Mother Democracy in ICU - Will she survive another Varanasi

 Democracy under attack

 

The unkindest cuts to democracy were delivered today and everyday, ever since election processes began, by a gang of traitors of democracy, like the infamous Roman Senate. The senators who owe their living, their callings, to the same fruits of democracy they parasite on. The Varanasi episode is just one of them.

Those shameful acts were not committed by enemies from outside but are very much part of the core system. But not sure if they are Indians with interest of India at heart.

The authorities who turned blind eye to Rahul’s cavalcade ploughing through the potholes of Amethi road draw salary paid by system they dug the knives in.

The Police Inspector who pretended, till he realized that his omission has been captured on Camera, that he had not seen Priyanka’s PA Preti Sahay, takes order from EC, the constitutional arm specifically empowered for fair election. He did his fair share of stab too.

As the Inspector refused to challenge Preti Sahay, even as Smriti officially asked him to do, he twisted the plunged knife for good measure.

When permission was denied to a candidate to canvas in a constituency from which he is contesting, the Returning officer drew his arsenal of sharpened and hidden blades, on democracy.
There seemed to be many knives hoarded for this very purpose to ensure that democracy is left bleeding in Varnasi, blades held in proxy for relatives and masters in power.

The first one was when he claimed that the venue requested by BJP has already been allotted to one Mr Khan much before BJP's request was received, contrary to facts.

When it was pointed out that the money paid into the treasury does not support his version, a cover up operation, in the form of an order exempting Mr Khan from depositing the money, an unusual sign of benevolence, was the next knife to descend.

When both lies failed, the Returning officer sprung was the false bogey of ‘security reason’. As Arun Jaitley said, if Returning officer is incapable of providing security, let him take a transfer, but instead the choice was to bury another knife by refusing to stand by democratic rights of the contestant.

The returning officer added insult to the injury when he claimed Ravi Srinivasan that all permissions are provided without any proof of permissions ever reaching the aggrieved.

N Ram provides the target identification for these Senators, as only betrays his congenital hatred to anyone who does not agree with him, when he provided a crutch to those murderers motive, covering them with glory. His turncoat antics already well documented, he still is addressed as an expert by procuring Media.

The SMS, especially Ravi Srinivasan provides the grinding stone that sharpens the knives, giving false alibis to the butchers of democracy.
The Chubeys, as they accuse that the problem is not with the Returning officer's step motherly treatment of BJP but due to BJP's perverse political ambition, sharpen their talon and fangs for a possible festivity of feasting on carcass of Democracy. 
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Seemandhra went to poll with no respite to allegations of voter bribery through churches, openly reported in media and EC was playing Nero's fiddle.

What is the purpose of election if money is paid through places of worship right under the nose of EC, headed by a person who was recommended by the briber’s father? Why have this sham and facade at all?

Booths were being captured in TMC ruled West Bengal without EC batting an eye.EC staff are threatened and berated. Rahul is allowed to guide voter to press the right button. Rahul is allowed to hold a mini meeting inside the polling booth.

While BJP is being targeted for electoral violations, the rest are allowed a free run. If Modi’s action of Selfie was really objectionable, the EC could have asked an FIR to be filed after an investigation instead of demanding FIR be filed before 6 PM because of what EC surmised from the ‘tone and tenor’. But the path EC chose betrayed does not rule out a possible bias on the part of those who were supposed to run a fair election.

If Ramdev’s word could be perversely twisted with nuanced translation , who can explain EC's silence when TMC candidate set a price of 1 Crores on the head of Ramdev?

Why was TMC allowed to blatantly call out that not a single ‘Bangladeshis’ will be allowed to be sent back, in total contravention of the Supreme Court order? What happened to Congress posters with Temples in the background? TMC posters with unconcealed appeal to Muslims? Jagan fearlessly using the pulpit for votes?

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With so many out there to kill and maim democracy, stealing from the wealth that democracy bestows, who does not differentiate amongst who benefits from her benevolence, it is still a wonder that after 60 years of murderous assault, she still continues to show signs of life.

May 16^th is the last chance for getting Mother democracy back on her feet and to nurture it to her good health. The free run the jackals have been having has gone on for too long. All institutions of democracy have been successfully infiltrated and compromised by political interest through pliant appointees who have sold Mother India for a morsel. The politician-babu nexus based on favors, connections, caste, blood relationships have wreaked havoc to her health. The blades of traitors in the vestige of Senators have bled her to the verge of death. The eyes of fairness have been gorged by partisan communal elements ruling us for longest time.

