The Congress on Sunday announced its candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections and decided to nominate ‘journalist’ Kumar Ketkar to the upper house from Maharashtra. This decision became an “I told you so moment” for many, as over the years Ketkar has acquired a notorious image of being a pro-Congress speaker, masquerading as a “neutral commentator”, while he among other things appeared in panel discussions.
The announcement, as a result, came also came a vindication for those, who over the years have vociferously cried foul at being treated to “unbiased” views and opinions of Ketkar, which sometimes blurred the lines between him and a party spokesperson.
It is generally assumed that a party won’t nominate you to the Rajya Sabha unless it can acquire some benefit out of, which includes giving it a chance to “virtue signal about being a party with a difference” as was seen in the case of AAP trying to woo former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan.
It might be generally accepted that Kumar Ketkar won’t provide many opportunities to virtue signal, thereby leading many to draw the plausible conclusion of him being “rewarded” for his alleged affinity towards a particular viewpoint. This “reward” too might have a hidden agenda as was speculated by a twitter user:
Congress can send very few MPs to Rajyasabha. Instead of sending a party leader, they send Kumar Ketkar. Shows few things. They value friendly media more. They’re signalling to other stooges in media to keep the party afloat in studios
Let’s step aside from Kumar Ketkar’s nomination for a moment, as to be fair such acts of journalists being sent to Rajya Sabha transcend party lines. This episode does raise the question whether is it ever a good idea for a journalist to get involved in politics. The main point being a journalist becoming a politician is never the same as some other professional doing so, the chief reason being both not being mutually exclusive.
As seen via this point made, journalists knowingly or unknowingly end up influencing people’s opinions regardless of the amount of “objectivity” they claim to maintain. Politics or public service as a whole not being a profession in itself, but a combination of collective roles.
For example, a lawyer becoming a politician can directly help formulate policies, a technocrat can aid in providing access to technology, a scientist similarly can positively influence the scientific temperament and so on. How exactly does a journalist fit in the midst of things?
What fundamentally differentiates journalism from any other profession is that its main role is to “report” and not “create”. This by all accounts hasn’t been grasped by many in the profession as evident by the amount of narrative peddling and cooking up of stories which are witnessed regularly.
The main point is the intermixing of journalism and any other profession will almost always lead to a conflict of interest like situation. Whether it is the case of Kumar Ketkar or even in case of an auto journalist bagging a plum post with a top car manufacturer thanks to his “positive coverage” of the company.
Thus when it comes to such issues, journalism’s ability to influence opinions turns out to be both a boon and curse for the profession.
One of the proposed solutions regarding such matters is making the journalists shed their garbs of neutrality to openly profess their views and beliefs to maintain a level of transparency for the public. But what is stopping the transparency from turning into brazenness and snowballing into a PR exercise for their masters?
Finally such a culmination of a journalist into a full-fledged party politician, more importantly, might result in becoming the Waterloo moment for the profession.
Imagine a freshly graduated student looking for a role model in the industry to base his career upon, or even looking at the possible career trajectory of the veterans in his profession.
There, on one hand, he sees a veteran journalist all set to enjoy the juicy life of a Rajya Sabha MP, for devoting his whole career towards peddling the narrative set by a particular party or ideology.
While on the other hand there are sad stories of ordinary working journalists leading a life of hardships involving low pay and lack of job security, struggling to provide for their families, after merely following the editorial stances set by those at the very top.
What example does this profession set for that fresh out of the college youth who has his life ahead of him?
In Britain’s ‘worst ever’ child grooming scandal, a Sunday Mirror investigation has revealed that hundreds of young girls in the town of Telford were beaten, raped and sold for sex. Despite repeated warnings, the authorities failed to act against the perpetrators and root out the abuse. According to Mirror, the grooming gangs have been operating in Telford since the 1980s. As many as a thousand girls are feared to have fallen prey to the gangs over the years. Similar heinous crimes had rocked Britain when organized sexual abuse of children, sometimes as young as 13, had emerged in Rotherham and Rochdale. Unfortunately, the establishment in Britain is still not prepared to prioritize the safety and security of their children over hurt sentiments of certain groups.
