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…

Good sense: 1. Media and P-Secs: 0

The day so far has been absolutely phenomenal. I awoke this morning and switched on the TV and found Barkha Dutta looking as if she wished she were dead rather than on TV. A look like that on her face (or on the face of Srinivasan Jain for that matter) is a surefire boost to my spirit (and to the spirit of any right thinking person I should think), so you can just imagine how great the day has been when I say that since then, the day proceeded to get better every step of the way.

The Gujarat election this year has been unprecedented in my opinion in the manner in which the campaigning has proceeded. This election was never about the Congress campaigning against the BJP or about the Congress raising pertinent issues. It was about Modi talking about his achievements (which were many) and the Congress and the entire media embarking on a vicious, malicious and vile campaign to smear Modi, create a communal divide, defame Modi and endeavour to engineer divides even within the BJP. It was in effect, the media attempting to defeat Modi and install the ideologically bankrupt and morally corrupt Congress in power.

Just why the media attempted to do this is not something I want to argue about. But I do wish to counter in advance, those who will undoubtedly try to cry about how I am wrong and how the media is unbiased. I happen to have relatives who work in the media (both print and TV) for news channels/publications. They freely admit that each media outlet has an agenda and that they decide what spin they wish to give a story. Then, they portray it that way only and blank out anything that may inform the viewers about their bias. I can quote you an example.

I saw a speech made by Narendra Modi. He spoke for a total of 45 minutes on the development work that has been undertaken in Gujarat. He displayed figures to back his statements and spoke purely about the economic and social measures his government has undertaken. Then, in response to a question from the audience on what his thoughts were on Ram Setu, he said that the Central government was striking at the base of Hindu beliefs and as such, it was up to the populace to decide on how to vote. Quite fair, in my opinion. The next day however, there was only a single column in the newspaper on the speech. The headline read, “Modi raises Hindutva flag over Ram Setu” and the column spoke only about this issue. Not a word was mentioned about anything else he said.

For those who may be unaware, Modi has turned Gujarat into the leading state in India based on economic measures. There has been NO curfew or religious rioting in Gujarat since 2002. Every village in Gujarat now has uninterrupted electricity. Infant mortality (both of the mother and the child) in Gujarat is now the lowest in India. Literacy rates have shot up and the drop-out ratio is nearing nil. Foreign investment in Gujarat exceeds investment anywhere else in India. Errr… Even the Central Government in a move that was a HUGE embarrassment to Sonia Gandhi awarded Modi the Rajiv Gandhi Award!!!

So, why should people want Modi to lose? Why should he be vilified so much? The answer, as per the media, is that he is communal! He was responsible for the 2002 post-Godhra riots, the secularists (or pseudo-secularists) will tell you. Yet, these same p-secs are silent on the religious rioting in Congress ruled states! They are silent on the killing of 10,000 Sikhs in 1984. Rajiv Gandhi famously waved those deaths away saying that it was natural for the ground to shake when a great tree fell! When has Modi or anyone ever justified rioting in any manner, let alone such a callous one? What about Bombay in 1992 and 1993? I remember the Congress being in power in Maharashtra at the time. Why is the Congress not blamed for the riots? My own thoughts on the Gujarat government’s role in the 2002 riots can be best summed up in this article.

The fact is that the media and the Leftists are steeped in the pseudo-secularist rhetoric that has enveloped the ‘intelligentsia’ of this nation since Nehru’s time. That causes them to be illogical and rabid in their hatred of all that oppose the pseudo-secularist rhetoric or who question the ‘logic’ they claim to propound. Essentially, to not be pro-minority and anti-majority/upper-class (note, not unbiased, but clearly biased) is to be opposed to the p-sec rhetoric.

Let’s look at the reactions now to the Modi win. One school has said that this is Modi’s win and not the BJP’s. Ummm… Let me get this straight. Modi is a BJP leader and all his MLAs are BJP members. He was aided in his campaigning by the BJP. So, if he wins, surely the BJP wins? Moreover, every organization, whether political or corporate or social has a leader. Modi was the BJP’s in Gujarat. How is it his or the BJP’s fault if the Congress is too bankrupt to have a leader of any standing whatsoever, leave alone a standing to rival Modi’s?

Another reaction has been the media to say that Modi’s win is bad for the future of the BJP’s central leadership which will now be threatened. I’d love to understand why they believe that every party should be as bereft of leaders as the Congress! Surely it is commendable for a party to have multiple credible leaders!!! As Advani said, when any member of a family excels, the others congratulate him and revel in his success. Why would they dislike it?

Then of course there is Kapil Sibal. So rattled was he by the results that he said that “Madam meant the state of Gujarat” (Quote, unquote) by her ‘merchants of death’ jibe. Surely one can’t then blame the Gujaratis for voting against the Congress!!! I'd sue him if I were a Gujarati. How can anybody label the entire state like that???

Finally, there was the Congress jibe about how the BJP campaigned on the basis of ‘personality’ while the Congress has ‘never done that’ and has always fought on ‘issues’. A bit rich surely from a party that begged Sonia Gandhi to ‘save them’ and that in 2004, subjected the nation to the vision of MP after MP walking up to Sonia on the House of Parliament beseeching her to become PM as she ‘was the only reason for the Congress’ success’. How many non-Nehru-Gandhi PMs has the Congress given us? Oh and lest one forgets, the Congress stridently proclaimed to the nation that their ‘Brahmastra’ was ‘Rahul Gandhi!!! Oh wait! I can’t call that off the mark ;-). I mean, not even the biggest idiot on the block would accuse Rahul Gandhi of being in possession of a personality!!!

Finally of course, there is the contention of the media and of every pseudo-secularist in this nation that this is a victory for divisive politics and communalism. Oh yes? Every single time I have heard Modi or any of the BJP leaders speak, they have spoken purely of development and of the socio-economic indicators in Gujarat. The Congress on the other hand has repeatedly harped on Godhra (without mentioning the Hindu casualties of course), on the ‘communal’ nature of the BJP and of the killing of Sohrabuddin! So, who was indulging in divisive politics then? Who was it who used the ‘merchants of death’ moniker? Who was it who started calling Modi, “India’s Osama”? (This was Rajiv Shukla of the Congress lest you not know this).

Ultimately, this was a win for development and good governance over the forces of divisive politics and pseudo-secularism. It can be summed up by Kapil Sibal saying on NDTV that the Congress will now ‘study how the various communities voted’ to understand what to do next!

For those who differ with me on what I have said, I have for once, no better words than those uttered on this issue by Navjot Singh Siddhu. “It’s not the Sun’s fault if an owl can’t see in the daytime.” (Uttered as “Agar ullu ko din mein nahin dikhta hai, usme Surya Dev ka kya dosh?”). To wrap up, let me ask: Where were all the media-persons when people were shot and women raped in Nandigram? Where were Javed Akhtar and Teesta Setalvad then?