Yet, come 16th of May 2014, resurrect she will. There are still enough Indians determined to lead Mother India to a glorious future. 16th is neigh, it will take us to demise of the pickers of morsels. You can run but you cannot hide after 16th May.

Was Rajiv really a Martyr?

 

Priyanka Vadra barged into political scene to stem the sagging fortunes of Congress that could no longer be hidden and perhaps also because someone within Congress mustered enough courage to carry the bad news to high command. She came with an express intent to canvas for her brother and mother. No one asked her “what about political conviction’?

The moment she announced her entry, as if on a cue, the big TV channels, got stuck to her as parasites and tormented the otherwise uninterested viewer with visuals of this gawky woman balancing on pile of bricks.   

P Vadra is a known phenomenon that surfaces up the electoral waters only during campaign seasons. She is also not known for her statements that will stir thinking person’s gray matter either. But NDTV’s Barkha Dutt averred that Priyanka is the leader of 2019, based on what political achievement of Priyanka, only Barkha Dutt is privy to. However, SM credits Barkha of being not only in the know of secretive deals and also of taking active fixing roles. So one will have to trust her on this.

It is still a wonder how the Times camera team managed to balance themselves over their own drool as they gave uninterrupted coverage to her. But it must be said that all English channels, including CNN-IBN followed P Vadra picking up the gems of political wisdom as and when she deigned to drop one. 

These Channels’, a.k.a ‘Media Traders’ infatuation and awe of the dynasty can be explained by years of taking alms and the slavery ingrained in their genes.  Nothing else can explain the disproportionate coverage given to P Vadra by all and the sundry. Her resemblance to her grandmother was one of the strongest political statements the ‘Mediatraders’ carried without any shame.

As political assertions, P Vadra’s statements can be reduced the following

1.       BJP scurries like rats

2.       I am Rajiv’s daughter

3.       Smriti who?

4.       My father died for the country. My father was martyred.

Obviously there is a large and famous wounded game in the political forest and the predators are prowling.  The smell of blood is wafting across the Amethi’s electoral woods. Smriti has nothing to lose and Rahul everything.  The Gandhi family has been drawing the political dividend from Amethi’s emotional capital but a new generation may spring surprise.

In this context, we also saw in Modi’s Amethi meeting, BJP not ‘scurrying as rats’, but growling. Modi laid the hollowness of such ill-conceived words of P Vadra bare by tearing into Gandhi’s family that, licking his wounds, Salman Kurshid had to say that ‘BJP should have shown some courtesy by not campaigning in Amethi. The crowd in Amethi was unprecedentedly large; one may not know if Smriti would emerge winner, but the common agreement is that surely she is putting up a worthy fight. The margin of win, if Rahul wins at all, is going to be greatly reduced. Win is not out of reach now for BJP and so much meat in P Vadra’s claim that BJP ‘scurries as rats’. They were at your backyard, snarling, and there was no one to shoo them away!

Modi stole ‘Priyanka is a daughter’ debate not by word play, but on the strength of honesty and truth. The MSM painted a crude picture of Modi, aided by the State’s channel editing critical parts of the interview under instruction of motor-mouth Minister. And P Vadra, as usual made crass, crude and disrespectful comments and finally stood alone, with mud on her face. Shame did not deter her, it appears.

Perhaps P Vadra thought of herself as Indian ‘Dorothy Parker’ when she attempted to belittle Smriti asking ‘Smriti who’? That jibe was mean and hypocritical, because as proxy, P Vadra was in Amethi defending their family turf against the very same 'Smriti who' that was getting more and more encroached upon by the political rivals, mainly BJP. Smriti was wearing her shoes off, traveling the width and breadth of Amethi constituency, dignity personified. P Vadra made a mistake of her life when she attempted to insult Smriti, calling her inconsequential.

And it has stung BJP and as a result BJP has gone for the kill today as Modi spared none from the Congress dynasty.   It has added to BJP’s determination to bare its fangs, bare its fangs it did and with what style?

I have no quarrels if P Vadra says her father was murdered. But if she calls Rajiv Gandhi a martyr, it is claiming more credit than Rajiv is due. Rajiv was killed by Sri Lanka based Tamil Tigers, a fact that has been proven beyond doubt. The cause of that was, the enmity sworn by Prabhakaran as he thought he was double crossed by Rajiv.

First of all, the seeds of discord between Sri Lanka and India were co-sowed by Indira Gandhi when she authorized training of Sri Lankan terrorists in Indian soil. She fed the monster that killed Rajiv. I am definitely not saying she was responsible for Rajiv’s death but was the one who set the dice rolling, unaware that it will one day kill her only surviving son.