The distinguishing feature of grooming gangs is that almost always the accused are of British Pakistani heritage and the victims are almost always young white girls. Also, as Peter McLoughlin points out in his book, ‘Easy Meat’. Unlike other instances of sexual exploitation of children where the perpetrator operates alone and under high secrecy for fear of repercussions should his acquaintances discover his crimes, in these cases, perpetrators often belong to the same family and are either brother or cousins mostly. They are lured with drugs and alcohol and cannabis and after a period of systematic brainwashing which involves alienating them from their family and convincing them that their parents are racists, they are plied for sex. Often, the gangs use the victims themselves to get to their neighbours or their friends. Horrifyingly, the gangs even use pregnancy and forced abortions as forms of punishment.
The appalling aspect of these crimes perhaps is the refusal of the authorities to act sternly against the grooming gangs for fear of being labelled racist. The mother of a victim told The Times in 2007, “I was told by one police officer that he did not ‘want to start a race riot’ by arresting Pakistani men for sexual offences.” A report in 2013 in the Daily Mail mentions a victim who alleges she was left to her fate by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service lawyers because they were afraid of appearing racist. She said, “They didn’t want to acknowledge that it was Asian men hitting on white girls in case it started a race thing. It was uncomfortable for them. But it’s not racist if it’s really happening. I never wanted to be part of anyone’s agenda. I just wanted to be rescued.” Then Home Secretary, Theresa May, had blamed the local authorities for allowing ‘institutionalized political correctness’ to hamper their investigation of grooming gangs. Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell had also warned that research into the problem was being hampered by ‘political correctness and concerns about upsetting community cohesion’. Even the Mirror report on Telford mentions that the authorities failed to act because they feared to appear racist.
The investigation into the menace has proved to be problematic in more ways than one. In many cases, authorities perceived the victims to be consenting to the sex that was involved. For some reason, political correctness or whatever they may be, authorities often regarded the adolescents and their lifestyles as problematic and even took action against them while letting the adults they complained about get away completely without any action or investigation. A confidential report criticized the police for “in all cases” treating young victims “as deviant and promiscuous” while “the men they were found with were never questioned or investigated”. Rachel Loise, of the Coalition for Removal of Pimping (Crop), says, “The perpetrators are the last to be condemned. Prosecutions are rare, and sentencing is not severe enough.” Another issue is on many occasions even the victims do not perceive themselves to be such and under the law of the land, if a girl is 13 or over, then she has to make a complaint herself for the accused to be prosecuted. And the girls are often unwilling to come forward, many times because they are too scared. Also, the girls are threatened with dire consequences if they approach the police. The mother of a victim said that ‘Asian’ men have told her on the phone that they will petrol bomb her house if she sends the police to their place.
Another critical issue has been the unwillingness of the authorities to address the issue using proper terms in order to avoid appearing racist. Then MP for Keighley, Anne Cryer, blamed “Asian Culture” for the grooming gang epidemic although Hindus and Sikhs and Jains and Buddhists have never been associated with the phenomenon. In fact, it was the Sikhs who have been highlighting the phenomenon, as recorded by Peter McLoughlin in his book, when Sikh girls had fallen victims to the gangs. In 2012, a joint statement by the Network of Sikh Organizations UK, The Sikh Media Monitoring Group UK and The Hindu Forum condemned the blanket use of the term ‘Asian’ and said that it was unfair to other communities of Asian origin. It also asserted that the unwillingness of the media and the government to discuss the religious identity of the perpetrators was fueling the rise of far-right groups in the country. They further stated, “We believe that in this case, the government itself is sanctioning the use of term Asian as a way of clouding responsibility.”
In his book, ‘Easy Meat’, Peter McLoughlin records that Sikh groups were aware of the phenomenon and were trying to warn everyone before anyone else. Even last year, when Labour MP Sarah Champion was fired from Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet for calling out the ethnicity of the rapists and alleging that there had been attempts to cover it up for far too long. Hindu and Sikh organizations had commended the MP and the states that Hindu and Sikh girls were raped and groomed by the gangs for decades. Thus, calling the groups and the rapists “Asian” is a gross affront towards Hindus and Sikhs who have also suffered as a consequence of the authorities’ hesitation towards tackling the crime.
