Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Opaque Operations!!!!

The period 18th April 2010 to 30th April 2010 has been a particularly significant period for us. The chronological order of the events unfolded before us.

1. Resignation of Mr. Shashi Tharoor. (IPL fallout)
2. Suspension of Lalit Modi (IPL fallout)
3. Arrest of Ketan Desai of Medical council of India.
4. Arrest of 2 senior bureaucrats on charges of corruption. (MHA)
5. Mayawati supporting the UPA Government in Parliament subsequently the Cut Motion defeated in Parliament.
6. Conclusion of the trial of lone surviving terrorist of 26/11/2008
7. Telecom spectrum scam. (2G)
8. Telephone Tapping of Politicians.
9. Ms.Madhuri Gupta.

Which of these should have taken precedence for an article by any journalist, largely depends on his/her leaning and compulsions as dictated by the Political masters of that particular media house.

It comes as no surprise to read Opaque Operations by Ms. Barkha Dutt her political proximity and preferences are well known to all of us. The choice of subject is along the expected lines, for it is her favorite which in line of fire, had it been any other political setup besieged with similar issues she would have gone to town with her ranting and denouncements of that outfit.

Modi is to journalists, as the proverbial red rag is to bulls, regardless of the fact this time it is Lalit and not Narendra. The writer is castigating Indians for their obsession to show case India thru the sprawling acre of Infosys rather than the Dharavis of India. Dharavis are the creative formulations of our political class, and Infosys the outcome of entrepreneurial skills and hard work of the middle class people of India. Yes the Indian of today seeks idols in the corporate world, for this is one enduring dream that all Indians have and seek to realize. It is not a fantasy that Modi created, sold to the people of India and the world at large. IPL is a great product created by an imaginative individual with copious amount of blood sweat and tears as the cliché goes. The author believes that celebrating Indians on the international billionaires list is a shallow validation.

Has his life really spun out of control? Subject for a larger debate! Only the envious would pretend to look the other way, for the students and the business people of India here is a model to be studied and replicated. The whispers of sleaze funds and tax evasions need to be investigated and proved in the court of law. To categories IPL as a fantasy reeks of biased mindset.

There is a sweeping and a generalized statement being made, there is no denying that good bad and ugly exist in every walk of life. This is not reason enough for us to paint all business people with the same brush. In comparison to what we have on the political canvass, corporate India would need to really work hard to achieve a similar dubious reputation. This is what would be classified as a fantasy, in the business world it is about actual responsibility as against the imagined moral responsibility in the political field.
Corporate India has accountability and governance parameters to follow, deviation leads to serious consequences for the directors entrusted with functioning of the business on a daily basis. This is totally absent in the political arena. Vigilant media is a fallacy, what we have is a vigilante media, functioning at the behest of its political masters and for it own benefits. Media also is covered under the ambit of corporate India.

The initial 30 years of Independent India from 1947 to 1977. Which should have been the period of building this country were spent by the Congress party in injecting corruption into the system. Building behemoths which bleed steadily and continuously bringing the country to bankruptcy in ‘90’s. Can we deny the fact that it is this party which has let down the country thru its flawed policies, which made the very word businessman to denote a dishonest anti national, and profit a profanity that we were instructed never to employ. A faulty foundation is the real reason for all that ails India today.

Business is beyond the comprehension of the Jholawalas. Masquerading as a journalist is simpler, no real qualifications are required, just have the fingers on the right buttons and utter the words, the powers that maybe want hear and any Tom Dick or Harry can be labeled as a journalist. The corrupt business people will face the wrath of the law, and will serve their time as awarded by the courts. Politicians in this country have always cocked a snook at us, and walked away merrily with the entire loot. Oh how we wish the politician was answerable to us the electorate! The political class is it own master and beyond the reach of us Indians. Was this not amply borne out by the cut motion moved by the opposition in the parliament. The very parties who were holding rallies and protests outside the Parliament did not vote for the cuts so badly needed by the Indians whose back is all but broken under the unbearable weight of price rise.

Show us a single politician who has been convicted for corruption in the last 62years, no not one has paid for his crime till date.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Will the English Media yield to public pressure?

