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Last day of APJ Abdul Kalam – He went away teaching all of us

OpIndia Staff
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Last day of APJ Abdul Kalam – He went away teaching all of us

Last night, one of India’s most respected and loved personalities, Former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam passed away in IIM Shillong. He was there to deliver a lecture on ‘Livable Planet’ but collapsed 5 minutes into his speech. Dr Kalam’s life has been an inspiration to so many Indians. Even on his last day, he exemplified all that he stood for. This is brought out by a Facebook post written by his Advsior and close associate Srijan Pal Singh.

We bring you some excerpts of the same.

Singh describes their long journey to Shillong to deliver a lecture at the IIM, and reveals how a 83 year old man was always passionate and ready to go to far-flung areas in order to speak to young minds. No amount of hardships or ‘fear’ would deter Mr. Kalam from sharing his views with young minds:

Our day, 27th July, began at 12 noon, when we took our seats in the flight to Guwahati. Dr. Kalam was (on seat) 1A and I was (on) IC. He was wearing a dark colored “Kalam suit”, and I started off complimenting, “Nice color!” Little did I know this was going to be the last color I will see on him. Long, 2.5 hours of flying in the monsoon weather. I hate turbulence, and he had mastered over them. Whenever he would see me go cold in shaking plane, he would just pull down the window pane and saw, “Now you don’t see any fear!”. That was followed by another 2.5 hours of car drive to IIM Shillong. For these two legged trip of five hours we talked, discussed and debated. These were amongst hundreds of the long flights and longer drives we have been together over the last six years.

Though focused on his mission, Dr Kalam’s thoughts were also with the brave jawans of India who fought for our safety as there was a terror attack going on in Punjab on the same day. He was also concerned about terrorism as something which could destroy humanity. Although he was known as the “missile man” and journalists like Sagarika Ghose had labelled him “Bomb Daddy“, the man always pined for peace in the world.

First, Dr. Kalam was absolutely worried about the attacks in Punjab. The loss of innocent lives left him filled with sorrow. The topic of lecture at IIM Shillong was Creating a Livable Planet Earth. He related the incident to the topic and said, “it seems the man made forces are as big a threat to the livability of earth as pollution”. We discussed on how, if this trend of violence, pollution and reckless human action continues we will forced to leave earth. “Thirty years, at this rate, maybe”, he said. “You guys must do something about it… it is going to be your future world”

Perhaps this is the last wish of Dr. Kalam – the young Indians have to take control and make sure this earth is a livable and peaceful place.

Kalam was also worried about the way Parliament was not functioning. But his approach was positive – to look out for solutions. But it appears that our politicians had made it tough even for Dr. Kalam. He didn’t have a ready solution.

Our second discussion was more national. For the past two days, Dr. Kalam was worried that time and again Parliament, the supreme institution of democracy, was dysfunctional. He said, “I have seen two different governments in my tenure. I have seen more after that. This disruption just keeps happening. It is not right. I really need to find out a way to ensure that the parliament works on developmental politics.” He then asked me to prepare a surprise assignment question for the students at IIM Shillong, which he would give them only at the end of the lecture. He wanted to them to suggest three innovative ways to make the Parliament more productive and vibrant. Then, after a while he returned on it. “But how can ask them to give solutions if I don’t have any myself”. For the next one hour, we thwarted options after options, who come up with his recommendation over the issue. We wanted to include this discussion in our upcoming book, Advantage India.

Clearly, our politicians can pay a tribute to this great son of India by making the parliament function at least for a week. He wanted to see this. Are our lawmakers listening?

Not sure of our lawmakers, but Kalam surely was watching and listening to everything and everyone around him. In his post, Singh recounts how Kalam couldn’t help but notice ‘discomfort’ being caused to a security person.

Third, was an experience from the beauty of his humility. We were in a convoy of 6-7 cars. Dr. Kalam and I were in the second car. Ahead us was an open gypsy with three soldiers in it. Two of them were sitting on either side and one lean guy was standing atop, holding his gun. One hour into the road journey, Dr. Kalam said, “Why is he standing? He will get tired. This is like punishment. Can you ask a wireless message to given that he may sit?” I had to convince him, he has been probably instructed to keep standing for better security. He did not relent. We tried radio messaging, that did not work. For the next 1.5 hours of the journey, he reminded me thrice to see if I can hand signal him to sit down. Finally, realizing there is little we can do – he told me, “I want to meet him and thank him”. Later, when we landed in IIM Shillong, I went inquiring through security people and got hold of the standing guy. I took him inside and Dr. Kalam greeted him. He shook his hand, said thank you buddy. “Are you tired? Would you like something to eat? I am sorry you had to stand so long because of me”. The young lean guard, draped in black cloth, was surprised at the treatment. He lost words, just said, “Sir, aap ke liye to 6 ghante bhi khade rahenge”.

This episode demonstrated that in spite of being such a highly placed dignitary, he was humble to the core. How many individuals at his level can claim to have similar empathy for people far below them in social ranks?

The Facebook post by Singh also tells us that Dr. Kalam wanted to be remembered as a ‘Teacher’, much before a scientist, a writer, or a former President of India.

Often he would ask me, “You are young, decide what will like to be remembered for?” I kept thinking of new impressive answers, till one day I gave up and resorted to tit-for-tat. I asked him back, “First you tell me, what will you like to be remembered for? President, Scientist, Writer, Missile man, India 2020, Target 3 billion…. What?” I thought I had made the question easier by giving options, but he sprang on me a surprise. “Teacher”, he said.