Britain’s refusal to confront the menace in an honest manner has allowed such grooming gangs to flourish with impunity for decades. After Rotherham and Rochdale, the grooming gangs have now been discovered to be operating in Bradford, Oxford, Newcastle, London, Leicester, it is really happening across the lengths and breadth of the country. And the denial of the authorities and the establishment to even acknowledge the existence of such a phenomenon and the deliberate obfuscation of the religious identity of the perpetrators have allowed them to flourish for decades. The only way to solve the menace and to protect the children is to tackle the issue head-on.
Quite obviously, there are lessons from the phenomenon in Britain for Indians too. We must not brush away the allegations of Love Jihad in haste without proper investigation into the matter. As India Today’s expose has revealed, the radical Islamic organization, Popular Front of India (PFI) has been involved in the brainwashing of Hindu and Christian women, converting them to Islam and marrying them off to Muslim men as part of a larger conspiracy to turn India into an Islamic theocratic state. Also, Indian parents must keep a closer eye on the behaviour of their daughters and their turning to drugs or alcohol should be an immediate red flag as it has been observed in Britain that the grooming gangs lure the children with drugs and alcohol at first before forcing them into prostitution. Our legal authorities must also consider the opinions of the parents more credible in such cases than the victims as it has been discovered in Britain that in many such cases, the victims develop some sort of a Stockholm Syndrome and do not perceive themselves as such and are often not willing to come forward and implicate their tormentors. Our children must not be sacrificed at the altar of political correctness and their safety and security should be awarded more prominence than any misguided ideal.
Sunanda Pushkar’s death was not a suicide, but a murder and the same was clear from the beginning, claims a report in DNA. According to the report, a report prepared by the then Deputy Commissioner of Police BS Jaiswal says that the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) at Vasant Vihar, Alok Sharma, who inspected the scene of the crime and conducted inquest proceedings, was of the view that it was not a suicide. Since he was not satisfied with the inquest proceedings, he further asked Sarojini Nagar Station House Officer (SHO) to investigate the case as a murder.
This was based on the autopsy report, which said the cause of death was poisoning, with circumstantial evidence suggesting it to be alprazolam poisoning. The report further talks about injury marks on Pushkar’s body as well as fresh injection marks. Teeth marks, as well as injuries dating 12 days to up to 4 hours of her death, were reported. The report which was submitted to the then Southern Delhi Range Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Gogia said the injury marks seemed to have been a result of a scuffle between Sunanda Pushkar and her husband Shashi Tharoor as per statement of Narain Singh, their personal attendant.
However, despite the glaring evidence, the report says the police did not take legal steps. Some journalists have maintained that Pushkar was to address a press conference, but she never got around to doing it owing to her untimely death.
Karti Chidambaram has been sent to the Tihar Jail under judicial custody till 24th March. The Patiala House court heard the INX Media case today and took the decision.
Earlier Karti Chidambaram had submitted a fresh set of demands at the court in anticipation of being sent to jail. CBI had been seeking judicial custody of Karti in the INX Media case. Karti, on the other hand, had appealed that he should be given a separate prison cell and bathroom along with other provisions while in custody. Karti had argued that since several terrorists were sent to the jail during his father’s tenure as the Union Home Minister, there might be security issues for him. According to reports, he had also demanded “home food” while in Jail. That demand has been rejected and he is to be provided security as per jail manual.
Karti Chidambaram tells Patiala House Court, “I’m the son of a former home minister under home many of those who were arrested are in Tihar Jail. Hence if I’m sent to Tihar then please give me a separate prison cell with separate bathroom”
Karti Chidambaram sent to Tihar Jail for 14 days. His home food request rejected. He’ll be provided security as per jail manual. His bail application to be heard on March 15th
The CBI had appealed the court for sending Karti to Judicial Custody as he has been a non-cooperative prisoner.
Therefore, under the circumstances when there is sufficient material clearly implicating the accused in this serious economic offence, it is absolutely necessary that the accused be remanded to the judicial custody: CBI in Court #INXMediaCase
Karti’s bail plea is scheduled to be heard on 15th March. On 10th March Karti had filed a caveat in the supreme court to have him notified and heard if the ED moves to court against the Delhi High Court ruling that said ED cannot arrest him till his next hearing that is on 20th March. Karti was arrested by the CBI in the INX Media scam on 28th February.