Mr.Mehta, is hallucinating Mr.Modi hates media, here we go again cause and effect Newton’s law is being forwarded by Mr. Vinod Mehta, No; this is not the correct reading of what Mr.Mehta is saying? There is a genuine complaint that Mr.Modi has not engaged or has been drawn into a slugfest with the media. Why should he? Does he have any chinks that need to be covered, have not been able to detect, he is not run of the mill corrupt inefficient yet another Chief Minister in India, who needs the media. Words are needed where action is weak or fails. Request Mr.Mehta for once to speak as a common Indian citizen without the accompanying halo of a journalist, which is the worst abuse today in India. The only perspective that individuals masquerading as journalists have is free drinks and food.


It is the guilt conscience that makes the offender perceive that he is wanted by the law, all the misplaced perception that you have, ostensibly which Mr.Modi exhibits towards the media are a manifestation of your conscience. Is it not a fact that as head of Gujarat state he must be impartial and also seen to be so, can we with any degree of conviction say the same for our mainstream English Media. The past 8 years it is the media which has been providing us with our daily fix of venomous diatribe which would put the deadliest Cobra, Viper and even the Boa constrictor to shame.


The decoding we take it at face value since it is coming from a very senior “Journalist”

02nd of April 2010 is indeed a watershed day for India not just the Congress, many in the print and electronic media have issued confessional statement on voluntary basis. Thank you we have noted the contents and the trend continues. Media is frustrated with its inability to carry out the execution after having condemned him in the Kangaroo court establish by Congress.


“Whether Modi was or was not the mastermind of the “genocide”,
“mass murder”, “carnage” has, in a sense, become a side-issue. What we have on display is a catch-me-if-you-can game and Byzantine legalese. Even after his 10-hour questioning by the SIT, he appears only marginally disadvantaged. Let me quickly add that I am totally with the sainted Teesta Setalvad, Rajdeep Sardesai, Arnab Goswami (although I am not entirely sure which side he is on!), Barkha Dutt and Siddharth Varadarajan, but at this moment Mr Modi seems to have the better of the hacks.”


Is this the confirmation that it is all about politics; the quest for justice is a convenient smoke screen. The idiom of US vs THEM being played out in full public glare with blatant disregards for professional ethics, the head must be delivered on a platter to the paymasters.


Permit me as a mango man (Aam Adami) of this country to state that we refuse to be converted into brain dead zombies. Which the individuals named by you have been attempting for the past 8 years. Alcoholics can seek refuge and assistance of the alcoholic anonymous. Unfortunately we have not been able to establish a separate institution for Modi fixated addicts.

The convoluted statements and eye witness accounts are just about beginning to unravel under their own weight; this is one such link

http://indiatoday.in…ghts.html?complete=1

your covert admiration for Modi may soon translate into a very overt act. The affect of 2 blogs and placing in public domain, the speech of Feb 2002 in the Gujarat Assembly, along with the appeals for calm made on doordarshan seem to have had the desired effect in 2010 if not in 2002. Has the Lion begun to roar again? Shall wait to see who is the last man standing in this sordid saga?


Finally if justice is what you seek, which is doubtful, then we would need to be convinced of your impartiality, the 26years long marathon being run to avoid the clutchs of law by Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Congress party must receive the undiluted attention that has been pointedly avoided by your saints and evangelists.

Friday, April 2, 2010

“FACE THE NATION” it is your turn.

This is in response to “Face the nation” by Rajdeep Sardesai 01st April 2010

Confession of a neo mullah of secularism! This is the day of confessions and damage control. All publications are carrying stories and articles backtracking from the rabid communalism that they have been practicing in the garb of secularism. What is the reason? That we are witness to this change of heart!

1. Mr. Modi’s appearance before SIT, breaking his silence after 8 long years.
2. Blog by Mr. Modi, his speech in the Gujarat assembly in Feb 2002 and all the appeals made by him on DoorDarshan which are now in public domain. The media had not mentioned this fact for last 8 years.
3. Refusal by Mr. Bachchan to join issue with congress and his maintaining a dignified silence in the face of extreme uncalled for provocation.
4. Realisation by the Congress that in the event of any SIT being established for past or future misdeeds it would not be able to avoid appearing before it.
5. Public outrage at the conduct of the Congress Party and mainstream English Media.

Manish Tiwari will no longer froth at the mouth on mere mentioning the names Bachchan or Modi. The public at large has delivered its message loud and clear pygmies cannot take on the colossus’ Bachchan and Modi. Watching news on TV might just have turned the corner, may become pleasurable once again. News might not get distorted into propaganda for a political party and its first family.

