Rajdeep Sardesai Don Quixote from CNNIBN Stable!!!!!!!!!!!

   

Let us welcome this Don Quixote from CNNIBN stable who instead of staying with his stated profession wants to impart lessons in English to us illiterates’ in India. This husband and wife team does us great service, is a constant source of entertainment, if it is not Rajdeep then rest assured it will be Sagarika Ghose aka Bloody Mary who will lighten up our tense hour with her gems, regardless of the fact she is in India or Bangkok.

Now let us turn our attention to this pompous, self proclaimed journalist who would want us to learn English the way he has learnt it.  - Not a hard word - Rajdeep Sardesai

“Last week LK Advani did what is considered extremely unusual for an Indian politician: he said ‘sorry’. Predictably, in a political environment not used to such courtesies, the BJP leader’s apology letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi for having dragged her name into the black money tangle has proved controversial. The BJP has tied itself in semantics, claiming that a ‘regret’ is not an apology. The Congress has been celebratory, viewing Advani’s remarks as a victory for its leadership. No one knows what prompted Advani to suddenly express regret, but whatever the motives, it did at least suggest a welcome return to decency in public life: after all, if you make a personal accusation without enough evidence then propriety demands that you issue a retraction.”

“Dated: February 16, 2011
Dear Smt. Sonia ji,
On my return from Kolkatta last night I found your letter dated 15 February awaiting me.
I am happy that you have categorically denied the reports alluded to in the Task Force’s report on Black Money. If these had been denied earlier, I am sure the Task Force would have factored in, the denial in its report. Even so, I deeply regret the distress caused to you.
With best regards,
Yours sincerely,
( L.K. ADVANI )”

This is the original letter - you can find it on BJP's official website.

I am searching for the word 'Sorry' as also “for having dragged her name into black money tangle.” This is figment of imagination, lack of knowledge of English, no this could only be a result of crony journalism fully paid for by the Congress. There is no sense or meaning in reading his post beyond the opening paragraph since the essence and purpose is exposed at this stage it self.

Let us ask this worthy has he apologized to the people of Gujarat and Mr.Narendra Modi against whom he has single handedly carried a sustained campaign of calumny since 2002. He has frozen the state of Gujarat in the year 2002 has he ever reported any positive event from that state. The emphatic answer is NO, may we know why? lacks basic courtesy, has he initiated action against his wife and deputy editor of CNNIBN for her various transgressions, has he or she issued an apology or regret to the viewers of CNNIBN and the vast majority of Indians whose sentiments were hurt by the irreverent tweets posted by her, again the answer is an emphatic NO.

What about the Rajdeep Sardesai who employed fake tweets on prime time show to influence viewers, was that ethical? We do not think Mr. Sardesai you of all the people are in anyway qualified to be writing on or about a personality of Mr.L.K.Advani, even when you have been paid by his political opponents.

Your caliber and performance as a journalist is all too obvious, for those who may not be familiar with your antics and brand of journalism this video would be an eye opener; on the levels of decency that you practice in the course of your profession.

  

                               

Let me conclude this post with a sample comment posted by Mr.Dilip on Hindustan Times in response to this article.                                                                                                                                                                

“This guy's Congress blood is thicker than water, is well exhibited from his arty farty article.To get some cheap publicity, the lackey will proatrate his inetgrity to submision.Gloating is premature and the fairy god mother is by no means out of the woods, the list is being investigated throughly and Swiss banks are still divulging informnation, on a weekly basis. Directly or indirectly if any association or connection is revealed, your so called whiter than white God mother, will be blown out of the water and there will run out of hiding place.Remeber there is no smoke without fire.Hold your horses and do not be too presumtious and condescending, you may live to regret it.Circumstanial evidence indicate some linkage with the dynasty, what is required is concrete incriminating evidence, that work is in progress.The mess that India is in today, stems from low grade Congress politicians, who lacks decency,integrity and self esteem., aided the media chamchas, who have sold their honesty and journalistic upright integrity.Shameless muppets.By the way to say Sorry is not a sign of weakness but Courage, how many Congress Ministers including the Chair woman, have sadi sorry to the poor Indians for screwing them under false promises, high inflation, high food prices, looting the nations monies, wealth, squandering resources, grafts, corruptions, denying them jobs, health care, education, infrastructures, inclusive growth and pillaged them under the gimmick of Aaam Admi, or whatever that means.Where is Congress Sorry?, for mis management of the economy? Such double standard makes one as sick as a parrot, lets get some unbiased, unparanoid balance, in the future. “ 

