Needed mediawatchers (First Update)

Inspired by Dosabandit's idea

First Update: 3 ways to start a wiki
Help: Start A New Wiki (Wikia)

"Who watches the watchmen" originally dealt with question of accountability of political class. At present media is supposed to answer this question, in theory at least, it was supposed to be the watchdog.

However media with its ideological bias, guild mentality, venality, corporate interests and ties to establishment has rather than solving, exacerbated the problem. Last decade and half provides ample evidence of this.

It is therefore my proposal that concerned netizens should track and publish any act of shenanigans by media. It should be possible to accomplish this by a wiki.Media can't be allowed to get away with its acts of omission and commission.

Sadanand Dhume can be my wingman any time

All right, may be I am being over enthusiastic, if that be the case pardon me, because he is one of those rarest of rare public intellectual who knows and writes what is wrong with the Pakistan. Now you can read the article yourself, but it can be summarized as following.

Even among those who recognize that Pakistan is in general pain in nether regions, the blame of the unpleasant situation is placed squarely upon Zia-Ul-Haq. Now this is true to a certain extent, he was, without doubt, a fanatic. But to say that Pakistan began its long slide towards frenzy of fanaticism during his regime, is a wholly mistaken notion. Pakistan has proceeded on its journey irrespective of the religious zeal of its ruler. Indeed it was a socialist and moderate Muslim Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who declared Ahmadayya sect unIslamic , it was much before Zia that Pakistani leadership attempted to wrestle Kashmir by fanning flames of fanaticism (which ultimately almost succeeded two decades later as a fallout of rise of Mujahideens).

Nor this ended with Zia. Post Zia, terrorism has been state policy of Pakistan, irrespective of the leader at helm, this includes now departed Benazir Bhutto, moderate daughter of a moderate father.

Therefore problem is not Zia, it is Pakistan. The raison d'etre for Pakistan was the view of leadership, both political as well as religious, of Indian Muslims that Islam is fundamentally irreconcilable with Indic tradition.

The self destructive behavior that Pakistan has indulged in since its founding is nothing but an attempt to purge itself of impurity.

This is the summary of Dhume's article. However while he correctly diagnosis the pathology which plagues Pakistan, his prescription is incorrect. Dhume recommends replacing cultural DNA of Pakistan. However that is impossible because you can not change DNA without changing the beast. If Islam were to be replaced as Pakistan's foundation, there will be nothing to distinguish Pakistan from India, and in due course Pakistan will be re-assimilated within India. The Pakistani leadership realizes this and hence its constant attempt to destroy India.

Not even a pretense

Despite knowing better, I still get surprised when I happen to encounter blatant media bias such as this

Dismissing India's tradition of religious and cultural pluralism, Rashtriya Swayam- sevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday said, "He who is an Indian is Hindu and he who is not a Indian." [Emphasis Mine]

Now while RSS may or may not be subverting "India's tradition of religious and cultural pluralism" elsewhere, it is not doing in this instance. Mohan Bhagwat was trying to make a case for national integration on the bases of shared heritage. Except in the typical muddleheaded manner of  RSS apparatchik argue such issues he appealed to etymology. This is what it means, Hindu is a loan word from Persian meaning people living near river Sindhu, similarly India is a loan word from Greece meaning land of river Sindhu, this means Hindu is same as Indian.

Now I don't care much for this argument, (as the argument Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life, which is predictably forwarded by Mohan Bhagwat), but as the saying goes never attribute to malice what you can attribute to stupidity.

You know ...

I am really beginning to suspect that Bibek Debroy is not interested in Padam Shris or Padam Bhushans.

He does a nice job of pouring cold water on the heightened if unfounded expectations of various segments both market as well as middle class, about enactment of serious reforms.

To repeat what I have said earlier, the actions of Congress can be best understood and also predicted by motivation of Gandhi dynasty which is perpetuation of its entrenchment, and its understanding that this is best achieved by emulating Indira Gandhi which is by enacting tax and spend schemes which in essence are "robbing Peter to pay Paul" politics. This is the whole extent of the focus on social sector and in absence of any reform or accountability the results are going to be no different from those of previous schemes.

Reality Check Now !

