Free Speech & The Fiberal Farce

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is a very intelligent man. He writes with great insight and thoughtfulness. He probably considers himself a “liberal” too (maybe in the Yogendra Yadav mould) but like most Fiberals he is pretty clever in dumping important ailments to look at the “larger” picture. That is what he does in his article “Silencing of liberal India” (IE February 12) over the withdrawal of a book by someone called Wendy Doniger by her publishers. Here’s one of his opening paragraphs:

“Liberal India is being silenced because its joy at exposing hypocrisy is far greater than its commitment to defending freedom. Every time a book is under assault, the same tiresome argument breaks out. “Oh, you did not speak when so and so was banned. You did not speak when Taslima Nasreen was the target, or when Jitender Bhargava was ordered to withdraw his book on Air India.” Or there is the partisan division: you did not object to what the Congress did to Salman Rushdie, or the CPM in West Bengal”.

PBM finds the argument over hypocrisy tiresome not because it is misplaced but because he could be one of the criminals who remained silent. Remember, PBM earlier wrote an article “While we were silent” when what he meant was “I was silent”. Imagine, this same MSM was silent when Jitendra Bhargava’s book “Descent of Air India” was withdrawn just recently. So when they want to outrage, they will tell you “Oh let’s not bring past issues... this is different and this is terrorism” (As Dalyrmple wails). But unfortunately for PBM, it isn’t free speech but the hypocrisy that is the problem. You can write all the crap you want about Hinduism or Hindus but please don’t offend Muslims or Christians, they are touchy secular people. Never forget what a grand Fiberal like Shashi Tharoor said (in a debate with Christopher Hitchens):

1. In the first instance Tharoor narrates a story carried in a Bangalore newspaper about a boy called Mohammad, an “idiot-boy” (No reference or connection to the Prophet as Tharoor confirms) This seemed to have angered muslims who attacked the office and the editor of the newspaper. The editor had to later apologise. Tharoor mentions that even if the article was never intended to refer to Prophet Mohammad, the editor should have been careful enough to avoid misinterpretation and should have been aware that this would cause trouble. Sure, the victim of the violent attacks was wrong and should be the one to apologise. That is freedom of speech according to Tharoor.

2. In the second instance with reference to the Danish cartoons issue, Tharoor continues the same argument. That the Danish paper/cartoonist would have known well the publication of the cartoon would cause a worldwide backlash and should have resisted going ahead with it and exercised restraint. Tharoor strongly maintains that free speech/expression should not be used to hurt anyone. I suppose nobody told this scholar that “consensus” does not require a freedom of speech law.

3. It’s the third issue that is striking. The discussion moves to the M.F. Hussain paintings. Here’s where our happy-tongue minister reveals his true self. He argues strongly that it was Hussain’s freedom of expression for which he should not have faced a backlash. Well, obviously Hussain was so blissfully ignorant that his controversial paintings would cause friction or offend a whole community.

There is nothing wrong in what PBM has written in his article but he follows the same hypocrisy that is epitomised by Shashi Tharoor. This is the same hypocrisy that flows through our MSM. What upsets all these Fiberals is that the Doniger book-withdrawal didn’t happen with riots or violence but through a legal process. I haven’t read her book but from a few excerpts here and there I am certain she broke Indian laws of respecting religious beliefs and values. The MSM talks a lot about free-speech but what they mean is they want it only for themselves and not for others. If that wasn’t the case they would have protested all the bogus laws in India that restricts free speech.