Devendra Fadnavis doesn’t even have a clear majority in the Assembly. To keep his government, he must depend on Shiv Sena, a party run by two jealous, incompetent and lazy dynasts.
When given the task of conquering Maharashtra, he had to fight on many fronts: first, he had to turn the decades-old equation of Big Brother / Little Brother between Sena and BJP on its head. A task of catapulting BJP from No. 4 to No. 1 in Maharashtra in a single election cycle. Out of the 288 seats in Maharashtra, there were some 171 seats where the BJP had not even contested in the last 25 years (these had been allocated to ally Shiv Sena).
The second task was to try and win a majority for BJP on its own in the fractured politics of Maharashtra, something that no party had done since 1985. After the 1990 elections, no party in Maharashtra has won even 90 seats. The outcome for BJP: 122 seats, but tantalizingly shortly after the magic figure of 145.
Not to mention that the mantle was suddenly thrust on him with barely 2-3 months to go for elections, due to the unexpected death of Gopinath Munde: BJP’s tallest leader in Maharashtra. A man carrying the yoke of being a Brahmin in a state whose politics has always been dominated by Marathas.
That’s Devendra Fadnavis: the first BJP leader to become Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
I have been saying for a while that the outcome of 2019 depends on two broad pivots: Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the two largest states. If BJP can control these two states, the chances of a second term for Modi increase exponentially. The credit belongs to Modi for installing two powerful Chief Ministers in these states, who have the potential of becoming the faces of their respective states.
Today’s event in Mumbai, CPI(M) bringing thousands of farmers to surround the Assembly, underlines again the challenge of being Devendra Fadnavis. Remember the humongous Maratha morchas that swept the state last year?
The ecosystem is making yet another major attempt to destroy Devendra Fadnavis. We have seen in January just how desperate they are to destroy him: that they could dig up a completely forgotten, insignificant episode of history and create a nationwide fuss over it. This is how far they are ready to go to destroy Fadnavis. The attempts to uproot him are not PC outrage based initiatives that only resonate with astroturf liberals. This is not Award Wapsi that it will have ZERO resonance with 99.9% of regular Hindus. These are major challenges: Maratha reservation, Dalit pride and now farmers issues.
These things have a resonance at the grassroots.
Until now, Fadnavis has been able to successfully parry the attacks. He has worked his hardest to balance the agrarian vastness of Maharashtra with its equally significant urban pockets. The Jal Yukt Shivir program was a hit among the farmers. Now, no government program is ever implemented to perfection, but he has managed to pull off a farm loan waiver as well.
At the same time, he has been able to somehow keep a lid on the scheming opposition. The Maratha morchas were defused slowly until they ran out of steam. In January, during the Bhima-Koregaon situation, he managed to position himself as some kind of neutral referee during the Opposition effort to create a Maratha vs Dalit conflagration in the state. Everyone knows that the vultures of the left came looking for dead bodies to serve their politics. No stone was left unturned to provoke a police firing or some untoward incident that could be used to create caste riots. The Maharashtra government frustrated them successfully. Ultimately, the vultures flew away, still hungry, with nothing to show for their efforts.
There is a reason the ecosystem has invested so much in successive waves of attacks on Fadnavis. You have to understand that Maharashtra is a golden state, the biggest cash cow in the union. Secondly, the Congress has always had its CM in Maharashtra except for 1995-99 and now. Although parties like SP and BSP are ultimately branches of Congress, they are still one degree of separation away from the Dynasty. The Congress has fallen by the wayside in UP a long time ago. Not so in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra was not ruled indirectly, unlike UP that was ruled by the Dynasty through Akhilesh or Mayawati. The revenue from Maharashtra was going directly to the Crown. As the British would say, Maharashtra was “Crown land,” owned directly by the Queen herself. The slaves will fight 10 times harder when defending Crown land.
One such slave is being sent to Rajya Sabha I hear … a reward for being the Editor of a highly circulated Marathi language Congress pamphlet … umm… err … newspaper.
With the “farmers march” in Mumbai, we are seeing yet another sorry consequence of the lack of a right-wing ecosystem. The failure starts right from accepting the tyrannical terminology “Farmers March.”
If you can’t see the red, you are blind.