Latest on this issue as on 1st March 2011.

Advani, who remains chivalrous towards women, replied that if she had denied these frequent publications, the BJP task force would have certainly considered the denial. Advani's letter does not even remotely admit that what he had stated at the press conference was untrue. The relevant sentence of his letter is, "I deeply regret the distress caused to you." The distress had not been caused by Advani but by the respectable Swiss publications, the Soviet book, responsible newspapers, a leader of the Janata Party and even me, more than once. Advani did not say in his letter that he or the task force were impressed with her denial and believed it to be true. Advani has not apologised to Sonia Gandhi.  by Mr. Ram Jethmalani  

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.

Breast Beating Brigade or Secular Mercenaries in India??????

 

The breast beating brigade is out in full force as is their wont. Let me share with you something that I was intrigued with as a child. Similarity is rather striking in the actions of what I am going to narrate to you and our Secular extremists. What I am going to place before the readers many a young Indian may not fully appreciate the content and context since they live in nuclear families today as against joint families that were the norm in 60’s & 70’s in India.

In my pre-teens on a few occasions I had to accompany the family for a few funerals and the customary mourning period that follow, since the relatives were outside Delhi we were obliged to stay there for the entire period of mourning. Every morning a group of ladies dressed in impeccable whites would arrive and sit together in the center of the room their faces covered, as other mourners arrived; this group of ladies as if on a cue would start wailing in unison. After a short while they would fall silent and indulge in gossip. The process was repeated through the day for next 10days. I was indeed intrigued by this, but kept my consul. When my grandfather expired I was in my teens and the same group of ladies was there again, I could not restrain myself and somehow gathered enough courage to enquire from my grandmother about their identity and why they did what they did. 

My grandmother took the trouble of explaining to me, that these ladies were part of the Biradari that is our clan and the purpose of their wailing was to help family come out of the shock of loss of a dear one, as also the grief at the earliest by weeping, this was the   entire rationale which dictated this dedicated group of women to be present at every sad occasion for this they neither charged nor was any attempt made to pay them, it was part of social service and custom. 

Let us now revert to present from 60’s & 70’s the ritual has been converted into a lucrative business model by our Media, NGO’s and individuals, who gather in studios every time a judicial verdict is announced. Be it the Ayodhya, Dr. Binayak Sen, or Godhra train burning they indulge in breast beating, berate judiciary, berating the state and the incumbent Government especially if it is BJP. They shed copious amout of crocodile tears, while keeping an eye on the cash register which keep ringing regularly. No they do not help the victims overcome their grief; instead they exacerbate grief and spread victimhood among the members of a particular community. All this is done under the guise of seeking justice for the victims.

“On the face of it, this may appear to be a worthless and even self-defeating exercise since judges are expected to be swayed by arguments in the courtroom and not by spirited exchanges in TV studios. The judiciary, however, is not detached from society and judges don’t live in ivory towers. Like any other citizen, they too are prone to being influenced by their immediate environment. The purpose behind activists using the media to argue points of law and evidence (without having to bother about the opposing counsel) is simple: create a climate of opinion favourable to the cause they are espousing and portray other perspectives (including court judgments) as a travesty.” This is what Mr. Swapan Dasgupta has to say in “Legally speaking”

“This unpalatable truth has now come home to our duplicitous Hindu-baiting liberal media, politicians, and activists of all hues, with the sessions court declaring that the Godhra carnage was an act of conspiracy, pronouncing 31 accused as guilty, and acquitting 63 accused for lack of credible evidence.” By Rohit Srivastava in Judicial snub to crypto Islamists.