This is a country that has banned pornography and even Adult toys; you think people will tolerate abuse of religion? It is just that some Hindu group, instead of agitating, rioting and burning shops, resorted to a democratic, legal process that has upset the Fiberals. They would have been happier if there was violence so they could sing their song of “saffron extremists” and “evil Hindutva”. Swapan Dasgupta calls it rightly when he states that the media and some Fiberals were desperately trying to link the Doniger issue to the rise of Modi or the rise of Hindutva. You know, like the case has some direct link to Modi’s campaign. The Commie Fiberals have a particular problem with anything remotely critical of Islam and that is why the Hindus have started retaliating to Hinduism-abuse. The Hindus have long tolerated nonsensical writings like those of Doniger and are now reacting using the same laws that are actually being used to suppress any criticism of Islam. This is simply the root of the problem otherwise who cares what trash Doniger or someone else writes. Oh wait! I’m wrong there, someone does care. It is usually the “White-Christian” Doniger types who write trash and are given awards by the likes of Indian Express or some other organisation.

If you are anti-Hindu you will find more space in the MSM. Those who cry for free-speech over the Doniger issue are lying hypocrites. Jitender Bhargava’s book had nothing to do with religion. The publisher withdrew the book just because one man (Praful Patel) was offended and threatened them legally and the media didn’t even bother to find out which parts offended him. The book dealt with the scams and misdeeds of Air India. Yet, our Fiberals didn’t bat an eye-lid because the “victim” was their darling Praful Patel. Some media houses in particular would like the book burned because they were the beneficiaries of scams in Air India. Consider the fact that Doniger’s book offended a whole community and also broke the law and the evidence is out in the open. Bhargava’s book offended only ONE man and there is no evidence the book said anything illegal or defamatory. Did the media examine this? Here’s what the emotional bimbo tweeted:

When convenient she brings in Ma Saraswati and such nonsense for a bogus argument. Like I said in the tweet, the book was not withdrawn to respect Hindu sentiments. The book was withdrawn because Penguin knew their case was weak and they had broken Indian laws and knew the price they would have to pay. Are our laws stupid? It is these same laws that were used in the famous “Calcutta Petition” to prove that the Quran instigated violence and hatred and should, therefore, be banned. The petition was dismissed not because the contention was wrong but that the book was religious and there was a time-bar. These same Fiberals were thrilled when Wharton cancelled an interaction by Narendra Modi. These same Fiberals cheered when Harvard cancelled courses of Subramaniam Swamy after he wrote a provocative article. On the same topic of Swamy’s article here’s what was transacted by a MoronRatna called Dipankar Gupta on the predominantly anti-Hindu channel CNN-IBN and Rajdeep Sardesai watched like a fool:

So Dipankar Gupta’s argument against Swamy’s article was that summer-school teaching isn’t “top of the tops”, implying Swamy was a “faaltu” teacher. What has that got to do with his freedom of speech? Ha! But a personal attack passes for an argument. And he makes an even more absurd statement “Swamy has the right to his opinion but NOT the right to be published”. So according to this Commie Fiberal only those opinions should be published which are acceptable to morons like him. And these are the guys who will sermonise on what should be published and what should not. Dipankar Gupta, the intolerant, is a frequent flyer on CNN-IBN and other channels. That should tell you what these idiots really think of free speech: “We should have it but you Hindus don’t deserve it”. It took a long time for SwapanD but he finally acknowledged that our media only uses these incidents to heap more abuse on Hindus and Hinduism even as both remain the most tolerant among all religions of the world:

What upsets these Fiberals is that the Hindus aren’t suffering this nonsense anymore. Because the Islamic extremists take to the streets and protest everything that hurts them the Hindus have started retaliating. Remember the Danish cartoons and bounty offered by an SP MLA? Remember Azad Maidan? Remember extreme pseudo-atheist Javed Akhtar wanting a female cop jailed just because she wrote a poem? Now, by the standards of NDTV, CNN-IBN, Barkha Dutt, Dalrymple, Rajdeep and all… Javed Akhtar is a secular free-speech lover. As long as the hypocrites exist in our society free speech will not flower. People like PBM wail like injured hyenas in cases like the Doniger issue but refuse to speak up against other incidents and draconian laws like 66A. If you don’t protest and seek the removal of bogus laws it will invariably come to be smartly used against you. Next time, they should save this Fiberal farce and look inward and see how much they actually hate free speech. And yes, of all people, even Barkha Dutt continues to claim she respects free speech. The Fiberals missed the irony somewhere. 