It is almost a combination of hindsight as well as combination storm in media. Anyway to shield yourself from the flying debris of punditry, you need not go any farther than reading Bibek Debroy , Swaminathan Aiyar and Shishir Gupta. Gist of the articles is, as far as success of Congress is concerned we don't know whether NREGA or loan waiver clicked with the voters, or whether Manmohan Singh unencumbered with left will unleash the awesome series of reforms, regarding BJP, Shishir Gupta raises a basic though neglected point  that BJP was undone by chronic infighting.

What irks me with this kind of instant wisdom, as far as debacle of BJP is concerned, is that it stops any serious analysis, therefore before accepting any such wild speculation as a fact, one must look at the bigger picture and use whatever data he or she possesses.

Now I am not the best person to write about the causes of debacle and the way forward but still I will give it a shot. My arguments will be wishing for plague on both those who support discarding cultural nationalism and those who think problem with BJP was it wasn't right enough.

Hitting the mattresses*

Sort of continuing from the previous post, if BJP is serious about survival much less its consolidation, it must put in place mechanism to neutralize secular liberal media which is hostile to agenda of cultural nationalism. This mechanism will enable dissemination of information and opinions which at present are either suppressed or distorted by secular liberal media.

One way is to construct this mechanism is to establish a news channel on the lines of Fox lines, this is preferred by many BJP supporters, and I am behind this in theory. In practice however, I am not convinced it is that easy, such an effort requires financial backing and more importantly a workforce of professional journalists, now it is possible to find financial backing, however it is not clear whether there will be sufficient journalists ready to switch over to a channel which is overtly sympathetic to BJP, then there is intra-party bickering that SwapanDa alludes to in one of his posts . I am of opinion that the most feasible to achieve this goal is to recruit nationalist minded industrialist who have the financial muscle as well as some modicum of professional competency.

Meanwhile there is one other way to achieve our goal, that strategy can be summarized as, "Think local".
If is my observation that papers in Indian languages are more amenable to nationalist politics compared to more cosmopolitan ELM, assuming this is true for other parts of India, BJP must consolidate its position with the local papers, especially considering they have a wider reach compared to ELM.

This can be extended to local cable channels who provide better coverage of local issues. BJP can make inroads with this medium.

Another unexplored medium is FM, at present FM market is dominated by big players and legally barred from political content. This prohibition must go and BJP must formulate the regulations to allow local players to enter and compete the market. This is another venue where BJP can make inroads.

* Mafia slang .

Hindus in the iron mask.

Venerable fossil Khushwant Singh comments on connection between 1984 anti Sikh pogroms and 2002 post Godhra riots. Now I am not sure whether a logical connection can be drawn between the two riots.
What I do find interesting is this throwaway dissimulation, "After the burning of a bogey of the train at Godhra, we are still not certain who set the compartment on fire or the identity of the victims", now former part is familiar to us.

To this day our secular overlords still pretend that the identity of perpetrators is somewhat of a mystery, I can only assume that they think the Muslim mob was present there just to enjoy the stench of burning flesh.

However the latter part is a novelty, now we are not even sure about the victims! And all along I had the impression that the victims were mostly VHP activists who had greatly offended Muslims of Godhra by traveling to Ayudhya to demand construction of Ram Mandir which in the lexicon of secular Joan of Arc Teesta Seetalvad is a justifiable  excuse for roasting them in gasoline fire.

Lest people dismiss the curious apologia as a rambling of senile mind, they should realize the agenda which subconsciously drives the dissimulation, it is to keep reinforcing the narrative of Muslims being the designated victims and Hindus always suspect as aggressors with only secular liberal establishment shielding former from the wrath of the latter. Secular liberal establishment zealously guards this narrative and will not, indeed it can not, allow any chink however minor to appear in this. 

Of course the end result, and intended one at that, of this endless propaganda is the Hindus are hidden with an abstract mask labeled as aggressor, and it is under this shaming of anonymous notoriety denied any claim to insult to cultural dignity and as the in case of Godhra even the possibility of being a victim. This is dehumanizing Hindus.

Orwell described Totalitarianism as a boot endlessly stamping on a human face, secularism as a doctrine is just endless beating of Hindus as a punching bag.

QOTD

 150 will be a communal number and 150 and above will be a secular number ! 

Cho saar is witty, I tell you.

I am shocked, shocked ...

to find that Maoists don't take bourgeoisie democracy seriously , instead using it as a stepping stone for people's democracy. I mean who could have thunk that Maoists will do such a thing, after all they gave their word.