Does this look like a “farmers’ march” to you?
Yes, the individuals there may be farmers. But to call it a “farmers march” instead of a “CPM march” is totally dishonest. It is extremely evident that the plight of the farmers and their cause if being hijacked by the communists to set their own narrative. It is being used to find their own political relevance. Calling it “farmers march” is like saying that Dr Sambit Patra’s opinion is the “doctors’ prescription” because Sambit Patra just happens to be a doctor. It is extremely dishonest, but even the right wing is bowing down and calling it the “farmers march.”
Because the right wing is used to the tyranny of terminology and surrendering to it. When AISA is on the streets, it is a “students protest.” When CPM’s Kisan Sabha is on the streets, it magically becomes a “farmers protest.” When AIDWA is on the streets, it magically becomes a “women’s protest.”
Will any left winger ever refer to a gathering of Sangh cadres as a “patriots protest” or a “Hindus protest”? They easily use their superior control over the narrative to create some artificial barrier between “Hindu” and “Hindutva.” They are able to boast from every street corner that they are not against Hindus but against “Hindutva.” Will the right wing ever be able to broadcast the message that we are not against “farmers” but against Commies?
Instead, the right wing begins from a point of weakness, two steps away from surrender. We have already granted the CPI(M) full moral supremacy and accepted them as legitimate representatives of “farmers.” Once this crucial point is conceded, the narrative shifts to whether the BJP government can fulfil their demands.
They are your implacable political foes: why would they make reasonable demands from you? The single point agenda of Commies is that the BJP should be banned and its leaders were thrown into prison for life. Will you be able to fulfil that demand? So their demands will go unfulfilled and the BJP will have to explain to everybody why they failed to fulfil the demands of “farmers.”
This is not only shameful, it is also an insult to democracy. How many farmers vote for CPI(M)? I think more farmers have voted for BJP than have voted for CPI(M) in the last ten elections put together. But the right wing is so lackadaisical that we let them set the agenda on “farmers.”
Ditto for students. How many young students today are Commies? Probably zero outside JNU.
Same goes for women or Dalits. More women and more Dalits vote for BJP than for any other party.
Through its rock-solid ecosystem support, the Commies manage to push their agenda with just 2-3% of the vote. It is time for the right in India to start taking some drastic measures to change this stranglehold.
There are 12000 Communist cadres in Mumbai today. There could be more, but the highest estimate I have heard is 35,000. With that, they have managed to bring the city to a halt.
There are 17 crore people who voted for BJP in the last election. If even 10% of that number comes out on streets, it will be the greatest political show on earth. Let 2 crore right wingers march to Kerala and demand that Pinarayi Vijayan and his entire Cabinet should resign.
Honestly, I am sick and tired of being arm-twisted by Communists. I was a student for many many years. I am sick and tired of hearing that Commies speak for students. No woman in my family is a Commie. In fact, the only Commie women I have seen are on TV. I know several Dalits but not a single one is a Commie. Most are fervently anti-Commie. In fact, the only Commies I know are Brahmin men (that too so-called “Kulin Brahmins” — highest among the highest caste). They are all heterosexual men, fluent in English and making fat pay packages at big corporations in India and the West. Most have flown first class at least once in their lives. Not one of them could be considered “underprivileged” in any sense.
These farmers who have joined this march probably have no idea how they are being used by the communists. They have no idea that while their poverty is glorified by communists, they themselves travel first class and enjoy the luxuries of life. They probably have no idea about their murderous ideology.
Frankly, I am sick of these rich, lazy Commies setting the narrative.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal has sounded the election bugle in Chhattisgarh by claiming how the party has no money left, and hence the election will be fought on the money of people. Saying that people have to fight elections since he himself is a common man, the funding should come from people themselves and not corporates. He further stated that funding received for fighting elections from corporates has to be returned, but when they fight on their own money, they get better schools and employment.
Speaking of Delhi school, Kejriwal claimed that 3 years back, Delhi government schools were in worse shape than in Chhattisgarh, but now even rich people send their children to government schools.
AAP rebel leader Kapil Mishra has accused Kejriwal of using these rallies to collect money, in lieu of tickets to contest the election. He accused Kejriwal of not conducting a rally as run up to the actual election after tickets have been sold for money.