Now let us examine this self confessed secularist who has been preaching communalism for past 8 years, without facts or basis, he and his ilk have polarized the society with such speed and to an extreme that even most accomplished communalist has been wonderstruck and rendered unemployed.

Rajdeep Sardesai the people of this country including me want justice for 2002, just as we want justice for 1984,1993 and many other gory events before and after 2002 that make our stomachs churn. Your singular focus and freezing of Gujarat in a time machine dated 28th Feb 2002 is unacceptable. The outcry from the public is for even handed treatment, which you twisted to make it appear as pro or anti Modi. We are also witness to the 26years marathon being run by Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and the Congress party to somehow avoid the clutches of the law. The 3000 innocent Indians who were killed on the streets of Delhi are entitled to justice and the media shall have to get equally active on that. Gujarat of 2002 has to be taken out of that deep freezer where you and other self confessed guardian of secularism have placed it. You not just targeted a state in India, a duly elected head of the State of Gujarat; you insulted the people of India who raised their voices against your biased and motivated reporting. Your lack of ethics in the vocation of your choice, partisan treatment, arrogance and inability to take onboard different viewpoints resulted in dropping of rating for your news channel. Today you stand discredited before the Indian public. Comparing your channel to BBC will not bestow any honor or respect.

You still have much more distance to travel, it is going to be a very hard lesson for you and your channel, this lesson will have to be learnt, the bitter pill will have to be swallowed or you shall be permanently rendered irrelevant in the industry of your choice. For far too long you have spewed venom at individuals not deserving this treatment. The victim hood that you allude to is a figment of your imagination. The 4th pillar of Indian democracy has been corrupted! Fresh steel needs to be infused so that they ensure that the governments perform in this country. Watch dogs of democracy cannot be transformed into pet poodles of the political party in power. Kangroo courts established by the congress cannot be manned by their publicists who masquerade as Media houses.

Rule of law shall prevail in this country! The final judgment shall be delivered by the duly constituted courts and not by another political party or the motivated media. Awards you may gather, nominations you may get, respectability as a professional you will have to earn, for that cannot be bestowed by the political party of your choice. In the final analysis it is us the public who will deliver the verdict on the credibility of the publication or the TV channel. Your hour of reckoning is here very apt heading “FACE THE NATION” it is your turn.

Day of confessions and damage control by Congress and the Media

This is in response to “It’s a two-way street” by Anil Dharkar 01st April Hindustan Times.

Two articles on the same day! This is a shift in tack from the Congress friendly media. Having reaped the whirlpool by sowing the winds!

The needless attack on the Bachchans, the over the top and shrill reporting on Modi's appearance or lack of it on the 21st March, left the media, the Congress party red faced and bloodied nose. The netizens made their emotions known to all and sundry what was acceptable and conversely what was deplorable and repugnant to them.

A hasty retreat! An equally pathetic attempt, at rehabilitating their political paymaster by Hindustan Times. Vir Sanghvi, Pankaj Vohra and Vinod Sharma have lost their credibilty in the eyes of the public, in comes Anil Dharkar and Rajdeep Sardesai. Sorry Mr Dharkar you are the looser in this attempt.

Sonia Gandhi is nothing more than the glue that binds the Congress party. You demean Indians by placing all the credit at her feet. "She did so from a sense of duty to save the Congress from the oblivion it was hurtling to under the ‘leadership’ of the likes of Sitaram Kesri and Arjun Singh, Sharad Pawar and N.D. Tiwari." this party without this glue will fragment into pieces that we will find difficult to count.

“The poor of India weren’t put off by her foreign identity because they saw that she had embraced an Indian one: in clothes, in deportment, in language and in family values.” Were sold a dummy by the congress friendly media the misuse of the name “Gandhi” As always fiction of a better tomorrow made it possible to win elections, the hard facts are before the poor of this nation, who have multiplied under the Congress Governments, the poor will deal the telling blow in the near future.

Please do ponder if People of Indian Origin living overseas crave and work for a better India and we very proudly claim that India lives in their hearts. Why is it not acceptable that the country of origin of the Congress president lives in that heart, why should we accept, that this is an exception to the same logic and rule. This is where the educated made the distinction and that is why the acceptance was not and is still not forthcoming.

