The truth is that NDTV is not just an anti-BJP, anti-VHP, anti-Sangh Parivar channel like ‘Aaj Tak’ or ‘Star News’ or newspapers like ‘The Hindustan Times’ or ‘The Times of India’ or ‘The Statesman’. NDTV owners are blood relatives of CPM leaders.

NDTV’s Chairman is Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy is also NDTV’s co-chairperson. CPM’s Brinda Karat, who is a Politburo member and a former MP of the CPM, is the wife of Prakash Karat, who was General Secretary of the CPM from 2005 to 2015, the most powerful post of the party-akin to that of the sarsanghachalak in the RSS or the President in the Congress or the BJP. And Brinda Karat and Radhika Roy are real sisters, Radhika being the younger one. Both the bosses of NDTV-Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy- are staunch Communists, just like Brinda and Prakash Karat.

NDTV has reported horribly against Narendra Modi right since 2002. But among all stark lies spread by NDTV, one which needs to be immediately exposed is this.

In its opinion poll on the Lok Sabha 2004’s outcome along with ‘The Indian Express’ carried in the last week of March 2004 which gave 287-307 seats to the BJP-led NDA, BJP was given 24 out of the 26 seats in Gujarat. But while reporting on it, Prannoy Roy, who was discussing the findings of the poll along with Yogendra Yadav, Rajdeep Sardesai and Dorab Sopariwala said:

“But here there is a fear factor. People who oppose Narendra Modi cannot have the courage to say so publicly. But let that remain 24 out of 26 for the time being…”

In its next opinion poll on the Lok Sabha elections’ outcome, carried in April 2004, NDTV-Indian Express gave the BJP-led NDA 260-280 seats. It gave 22 out of 26 seats in Gujarat, to the BJP. And here, NDTV Chairman Prannoy Roy said:

“Last time, we did not ask this question despite the fear factor. But this time we did. The question was asked, “Will you be afraid to speak against Narendra Modi?”And 59% said, “Yes” and 41 % said “No.” This was said by those people who still had the courage to speak against Modi. So the real number may be even higher. There may be many who said ‘No’ because they are afraid to say, ‘Yes’.”

What shamelessness!

Mr Prannoy Roy, I have devoted a complete chapter to expose you and your channel, why fear?

Who does not know that the entire thing was rubbish and completely concocted? In Gujarat, the Opposition Congress lived and conducted rallies and public meetings. Nobody can ever believe that the people were afraid to oppose Narendra Modi there in 2004. The BJP’s own state unit and a section of the BJP Legislative wing had a faction opposing Narendra Modi and wanted Keshubhai Patel as the Chief Minister in 2004.

Now, look at the percentage. The survey predicted 22 out of the 26 seats in Gujarat for the BJP. As a result, the people surveyed must have been mostly BJP supporters. If 60 out of 100 are BJP supporters, will they ever say that they are afraid to oppose Narendra Modi if they will not oppose him at all? As for the remaining who will oppose Narendra Modi, if we assume 60% will be afraid to do so, then 60% of 40% will be 24%. And of the 24%, 40% will be courageous enough to say so, which will come down to 10% of the total sample.

In any case, all this is utter rubbish. Nobody in the right frame of mind can ever say that there was any such factor in Gujarat in 2004, or now. Not even Gujarat Congress or its cunning leader S. S. Vaghela had made any such claims at that time. All the above were forcible attempts of NDTV to malign Narendra Modi and call him a “Hitler”. And Rajdeep Sardesai who is not a Communist and had left NDTV in April 2005 was equally guilty of lying through his teeth here. This does not seem to have awakened the BJP even today and such malicious lies continue to be spread by media outlets of this ideology, such as The Caravan (concocting ridiculous and false charges on Amit Shah for the death of Judge Loya), The Wire (fake charges on Jay Shah, implying that he made crores of rupees profit while he, in reality, made a loss of almost 1.5 crores) and of course NDTV and company.

In 2004, before the Lok Sabha polls, there were many TV channels and many magazines doing surveys and opinion polls, like Zee News, Star News, Aaj Tak etc. No other anti-BJP channel ever mentioned the existence of any such ‘fear factor’ in Gujarat, except NDTV, in 2004. Overconfidence of ‘imminent victory’ in 2004 and basic inability to counter media lies, passiveness and lack of aggressiveness on part of the BJP led to the party ignoring all such malicious acts by NDTV.

For the ‘fear factor’, massive electoral malpractices, frightening opponents, were all rampant in West Bengal in 2004, ruled by the Marxists at that time and in Bihar then ruled by Lalu Yadav. To see criminals and elements like Taslimuddin, Shahabuddin fighting Lok Sabha elections (and winning from Kishanganj and Siwan respectively) one can know immediately who frightens the opponents.