“Post the Godhra special courts judgement on the Sabarmati Express train burning case I wanted to comment on the criticism leveled by the usual suspects concerning the ‘undue delay’ in delivering justice. I ask to be forgiven for drawing attention to the possibility that a single mention of the victims of the case made to wait for almost a decade for justice is yet to be found.” centerofright 's blogpost, mentioning timelines, please see “Godhra Verdict: Explaining the delay”

Diabolical-conspiracy.

“It is only when partisan agendas of politicians intrude into the realm of law and justice that things tend to go wrong. Therefore, it is a matter of great relief that the court verdict on Tuesday in the case concerning the Godhra train deaths in February 2002 was received with utmost calm by all concerned parties.” The Godhra verdict.

The flip side of the Godhra verdict lets again focus on just two posts one is a blog "Godhra verdict fails to convince" by Pankaj Vohra in Hindutan Time

 

“In fact, it was only after news mixed with rumours and inaccuracies circulated in the state following what happened in Godhra, Gujarat burned resulting in its worse communal trouble and deaths of thousands of innocent persons.” The facts are that 794 Muslims and 254 Hindus died as result of these riots that adds up to just over a thousand and not “thousands” as the author would have us believe. 

A sample comment post by Mr.Ishwar  in response to this blog.

“Mr. Vohra,
I can sense the pain this judgement has brought to the seculars like you. Not too long ago, the seculars used to say - "we'll respect the court's decision". Suddenly, when the decisions have started going against their propaganda, they have begun raising doubts over the judgement. The world is watching and thankfully people can see through the motives of your biased articles.
Learn to live with the fact that:
a) Lord Rama was born exactly at the spot where Babri Masjid once stood
b) Binayak Sen is guilty
c) Appointment of CVC was incorrect and
c) Muslims conspired to burn the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express.

These are all coming from the judiciary.

Stop worrying about the 63 acquitted in the case. I don't see a single line of regret expressed towards the 59 who died in the tragedy. I have been told never to start a fight, but if someone troubles me, then it is me who would decide the severity of punishment that I would inflict on him/her. The Muslims in Gujrat asked for it and they got what they deserved. Ever since, they are quiet - having been shown their rightful place.”

Next is a far more enlightening article in the Hindustan Times.  :Narendra Modi 2.0 By Mr.Samar. Halarnkar 

 “Modi's biggest handicap remains his inability to apologise or deliver justice for the riots. No right-thinking Indian can forget a pogrom against any community, but especially not against a minority. India can't and must not forget the 1,200, mostly Muslim, victims of 2002, as it can't and must not forget the 59 Hindus whose horrific deaths sparked the subsequent carnage, as it can't and must not forget the 2,700, mostly Sikh, victims of 1984. The memories of these outrages fade but can't be forgotten.”   

This a sample comment by a reader of this article Mr. S.Asim

“Mr. Samar,
I presume that you gave the title first and then you wrote the article. So obviously you concluded something without going thro' the premise first. This is a 'herd' mentality. What are yr. criticisms- he is image conscious- what's wrong with it? Second, he did not apologise for the Gujarat riot; why should he if he is not responsible for it. According to author the memory of Gujarat riot will not fade. It would have but for Seculars, media included, are not allowing a healing touch. They kept soking it or for that matter the Babri demolition as if there was no temple demolished before it.
Why don't you speak of Noakhali riot or Direct Action Day riot at Calcutta where thousands massacred ( but unfortunately hindu lives, who cares) engineered by Suhrawardy which can be eclipsed only by the massacre of 3 million non-mulims in Turkey.
Come on SAMAR, let us engage in a healthy debate before the country is engulfed by Civil War for which you people will be squarely blamed.”