टिकट बेचने से पहले रैली करता केजरीवाल
टिकट बिकने के बाद नागालेंड वाला हाल
Kejriwal only do Rally 6 months before elections, no rally during election whether it’s Gujarat, UP, Nagaland or Meghalaya https://t.co/ZEHwOOu8Tz
Last year in December, Kejriwal had announced AAP will contest on all 60 seats in Nagaland, with focus on education and health sectors. However, eventually, AAP contested from 6 seats in Meghalaya and 3 in Nagaland, losing deposits in 8 out of those 9 seats.
On 9th of March 2018, OpIndia published an article that busted an impending hitjob on Arun Jaitley and his daughter’s law firm by the leftist propaganda website, ‘The Wire’. OpIndia had received information that there was a concerted information to somehow link Arun Jaitley to Mehul Choksi, the tainted businessman, whose scam had invariable landed at the Congress party’s and P Chidambaram’s doorstep.
We also received information that the law firm, that was engaged by the tainted businessman in December 2017, terminated its contract and returned the retainership it within a month, before providing any sort of legal assistance to Geetanjali Gems.
In response to our pre-emptive article, ‘The Wire’ had cried foul over their hit-job being debunked before it could even be published. They came up with a shoddy explanation saying that once they received the response from the law firm, they decided to not run the story because “initial conclusion was that there wasn’t much of a story after all.“
Surprisingly, when ‘The Wire’ had sent their questionnaire to the law firm, they had categorically mentioned that their story was complete and they wanted to run it ideally with the firm’s response. How then did they decide “there was not much of a story after all” is a little sketchy, but we digress.
In the article that we published on the 9th of March 2018, we had made this observation :
It comes at a time when former Finance Minister Chidambaram is in the dock for the INX media case. Plus, Chidambaram is also in the gaze for signing a last minute order which primarily benefited Choksi’s and Nirav Mehta’s firms. A report which links Choksi to Jaitley then would make life much easier for Chidambaram.
So for some reason, ‘The Wire’ has decided not to cover a story on why Chidambaram, on the day 2014 Lok Sabha results were known, okayed a schemed that benefitted 13 private firms including that of Mehul Choksi and later the then RBI governor sanctioned that diluted 20:80 Gold Scheme five days before Modi took oath as the new Prime Minister. This glaring connection between Chidambaram, Raghuram Rajan and the Nirav Modi – Mehul Choksi scam has escaped the brave journalists at ‘The Wire’ completely.
Unsurprisingly, it may seem like our observation might be coming true after all.
Today, Rahul Gandhi in another epic self-goal plugged ‘The Wire’s’ article that claimed “there wasn’t much of a story after all” in a bid to indict Arun Jaitley and his daughter’s firm in the PNB scam.
The screenshot of Rahul’s tweet has been attached before because the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi have developed a habit of making such embarrassing gaffes and then deleting their tweets.
To summarise, Rahul Gandhi tweeted that the Finance Minister’s silence over the PNB scam was to protect his daughter’s firm that got a large retainership just a month before the scam broke out. He plugged an article that conceded “there wasn’t much of a story” to publish after finding out the law firm had returned the retainership once the scam broke and had not represented Mehul Choksi at all. He plugged the article that basically conceded that the OpIndia story was indeed correct and that Arun Jaitley, his daughter or their law firm cannot be connected to this scam which is why they dropped this story.
While all of Rahul’s idiotic gaffes and lies are laughable, and one might feel compelled to laugh this one off too, there is a larger question here.
Rahul Gandhi plugged an article from a sympathetic portal, distancing Arun Jaitley from the scam, as an indictment of his involvement. That makes me believe that Rahul Gandhi or the Einstien that runs his Social Media account did not even read the article they were about to plug.
Now, it is said that what can be attributed to stupidity should never be attributed to malice, but, in this case, while the stupidity is a foregone conclusion, the malice must also be examined.
The only reason an official handle would plug an article without even reading its contents can be that the handler thought they knew what the contents of the article from a sympathetic website would have. If we were to make an educated guess, should we assume that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party knew that ‘The Wire’ was planning a hit-job to link Arun Jaitley to the tainted businessman? Which in turn would mean, that the Congress perhaps wasn’t aware that their latest hit-job had been preemptively foiled?