When Prabhakaran was in Delhi, the grapevine is, ill-advised by people he trusted, Rajiv put Prabhakaran under house arrest to get the latter to sign the Peace accord.

Another theory, found here http://ibnlive.in.com/news/secret-of-rajivprabhakaran-meet/14464-3-1.html , says that Rajiv reneged on an agreement that was signed based on consideration of questionable origin and one that resulted in Prabhakaran avenging by ordering Rajiv’s threat.

How do you fit in the ‘martyr’ piece in this scandalous, dishonorable story? Rajiv did a lot of good, had good intentions, though he patronized his wife’s friends who collected commission on his behalf. He stirred the Telecom revolution in India, backed Pitroda to the hilt are all OK, but to claim he died a martyr is selling political snake oil. Rajiv died because he double crossed, notwithstanding the fact, the person double crossed was no Dharmputra. But he double crossed and paid for his amateurish antics in politics, a game sublime minds find hard to play well. He died in a turf war he picked with a nefarious character he elected to deal with.

So let us be done with this balderdash of thrusting martyrdom on Rajiv. The fact he died the way he did, in the hands of terrorists in Indian soil is really sad and deplorable. But that does not make him a martyr.

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Media is replete with reports linking DMK and Rajiv, going as far as claiming that it was DMK ideology that inspired the killing of Rajiv. The Jain commission has this to say.

“The Jain Commission has said the encouragement given by the DMK, while it was in power, to the LTTE, ultimately enabled the LTTE to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi.” (see http://m.rediff.com/news/dec/03cho.htm )

And it was the same DMK that Congress allied with, led by Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, who S Vadra claims incorrectly as being martyred. If S Vadra is so upset with her father’s death, that sometimes she sees non-existent martyrdom in it, why is she not upset with her mother for joining hands with people accused to have had a hand in the killing of her father? Bewildering, is it not?

However, finding Congress in bed with people having aided her father’s death does not bother her as much as Modi saying that Gandhis did not pay attention to the progress of Amethi. P Vadra says that people of Amethi will not forgive Modi for his utterances. But is it not a wonder that Amethi forgave Congress for allying with political parties accused of aiding Rajiv’s killing?

I would conclude, she finds the political opponents more disagreeable to the killers of her father.  Something is wrong with priorities. What is it?

At the end of the day, the pretense is over protecting the ill-gotten wealth in friendly Congress ruled states buying and selling land. It is over the special privileges accorded to the dynasty. It is the ‘let them eat cake’ attitude of the Antoinette that will spell political doom for the dynasty. It is the privileges enjoyed without earning any of it. It is living the life of a feudal lord in a democratic country. It is the benefit the family derives from the gullibility of electorate wastefully preferring to be associated with VIP constituency over economics. It is never having known the sweat of toil. It is never having lived as Indian. It is the sum of all this arrogance.

dwimidha@gmail.com 

   

NOTA option for Krantikari Media- Need of the hour

NOTA option- needed in Media

In the now famous ‘Krantikari’ interview with AajTak, Modi took the word ‘Krantikari’ at least 5 times, giving the tag a sarcastic connotation, well earned by Aaj Tak. Till then no one had brought the narrative of  illicit cohabitation of Media and Political parties to public discussion.

And the rousing appreciation from public, for catching media by its evil horns, is evident from the trending #ModiOnAajTak in twitter. This tweet sums up the general feeling. 

The tweets expressed the collective glees of public, their feelings akin to fans of larger than life Indian hero, thrashing a throng of villains in an one sided fight. It was Rajnikath vs the rest of the villainous world. But in this case, the fight was real not reel. Defeat was not make believe, for the viewers could see for themselves the pusillanimous interviewers, perhaps forced to act the way they did by their pay masters, meaning employers, running for cover with tail between their legs, just as Rajnikanth would make the horde of villains do.  

All the mirror neurons that flashed that night could have lit a village. Modi was doing to the media, what many of us would have given an arm and leg to. As Modi lay bare the lies of the media calling out the ‘emperor has no cloths’ – a moment of truth dawned. Media will never be the same again and in my mind, this action was a watershed moment. It was a moment of vicarious victory for the viewers, over the soul selling, moolah raking media under the guise of ideological reporting.

During the interview, whenever the interviewers asked questions along the line “have you stopped beating your wife” Modi was quick to call their bluff off. He accused them of pursuing a policy of asking questions, not as a ‘neutral media’ but as one seeking TRP, truth be damned. That was the crux of the interview to me.

