Karan Thapar - Dangerous...

Karan Thapar has always been a detestable person. As a host on chat-shows, he believes his role is to minimize the air-time of the guest and to regale the viewers with his own squeaky voice and if possible he also endeavours to ridicule his guest, ending up making a mockery of his own self more often than not. However, I have always looked upon him as an immature prat more than anything else. Today however, he has ceased to be that in my opinion and has descended to the level of being an inflammatory terrorist who deserves to be charged and convicted.

“Only the sudden removal of Narendra Modi can stop this. For he is the agent forcing this change. And whilst he’s with us, he will do just that. I have no doubt Indian politics after Sunday the 23rd is another country. We have to live with new challenges. Some of us have to accept new leaders”, he says in an article in HT. If this is not a voicing of his wish that Modi be assassinated, I don’t know what it is. And if there is one thing I find detestable, it is when the media starts airing their own opinions and judgments rather than the facts as they are. This however, is dangerous as well. The media itself has now become a mouthpiece for terror and against the rule of democracy, humanity and law and order!

Is there no line that the media has to toe? Sonia Gandhi was hauled up for calling Modi a “merchant od death”. Modi was hauled up for justifying the killing in a fake encounter of a terrorist. But who will haul up this dangerous lunatic who is openly calling for a lawfully elected CM to be assassinated? It could only happen in India of course. In other societies, such dangerous and inflammatory comments would be punished. In India however, the media seems to have transcended the law!

The ‘sting’ operation against the teacher in Delhi was reprehensible for the manner in which a reputation was murdered knowingly and willingly. Nothing has happened of course and I doubt if anything ever will. The ‘sting’ operation in Gujarat by Tehelka is another example. One of the people who the video featured has filed a case against the filmers saying that those people approached him saying they wanted a screen-test for a role they wanted to offer him. They handed him dialogues and he recited them. These are the dialogues the video shows and purports as being his boasting! The reaction of the chaps behind the ‘sting’? They seek anticipatory bail!!! Oh and yeah, they do not issue denials…

Way back during the Kargil conflict, Barkha Dutta ensured the killing of Indian soldiers as she openly described the location of the Indian base on Live television and also described how far off and in which direction the Pakis were shelling.

Then we have the DNA (newspaper in Mumbai) article written by a psephologist who said he was disappointed that Modi won the Gujarat elections despite the best efforts of the psephologists, pundits and journalists. By including his own ilk in that, he admitted brazenly that the predictions were rigged in an attempt to sway the electorate.

So, where does one get the facts? Benazir Bhutto, as we are all aware by now, was killed in a terror strike. Now, this is something that was condemnable. Terror in any form and against anyone is not something I can condone or justify. But, I do think that the Indian media seems to have gone crazy in the coverage that this event has been afforded! Benazir has been described as a warm person, the savior of democracy, the savior of Pakistan, the greatest Pakistani politician ever!!! She has also been described as a politician with a pro-peace tilt when it came to India. Oh really?

While I do not believe in maligning the dead (barring the Nehru-Gandhi breed), I find such blatant lies disgusting! Benazir was the politician who said she wished India death by a thousand cuts. She was openly in favour of terrorism in Kashmir and justified Paki backing for those terrorists. So much for her being pro-peace, eh? Then we come to her being ‘the greatest Paki politician’. She was elected to power twice. On both occasions, her government was DISMISSED on charges of corruption. Her husband was known as “Mr 10 per cent”. Why is no Indian news channel or newspaper reporting these bits as well?

There is apparently no will to report news or facts! The media featured a friend of Benazir’s talking about how there was a major wound caused by a bullet in Benazir’s neck which was such a major wound that it was still bleeding when they were bathing her body well after she was declared dead! Now, anyone who knows anything about death will tell you that after death, a body does not bleed!!! It is a biological impossibility as the heart is not beating. So, why has nobody picked on this fact???

The bottom line is that the media has gone dangerously overboard and needs to be reined in. We need laws to govern these people and we need the will in the political class to go against them when the situation warrants it. I believe the comments of Ravi Shankar Prasad blasting the media for ‘campaigning’ against Modi ‘rather than reporting’ were a step in the right direction.

It is time that the powers-that-be got over their fear of a media backlash and did what is needed to put the media in place and ensure that they do what they are supposed to. I also hope they do so before one of these dangerous psychos in the media causes bloodshed…