In conclusion if justice is the aim of this breast beating beasts then how come they have not spoken about 1984 Sikh Genocide where over 10,000 innocent Indians lost their lives and incidentally all were Sikhs not Hindu, Policeman or member of any other community was a victim. 27years on there is no justice yet there is deafening silence and a conscience effort to underplay the numbers also.

Communal violence is not good for the country no sane person would ever condone it. Worst is inflaming passions for political purposes and electoral gains for a particular party which in the after math of Ayodhya verdict is clueless since it main weapon has been blunted permanently by the people of India. 

Tragedy for Congress is that nothing is sticking and with each new verdict being pronounced by a court of Law it is losing ground. Bihar it has lost for a long time to come, Gujarat seems out of bounds, Karnataka despite its best efforts has firmly slipped away. Desperation is palpable hence the media has been unleashed yet again to recover lost ground, this is another self defeating exercise since media is confirmed den of the corrupt and tainted people, congress and media are complimenting each other in their free fall into oblivion, result is depressing with each news item or an article the rejoinders from public are getting more pointed and sharper.

Hindustan Times and Congress are sorely missing the services of Vir Singhvi who served them with distinction. Radia tapes have exposed the motivated and bigoted media before us Indians. Indians will not buy into these motivated claims and formulations. Time for course correction is upon the media. 

 

Latest on this issue as 04^th March 2011

To all who say Godhra was not a conspiracy, here is how FSL proved how well planned it was !!

Latest on this issue as 09^th February 2012

If we compute the worst 10 or 20 riots of India since independence, where does Gujarat 2002 fit in?   via @KiranKS 

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.

This Singh is no King!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Name of the cartoonist is mentioned on the Cartoon.

A rare occasion when I am spoilt for choice, four articles on which to base the current post, must confess I am partial towards Mr. Pankaj Vohra and Hindustan Times, since this is one combination which is hard to ignore when it comes to serving Congress party and its first family. The other three articles are  “Talk of the town” by M.J.Akbar in India Today This is how it has been concluded! “Indians are not supine by nature; but they do not waste their strength by putting it on constant display. Every general election is a tribute to their collective muscle. Governments which take Indians for granted, or confuse Delhi with India, are inviting a volcano to erupt. When Delhi talks there is fissure and turbulence. When India talks there will be an explosion.”

“No PM Is An Island” by Rajdeep Sardesai in Outlook This is how it has been concluded! “Maybe at age 78, it’s too late for Manmohan to transform himself from the self-effacing bureaucrat-politician to an effective mass communicator. Maybe, he will always be the Humphrey Appleby of government, a civil servant first, a neta only later. Which is also perhaps why he needs Sonia Gandhi’s help now more than ever? He has at least spoken, when will Sonia break her sphinx-like silence?”

“End of an aura?” by Arati R Jerath This is the opening paragraph. “On Wednesday, the ghosts of Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao seemed to hover in the background as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh protested his innocence in front of television cameras. It seemed an extraordinary throwback to the past. It was the third time a Congress prime minister was in the dock on the issue of corruption; it was the third time he was being forced to clear the air.”

I would leave the readers to form their own independent judgment on these three articles.

Let us now turn our attention to the favored one. ”A PM so helpless?” by Pankaj Vohra, Hindustan Times  February 20, 2011. The most striking part of the article in question is the gay abandon with which Mr. Pankaj Vohra is articulating this time round, in contrast to his earlier works Congress must pull up its socks.  ,  "Only the PM can get things moving again."   and 2G scam: Let the PM work freely .

What a case is being made out against Dr. M.M Singh “Before going public with his limitations, Singh should have stated his piece before the CPP, which elected him as its leader and subsequently endorsed his elevation to the position of the PM. He must learn from his predecessors and dig in his heels to fight corruption and inefficiency. He must always remember that the buck stops at his doorstep.” Mr. Vohra wants us to believe that there is a democratic system of elections practiced by Congress party. Come on Mr. Pankaj Vohra you have been around long enough if not more, to try and pull this one on us. The short and sweet is that it is Sonia Gandhi who appointed Dr. M.M Singh as the Prime Minister and no one in the Congress had the spine to challenge it. Some election this was.