You are indeed a teacher Sir. Even your last day has taught us much – compassion, concern, positivity, determination, and an indomitable spirit to see India progress and develop.

Keep inspiring sir, and keep igniting our minds.

We, the people of India,
Your students.

Memories of Kargil war from my School Diary

Rahul Raj
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Memories of Kargil war from my School Diary

When I was 10 years old, I was admitted to a boarding school – 170 km away from my home, inside decently vegetated and sparsely populated valleys, established in a place which is still more famous for its phonetics and appearances in Vividh Bharti announcements than anything else.

Even now, whenever I think of my school, the first few pictorial flashbacks remain the same as I had when I went on my first school vacation – a huge white gate over which “Sainik School Tilaiya” was written, two small cannons kept beside the gate, a defunct blue-coloured fighter plane inside a park, students running in colourful red, blue, orange, green shirt in the morning in a weird haircut, and a stone in the middle of the school over which was called “Immortal Tilaiyans”.

 

Immortal Tilaiyans
Immortal Tilaiyans

As a 10 year kid, I could only associate martyrs with essays, history quizzes, movies and songs sung on 15th August or 26th January. I read names of school alumni who died in Operation Blue Star, Operation Pawan and other similar combats. My first reactions after watching the stone were more bookish and pedantic than real.

Every morning, the whole school had to run as unit formations and perform physical training. Subedars from the Indian Army were specially assigned to the school for 2-3 three years to train us. These subedars were people with low emotions; they rarely talked about anything apart from running or sports. After serving for 2-3 years, they were transferred back to borders. We got a funny, but strict subedar when I was in class 7th. I was a super lazy undisciplined kid, so my frequency to encounter him and get punished was high. Even though we were punished by him, we used to joke with him during sports time. My schoolmates kept funny nickname for him which we used to shout during morning run while crossing him.

He was okay with our mass hooting, he knew how to deal with hooliganism. I faintly remember when was he transferred and we got a new subedar as our PT instructor, but I clearly remember returning to school after the vacation of 1999. My friend told be that Subedar ji is killed in Kargil, he was shot in his head.

The next time I passed “Immortal Tilaiyans”, I read it again. It says, “When you go home, tell them of us and say, “For your tomorrow, we gave our today”

PS: This post was published last year on my facebook page, but my sentiments are still the same 🙂

Sreenivasan Jain edits embarrassing portions from Ramdev’s interview

Gaurav
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Sreenivasan Jain edits embarrassing portions from Ramdev’s interview

We had written last week how journalist Sreenivasan Jain had gone overboard in defending corruption in his last truth vs hype show. In the same show, he had also made attacks on Baba Ramdev for speaking at IIT Delhi, and for partnering with it on the Unnat Bharat program. Subsequently, he was schooled by Baba Ramdev on twitter, who later invited him for an open debate on science. Jain took up the challenge and decided to interview Baba. But little did he know, he had fallen into a trap.

Jain conducted the interview, and then presented a heavily edited, cut and spliced version of the same, after adding his biased spins. But Ramdev Baba had an ace up his sleeve. He had recorded the entire interview separately, and uploaded the full interview, unedited, taken in one shot, on Youtube. Even a NDTV journalist fool would realise Jain has massively distorted Baba’s views by watching both the videos, but we will make it even clearer with a detailed dissection.

The first distortion is in the title itself, which quotes Baba as saying ‘I Am a Scientist Baba’. Fact is, Baba Ramdev never called himself a “scientist”, he only said he is “scientific” in his methods. By purposely changing this small word, Jain tried to create an impression that Ramdev, who is not trained to be a scientist, is calling himself a scientist.

Next, Jain comes to the main question: Many Swamis and other religious institutions, including Ramdev’s Patanjali have been involved with Unnat Bharat and have partnered with IIT. What is the connection of such organizations with rural technology of IITs?

To this question, there are two answers. One, which Sreenivasan Jain showed, after cut-pasting various segments. And second, what Ramdev actually said:

Ramdev’s edited reply as shown by NDTV: Firstly, I am not a spokesman for anybody else. I can speak for myself. Firstly, English media have a misconception that sadhus have no connection with science. (cut) I was born itself in the family of a uneducated farmer. And we have mixed science with Yoga (cut) You were harping on cow, saffron, baba, with a big red circle around the “baba”. I am a frank baba, and scientific baba, and I sleep on the floor, and I have a dream that India should progress.

Edits Explained: The portion after the first cut, was  actually in response to a totally different question, but Sreenivasan Jain deliberately put it here. The part after the second cut, is from the last few minutes of the interview, where Ramdev, after placing all facts, attacked Jain’s blind biases.

What Ramdev actually said: (continued from before the first cut) Ramdev reveals that more than 100 scientists work with him. He had called them for the interview but they did not come. He further said they are working in botany, agriculture, animal industry, food. They are also working on economic measures which will help farmers in the village.

Then Jain says: “So you say you have been working with farmers for quite some time?”. That is when Ramdev said the part about being born in the family of a farmer. Further Ramdev explained that they have worked in thousands of villages, where they increased income of farmers, helped with de-addiction, helped cows which were affected by high urea, thus helping farmers. He also said they are the first in the country to develop a urea-free animal food. He also mentioned the 1000 acre farm they have, where without urea and other chemicals, they have managed to produce 1.5 times to 2 times the normal output, and where the cost is only Rs 4000 per acre, as against the standard Rs 4000 (edit) 12000 per acre.