Belgium-based world-famous scholar Dr Koenraad Elst has written in his book “BJP vis-à-vis Hindu Resurgence” (Voice of India, 1997):  “The Islamic bomb attacks on Sangh centres in Chennai [in August 1993] and elsewhere, the murders of BJP politicians in UP, Mumbai and elsewhere [in the mid-1990s], they all have not provoked any counter-attacks. Anti-Hindu governments in Bihar (of Laloo Yadav from 1990-2005) and West Bengal (of Left Front from 1977-2011) have achieved some success in preventing the growth of sizable RSS chapters by means of ruthless intimidation and violence, all without having to fear any RSS retaliation…When in ca. 1990, and again in 1996, Communist militants started killing RSS men in Kerala, the RSS was very slow to react in kind.”

Lalu Yadav’s rule was similar in Bihar (1990-2005). Ruthless intimidation and violence prevented the growth of a sizeable RSS unit there in Bihar, just like in West Bengal. But all this did not bother our ‘secular’ TV channels, especially NDTV, they were GLAD it was so since RSS and therefore, BJP was suffering.

The cases of CPI(M) killing RSS and BJP men in Kerala are so many that an entire encyclopedia can be written on that. Just a few cases are being given. Actually, more than 100 RSS/BJP men were killed. As just an example 2 RSS men were killed in Kerala on 28 May 2010.

As for Kerala, the district of Kannur which is a Red bastion is horribly gripped by this. RSS men, BJP men and also Congressmen were brutally murdered by the CPM cadres in those days, and the Congress had to organize a huge rally in this place addressed by its state unit chief in October 2005 in which he said that the true face of the CPM lies in Kannur. BJP too alleged the same. In 1996 BJP’s Kannur district secretary Panniyan Chandran was killed by alleged CPM cadres in front of his wife. BJP suffered a major setback after the murder of Panniyan Chandran. In 2012, CPM district secretary and now Minister in the Kerala Government M M Mani openly boasted as to how CPM had killed enemies of the CPM in the past.

On 1 Dec 1999, the very popular BJYM Kerala state Vice-President was murdered. KT Jayakrishnan, a school teacher, was hacked to death on 1 December 1999 in his classroom in front of his tiny tot students by a group of 7 CPM workers, who did not even hide their faces in the attack. The tiny tots suffered a severe shock and had to be counselled later. The Additional Sessions Judge K K Chandra Das gave the verdict on the case in Aug 2003, which had created a storm in the state political circles. 5 CPM cadres were given the death penalty. The CPI(M) workers staged a demonstration outside the court complex to protest against the sentence!

This was also confirmed by the High Court. The court confirmed the sentences and observed that the murder was committed inside a classroom in front of the students. The accused had not made any attempt to conceal their identities. The Kerala High Court judge said, “the accused trespassed into the classroom and translated their evil design into action by committing the murder of K.T. Jayakrishnan in an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting and dastardly manner”.

CPM activists demonstrated in front of the Sessions Court and High Court after the verdict. They shouted slogans against the judges and even threatened to kill them. This CPM, which gives long lectures to BJP and RSS on honouring court verdicts openly burnt the effigies of the judge throughout the state (Kerala) in 2005. After this NDTV and its functionaries related to the Communists were unmoved.

There used to be rigging and booth capturing too along with the murdering of opponents by the CPM even in Kannur, which was not found worth mentioning by any of the TV channels, especially NDTV. NDTV covered up CPM’s ‘scientific rigging’ and violence in West Bengal in 2004 but reported an imaginary ‘fear factor’ in Gujarat!

As for West Bengal, the 2006 state Assembly polls may have been fair and relatively freer (I will still not say ‘free and fair’). But prior to that, the Marxists rigged many elections in the state since 1987. The Communists had murderous cadres. The noses and ears of BJP cadres were cut in West Bengal in 2002 which was for a change given some publicity. The 2001 Assembly polls in West Bengal were also badly rigged by the Communists. The results in some booths in some constituencies are as follows, reported by Bengali daily ‘Bartaman’ dated 19 May 2001. Here there was an alliance between Trinamool Congress and Congress for this election.