However hard you may try, or employ extreme vehemence in stating your case against the Prime Minister the fact of the matter is responsibility of this selections rest squarely with the one person and that is Sonia Gandhi. Dr. Man Mohan Singh’s Prime Ministership has been suffering from a severe deficiency of legitimacy from day one.

You deserve to be congratulated for an audacious attempt to deflect responsibility from the congress high command and lay it all at the doorstep of Prime Minister. Indians are not naïve, we are witness to all credits being laid at feet of the High command and all failures diverted to persons other than Sonia Gandhi, life does not work in the manner you wish it to. Success and failure are two sides of the same coin. This time blame shall have to be placed which is deservedly most appropriate and that is the door step of congress high command.

 

Updated on 14^th Jan 2012

“Mr. Singh has his work cut out for him. Either he begins finally to deliver on reforms or he gets used to the idea that history will remember him not as someone who rescued India's economy, but as the leader who prevented it from attaining its full potential.” The Reformer Who Never Was.   Link 
 

Updated on 05th Aug 2012

Why has Singh failed to repeat his 1990s feat? Is he really a reformer he is made out to be? 

And, finally, is he a good man in a bad party, forced to do things against his will?

Singh was never king ONCE A BABU, ALWAYS A BABU 

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.

Different strokes by NDTV!!!!!!!!!!

We Indians have been at the receiving end from our mainstream English media for a long time. However things are not as they were earlier, much still needs to be done. Blogs and Twitter have been our favorite ground where we have taken on mainstream English media with some success; we are hoping we would be able to make a very significant and positive contribution towards ethical journalism being reintroduced in India.

Earlier this week we witnessed one of those rare interactions between the Prime Minister of India and the who’s who of the electronic media. Text of PM Interaction with Editors of Electronic Media. By Mr.RajeevSrinivasa. No we had not even finished airing our deep disappointment and distress at what had transpired in the course of the meet.

We were convinced that there would be a few dirty tricks that Congress was going to pull on BJP in order to deflect the spotlight that is firmly focused on its misdeeds; nothing seems to shake this focus long enough for Congress to up the ante on some other issue & divert our attention from itself.

Maybe we are guilty of having let our guard down for just that short moment in which NDTV put out a report on February 18, 2011 11:08 IST “Advani apologizes to Sonia for black money allegation” This was Sonia Gandhi's Letter. Reply by Mr.L.K. Advani -  not only this turned to be untrue & baseless, my initial reaction to this when I read it on the twitter was .

 

 Soon other sympathetic newsmen &.newswomen, publication & Media houses were ratcheting up the cacophony. Twitter was buzzing, discussing or some plainly lambasting Mr. Advani without having perused the contents of his letter. BJP leaders upset over Advani apology to Sonia Gandhi. 

ADVANI GIVES CLEAN CHITS, BJP PAYS HEAVY PRICE. 

Typical hard-hitting post by zoomindianmedia post calling media's bluff.

  

By late evening NDTV had changed the headline from Apology to regret. This also is untrue, if the sentence is read in its entirety the import of the word regret is different than what NDTV would have us believe.  What stand out in this incident is the willingness of select media houses & persons, who are perpetually indulging in falsehood and misreporting.

How long and how far can this be carried by these motivated individuals and media houses. Democracy in India is what gets eroded and subverted every time a motivated report is put out. Equal is the damage when important events & incidents concerning negative actions of Congress are not reported.

Gujarat seems to have become an enemy nation for our Media at the bidding of Congress party and UPA. Nothing positive is ever reported about that state. Even when a positive report does emerge there is a visible disquiet and an attempt to somehow negate it by juxtaposing some old report or a fictitious new report is published.

Politics is not the arena of the media. Media is a messenger and must play its role without taking sides.

