Shocking Arrogance from a Cashmere Journo

A prolific tweeple and fellow member of the Offstumped community Sudhir Kumar is quickly realising that even fact based scrutiny of newstraders masquerading as journalist invokes vituperative reaction from them.In this blogpost Sudhir shares with us his exchanges with a quintessential babalog journalist from NDTV .Quick perusal of the exchange reveals a display of arrogance by the lady journo whose fame has very little to do with her meagre journalistic talent

I had written this post long back about the shocking conduct of this same journalist during the runup to the last general election.I never bothered publishing this post but though this might be an opportune moment

I am writing this, aghast at how a blatantly biased left leaning media house, is running an vitriolic and vituperative campaign against the BJP This channel which is the bastion of phoney upmarket left liberalism is owned by the brother-in-law of the Stalin loving CPM head honcho and mostly staffed with journalists from the babalog class of Delhi which could possibly explain its natural affinity to Congress and Communist parties

I was viewing what appeared to be a clearly orchestrated studio discussion conducted by a moderator (her own meteoric rise, according to well- informed media watchers, is attributable to her father being a influential media power broker) on the purported identity crisis confronting the BJP The audience, I guess comprised mainly of smartly attired mickey mouse degree students probably drawn from JNU, the necropolis of toxic Marxist academia. Of course there were some chic girls possibly from Delhi convent colleges to lend color, glamour and diversity to the mix. I had just caught a brief glimpse of the same pretty faced moderator in a previous news section engaged in a tête-à-tête with new found poster boy of India’s left liberal ‘secular’ intelligentsia Omar Abdullah (its quite a irony that Omar enjoyed an uninterrupted stint as a minister in Vajpayee government) They were discussing on the alleged competencies and capabilities of Rahul Gandhi and on the timing of young prince‘s imminent coronation, democratic process be damned.

The panelist lined up for the ensuing studio slaughter of BJP was interesting. There was a glib tongued lawyer turned Union Minister interestingly sporting a tilak (in secular imagery this is now associated as a overt symbol of Yindoo Bajrangi). Then there was a dusky actress who acts in films that nobody sees (apparently it wins rave reviews in unheard of film festivals) but who virtually makes her way in to every TV studio discussion in her capacity as “ member of the civil society”. Just to clarify to the uninitiated, civil society in media speak is an euphemism for assorted collection of loony leftists, who are fancifully described among other things, as human right activist, media professional, secular intellectuals, grassroots activist, progressive film maker, psephologist, modern historian etc. Adding to the potent mix was a feisty lady lawyer who fought a passionate battle, both inside and outside the court, for the release of the murderous Jihadis who attacked the parliament .The moderator, who was oozing with sweetness when discussing with her fellow Kashmiri little earlier, lost no time barring her fangs - she could barely conceal her disgust for the BJP.Well every journalist is entitled to their political viewpoints and biases but does it fit within the framework of professional ethics to play both jury and the prosecutor during a discussion?

Ranged against this frighteningly formidable galaxy of stars from the secular constellation and a overtly hostile audience was a hapless wordsmith from the BJP party. A fine gentleman he might be but I have no sympathy for a party, which is a willing victim to the manifestly evident campaign of calumny. Needless to say he was made to look silly in no time –his own media skills were woefully inadequate. And mind you that was while defending the BJP’s manifesto released yesterday–masterly crafted document that is clearly the winner when compared with the lackadaisical Congress Manifesto and CPM’s Marxist trash. All that the slimy moderator did was pick a stray reference to the construction of Ram Mandir in 200-page document (BJP has been steadfastly committed to it) and in no time specious outrage was manufactured in the plush studio. The BJP representative, instead of combating the stage-managed indignation, was pretty lame and played in to the hands of the beautiful ‘secularists’ in the studio. Very soon the moderator herself threw way any pretense of neutrality and was leading the vicious vilification campaign against the BJP.If BJP cannot sell even this well-crafted, all–inclusive manifesto to the electorate (please note that many schemes outlined in manifesto have been implemented in BJP ruled states with great success), it has no one but only itself to blame

I gave this illustration to drive home the point to express the frustration, helplessness and indignation that millions of BJP sympathizer about the party’s media management strategy. That a party whose leaders like Advani fearlessly fought for the cause of democracy and free media and got imprisoned in the process gets vilified while a party, which had no compunction in suspending cicil liberties, is glorified is quite a paradox