Why doesn’t Jain show all this? Simple, it will prove that Sreenivasan is a poorly researched liar masquerading as a journalist with facts. Ramdev completely exposes Jain’s ignorance about his work, which is exactly the “rural technology” which is needed for a scheme like Unnat Bharat.

Next in Sreenivasan’s deliberately edited video, he abruptly says “but what has this got to do with IIT?”, once again omitting some portion before this sentence. Before this sentence, Ramdev says he has started the world’s biggest herbal food park, and made it a profitable venture. He further elaborates that it generates direct employment for over 1 lakh people. Again, an achievement of Ramdev in the field of “Rural technology” which embarrassed Jain and hence was not shown.

Later, Jain asks some political questions. And this is where NDTV’s editor should win an Oscar for editing because the sheer skulduggery employed by Sreenivasan Jain here is unbelievable. Mind you, Jain is the same guy who won “Journalist of the year award” recently, so you can imagine the deplorable levels of journalism in India, if a first grade liar gets this award. First, let us see what actually happened, as per the unedited interview:

1. (Jain Question 1): The state of farmers is quite poor, other people are also troubled, Modi Government has completed one year, are you satisfied with the running of the Government?

2. (Ramdev Answer 1):  Modi has started well, some of his schemes may take 1, 2 or 5 years to show results. He is involved in nation-building programmes, not vote-bank building programmes. He wants to take India ahead, and is trying with honesty and hard-work. He works for 18-20 hours a day. But he must also start work which creates vote-banks (i.e. for the backward and downtrodden people).

3. (Jain Question 2): Vyapam has come forward, Vasundhara Raje’s and Sushma Swaraj’s issues have come, many Maharashtra Government ministers are accused of scandals. Don’t you think BJP’s image is changing because of these scams, and Modi is silent on all of this?

4. (Ramdev Answer 2): I had supported Modi. You can see my tapes from before, I have said, without Modi, BJP is nothing. I am not a BJP spokesperson, I am self made, I am not BJP’s baba. (Now Sreenivasan Jain probes baba repeatedly, and asks him to comment on Modi’s silence. Ramdev avoids for a long time, and finally replies) From my side, no comments. We should comment, only when the matter is more clear. Scams should not happen, and scamsters are the enemies of the entire country. Till things are not clear, making premature statements is not correct. I don’t want to get into a new controversy.

Now what award-winning journalist Sreenivasan Jain does is, shows his first question, and then shows Ramdev’s second answer! He completely deletes the first answer which was on how Modi’s Government has performed, and instead shows the answer which relates to the various scams. This is the depth Sreenivasan Jain goes to perpetuate his propaganda and save himself after he has been thoroughly exposed. Maybe he did so because there was no chance of “hitting the bar” with Ramdev.

Jain also omitted another part of the interview, where Ramdev schooled him again

“I have been to IIM also and many IITs are calling me even now, but I haven’t been able to give them time. I have been to AIIMS also, that too during UPA time, on the invitation of Ghulam Nabi Azad, and the doctors there who heard me said that they got to learn somethings from me. I agree many babas have many scams, but such people are present in media, in politics, hence people should think before making statements.”

Sreenivasan Jain, has been regularly exposed by us, his hilarious show on Jan Dhan Yojana, and his brazen defence of the corrupt. But it is a shame that such fraudulent journalists still command prime-time shows in India.

Why Criminal Defamation, a relic of colonial era, must go

Guest Author
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Why Criminal Defamation, a relic of colonial era, must go

The timeless wisdom of the ancient Indian mantra Satyameva Jayate found  in Mundaka Upanishad and meaning “Truth Alone Triumphs” was adopted as the National Motto of India. But truth is often unpalatable to those in power and thus a decision was taken to retain S.499, S.500 of the Macaulay Code to control natives, also known as Indian Penal Code, 1860. These sections on Criminal Defamation enacted in year 1860, penalise even “Truth” unless it is in “Public Good” whatever that imprecise, vague, pro-British colonial/Government policy term may mean. The aim of English masters to fetter truth by “Public Good” was to completely restrict freedom of speech as anything critical of the Imperial British power.

The purpose of not following the national motto in criminal law, even after independence is simple, it is done to restrict free speech, as a person even though he may speak the truth, he may still have to face a criminal trial to prove  his truthful statement was in “Public Good” or “Good Faith”. During such a trial the person will be referred to as accused with all its resultant stigma, quite apart from the hardship and expenses of criminal trial, and thus citizens knowing the consequences, will prudently decide not to speak freely.

Comparisons are odious, yet oddly informative. It makes a stark study in contrast to observe how politicians enacted constitutional amendments in the USA and India after coming to power. The First Amendment to the Constitution of the US, states- “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”. Thus by the first amendment, the Government recognized the fundamental right of citizens to free speech and that no law shall abridge it. In India unfortunately the First Amendment to Constitution did the opposite, it severely restricted right to free speech recognized by Article 19 (1) (a) by adding Article 19(2) which retained the existing law i.e. Criminal Defamation and also gave further power to make laws to restrict Free Speech on various grounds.

Thus while American Government after coming to power gave Free Speech rights, by its first amendment, The Indian Government by its very first amendment, decided to restrict Freedom of Speech. In these first amendments lies the destiny of citizenry right to free speech.