Raniganj Assembly constituency. (CPM candidate and minister won the election by a huge margin here). The booth no and votes are given below:

Booth No               CPI(M)                   Congress

64                            678                            2

143                           662                            6

144                           700                            8

148                           502                            8

166                           358                            3

200                           962                           24

63                             476                           12

128                           556                           17

229                           534                           17

127                           776                           18

138                           409                           11

197                           659                           12

195                           673                           15

139                           740                           16

140                           767                           15

196                           533                           15

114                           580                           15

143                           301                           29

107                           407                           17

198-A                       581                           27

Obviously, the CPM cadres after capturing the booths pressed the button a few times for the Congress nominee, so that the result would not appear to be that blatant. But in some booths, even this ‘minimum courtesy’ was not shown. Results in some booths in Jamuria constituency, adjacent to Raniganj. (Courtesy: Weekly ‘Organiser’ dated 4 June 2001)

Booth No                  CPI(M)                Trinamool

(TC)

207                             830                           0

129                             678                           0

112                             351                           1

12                               623                           3

178                             534                           3

14                               509                           4

46                               754                           6

142                             462                           6

45                               673                           7

28                               428                           9

264                             691                         10

157                           1004                         11

54                               888                         12

97                               983                         13

181                             436                         15

73                               199                         15

70                               360                         17

As for Bihar the less said the better. In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Lalu rigged polls in his VIP seat of Chhapra, where he was pitted against BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy. The BJP submitted videotapes of poll rigging, both to the Election Commission and also to the media. And the TV channels did not find it worth criticizing the rigging of the RJD. Finally, Chhapra became the first Lok Sabha seat for which repoll was ordered in the entire constituency, not just in a few booths. If in a high-profile seat like Chhapra involving contests between VIPs complete repoll was needed to have been ordered, what must the RJD have done in other seats in Bihar, which were not high profile? Did NDTV and company not feel the need to investigate that? Or ask that same question, which they bluffed about asking in Gujarat, in West Bengal where BJP, Congress and Trinamool Congress voters were not allowed to vote due to fear of violence by the CPM goons?

In 2004, before the Lok Sabha polls, CPM leader Comrade Biman Basu was caught on camera asking CPM cadres to attack Election Commission people in protest against a decision which CPM did not like. Left Front West Bengal chairman Biman Basu called upon the party cadres to ‘attack’ the Central observers and ‘teach’ them a lesson for ‘siding with the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the campaigning against the CPI(M)’. Basu, who was also a member of the CPI(M) politburo, in a public statement on 8 May 2004 incited the party workers and supporters against some Central observers. Some Central observers alleged to the CEC that their lives were in danger following a threat by some CPI(M) workers who were opposing them to act impartially for ensuring a free and fair poll in West Bengal. They wanted adequate protection during their stay in the state so that they could work freely and independently. These observers also registered a formal complaint with the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Mr Basudev Bandopadhyya, in this connection.

Reacting to Mr Basu’s threat to the Central observers, the TMC leader, Ms Mamata Banerjee, demanded that Mr Basu would be arrested forthwith for intimidating the Central election observers. The BJP president, Mr Tathagata Roy, alleged that Mr Basu had gone out of the way in inciting the party cadres against the observers since they were now finding it difficult to rig the poll in their traditional methods. Mr Roy demanded police action against Mr Basu. The Congress also criticised the front chairman’s public statement against the Central observers.

This was not given due publicity by the TV channels and of course ignored by NDTV. NDTV was only interested in imaginary fear created by the BJP in Gujarat. Now let us see the Election Commission’s report on the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal. Needless to say, even this report was completely ignored by the media-NDTV and also others and only found a mention in ‘The Pioneer.

’Weekly ‘Organiser’ dated 31 July 2005 mentions this report:

Last year’s Parliamentary election (2004) in West Bengal was a farce and Election Commission should reject the poll process. The top leaders of the CPM and key persons of state administration had acted themselves as a barricade to have free and fair polling. If Election Commission can appoint a chief election officer from outside West Bengal who knows the Bengali language only then a free and fair election will be possible in West Bengal.”

This was from the report of special observer Afjal Amanulla appointed by the Election Commission, submitted to the Chief Election Commissioner of India, T.S.Krishnamoorthy. Incidentally, this report was by a Muslim officer.

And NDTV has continued the same ever since, condemned and maligned Narendra Modi unfairly and falsely, and gone scot-free. Now, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is trying to paint Modi and Amit Shah as ‘Hitlers’, and what not, and ignoring totally the massive intimidation of voters in West Bengal by the Trinamool Congress, blatant booth capturing and rigging, prevention of voters to vote and various malpractices. The people want Central Forces to be present at all booths and do not trust the local police. Of course, the Trinamool Congress learnt all these things of poll rigging and attacks on opponents from the Left. The bigger fault is of the media, particularly NDTV and other channels in not exposing the deeds of Mamata in West Bengal in 2019 now. Only TimesNow did a good report on it. NDTV is mysteriously silent on all these deeds.