 

Latest on this issue as on 21^st Feb 2011

A plain reading of Advani’s letter shows that he has not regretted for the task force report mentioning Sonia’s name at all. Yet, thanks to the media spin, the whole country believes he has. Why does India's self-righteous fourth estate censor anti-Sonia Gandhi news reports? "'Distress' and 'Regret'"

"That his baiters are deliberately touting it as an apology is a sad commentary on their intelligence or sheer bankruptcy of political issues. None of this is likely to affect Mr Advani personally or dent his stature politically. Yes it will give enough ammunition to his adversaries to hit out: yet again. But then it is not the first time that they have: neither is it the last. Because Mr Advani follows the dictates of his mind and refuses to give in to detractors, or their misinterpretations, he will remain a target for those who neither understand his politics nor comprehend his approach to personal issues like the one Mrs Gandhi’s letter raised. I don’t claim to either but at a human level, I find his response to Mrs Gandhi befitting and expected from a seasoned politician and a well bred human being like Mr Advani. Had it been any other, it would not only have been disappointing but fallen short of standards of decency."  A spineless government : Just People.  by Kumkum Chadha

Advani, who remains chivalrous towards women, replied that if she had denied these frequent publications, the BJP task force would have certainly considered the denial. Advani's letter does not even remotely admit that what he had stated at the press conference was untrue. The relevant sentence of his letter is, "I deeply regret the distress caused to you." The distress had not been caused by Advani but by the respectable Swiss publications, the Soviet book, responsible newspapers, a leader of the Janata Party and even me, more than once. Advani did not say in his letter that he or the task force were impressed with her denial and believed it to be true. Advani has not apologised to Sonia Gandhi.  by Mr. Ram Jethmalani  

 welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.

Sagarika is back with a bang!!!!!

 

 
Case Study on a racist amateur journalist -  Sagarika Ghose.

This is a journalistic masterpiece Ms Sagarika Ghose.Such rare gems are hard to come by.

 

“There's a great deal to be proud of in the youth survey too. In spite of their own attachment to family, India's youth has chosen the self-made Sachin Tendulkar and APJ Abdul Kalam over scions born into privileged 'royal' families. But the survey contains portents of the future. India in the next two generations will be powered by a majority of success-oriented, deeply conservative citizens whose ambitions are narrowly focused on money and status. Poets, bohemians, rebels, intellectuals, dissenters, freethinkers, adventurers or even risk-taking entrepreneurs may become a vanishing breed.”  

This is the conclusion of the article Still old at heart” by Sagarika Ghose in Hindustan Times 08^th Feb 2011.

If we are to believe the author then yes we are heading for disaster. Fortunately for us this is not the case, instead what we have on hand is a delinquent individual who is perpetually attempting to draw attention towards self by indulging in outrageous acts be it by way of tweets or inventing terms and label for those who do not subscribe to her world view.

The vehemence is misdirected, it give the readers an impression that the author wants to impose her set of values on them, if not accepted then the only apt label for dissenter is political Right Wingers. While most of us would not grudge the author the right to an independent opinion sans categorization, we would not be afforded the same courtesy by this individual. She is archetypical ‘My way or highway’ 

Given her track record and conduct it still remains a serious issue as to how and why she continues to occupy the position in the Media house? People with lesser sins have been sacked from their jobs, is it because there is no accountability in the company? Or is it because this is the company policy? Could it because of marital ties with the Editor in Chief of the Channel? Whatever be the reasons they fail to explain the repeated misconduct of this individual.

Here are some of the comments posted in response to her article.

delhi_girl

1. "Facebook and Twitter may have created the Tahrir Square uprising in Egypt. But in India, Facebook and Twitter are dominated by young people openly pouring scorn on 'pseudo-secular liberals', minorities and the so-called 'anti-nationals'. Young Indians proudly call themselves 'nationalist' without quite spelling out what their 'nationalism' means."