This tendency in Indian Politicians to suppress the voice of people after assuming power was not restricted to the past, it is alive even now as was evidenced from recent circular of AAP Government to file Criminal Defamation cases, to supress voices and scare people from sharing opinion. It was stayed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, which took a dim view of the hypocrisy of the situation where on one hand Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took shelter under Dr Subramanian Swamy’s petition to quash Criminal Defamation law and on other hand issued a circular to file Criminal Defamation cases on others. Later AAP Government withdrew the circular, though this writer will not be surprised if in case the Supreme Court does not strike down the law, such a circular may be issued again.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in recent years has usually given a liberal interpretation to the fundamental rights of citizens. This was necessary to curb the Government’s desire to restrict peoples’ right and control them. By the first amendment which brought Art 19 (2) into the Constitution, the Government got power to restrict freedom of speech. The language of Art 19(2) had term “reasonable restrictions….on freedom of Speech”, The court considered the phrase “reasonable restrictions” which prefaces Government powers in Article 19 (2) to make laws to restrict speech to be of importance, and has interpreted it to mean that the law has to be “reasonable”. Many jurisdictions consider laws restricting basic freedoms reasonable only if they  do not unduly restrict the freedom sought to be restricted. Such “restrictions” have direct nexus with an important aim sought to be achieved and other effective alternatives are not available.

Further as Criminal Defamation has penal consequences it’s important to keep in mind that under Article 21 “Protection of life and personal liberty”- No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. The word ”law” used in Article 21 is of utmost importance as Supreme Court has interpreted it to mean law which is “Just, Fair and Reasonable” and not any arbitrary or capricious law.

Based on above parameters of interpretation of fundamental rights as evolved by SC S.499 has to be declared unconstitutional on various grounds amongst which some in brief are-

1) Any law in which a person can be sent to jail even though he spoke only the truth is not Just, Fair or Reasonable and violates Fundamental Rights

2) Sarcasm, Irony can also be defamation. The very purpose of sarcasm, irony is often exaggeration to highlight a point, frequently used by cartoonist, comedians and various people in public life. To consider it defamation will have “Chilling Effect” on public debate vital in a democracy.

3) S.499 criminalizes making imputations against a company or association, e.g. of doing corruption, environmental damage, malpractices etc. Thus for allegedly harming reputation of a financial/legal entity by words, a person can be sent to jail, which is violative of Art 19, 21 as recourse to financial loss of reputation for a company cannot be jail for a human being. It can only be civil damages.

Beyond this there are various other grounds including International Treaties, S 199(2) of CRPC, and arguments on interplay of fundamental rights which have been taken up in Supreme Court but due to space constraints not being set out here.

In western countries including America, laws have been passed restricting even civil suits of damages as they were being used by rich, powerful, influential individuals and corporations to stifle free speech by bringing – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation called (SLAPP). Under this type of legal action the aim is to  frighten and silence critics due to costs of mounting a legal defence by them. This goes on until the defendant decides to abandon criticism or opposition and thus restricts their right to free speech.

In India unfortunately mere speech without any physical action still has criminal consequences and can land you in jail. In order for citizens to regain freedom including of speech for which freedom fighters fought, which the Constituent Assembly recognized, which was enshrined in the original Constitution and which was taken away by the very first amendment it is essential that the challenge mounted in the Supreme Court in Subramanian Swamy Vs Union of India succeeds.

By- Ishkaran Singh Bhandari

Disclaimer- Author of this article is assisting Dr Subramanian Swamy in the Constitutional Challenge to abolish Criminal Defamation. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. OpIndia.com is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this article. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The information, facts or opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OpIndia.com and OpIndia.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

Sreenivasan Jain: In defence of the corrupt

Gaurav
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Sreenivasan Jain: In defence of the corrupt

Sreenivasan Jain has made a transition from his traditional role of asking tough questions to people accused in various scams and scandals to defending such individuals using dubious means. We had shown earlier how Sreenivasan Jain had joined the Adarsh Liberal clique of journalists and formed a “Teesta Defence League”.

Through his tweets Jain questioned the raids on Teesta and asked “why this heavy hand” was used in dealing with Teesta’s “financial impropriety”, as if financial impropriety is some chhota- mota bomb blast which needs to be ignored. Sreenivasan Jain perhaps doesn’t know that raids are one of the most common forms of tackling financial crimes, as Income Tax Department regularly carries out on tax evaders.

Next, Jain asked for examples of CBI raids on NGOs, hoping that no such examples would come up and he can easily cry “Teesta is being victimized”:


Smart Trolls swung in to action yet again, and showed him the Truth hidden in his Hype. This report from 2013 says 24 cases of NGOs suspected of flouting FCRA norms were referred to the CBI. This report from 2012 says 12 NGOs were under the CBI scanner for FCRA violations. If Jain himself admits that there could have been “financial impropriety” why does he want Teesta to get special treatment, when in the past numerous NGOs facing similar charges were under CBI investigation? And if Teesta is in fact completely innocent, why this reaction to a probe? Why is Jain so desperate to protect a person accused of corruption?

Further, in his latest episode of Truth vs Hype, Jain moves to another person accused of “financial impropriety”. He goes to NCERT, where the Director, Parvin Sinclair, resigned from her post halfway into her tenure over alleged financial irregularities. It is a convenient case for him because her Christian surname juxtaposed against Saffronization claims is easy propaganda material.

In May 2012, under the non-victimizing, non-saffron UPA Government, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) recommended an inquiry against Sinclair based on allegations of irregularities in the purchase of paper worth Rs 50 crores. Outlook, at that time had reported that from the audit reports it had accessed it was evident that although rules said the paper needs to be tested before procurement, Sinclair had begun the process of allocating contracts before receiving the test reports itself. As the investigation went on, Sinclair put her side across, but the CVC wasn’t satisfied. Since then, the issue had remained pending with the ministry without any action being taken.