The question that you must answer to all of us "Are we going to lead a life of perpetual indebtedness to the Nehru Clan?" Have we not already paid a heavy price for allowing this family to be the sole arbiters of the destiny of our country? Is Indian freedom struggle only about Nehru? Were there no other persons who sacrificed or participated in the struggle for attaining freedom? Lastly the most important question that we all must ask ourselves for how long will we hand out the top job of this country to this clan on compassionate grounds. Ignoring more deserving, and meritorious individuals! Congress is nothing but a family run enterprise similar to the regional parties where the top job is always held by it promoter. The only difference is that it is playing at the national level as against other being mostly restricted to their states.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

What does America have to hide?

This is in respose to the article by Mr.Vir Sanghvi in Hindustan Times What does America have to hide?


Your hypothesis accepted, the reaction from the Indian side would have been instant compliance of the demand from the USA. We belong to the mind set where every wish of the US is a command for us.

We are digressing from the facts by focusing on the US in the case of David Coleman Headley. Probability or rather we should say it is certain that this individual is an American undercover operative. US would most certainly protect its other assets which are deployed in the AFPAK region. This man furnished minimal information to FBI or CIA or DEA about the possible terror event happening in Mumbai on the basis of which intelligence input were provided to the Government of India. 26/11 proved to be a paradigm shift in terrorism not just in India, world over. The intensity, audacity and the accuracy, with which the attack was carried out, must have taken the American agencies by surprise and there after he seems to have been placed under enhanced surveillance by FBI leading to his arrest and conviction.

The crux of the investigations is that FBI by now has the names, ranks of the serving officer from the Pakistan Army, Navy and ISI. This just about leads us to the most volatile situation; disclosure would lead to an instant armed response from any self respecting Nation in the estimations of the US Agencies. India is not in that category because the present dispensation lacks the will and courage to walk that path. Any armed conflict however brief will directly impact US fight on terror in AFPAK, this is unacceptable to USA.

The deficiencies are inherently with us and our establishment, let us not absolve ourselves, nor indulge in chest beating or point accusing finger at US of A, making it out to be a great betrayal of Himalayan proportions.

The questions we need to be asking of our Government? Here are some for which we need to have answers.

Why a comprehensive investigation has not been carried out for 26/11? In the face of the following facts or premises!

1. Terrorists involved were foreigners, presumably on their first mission to Mumbai India. Even the most highly trained commandos do stray and struggle in the urban settings on foreign lands to reach their targets.

2. Mumbai incident should not be seen simply as a terror attack. It was a behind the lines commando operation.

3. The individuals involved were not highly educated?

4. GPS used, are not homing devices therefore a reading of 5 or 10 minutes plus or minus for a degree could mean a parallel bylane and not necessarily the target lane. Yet the terrorist reached their targets with uncanny accuracy.

5. Video recording of a street or a lane form either end would disorient even the best trained commando in a foreign land.

6. Cities look different under different light conditions. If the videos shown were shot during the day, then they would not serve as effectively during the night and vice versa.

7. Navigating on high seas one has to be trained by a person who has the experience of having been on the high seas (Navy), no army man can train another person for sea operations.

8. LeT most definitely does not have the requisite expertise to train terrorists in all areas of operation, hence personnel from the armed forces have to be involved and their finger prints are visible in 26/11 attack.

9. Landing at a designated point along the coast is possible with the help of the GPS, yet it cannot take you to your destination with pinpoint accuracy. Local assistance cannot and should not be ruled out. Even incase of Aircrafts where INS is used (Inertial Navigation System) The aircrafts on Auto pilot would stray by a few fractions of a degree and altitude of a 100ft above and below.

10. The ease with which, the terrorists moved around and took up positions in the Hotels again points to some sort of local assistance, it is not possible for a person who goes into a large property to get to designated spot without any guidance. The terrorist were not exposed to super deluxe hotel properties prior to their attack on Mumbai we can safely assume.

11. Even if Headley is extradited to India given the state of affairs in our country could we hope for an expeditious trial and closure?

The world is full of inequality, when we are unable to offer equal treatment to our own citizens in this country, why are we expecting to be treated as an equal by the US. Equal treatment cannot be demanded, it has to be earned and we unfortunately have done nothing that entitles us for special treatment. Compassionate ground may be valid for us to hand out top jobs of our country. USA may empathize with us, unfortunately will not compromise its supreme national interest.

Let us pledge to work harder, learn to fight our own battles, have the basic intelligence to decipher, when other country provide us with intelligence input, instead of issuing weather man reports and later claim actionable intelligence or otherwise.