Have YOU ever spelt out what "liberalism" means? Your notion of liberalism is probably the most twisted, perverted one ever followed. You and your media-cronies seem to be absolutely PETRIFIED of the support that youngsters have displayed for nationalist activities like tiranga at lal chowk. You have realized how miserably your propaganda has failed or even backfired. You dismiss all those who question you on twitter in a sweeping generalisation by calling them right-wingers or nationalists. You think they are all working as a part of a mob on behalf of BJP. If you ever care to find out their views by reading their blogs, you will realize how much more intelligent, astute and balanced they are in their views. You are lucky that you have HT and IBN willing to publish your (distorted) views on a larger platform, whereas they have only their blogs. But I can assure you that they have our true respect and adulation whereas all our contempt is reserved for you.

 

"The perceived loss of culture due to globalisation could be a reason why Indian "culture" is aggressively asserted even as 'global' lifestyles sweep through the metros. Pop traditionalism, albeit in a modern garb, has returned with a bang. Trendy clothes, skinny figures and latest gadgets coexist with a passionate attachment to religious rituals. If rituals and religious rites were once the activities of grandmothers, they are now being adopted by the youth as aggressive demonstrations of identity"

 

SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL WHAT IS WRONG IN HAVING A BLEND OF TRADITIONAL AND MODERN in our present lifestyles??? Has this woman absolutely lost it? Is this woman suggesting that we follow rites and rituals in a indifferent, detached manner? Because apparently, if I take a keen interest in knowing about my rites and rituals and if I start to believe in them, I become a religious bigots. And assertion of our identity at the global level is not because of some perceived threat from globalization. It is because YOUNGSTERS and elders too realize how precious our culture and traditions really are. The West is increasingly turning towards India and other Asian cultures for their spiritual and mental well-being. The crass commercial and individualistic society on the West has left their social system in tatters. There is a reversal now in who looks towards whom for inspiration. This CRAZED WOMAN SAGARIKA is still living in the early 90s when people were obsessed with the WESTERN culture and tried to ape them in every possible ways. People today in the subcontinent are PROUD of their identities and yes, RITES AND RITUALS too. Even MTV. CHANNEL V, McDonals, SUBWAY have all gone DESI. They have stopped copying Western formats and their programmes and menus all reflect an Indian flavour. What world is this woman living in?

piyush bakshi

2. pukeworthy piece. an exercise in anti-national Goebellian writing cloaked as journalism. The youth is fed up of corrupt media, is more informed, can see through the "opinion influencers" like ghose - sardesai duo, witnesses genocides in kashmir, and blatant abuse of hindu community be it casteism, reservations, etc, weakened army, all round corruption. These are the real reasons. the majority of the country, including youth has always been right-wing, but the powers that mattered always promoted the lefts and pseudos. The tide is turning, there are alternative channels of information available. your days are up. the kind of lies ghose and company spread in the guise of opinion pieces along with their tacit and overt support to everything anti-India is tantamount to treason. and they should be dealt with as traitors.

Swadesh

3. Ms. Ghose,You have a very negative personality. Whenever you open your mouth, it spill only garbage. People like you , Barkha dutt and your husband Rajdeep Sardesai are a blot on Indian media. You are full of ego like Ravana and are not ready to accept the results on Twitter and facebook.

But I agree we need more journalist like you to awaken the Indian society. There can't be a RAM without a Ravana and there can't be Pandav without Kaurav. You guys are the Kaurav of this era.

Rohit

4.Ms. Ghose, when will we hear something positive coming out of your pen? Get your definitions right about liberalism vs. socialism. Indian youth is more liberal than it has ever been in the history of this country. Do not confuse traditionalism with conservatism. Your definition of liberal and independent youth is probably only the ones who don't believe in religion or family, but history has it that civilizations with strong traditions have outlived and out-prospered the ones without traditions. Let me tell you a way to see the glass half full - just compare results of your surveys as they have trended in just the last decade. I assure you, the picture is brighter than your red-tinted-glasses are letting you see.
PS : Please don't stop writing your articles. You enrage people with shameless bigotry and that rage definitely inspires thoughts and actions. ;)

Verbosity is no substitute for merit; command over language does not make a Journalist at best an essay writer 

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.