You know what is not shocking, well the studied silence of the cocktail swishing circuit which not so long was agog with dawn of democracy  and secularism in the erstwhile Hindu Kingdom. I realize I have said this many times but the clique of cosmopolitan flotsam is so beholden to the glory of democracy and secularism that it steadfastly refuses to acknowledge any interference of reality, and is perfectly willing to take India to slow but sure journey of civilizational death in the process.

Parliamentary Zoocracy

Apparently Mukul Kesavan thinks that purpose of elections is to fill a zoo.

A time for revenge

Some time back Ashok Malik proposed that BJP must promise to investigate Mitrokhin papers, now I agree with that. Such investigation if it had been conducted when the archives were published would have provided rare opportunity to make Indian public aware of  the extent to which our polity was compromised by foreign intelligence agencies and perhaps public support in strengthening our intelligence capabilities. Although a bit late in the day now, it is still possible to salvage from the archives.

However there are more pressing concerns. First of them is the investigation of the bribery during the no-confidence motion , Congress was successful in suppressing this with the help of pliant media, BJP should make it top most priority to uncover the conspirators behind this subversion of democracy.

Second considering the unprecedented autonomy the ministers in UPA led govt. enjoyed and less than stellar character of the worthies it is well nigh impossible that there was no wheeling dealing. In fact I suspect there is a lot of stench to be uncovered. BJP should focus on bringing the corruption before public.

BJP should also seriously consider investigating Media - UPA nexus. True much of anti BJP propaganda can be explained by visceral hatred that secular liberal establishment harbors for cultural nationalism, even then there is a near certainty that many in the media shilled for UPA in lieu of favors. It is a great opportunity to nail secular media.

Devil's alternative

I don't watch English news channels (for reasons of sanity), so this might be redundant, however my impression is that BJP and Shri Advani are taking a beating on Kandhar issue. Now the response of NDA government during and after Kandhar crisis are far from commendable. To be specific its response was tardy while hijacking was folding out and it did not learn the lessons from hijack to put in place correct policies to deal with similar situations in future.

One can debate on this, though this may raise interesting case of pot calling kettle black, what with Charar-e-Sharif and Rubaiya Sayeed, however the debate is on what one can call Machogiri, our lady of 10 Janpath, her spawns and her poodles are mocking Shri Advani for releasing terrorists. To shut them up BJP should ask a simple question, "Had it been Congress at that time in government would it have allowed innocent passengers to be killed by the terrorists ?".

Now there are answers to this, personally I favor no release policy. However, it's not my near and dear ones who are held hostage. Heavens forbid if such a situation were to arise, I have no idea what I will do. This is a human response. Therefore it is clear that regardless of the lofty principles, a democratic government will never have easy answer to the question this is known as Devil's alternative.

Devil's alternative means that Congress will not be able to take recourse in diversionary rhetoric

BJP & Elite

Rohit muses upon the Mangalore incident and accompanying media firestorm. I agree with most of his post except for the conclusion. I have come to believe that no matter what BJP does, it is going to incur the wrath of elites*, because cultural nationalism which is the mainstay of BJP is anathema to our elites.

This is not to excuse the hooliganism at Mangalore pub, there are many legitimate issues that we cultural nationalists can spar and joust with secular-liberal establishment, this is not one of them. In this, I agree with Rohit.

*I will qualify the term. It is true that elite, as understood in sense of social class, is a frequent adversary to cultural nationalists. But the main opponent or antagonist, so as to say, is the cultural elite, the group which is firmly anchored in post national, post faith, or broadly post identity milieu, and therefore has fundamental hostility with cultural nationalism. This group, which is recognized as secular-liberal establishment may disagree on the economic nuances, but as I pointed out earlier share the same bandwidth culturally.

From where I stand the current acrimony and conflict in political discourse owe their cause not to economic reforms but to a battle, a battle for the soul of India. My aim, as a cultural nationalist, is clear, to recognize secularism for the intellectual fraud it is, and to reject it along with its ruinous consequences.

It is a 1984 world

Wasn't this expected ? From Hindu Taliban to Hindu terrorist  to now threat to national security . Clearly what happened in Mangalore is comparable to Kargil or Mumbai. This Orwellian propaganda brought to you by the secular pliant media.
My dear friends, what we are watching is a big lie operation so audacious that even Goebells probably would have nothing on the the quisling media.

Update: Some misguided youths.