In any other circumstance, a neutral reporter would ask why the Government is sitting on a case of corruption and not taking any decision. But Sreenivasan Jain chose a different path. He tried to whitewash this scam, by glossing over some selected facts, and straight away asked Sinclair her version. She said to him:

“If I remember correctly and you will have to check the files, it was done simultaneously (with the placing of order)”

There you have it. The Director of NCERT herself admits that she began allocating contracts “simultaneously” even when the paper was being tested. Can anyone place an order for a product even when the product is not certified to be of standard quality?  Do you normally go to a clothes shop and purchase a shirt even when you are trying it on? A neutral journalist would have picked up this immediately, but Sreenivasan Jain did not.

Secondly, she just relies on her memory, does not even try to say confidently that she had not broken rules, nor does she provide any documentary evidence. Even Jain never insists on any such evidence. If indeed she had a water-tight case, and Jain knew this, both of them would have made sure they present this to the public, to make it clear that Sinclair was victimized. But both of them did not go down this road and this is revealing.

Well maybe for Jain, these were “chhota-mota” aberrations and he gave her a clean chit. He further says that the first topic HRD Minister Smrit Irani brought up in her meeting with the NCERT, was of this pending allegation. Instead of lauding a minister for taking action on a case of corruption, which was pending for unknown reasons with the ministry, Jain raises suspicion as to why this was the first topic. Hilarious.

Jain then goes on to suggest that Sinclair might have been removed because the NCERT had almost finished revising the curriculum, and that was not ideologically acceptable to the Government. But, he himself unknowingly punctures this argument saying that the curriculum revision was halted because the formulation of the New Education Policy, with NCERT and wide-spread consultations was already under way, after 30 long years. Lastly, Jain digresses and says the original complaint was filed by Right Winger Dinanath Batra. Were Audit Reports saying Sinclair flouted rules also written by Batra?

In his Truth vs Hype show, Jain also talks about the resignation of IIT Delhi’s director Shevgaonkar, and again links it with Government Interference etc but never mentions that Shevgaonkar, who is rumoured to have written speeches for Rahul Gandhi, oversaw the signing of an MoU to set up an overseas campus of IIT Delhi, which was in complete violation of the IIT Act.

Similarly he talks about the rejig of the council at ICHR, claiming leftists have been shunted out. But he fails to mention the irregularities at ICHR, under the earlier “leftist” councils, where crores of rupees were spent over a 9 volume book project which was started 26 years ago and is still going on. He also does not mention that people like Purabi Roy, a renowned scholar and historian who also happens to be the wife of a CPI MP in the Rajya Sabha, continue to be in the ICHR, along with UPA appointees like  Sachidananda Sahai.

Thus over the past week or so, Sreenivasan Jain has been ultra defensive about Teesta Setalvad, who accepted illegal donations of $ 2.9 lakhs, has belittled a CVC probe into financial irregularities at NCERT, and ignored legal issues at IIT Delhi and ICHR, only to support his coterie and to claim the Government is either vindictive or interfering with institutions.

It is only in Indian Mainstream media that we see journalists baying for the head of ministers for giving an NOC to a person accused of a financial scam, to meet his (edit) ailing wife, and the same journalists later defending and belittling the crimes of other people accused of financial impropriety with impunity.

Firstpost declares Bajrangi Bhaijaan communal because Salman says Jai Shri Ram, and not Khudahafiz

Rahul Raj
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Firstpost declares Bajrangi Bhaijaan communal because Salman says Jai Shri Ram, and not Khudahafiz

A few days back, I along with my office colleagues went to watch the Telugu version of ‘Baahubali’. None of the screens in Hyderabad was running the Hindi dubbed print, so in spite being a non-Telugu majority, out exuberant team decided to watch the Telugu version. We, fortunately, had a Telugu speaking colleague with us who not only tolerated our homonyms, but also translated the movie to us at regular intervals. We consumed popcorns, slurped cold-drinks, enjoyed our puns and returned with minds relieved of the office stress. Baahubali has a very average script with sets incongruently changing in different parts of the movie, but it was certainly a visual delight. SS. Rajamouli has successfully established a grandeur which can inspire many cinema makers who create period movies.

The earning stats of Baahubali were very exciting, so after returning home, I glanced through movie review on the internet. Sadly, my excitement to read about Baahubali soon changed into frustration after reading a few articles. In an absurd vindictive article ‘SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali now has a religion and it is decidedly Hindu‘ published on FirstPost, the vitriol filled editor picked some random tweets, plugged-in some muddled references of Mohammad Rafi and Naushad.  In fact, by the time I finished the ‘movie’ article, I was confused whether Sandipan Sharma wrote a report, preached sermons, spread hatred or wrote a Hindutva article in haste.

It has become a fashion among left-liberals to smother movie reviews with words like “Saffronization of Cinema”, “Hindutva” and “Indian Male”. Within 2 days, another bigoted editor of First Post, Deepanjana Pal, wrote an insidious piece on ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’. Deepanjana is so full of loath that she got distressed to see people enjoying the movie, and concluded it as a message from RSS and Hindutva brigade. The writer appears ridiculously pitiable in the sections where she tried to scratch the past present and future of Bollywood. She exposes her stupidity and naiveté when she writes:

It’s almost as though Bollywood is subtly sticking its tongue out to those who want to censor Indian culture and popular entertainment. If all the right-wing wants are paeans to its awesomeness, Bollywood will deliver with heroes like Pavan and Prem, who get the girl and the audience’s sympathies, who are undeniably heroic; but who are equally undeniably, absolute idiots.