CNN-IBN - A History Of Abuse

(This is a MaxiPost)

The media celebs are unable to reconcile to the awful truth that their monopoly on national discourse is over. It’s like a 70-year old ex-boxing champing desperately trying to make a comeback. In the absence of any sensible dialogue with people or adapting to new technologies their tactic is to provoke people, abuse certain politicians they dislike and paint an entire religious community (Hindus) as uncouth, uncivilised and abusive; that is, those on the net. Leading this campaign of abuse on behalf of the MSM is your dashing, dynamic duo of Sagarika Ghose and Rajdeep Sardesai. She is far more abusive than he is. Rajdeep has his stray moments when he loses composure but his deputy is a natural fountain of abusive behaviour. Their greatest trick is to abuse, miss, hit and run and then play victim. It’s now an SOP (Standard operating procedure). When they get pinned for their abuses they will have articles planted on the net to “sow suspicions” or get their fellow Hammamis to bat for them as “victims”. Let’s get to this business of abuse.

First off, Sagarika has used terms like Ugly Indian males, Lord Ram an encroacher, she sees Orange in our national flag, has Easter eggs on Good Friday and also calls judges crackpots. But let’s pass all that, okay? These are nonsensical utterances for which I call her a bimbo because such utterances can only come from a reckless bimbo. She also calls President Abdul Kalam a “Bomb daddy” because the “Sangh pulled off a cunning theft of secularism”. So, you know, it is criminal of BJP to back a Muslim president and therefore she calls him a “Bomb Daddy” in 2002. That, of course, is not wanton abuse of the Head of the State. She also likes to call MMS “Blue turban” as if he was her local ‘Chana-Kulcha” salesman. Try that in Hindi – “Neeli pagdi” - and it sounds even more fascinating, doesn’t it? But let’s pass all this.   

They call themselves journalists! For the record, journalists are supposed to be honourable public figures and conscience keepers and not like ordinary people. This used to apply to politicians too but we are past expecting such honour from them. Lately, with the likes of Sagarika and a few more, we have stopped expecting honour from journalists too. If the crooks were honourable I would have had no business running this blog at all. This month has seen more aggravated behaviour from both Rajdeep and Sagarika. It’s possible the BJP winning 4-1 in the last round of state elections, Narendra Modi’s popularity soaring despite CNN-IBN crowning Arvind Kejriwal “Miss Tantrum India” with their IOTY award has caused a lot of damage. One could have understood that. But that’s not true at all. The history of abuses and bad behaviour by this duo had started long before I even got on to social media. Let’s roll!

On February 9, Shivam Vij, India’s foremost expert in social media and scoops from inside the management board rooms of news channels put out an article titled “Why CNN-IBN’s Sagarika may no longer criticise Modi”. Blow to Modi! What the hell! The only person who ever offered Modi genuine and constructive criticism is being censored? How the hell did that happen? In support of his scoop (which looks a lot like an earlier article from Caravan on Network18) he quoted some tweets from Sagarika in which she claimed there was some “EVIL” out there which wanted to silence journalists and that “independent” journalists should “UNITE”. Vij also quoted Maharashtra’s greatest son Nikhil Wagle too. So this was a set up to help these unworthies whine and wail after they cause havoc with mindless abuse. But both Rajdeep and Sagarika were “totally unaware” of this leak and acted quickly to issue denials. Here you go:

All this hatred from the editors of CNN-IBN revolves around their discourse on Narendra Modi and their illogical contempt for him as a politician and as an individual. For instance, the cowards at this channel issued an apology to P. Chidambaram for calling him tainted. Here it is:

If the above is a genuine concern at CNN-IBN then imagine the truckload of apologies Rajdeep would have to issue to Modi. He has publicly humiliated him with names like “mass murderer” and “hero of hatred” when Modi was the key speaker at the HT summit in 2007. Despite the SC, SIT and lower court dismissing a petition to make Modi an accused in the 2002 riots Rajdeep still asks if the 2002 “taint” will go away. Isn’t it the same word “taint” for which he is apologising to PC? Not just calling Modi names but Rajdeep has gladly and willingly allowed many panellists to joyfully abuse Modi on his channel. What kind of honourable journalism is that? Pathetic gutter-level journalism! Let’s move on. Here’s CRI’s Prasanna making a casual observation about Sagarika’s hypocrisy on some count and the response should tell you who starts the abuse:

A guttersnipe? That word is clinching evidence that SG was educated at Oxbridge. It’s a very common abuse in ye old England for street urchins. Therefore, for uncouth, stupid, black Indians the word “guttersnipe” is not an unusual description is it? Of course, SG prides herself and brags about coining the term Internet Hindus (IH). This was a derogatory term she used to describe the “swarm of bees” that Hindus on the net are. But she always claims it’s a description of any Hindu on the internet. You know, that makes me an Internet Hindu. However, the IH’s have worn that label gladly but here’s what SG really thinks of IH:

Oh! Hindus are cowards who will hide behind their mummy’s saris. Listen all you Hindu morons, this does not constitute an abuse just because she called you Hindus. When asked why she chooses such a term as IH by KiranKS she responds as a Macaulay Putri would respond to an Indian dog. “Saar… understanding inglees”? Oh yeah! Inglees because these uncouth, uneducated Hindus can’t pronounce English. And she challenges they invent a phrase too. Well darling, I did invent one for you at least: CATEGORY5MORON. You’re famous by that name and there are even Twitter handles that proudly bear that name. There are other names I’ve “invented” too but let’s not make it about my “inventiveness”. And like Rajdeep, she too calls Modi anything – fascist! Hah! And why? Here’s why:

So C5M tells AMishra77 that Modi is a fascist because Ashis Nandy said so. Really? This Nandy is the world’s greatest authority on fascists? That’s your logic for calling Modi a fascist because someone else said so? I recall Nandy himself has a case against for Dalit-abuse at a Litterfest and was spared arrest by the Supreme Court. So it’s an incestuous family of abuses. Salma says it, Sabrina quotes it. So what about Swapan Dasgupta’s call? He clearly says the anchor is overwhelmed by hatred for Modi and is unfit to conduct the debate in question (And SwapanD is their friend and regular panellist on CNN-IBN). That’s why certain people with huge prejudices are unfit to conduct public debates. That they are unfit for this is increasingly evident to people and the same gets criticised on social media, including Twitter, which the SG types find hard to digest. Let’s not stop. Here’s another one:

Since SG was asking if the SC will act on some issue one RajivGupta suggests SC should act against her too since she contemptuously called the judge a “Crackpot”. What’s her response? That of a moron of the first water! She simply calls him a Modi-bhakt with no connection at all and talks of FDI. It is this absolute intolerance and contempt that gets the shoe-throws from the crowd. If you don’t answer, that is fine, but why answer with abusive insults? People don’t start or wake up in the morning thinking of her like she and her boss sleep and wake up thinking of Modi and abusing him day and night. Shekhar Gupta’s IE has not had a big blast since the “Raisina Hill” blunder so they pulled out something on Modi’s childhood wife which the media again gorged on like vultures when they actually had no business even talking about. Does she resist the temptation? Oops!