Quick someone get Pratap Bhanu Mehta Padma Shri

A desperate craving for Padma Shri (or Bhushan, whatever I don't which is which ) is the only explanation for this article , which can be summarized thus, Congress is to be chided for its blatant disregard for propriety, and  BJP is to be criticized for daring to protest against such a patently political decision with an aim by dynasty towards capturing constitutional positions. Because you see, any criticism of impropriety in process of appointment in constitutional positions lowers the dignity of constitutional positions!

Hey Bhagwan ! My head hurts ! Of course Pratap Bhanu Mehta is perfectly right by English media guidebook where every criticism of Congress has to be balanced by criticism of BJP.

Bullying by NDTV

It appears that blogger Chyetanya Kunte has been forced to retract one of his posts (can be seen here for the time being) which was critical of Barkha Dutt for her conduct during Mumbai siege (via Shripriya via tweet by Respected Ma'am ). Now I couldn't have put it any better than Shripriya while the post was angry, hardly any surprise considering Barkha Dutt's outrageous behaviour, it could in no way be construed to be libelous.

Now redressal of grievances through court is a constitutional right but let's not mistake for what this is. A despicable attempt by NDTV (a big corporate entity) to silence an individual for the audacity to criticize their conduct, using the help of deep pockets and an army of lawyers, in other words, legal intimidation.

Can you imagine if what would have happened if any of the politicians had dared to sue NDTV for libel. Not only NDTV but everyone in English media would be crying fascism like it was Third Reich. This despite the fact that not only a politician has as much right to redressal as NDTV but also he probably has a stronger case for libel against Barkha Dutt (and English media) than Barkha Dutt has against Chyetanya.

If one holds free speech sacred as our journalists purport to do it is meant for everyone, and not just big shot television journalists.

Since what happened to Chyetanya can happen to any blogger (in fact any individual), the bullying by NDTV must be vociferously protested by bloggers.

Desipundit is covering this

Other to write on this, Shripriya, Rohit, Prateek, The CP, Lekhni, Sridhar, Jaiganesh

Update: This is getting interesting. I can't give the exact details but this kerfuffle more and more resembles earlier one .

Update 1: So far the best commentary on this issue (in addition to Shripriya ) has been done by Rohit (here , here and here ), Gaurav Sabnis and Prem Panicker. Meanwhile it turns out that NDTV may have to sue itself *(via Rohit )

*  NDTV has pulled the page, but the report can be viewed here.

Outrageous

Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal bat for Hitler Mussolini Count Vlad Son of Satan Narendra Modi as PM

Let the outrage begin.

Aphorism: Journalism

Journalism is first refuge of overreaching incompetency.

The problem of democracy

I have not commented on the recent election, because to be frank, I did not observe any significant political trend or a departure. However, I have been meaning to comment on this post by DataNazi  (because it connects with my previous posts on democracy) essentially ruing over the fact that Delhi voters have (or seemed to have) rejected terrorism as a poll issue.

Now in this particular case, the results can be explained by the fact that BJP suffers from chronic credibility crisis (how it came to be is a matter of different post). However a larger question that this result does raise, do we correctly understand the dynamics of public sentiment or will of the masses? Prevalent opinion (of opinion makers) tells us that formation and public sentiment is a direct, and almost spontaneous, result of government policies alone, existing independent of media, which in turn is just a reflection of public opinion. Reality couldn't be any further from this. In truth public sentiment is a result of not just government policies but also media, for democracy can function only when there exist a) The information, and more importantly b) The framework to decide the relevance of information. These two combined decide the the topology of political culture, which essentially decides the particular direction of public choice.

If we take the above definition as true. Then there are three interesting observation that we can make.

1. One of the reasons that BJP appears, to put it mildly, a headless chicken, is its failure to counter the media onslaught launched by secular liberal establishment. Its folly goes beyond that. Even after a decade of ongoing media war, BJP fails to realize that it is in war zone, or the nature of enemy it faces.

2. The nature of political discourse in India is, for most part, hopelessly moronic, and reduced to absurd sloganeering ("garibi hatao", "roti, kapda, aur makan")

3. Considering the function of media in deciding the public choice, also explains its inclinations.But that is for different post

Spinning must go on

BJP slams Antulay, but gets defensive on Karkare

You know, while I admire secular liberal establishment for its single minded propaganda against BJP, there is some regret too. If only they had shown only a fraction of enthusiasm they reserve for anti - BJP crusade, perhaps what happened in Mumbai could have been prevented.