Either Deepanjana watched her first Bollywood masala movie, or she is an idiot of such an order that after watching a routine masala movie, she generalized the movie as a message:

The message is clear: the women of North India are suckers for pecs and abs, and the shakha produces men who are studly, loyal and idiots. Eid Mubarak, bhakts.

In her concluding paragraphs, Deepanjana spews out all her mask-hidden communal bile. After writing “Bhakts”, “Hindutva” and “Jai Shri Ram” for multiple times, she writes, “The India of Bajrangi Bhaijaan isn’t a multi-cultural, secular nation.” Her deep-seeded hatred, class based mindset and bias against Hindus speaking “Jai Shri Ram” is quite evident in the whole article, but what disturbed me the most was her malicious attempt to create rift between Muslims and Hindus. I unfollowed FirstPost on twitter after reading this thrice:

After a moulvi helps Pavan out of a tricky situation, he says, “Khudahafiz” to Pavan. Pavan is thankful, but he has no words to wish the moulvi a safe journey as the moulvi returns to a potentially dangerous situation. Because hello, Pavan is Hindu. He can’t say “khudahafiz” back even though that’s exactly what he wants to say. Maybe “Hanumanhafiz”…?

Such articles are nothing, but mirror images of views of opportunists in VHP, Bajrang Dal, etc., who can only see politics and religion in a movie.

Survey reveals 80% people dissatisfied with the quality of mainstream media in India

Guest Author
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Survey reveals 80% people dissatisfied with the quality of mainstream media in India

A latest survey has revealed sad news for mainstream media that includes both television and print media. The survey sought responses on a range of questions to gauge the perception of mainstream media. The survey was conducted by The Indian Iris,  a group of individuals from IIT, IIM A/B, Univ of Southern California, professional from top firms, and authors include research fellows from IIMs, XLRI etc. It was conducted both online (email and Facebook) and offline among over 500 respondents, mostly in the age range of 18-40 years.

When asked if they were satisfied with the quality of news produced by today’s mainstream media, a whopping 80% said that they are dissatisfied. Only 12% were satisfied, whereas the remaining 8% were undecided.

When asked if they thought that today’s mainstream media was fair or unbiased, the responses are even more startling. A vast majority of 87% thought that today’s mainstream media was heavily biased. Only 7% believe that the mainstream media is fair, and the remaining 6% are undecided.

In terms of utility and value, over 70% found the prime time debates on news channels to be more of a chaos without any meaning. Only about 7% people found some value in these debates, whereas 23% found these debates more of an entertainment show than anything else.

When asked which media they thought was the most reliable, 44%, a majority of the respondents, called for a new fair and reliable media outlet. 30% see Social Media/Internet a more reliable source of news compared to the print and the electronic media.

Electronic media seems to have completely lost the trust of people, whereas print media is still reliable with 22% people finding it that way. Shockingly, only 4% of the surveyed people found the Electronic Media reliable. It’s time that the Electronic Media do some introspection on why the trust has eroded to such an extent.

The survey also asked respondents to comment on their expectations from the future media. People put forward variety of ideas and concerns.

The first and the foremost, fairness and transparency are what they expect from the media. Media, considered the fourth pillar of democracy should honestly play its role. They should not propagate a specific political or business interest. Many people mentioned that media should be corruption free. They need to come out of their current image of being ‘news traders’. They must present facts without fabrication. Over sensationalization may also be killing the trust in the news channels, many felt.

Survey Results Infographic

Two recent examples shall shed more light on the issues plaguing our fourth pillar of the media today. The first is pertaining to the controversies surrounding Lalit Modi, and Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje. Barring a few media channels, all news channels were running live commentaries, organising prime time debates and arranging special interviews until a few pictures of Robert Vadra, Priyanka, and Rahul Gandhi surfaced on social media. This now raises serious questions on the credibility of media as to how it got silenced so quickly. Noted writer Tavleen Singh did write a detailed article commenting media’s dubious role in raising and then silencing the issue.

The second example is the death of a four year old child in a road accident involving erstwhile dream girl turned MP, Hema Malini. This too raises serious questions on how media prioritizes its news. While full attention was given to the head injuries of the MP, death of the child was largely ignored by the media in the quest of TRP. A quick Google image search on this news clearly shows how much attention was given to the death of the poor child compared to the head injuries of Hema Malini.

There are countless other examples of how Media has failed to fulfill its duties as the fourth pillar of democracy. The Internet is providing power to the people and social media has emerged as a new source of information. However, the gullible and the young may not be able to discern between real news and propaganda running on the social media. This calls for a fair and reliable source of information which objective and backed by data. It’s time that the mainstream media revisit its key role in our democracy.

Author, Narayan Singh Rao, is co-founder at www.theindianiris.com and an IIT- IIM alumnus and can be reached at [email protected] 

When the ‘Smart Troll’ forced Media houses to correct themselves

Gaurav
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When the ‘Smart Troll’ forced Media houses to correct themselves

In a fine article in DNA, award-winning film director Vivek Agnihotri wrote a sort of rebuttal to Chetan Bhagat’s ludicrous “Anatomy of a Bhakt” piece, and also managed to do a fine study on the type of trolls on Social Media. As per him, there are mostly two kinds of trolls on social media:

1. Abusive, frustrated trolls whose idea is just to insult you

They go after anybody and everybody who is celebrated and abused them without much logic with them. Agnihotri believes these are not “trolls” but are losers, and must be ignored.