We had pointed out how there seems to be a concerted effort by ‘The Wire’ to link elements who are perceived close to the Prime Minister with the tainted businessman perhaps to shift focus away from the fact that P Chidambaram has found himself smack in the middle of this financial scam by Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi?
Can we conclude that perhaps this is the reason why ‘The Wire’ hasn’t written a single article about P Chidambaram sanctioning the diluted 20:80 scheme on the day Congress lost 2014 elections, that basically facilitated the scam perpetrated by the duo? It almost seems like some PR professionals have been hired to try and link any official to the Nirav Modi – Mehul Choksi scam in order to shift the focus from Congress.
On a lighter note, this seems like Rahul Gandhi ended up tweeting the same text that he was supposed to tweet when hitjob by ‘The Wire’ is published. We should now know who in ‘The Wire’ has been leaking editorial plans to Rahul Gandhi. Or is Rahul Gandhi a central part of the decision making process?
A “Human Rights activist” associated with Amnesty International India as per his Twitter bio, has advocated violence against Brahmins in a tweet:
Learn from Tamilnadu as the Statue of Periyar was broken there was no protest but straightaway they attacked the Brahmins and cut their scared thread. This is hitting the root, RSS is afraid when Brahmins are attacked. This is their real weakness. https://t.co/VbR46XnzpL
Amnesty International, ironically, claims to work for lessening violence and granting dignity to common people around the world. However, in India, it is currently headed by controversial writer Aakar Patel, who himself is known for making bigoted casteist remarks. Perhaps this has emboldened anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindu elements, who often masquerade as activists and journalists.
Some of the replies to the tweet by this Amnesty ‘activist’ exposed similar mindsets in similar professions. One such reply, by a person claiming to be ‘independent journalist’, is particularly revealing. He compares attacking Brahmins for their sacred thread with burning the Confederate flag. He seems to be under the impression that Brahmins perpetuate caste violence by merely existing and wearing the Yajnopaveetam/janeu.
Bigotry that passes for journalism in India
If one accepts logic of such activists and journalists, attacking people wearing Muslim skullcap should be justified as that religious symbol represents Islamist ideology. How is this any different from a Nazi mindset?
Naturally, people were not pleased with the call for violence against common people merely for their religious identity. Some criticized Amnesty International and called for the self proclaimed Human Rights organization to act against their associate openly encouraging violence against Brahmins.
@amnesty, people working for you in India are happy violating human rights, right to religious freedom of those whom they don’t agree with. Not just a random schmuck either, but “Manager, Business & Human Rights at Amnesty International.” ?https://t.co/kTxi6s9V5bpic.twitter.com/gDGMNuvCw1
It remains to be seen whether any concrete action will be taken against the offender by Amnesty International or the Police. Thus far, there is no indication that any action has been taken or could be taken.
The controversial tweets can be found archived here in case they are deleted in the future. However, given the bigotry that in ingrained in such characters, it can be safely assumed that the ‘activist’ will brazen it out and wish for more violence against Brahmins.
Septic tanks have become the new thing in the former communist bastion of Tripura, after Sunil Deodhar, the BJP’s state in-charge, asked new Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb to get all the septic tanks in the ministers’ quarters cleaned.
The reason given for the same was that, in January 2005, a woman’s skeleton was found in the septic tank of then CM Manik Sarkar’s quarter. He also claimed that the case had been suppressed. As per media reports from that time, the claim appears to be true.
Media reports from 2005 indicate that skeletal remains including the skull and nine bones of the shin, forearms and ribs were found in a tank connected to a toilet close to the house meant for security personnel and other members of the then Chief Minister’s staff, inside the CM’s official residence. The discovery was made when the tank was being cleaned by workers of the Agartala Municipal Council.
ABP News though had a totally different approach to the whole saga, as was caught by OpIndia columnistSujoy Ghosh.
While running a report on the matter, the news anchor asked for a sound-bite from their correspondent. The correspondent though took a strange line, as seen in the video below:
The correspondent is heard as claiming that Deodhar has levelled very serious allegations, though as per him, the truth regarding the matter could only be ascertained post a probe. He then took a different trajectory by claiming that BJP leaders have been making strange claims in the past few days regarding the “statue controversy” which weren’t based on facts. He thus again reiterated that one should wait for a probe in this matter before drawing conclusions due to Manik Sarkar’s clean image.