It’s nobody’s case that BJP is a perfect party. It is infact a deeply flawed party (abundance of demagogues, inability to regenerate itself intellectually) but it’s the only hope for those in India who believe that emergence of a true, meritocratic centre right party is possible in the foreseeable future. To its credit BJP is not a family enterprise were ascendancy to key party positions is pre-determined by winning the genetic lottery of birth, it has a fairly enlightened national leadership, well articulated core vision and it has shown the ability before to respond to call of history. The 1999-2004 NDA government will probably go down as the most magnificent experiment in coalition building in post-Independence India. Not only it represented broad coalition of various social groups but had at helm was a leader would had a real mandate from the masses. Free from the pernicious influence of Congress and Communist, the government was able to deliver excellent results on infrastructure, defence and external affairs fronts. For once, there was renewed sense of vigor and energy in the country that it can leapfrog to the progress and prosperity, after years of wallowing in poverty and misery that Nehruvian policies engendered. But a series of local level anti-incumbency in crucial states and a poorly communicated election theme relegated them to the opposition benches

Ever since its shock defeat a perception has been gaining ground that BJP is on a downhill path. Please note that this perception has grown despite a) woeful governance record of the UPA b) NDA winning several state assembly elections cC) Nearly all well run state governments are in the country are NDA governments)-eg Gujarat/Bihar/Chattisgarh/Uttarkhand/MP. Admittedly ideological confusion and breakdown of its famed discipline could have contributed to it but the role of the media in this building up this perception needs to be examined. While its clear that BJP itself has not covered itself with glory by trying to electorally cash in on this nearly indefensible venom spewing speech of Varun Gandhi (if he had really made it) that doesn’t sufficiently explain the venom and vengeance with which media goes after the BJP.

Isolated incidence of hooliganism in Karnataka gets relentless coverage while Marxist Mafioso’s rape and gory violence in Nandigram gets relegated to background with a cursory mention. To give a few other examples there is a deafening silence in the media on Congress getting in to an electoral alliance with an outfit in TN that eulogizes the killers of late Rajiv Gandhi. Hate speech by a prominent Karnataka Congress leader goes virtually unreported while we were bombarded incessantly with the sound bytes of Varun Gandhi’s speech. Very few would know that CPM is in alliance with an outfit that masterminded a heinous bomb blast that nearly killed Mr. Advani. An Innovative IT vision document is totally ignored while an ego clash between two BJP leaders hogs the limelight for 7 days. And topping it all is media’s unabashed efforts to catapult the vacuous babalog Congress politicians to the centrestage of Indian politics. Cursory perusal of the credentials of these so-called generation-next Congress leaders from privileged political dynasties reveals a stunning bankruptcy of accomplishments but still

Given their less than sterling track record, the complete stranglehold of Indian Mainstream Media on the dissemination and dissection of news is providing detrimental to the health of the public discourse in the country. In today’s times, barring few glorious exceptions of indefatigably crusading journalists, vast section of Indian MSM appears to be seriously compromised. Time and again, many in the vanguard of Indian MSM have displayed their consummate skills in spin doctoring, to fulfill the dubious agendas of the political class (Congress party) and been rewarded suitably with Padma Shris and Padma Bhusans. The most recent glaring example was the meek capitulation of the vast sections of MSM to the ultimately successful efforts of foisting a person with antecedents of financial deceit and moral debauchery to the highest constitutional office of the country. In any other mature democracy, this person might have been hounded out of public life by the vigilant media

How as friends of BJP we can break this stranglehold and get the nationalist voices reflected?

1.”Nationalist” TV Channel-I think the idea of nationalist right of centre TV channel is not a great idea. Even the brilliant right wing ideologue Swapan Dasgupta has pointed out the limitation of this model including funding, quality staffing, professionalism et. I suspect it will quickly degenerate to become like of one of those media channels that we despise

2 Blogs-The world of world of vibrant and thriving Indian blogdom might be a proverbial silver lining in the dark clouds. Blogs like Indian National Interest and Offstumped have been doing a sterling work. By giving up the daily dose of sourcing news from newspaper and resisting the natural inclination to switch on the idiot box after returning home from work and depending on thriving Indian blogdom, this writer have gained immensely in terms of enhancing his perspective on issues of national importance. However given the low Internet penetration and blogs are still are on fringes of public opinion formation in India

3. Vernacular Media-There is some hope here but given commercial compulsion many of them need to take a petty provincial approach

4.Mayawati Model-Ignore the MSM and treat them with disdain that they deserve. Its clear that media suffers from a delusion of grandeur and exaggerated sense of importance. Can BJP,like Mayawati,afford to be openly taking on important pillar of democracy however biased they are.Afterall BJP is not a whimiscal ,undemocratic outfit

Please let me know your thoughts