2. Smart Trolls

“Smart Trolls go after journalists, media handles, opinion-leaders, influencers, politicians, novelists, socio-political commentators and so on,” says Agnihotri. He further argues that these “Smart Trolls” are the ‘R & D of Social Media”, often doing what journalists are supposed to do. “They question your reports, your research, your analyses, your stands, your status and your integrity” he adds.

This piece by Agnihotri has caused double heart-burn in the clique of elite Journalists. Firstly, it glorifies at least a subsection of the lowly trolls which these journalists love to hate. Secondly, it rightly shows journalists in poor light, by saying that Smart Trolls have been doing their job. While the first cause of resentment is purely subjective, the second reason is justifiable.

Over the last 6 months, we have been diligently tracking Lies spread by Mainstream Media in the garb of news. For the 6 month period from January to June 2015, 82 lies were detected. Mind you these are what have been detected, and that too only in English media. And this is not the work of one individual, but it is a collective effort of collating and investigating various claims by media, done mostly by these “Smart Trolls”. Can Journalists deny these facts?

In fact, Smart Trolls have been so effective that far from journalists denying their claims, they have made many media houses accept that they were wrong and have made them subsequently change their stories or sometimes, delete them altogether. Following are few of such cases in the past 6 months, where media was forced to retract by “Smart Trolls”:

January 2015:

Firstpost wrote an article on how Baba Ramdev had built an empire on “blind faith” and was selling cures for “psychological, sexual, emotional” problems including “premature ejaculation”. The article fully relied on products found on a site called “www.swamibabaramdevmedicines.com”. The author, blind in his hate for Ramdev, did not bother to check or maybe deliberately omitted the fact that on every page of this site, it was mentioned that it had no connection with Baba Ramdev.

rm

After our expose, Firstpost was forced to delete their article.

March 2015:

Sadhvi Prachi, who was repeatedly referred to as a BJP MP when she had never won an election, was quoted to have said that “ Vladimir Putin’s original name is Vaarahmihir Putr Singh, says Sadhvi Prachi” by India Today. The truth was this statement was made by a humour columnist in a satirical post on dailyo.in, which is ironically also owned by India Today group. It is unimaginable how a media house like India Today, could mistake a satirical comment in a post within its own group, and publish it as news. Eventually, India Today deleted the story, but not before Sadhvi Prachi was ridiculed on Social Media.

Also in March, and again India Today, claimed that people arrested in the Mumbai Church attack, belonged to Right Wing groups. It was only after @rupasubramanya (who was branded a troll by MSM on two occasions) pointed out that the men arrested were gamblers, did India Today correct the story.

April 2015

Paragon of Truth, Times Now’s twitter handle tweeted that Vivek Oberoi had been awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.  Facts, however, were different. 2015’s Phalke award was already declared to Shashi Kapoor in March 2015. The award which Vivek had received was a similarly named award from a private body. Times Now had even managed to get a byte from Vivek on this story. Later that tweet too was deleted after “Smart Trolls” exposed Times Now on Twitter.

The Hindu ran an interview of Arun Jaitley, quoting him as saying “Saffron Bullies Cautioned,”. It gave an impression that Arun Jaitley has used the term “Saffron Bullying” in describing some elements. The introduction to the full transcript of the interview says that Jaitley spoke about the “vexatious saffron bullying by some of the Central Ministers”. But when we actually see the transcript, it is clear that Jaitley never used the above phrase. In fact, this term “Saffron Bullying” was used by the interviewer herself in her 3rd question. Attributing this term to Jaitley is incorrect. There was outrage on Social media, again thanks to “Smart Trolls”, after which The Hindu printed a correction clarifying this issue.

In another case, Scroll.in and Firstpost claimed Modi had planned to rename Delhi, when actually, was the plan of an NGO, approved by Delhi State Government and late by Central Government, done in order to help in getting a UNESCO Heritage City Tag, which would boost Tourism. We wrote a separate post on this and eventually Scroll.in had to surreptitiously change their report. 

May 2015

On 4th May, ABP News fell for a satirical post on Times of India and claimed Arvind Kejriwal called Akshay Kumar’s movie Gabbar, “non-nonsensical”. After incessant trolling by “Smart Trolls, ABP News apologized and retracted.

Later in May, Scroll.in and Quartz, spun a landmark law to reduce child labour, as “Government set to send millions of children back into exploitative labour“. We did a detailed take-down on this lie and eventually, the story was corrected. 

And these are only some of the times Media had to correct itself. So, it is no surprise that Mainstream Media Journalists love to call anyone who disagrees with them as “Trolls”. The next step is to brand all of these trolls as abusive and lowly, thereby removing their credibility. But as Director Agnihotri’s post rightly points out, Smart Trolls are “watchdogs”. They are the watchdogs of an unregulated, biased and propaganda driven Mainstream Media. Social Media is the big leveller here and the game has just begun. 

Adarsh Liberal Journalists form “Teesta Defence League”

OpIndia Staff
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Adarsh Liberal Journalists form “Teesta Defence League”

As the Government’s crackdown on a large number of NGO’s violating various norms and rules continues, Teesta Setalvad, activist and founder of trusts like the Sabrang trust, found herself under the CBI scanner. The allegations against Setalvad are multiple. She is alleged to have cheated victims of 2002 Godhra riots, and “embezzled funds” collected in their name. One of the riot victims from Gulbarg housing society had filed a complaint against Teesta and her husband Javed Anand. The alleged misappropriation of funds is said to be to the tune of Rs 1.51 crores.