This narrative though was odd on two accounts.
It was strange to note that, ABP news was referring to Deodhar’s statement as a mere allegation, considering a popular newspaper named “The Telegraph”, which currently is part of the ABP group, had carried a story in January 2005, titled, “Woman’s skeleton in CM’s house”. Here the newspaper factually reported the incident, without hinting that it was based on any sort of “allegations”.
Secondly, as per the same report, an under pressure Manik Sarkar had indeed constituted a CID probe in this matter after consulting with the left front and police officials. Hence ABP news’ assertion that one should wait for a probe doesn’t make much sense as, going by their group’s newspaper a probe was ordered by the none other than former CM Manik Sarkar.
Interestingly, as per latest reports, since Deodhar’s tweet, the Director-General of Police Akhil Kumar Shukla is reported to have said that they would now try to “ascertain” the progress CID made in its investigation. The report claimed that CID had failed to make much headway regarding the probe.
Forensic tests conducted had concluded that the skeleton was of a girl aged between 13 and 17 years. A possible sketch of the girl was also made and released in the media, but it elicited no response. Manik Sarkar in 2010 had defended himself in this matter, by alleging that the skeleton was dumped in the septic tank for no reason.
Considering the amount of mystery and uncertainty involved in this matter, it remains to be seen how seriously the police pursues the matter now, with there being no CPM government in the state anymore.
However, it is clear that the incident is not any wild allegation by a BJP leader as the ABP correspondent tried to suggest. Least he could have done is to read a newspaper of his own group.
The Karnataka IPS Officers’ Association has written a concerned letter on the law and order situation in the state to the Chief Secretary of the state. In the letter dated 8th March 2018, Dr Rajvir Pratap Sharma, ADGP and President of the IPS association has brought out grave concerns and has questioned the integrity of the system and current scenarios. Addressed to Ms K Ratnaprabha, the chief secretary in the Karnataka government, the letter expresses deep concern and calls for urgent action.
The letter begins with the recent attack on the Lokayukta in his office premises and goes on to list out several other such attacks on serving officers in the state, including female IPS officers. Dr Sharma also lists several incidents where citizens were attacked and government properties were vandalised but there was conspicuous lethargy shown by the police to take appropriate action. He also recalls that in instances like riots over Cauvery water and farmer agitations in the city of Bangalore, the police and the state machinery should have handled the situation in a better way.
The letter further adds that normally the government offices were considered safe places by the people. But unchecked hooliganism has reached to such a point that even senior public servants themselves are not safe. Dr Sharma asserts that the Indian Police Service in Karnataka is merely a pale shadow of its past and it no longer commands the same stature. He expresses concern over the tenure of police officers being reduced to 1 year contrary to the police reforms order issued by the Supreme Court in the PIL of Prakash Singh. The letter states that Indian Police Officers cannot play their leadership roles if they are continuously being punished for discharging their duties.
The letter also alleges that in several cases, investigations have been hijacked at the political behest and this has resulted in criminals losing the fear for police. Dr Sharma insists that he can give specifics of the cases upon meeting. He adds that the specialised agencies under the police have also become redundant due to political interferences.
The letter draws attention to the fact that the Bangalore city has seen six different police commissioners in the past 4.5 years and due to frequent transfers of certain police officers, the continuity, command formation and intrinsic confidence of the IPS officers is at its lowest level. It asserts that attacks on the Lokayukta himself show that the officers are merely fulfilling their constitutional obligations to political powers and ignoring their obligations to the service of the people. Dr Sharma calls the current course of declining sense of responsibility towards the common man by the police officers is a dangerous precedent. The letter calls for urgent course correction and insists the IPS association wants the officers to accept their flaws and return to the path of duty and requests the chief secretary to convene a meeting of all the IPS officers to discuss strategy for the immediate goal of fair elections and the long-term goal of maintaining strong professional values and ethics.
Dr Sharma states that the office bearers of the IPS association are ready to convene a large group of serving IPS officers for the meeting and they are willing to give specific details of the cases mentioned in the letter. He also adds that even retired IPS officers should be called to impart their views and values.