When the facts of DD interview were there for all to see, what is it those two interviewers sought from Modi? When Modi tried bringing back the narrative to mature topics, what made those interviewers slide back to topics of gossip? What made one of the interviewers take back his comments,  a refreshing change? Did I mention 'watershed moment'?

As I repeat ad nauseam, the media now has no place for the cerebral lot. Let me qualify it, the popular media, which consists of the entire English and most of the Hindi media is full of shallow, loud mouthed, ignorant, arrogant people whose only qualification seems to be their ability to deliver dialogue tinged in ideological dye and connection to some political lackey.

 About printed media, suffice to say, yuck

In that interview it came out clearly that the interviewers had no clue about the questions they posed. No background work seems to have been done. No one seemed to have critically reviewed the questions that were asked. Modi exposed it, arrogantly, and asked them to go and do their home work, verify the facts before posing them. It was inept and inefficient preparation for which people get sacked in any other organization.

As the #ModiOnAajTak trends, there is another heart rending news of Assam that occupies substantial media space.

The media is full of horseshit on this topic except the relevant ones. The sound bites that are being played out loud are

1.       BJP questions what Dr Manmohan Singh has done in the last 10 years to prevent such massacre

2.       Congress blames Modi’s comments on ‘illegal migrants’ as reason for the massacre

3.       Omar Abdulla blames polarizing election as cause and goes on to say that it was the painting of all the Muslims “as Bangladeshi illegal immigrant”

Let us go in the reverse order. When Omar said that ‘the painting of all the Muslims as Bangladeshi illegal immigrant’ did anyone who reported this ask him to provide proof? Did any reporter or the community tell him that this is a partisan quote and will be published as a divisive utterance of Omar if he fails to back his words with facts?  Did any reporter challenge Omar?

The insinuation is that Modi said that ‘all Muslims’ are Bangladeshis, something that can be verified from past reports. Omar made a brazen false claim, was coward enough not to lay it at Modi’s door step and with the help of the collaborating snakes in media, slip in a myth that Modi designed the killing in Assam. Here is a case of TRP trouncing truth.

Going to the second one, that Congress blames Modi comments (there were other running dogs too which blamed Modi for this massacre) the questions were there to be asked. But no one did. Modi was right. These Media houses have a choice to be neutral or to pursue TRP and with few exceptions, all run after TRP they cannot earn by honest reporting, hence earn by peddling salacious gossips, feeding the public with half lies.

I see substance in the question from BJP to Congress. What has been done in Assam, the State from our PM represents to prevent such occurrences? If there is a response, there can be a debate on the effectiveness of the steps taken, which will go to identify the weakness and possible correction. This is one question the media should have asked but did not.

The tragedy is, the ground realities are different. The Bodo outfit, National Democratic Front of Bodoland, is accused of the massacre. According to a report in Times of India, Bodos and Muslims had an agreement from which the Muslims reneged. And now NDFB denies those charges and blame Government forces as the killers.  Read it here

 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/lok-sabha-elections-2014/news/Rebels-kill-30-in-Assam-for-not-voting-for-Bodos/articleshow/34550292.cms?

Minister for border areas Siddique Ahmed, said after visiting the violence-hit areas that his government and the ruling Congress party failed to protect the victims, who included at least eight children

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/assam-live-ten-companies-of-paramilitary-forces-to-arrive-1506649.html?utm_source=ref_article

In spite of the massacre having nothing to do with BJP, the media drags BJP into the narrative in pursuit of TRP, the accusation Modi made, a very validated one, it appears.

I find Chauthi Dunia interviews to be much more nuanced and without hype. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOrpn3zIs5c is an interview to be watched for its sobriety content alone, that also comes as a great relief from the high decibel shallow screaming of Arnabs and Rajdeeps.

While the sound boxes of English media glorify ‘NOTA’ option in election, we, who pay for these channels are in real need of ‘NOTA’ option. We need a neutral media that is not ideologically biased, fair media that reports both sides of a story, honest media that does not take money and favors to do witch-hunts for political parties, ethical media that does not sleep for few changes with the first available political leader and most importantly an intelligent media that knows its questions.

And I am sure there is a place in the market as the need for it is now palpable. Modi has lent expression to the longings of a large section of people who want to see neutrality brought back to center stage in reporting. It is a shame that a politician had to remind that to Media Industry. But, unfortunately, is the shape of things in Media.  What Modi did yesterday is just a clarion call to fight the evil content in Media. There are many battles to be fought to bring ethics and neutrality back to Media. Let us hope it gets done.

   

dwimidha@gmail.com