Further, it was also found that her trusts had violated FCRA norms. Sabrang Communication and Publishing Pvt Limited, with which Teesta is associated, recieved $ 2.9 lakh from Ford Foundation as grant to “address communalism, caste-based discrimination in India, including media strategies”. But unlike the Sabrang Trust, this company was not registered under FCRA and hence was a violation.

To investigate on these allegations, CBI conducted searches at the residence and offices of Teesta Setalvad on 14th July 2015. CBI has as of now claimed that they have found documents supporting the allegations against. But this story is not about Teesta Setalvad. It is about her friends. No sooner did CBI raid this person accused of Financial Irregularities, the Adarsh Liberal coterie of Journalists took to twitter to support her, and the statements were almost identical.


All the tweets above had the same tone to them: claiming CBI raids were not needed and action was vindictive. Do are neutral journalists realize they are supporting a person who is accused of Financial Irregularities? Because if they don, they will note that Lalit Modi is also in a similar, if not same position. He too is an accused, facing investigation for Financial Irregularities, albeit at much larger scale. Yet, when he is given an NOC to visit his ailing wife, media has a massive problem. And when another accused is probed by CBI, then too they have a problem. Double Standards? Or just saving one of their own? Further, CBI conducted the raid, armed with a court order. Are courts also vindictive?

Untitled

Ironically, these are the same journalists who were demanding a CBI probe in the VYAPAM scam. CBI was free of Government interference then, but as soon as dear friend Teesta is involved, CBI becomes vindictive?


And Mr Truth vs Hype Sreenivasan Jain also tried his best to obfuscate the truth with his hype:


If indeed Teesta is innocent, why are her friends shivering at the though of an investigation? Sreenivasan Jain even tried to portray that this was the first time CBI was raiding NGOs for financial impropriety:


But as @rajudasonline pointed out, Mr Jain had missed out on some Chhota-Mota bits of Truth. In March 2012 CBI had conducted similar searches on an organization claiming to be an NGO, for alleged FCRA violations. In that month itself, the Home Ministry had asked CBI to probe 12 NGOs for FCRA violations. So when CBI probes other NGOs, in UPA rule, Mr Jain has no problem. And when they probe Mr Jain’s friends, he goes crazy?

The entire media grilled ministers for alleged connections with an accused, but who will questions these self-appointed messiahs of truth when they shield similar offenders?

Salman Rushdie slaps his Adarsh Liberal parody account hard on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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Salman Rushdie slaps his Adarsh Liberal parody account hard on Twitter

Sometime late last year a Twitter handle @RushdieExplains (now changed to @IndiaExplained) which called itself “Rushdie Explains India” became visible, thanks mostly re-tweets and media mentions by some celebrity journalists.

The account was supposed to be “parody” of the well known India born English author Salman Rushdie, who is known for his frank views on many things including religious fundamentalism.

Apart from celebrity journalists, who desperately wanted “their type of humor” as most humorous and parody accounts on Twitter targeted them, Rushdie himself enjoyed some tweets from the Twitter account in the initial days:


However, as they say “all good things must come to an end”, everything good about that parody account ended today as Salman Rushdie tweeted this:


So what irritated and disappointed a once admirer and well wisher that he was forced to publicly express his displeasure?

If you are one of them who have followed @RushdieExplains on Twitter, you most probably know the answer. The person who was running this Twitter account had started taking benefit of using the name of Salman Rushdie to propagate his own biases and prejudices and fight his personal battles.

The person, someone called Rohit Chopra as the ‘bio’ of the handle said, had run out of all objectivity and was tweeting as a person filled with hatred for a particular ideology and some particular individuals.

And the worst part was @RushdieExplains hobnobbing with some anonymous Twitter handles that were cheerleaders for Islamic fundamentalism at worst or apologists of the same at best. This could surely not have amused Salman Rushdie who has a bounty over his head issue by Islamists.

Not only that, Rushdie has been vocal against “but brigade” i.e. people who never condemn Islamic fundamentalism unequivocally and would always bring in false equivalences when debating problems within the Islamic society – a trait that is also found in people known as “Adarsh Liberals” in India.

While Rushdie detests all form of fundamentalism, and has made comments against Hindu fundamentalism in India too, his parody account was acting as an apologist for Islamic fundamentalism in India of late, bringing in false equivalences, such as:


Apart from acting as an apologist of Islamic fundamentalists, the account was also being used to further personal interests and release personal frustration by the handler. The so-called parody of Salman Rushdie will often make personal comments against journalists like Rahul Kanwal of India Today and Smita Prakash of ANI.

Not only journalists, the account targeted economists like Rupa Subramanya and satirists like Ajayender Reddy of The UnReal Times, just because they pointed out logical fallacies in his tweets.

The tweets from the account were increasingly becoming vicious and political in nature, attacking only one group of people. Funnily, the account header had the following picture:

Salman Rushdie quote
The irony never struck the account handler, who did everything to shield his favorite leaders and ideology from criticism.

The account handler should have known that he had made a set of ideas free from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt – and those ideas were the “idea of India”. The account had become an Adarsh Liberal pamphleteer.

Clearly such immature and propagandist behavior by the handler, who perhaps thought himself to have grown bigger than the mask he was wearing, didn’t impress the original Salman Rushdie and he decided to express his dissatisfaction openly today.

After the public rebuke, the handler changed his username, hinting that he was not ready to change his ways and continue doing what was not appreciated by Rushdie. Interestingly, the original parody handle @RushdieExplains is still alive, and it is yet to be seen what tweets come out of it.

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