What exactly does Modi’s ex-wife have to do with his politics or his public life? This is not even considering the fact that it was a marriage of minors (over 40 years ago) which Modi chose to walk away from and which is even otherwise legally void. Sagarika’s tweet is worded as some great concern for the woman as if her life was destroyed. Is Narendra Modi answerable to this bitchy nonsense? Is this the language of a journalist? This tweet itself is enough to sack her. Because behind the snide the message she wishes to convey is that Modi ill-treated a woman, dumped her. Who the hell is this moron to ask this question? Does her being a below-average TV anchor allow her the luxury of slinging mud to her convenience? She was rightly slapped by not only Ashok Malik but even Numero Uno.

The only problem is that the so-called Editor is also the husband of the anchor and deputy editor. In any other situation this lady would have been sacked long back for her consistently abusive behaviour. I wonder what Raghav Bahl thinks of all this crap that these two frequently peddle on Twitter. Did all this mindless abuse about Modi and his followers start now? No! It seems to have started long before I even discovered Twitter or social media. Here you go:

Kids, dogs, garden and Monday she’ll get back to all the slime, garbage and corruption which include Modi and HINDUS! Why is it that Hindus and Modi are always bracketed with sleaze and corruption? If this is not a bimbo with a chronic disorder what is it? And this is what her criticism of Modi is? What personal damage has Modi caused her for her to constantly abuse him in this fashion? Well, the toothless editor isn’t far behind. He can’t walk his dog without a derogatory equation of the animal to Modi. Who are these morons? What do they think they are? And others are abusive and these cabbages play victims? Laughable!  

Here’s what I wrote on how Rajdeep as a “Super troll and hate monger” where he constantly trolls and peddles hate against Modi:

Sample the depth of Rajdeep’s hatred for Modi. In a report on March 8, CNN-IBN quotes the PM’s line from parliament: "jo garajte hain, woh baraste nahi”. Seems the target of that line was Modi. Fair enough! The Hindi line used by PM clearly means “Whoever thunders does not shower” and that may have been in reference to Modi’s speech. But what does hate-filled Rajdeep read it as? He reads it as “Bhokte kutte kattey nahin” and then translates into English as “Barking dogs seldom bite”. Now, I haven’t seen anyone direct so much hatred at a person to enrich their life as Rajdeep has been doing for over a decade. And then Rajdeep expects Twitter to be kind to him. What a moron! And now imagine that he heads an organisation. He also probably spends time in inculcating such hatred in all his team members. His deputy is a racist in addition to being a hater. And he still wonders why people call him “paid media”.

Rajdeep then adds to the nonsense by claiming his friend Screwvala told him he shouldn’t mentioned Namo and Nemo in the same tweet. Who is he apologising to? Fans of Nemo? That Nemo’s family was offended because the dog was insulted by being mentioned along with Namo? This clever innuendo and word-play is passed as apology. Does Rajdeep think people are idiots like some of those he surrounds himself with? Why does this couple start, live and end their day with Modi in their mind and soul? Is he some kind of poison that satisfies some vicious underlying vicarious pleasure? I can’t think of any other logical answer. Is this the discourse that journalists are supposed to be indulging in. Naturally, ordinary followers and supporters of Modi will hit back. And what does Rajdeep do then? He comes up with more nonsense:

Family targeted, death threats! Who the hell is this guy kidding? Why should anyone believe this abuser’s crap? And people will abuse his granny? Moron, stop abusing others and stop abusing a politician simply because you hate his ideology or his popularity. That is the absolute truth! Doormats like Rajdeep and Sagarika haven’t been able to dent Modi’s popularity or rise so first abuse and then blame Hindus and Modi supporters as abusers on SM. Not just that, they go wailing to members of their Hammam who then start tom-toming Hindus and Modi supporters are abusers. Irrefutable fact is that these two have a history of abuses and abusive behaviour and they shame not only CNN-IBN and some of their good colleagues but they shame journalism itself. And the bimbo puts out some more nonsense:

The evil isn’t out there Sagarika; it’s in your head and in your heart. Cleanse it! People who have an experience with you will tell you that and someone who has that experience has indeed told you who has been silencing others. And whenever they play victim they get even worse. They claim their profession as the resort (of a scoundrel?):

