passed against Modi? The SC had dismissed the one petition seeking Modi’s prosecution by referring it back to the lower courts last September. Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavits have been more or less thrown into the dustbin by the courts. The Lokayukta judgement by the Gujarat HC is also been quoted as a “setback for Modi”. The latest petition to summon him at the Nanavati Commission has been rejected. So the lies that media spreads about adverse judgements on Modi is another myth that has been propagated over the years. Truth is, there isn’t a single FIR or a single case against Modi to even have any grounds for adverse judgements. The “Setback for Modi”, “Blow to Modi” are headlines concocted by the media to imply that each time Modi is just another step away from prison.

Well, if NDTV is on the prowl its twin sister CNN-IBN isn’t too far behind. On this day their reporter, Meghdoot Sharan, went far enough to state that the riot victims have lost faith in the Nanavati Commission after the HC judgement. Well, as always, it’s not justice unless it is the justice the media wants. What about HeadlinesToday? A few days ago HT carried the results of a survey which indicated people preferred Narendra Modi as PM over all others. Now, in a Sadbhavna meet at Anand in Gujarat Modi mentions this survey in his speech and Rahul Kanwal quickly terms it as Modi’s PM ambitions. Not that there is anything wrong with such an ambition but a reference to their own survey had Rahul Kanwal spreading lies that Modi was “baring his PM ambitions”. Having created the lie, Kanwal then goes on to discuss this spurious topic with panelists from BJP and BJD trying to sow seeds of disharmony, political speculation and another attempt at tarring Modi.

As if the media’s comedy wasn’t enough the Congress first releases an ad about Gujarat which also lists Modi’s achievements and his skill and ability as an organiser. Then Delhi CM, Sheila Dikshit, further confounds her party and the media by praising Modi before retracting the praise. Never mind all that. Its election year in Gujarat and one can expect the Congress, aided by a servantile media, will come up with more fake stories and allegations. Both have been unable to digest the series of electoral losses in Gujarat. The CBI has been thrown into Gujarat with cases against Amit Shah, former Home Minister, and every attempt has been made to concoct false affidavits through rogue cops and NGOs against Modi. What if the BJP were actually defeated in 2002 or 2007 in Gujarat? One just has to imagine how many fake cases would have been filed in the state to destroy Modi. The entire state machinery would have been used to politically destroy what has not possible to do legally. It is in this context that the emergence of Modi as a serious contender for the PM job is disturbing for the media. Ten years of maligning him has only made him emerge stronger and be recognised for the development agenda in Gujarat.

There isn’t a single state in India where CM candidates and political parties have been able to win elections without quotas and freebies. It is only Modi who has dumped the out-dated ideas of such election-winning calculations based on caste, community, subsidies and freebies. Of all his achievements as CM, this is quite easily the most outstanding one. The media war against him has made him raise the development agenda even higher resulting in greater achievements by the state of Gujarat. Naturally, many across the country have found this form of governance and delivery far more attractive than mindless appeasement policies and promises. It is only after 60 years of independence that all political parties are talking of development and governance as the key issue. This is where Modi has been a game changer. The contrast becomes even sharper when measured against a corrupt Congress govt at the centre and a hopelessly failed PM.

The lessons that the media and Congress refuse to learn is that the more they abuse Modi the more his popularity rises with people in Gujarat and across the country. They’ve called him a “mass murderer”, “maut ka saudagar” and even a “common criminal”! After screwing up badly by showering praise on Modi the Congress is desperately seeking damage control. The foul-mouthed Manish Tiwari hasn’t learned any lessons from the past and here’s what he came up with comparing Modi to the Nazis (on NDTV’s show with Nidhi Razdan):

"The Nazis also built autobahns (German expressways) but what defined the Nazi regime wasn't those autobahns. It was Auschwitz (concentration camp). It was Treblinka (extermination camp). It was ghettos (where jews were forced to live)…..Notwithstanding the complete myth of a vibrant Gujarat, ultimately in the final analysis what is going to define the BJP government in Gujarat is the inaction and the culpability in the Gujarat carnage. I am not drawing any parallels but yes there are certain lessons, which history teaches us."

That's a well-rehearsed statement. No, not  even great gutter-mouths come up with 'treblinkas' off the cuff. All these childish attempts at colouring reality don't sell anymore. The best quote comes from none other than Capt.Amarinder Singh, the Congress candidate for CM in Punjab who has reportedly promised  “Gujarat-like progress if his party comes to power”.

On January 31 the SC indicted the PMO for failure to respond to Subramanian Swamy’s letter to prosecute A. Raja in the 2G scam for over a year. The Congress gleefully claimed it was a vindication of the PM. Imagine, the board of directors is being indicted but the Chairman claims he’s vindicated. If that is the yardstick for leadership then clearly Modi is by far the most courageous CM to have ever held such an office. In times like these the nation desires strong leadership and the only person who seems to offer that appears to be Narendra Modi. And much as they holler and scream, the media celebs who were out to nail him have failed. Modi has emerged as the real game-changer in the political arena and people are not buying the lies of Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami, Rajdeep Sardesai, Nidhi Razdan or Sagarika Ghose anymore.