You are journalists? By what standards? By what measure? That you simply get to be on TV or put some words in print? Nothing in your discourse suggests you have any journalistic ethic even in the little finger of your hand. So stop calling yourself journalists. We have the good fortune of still seeing some genuine journalists around and people can tell the difference. It is for Raghav Bahl and the management of CNN-IBN to decide whether such abusive behaviour by their top two editors can pass for a media outlet. The tweet on the left indicates why the abusive behaviour was at peak during the last few days and the “victimhood” nonsense. It is a choice they have to make on whether to continue this deplorable history or to change direction for a better discourse. Hatred cannot and should not dictate journalism.

PS: A sequel to this post with more instances of hate-mongering and abuse will appear at a later date.

  

Rajdeep & Co: Convenient Testimonies

Imagine someone has a bounty of Rs.1.2 Billion on his head and you can imagine the thousands of bounty hunters chasing him. Or imagine a football match when a team gets pretty close and the supporting crowd roaring and cheering. Then when the player misses, there’s those “ooohs” and “aaahs”. When a Sreenivasan Jain or Rana Ayyub get crumbs from CBI with black beard and white beard the whole media starts roaring and cheering, doing high-fives, kissing each other, hugging each other in celebration. And when the CBI doesn’t score, the media-cronies go back into their hole with ooohs and aaahs. Up comes another match with some Vanzara letter. The lynch mob goes into a frenzy again roaring and cheering “letter-bomb, letter-bomb, letter-bomb… kill, kill, kill” and it turns out a damp squib. More ooohs and aaahs! Anybody? Can anybody at all help these people achieve their life-long dream? Oh lucky! Up comes Swami Aseemanand and they start jumping for joy again. The entire army of bounty-hunters from the media was out cheering.

Suddenly everyone knows Aseemanand is a man of God who will deliver these folks. Why? Because someone called Leena Gita Raghunath from The Caravan magazine sneaked into a jail and over a 2 year period interviewed him and discovered who was behind some blasts and terror attacks. I don’t give a damn what Aseemanand says. To me he now looks like a “rented-accused” to be also used as a “rented-witness” depending on what is convenient to the bounty hunters. For the record, I wrote a long time back that this NIA and other investigations look like a sham meant to last a long time to be used and thrown in a “need-based” approach (read Confessions from Aseemanand. Who’s next?). As with these accused, the useful idiots in the media are also “used and thrown” on a need-to basis. Certain powers control their owners who are trying very hard. Let’s read an excerpt from an interview for starters:

Hmm! Pusillanimous ownership of newspapers who lack journalistic integrity. What if the publisher also had an oil company like Exxon? You might wonder which owner the editor is referring to. Never mind! But when the part owners of the business also happen to be the managing editor and deputy editor with hatred in their DNA for one person you know how far their hatred can go. Not a day passes without Rajdeep Sardesai and his deputy Sagarika Ghose bitching about Narendra Modi or passing some snide remark. I wonder if they even get to sleep without cursing and bitching about him for an hour every night. That’s how Rajdeep starts his day as well. He can’t even walk his dog without bitching about Modi:

Naturally, the response from a tweeter is quite justified. Lately Sadanand Dhume seems to enjoy slapping this duo for their stupid statements as well. They don’t seem to realise SM is not TV and some will hit back with greater force at their bitchy comments. Let’s get back to Aseemanand. Rajdeep was keen that The Caravan interview will stir a pot of gold for him. Caravan earlier tried writing about other media networks and personalities but don’t seem to have found much success. There’s that long article about Arnab running into some 12786 words which I discussed in “Bitchin’ in the back row”. That was Caravan’s first attempt at getting into the top row of news-stands. Then they tried again with one on Network18 but that didn’t do much either. Finally Caravan too adopted the “formula” masala and came up with one against RSS, BJP or Modi, if you like, with the Aseemanand crap. Now the previous two attempts may not have endeared the magazine to the media-mafia but this one certainly did. Rajdeep & Co show us how best to use convenient testimonies with a new entrant to the mafia.   

There, you see! When it’s on Ram Guha, the ‘Eminent Distortian”, the Caravan becomes a “first rate” mag. Then another one where Swami Sardesanand testifies it’s a “fine piece” and that good writing is not dead. Very nice! But this Caravan’s writing is a lot like Aseemanand’s testimony; believe it when you like and hate it when you don’t. No one proves it better than Scotch-circuit specialist Suhel Seth (November 2011):

From “I love what you’re doing” to a magazine that “nobody reads” Suhel Seth is the classic witness who can be useful for any kind of convenient testimony that the media might like to peddle. All these images are from 2011. But here’s one from Rajdeep in 2012-13:

The Ooohs and Aaahs from Rajdeep can’t seem to stop for his favourite magazine. This is like Caravan playing Vanzara. Rajdeep likes, Rajdeep applauds! Of course, anything Ram Guha says is as good as Moses saying it to Rajdeep. Then Caravan goes and does something stupid. In November 2013 Rajdeep was off to Nagpur for a lecture but I wondered if he had any other agenda too:

Rajdeep didn’t tell us he was going to meet Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS chief, and I am not confirming he did but Caravan did. In another of those long articles (a style Caravan seems to have borrowed from Suzy Roy) the magazine explained how the owners of Network 18 were forcing the dealership to bend to the Right and be a lot more favourable to Modi. Huh, what? Rajdeep and be favourable to Modi? The man he and his deputy bitch about day and night? So in one single shot all the good writing, fine, very very fine goes out the window and Rajdeep comes up with this convenient testimony:

So as long as it about others it is gold standard but when it comes to his own house, the Caravan’s article is loaded with lies and malice. Caravan should be ashamed for such trash. That’s inconvenient testimony by the struggling magazine which is trying to become a “made member” of the mafia. Just two months later the Caravan would seek forgiveness and redemption with the Aseemanand story. Rajdeep likes! Rajdeep thinks this is his pot of gold:

So Caravan can now claim full membership of the media-mafia having handed something to certain political vandals to jump in joy and cheer. When the mafia got “ball-possession” they started to cheer and roar again. But alas! It was another missed chance. The NIA decided not to pursue allegations of the “rented-witness’s” statements which aren’t even confirmed as authentic. And that is that! The bounty-hunt continues. Please do remember, there was also one Bhavesh Patel who claimed Shinde, Diggy and others had forced him to make some allegations and statements against Mohan Bhagwat and others in the Ajmer blast case. That was killed by the media without any persuasion. RK Singh, former Home Secretary, also stated Shinde helped a friend of Dawood escape law. Even that was buried since Singh is now a BJP member. Very convenient, eh?

The one thing Rajdeep and other peers of Arnab Goswami have to learn from the latter is that Arnab does whatever he has to do on TV; good, bad or ugly. He doesn’t bitch 24X7 on the SM or anywhere else about politicians and other articles that float around. Arnab is also smart enough not to respond to bitchy articles written about him like the one from Caravan. That should tell people on NDTV and CNN-IBN why their TRPs keep going south. Same is true for Narendra Modi. He doesn’t respond to the crap peddled against him by the likes of Rajdeep, Sagarika or silly magazines.

The first image in this post is from an interview (January 2014) of none other than Jonathan Shainin the former editor of Caravan. The Aseemanand episode comes after his departure. Shainin describes in enough words that owners of Indian media are political slaves and doormats. That he uses the hypothetical example of an oil company owner should also tell you something. He didn’t include editors probably because he was one himself. It is not just the Congress, CBI or NIA but people like Rajdeep Sardesai who have now become a laughing stock for their use of convenient testimonies. This goes for most of the media-mafia. Someday there will be a price to pay for this practice.