Read the original post and discussion at Bodhi Commons.

…need a Prime Minister who can explain this to the nation. This is where I miss the Nehrus, and Vajpayees, and the Vishwanath Prataps of yester years. Manmohan Singh over the past years has alarmingly proved his impotence as a leader, and while we are at it, an honest impotent leader. The new-India seem to care more about the “honest” part than the political impotence part. The new-India does not seem to hate political impotence, they just hate politicians making more money than them.

A month or two back, over a hundred thousand workers marched in Delhi in what was one of the biggest protest marches the national capital region has seen in recent years. Do you know what there demands were? I didn’t see it on TV. Did you? BBC and Reuters reported it though. Only the BBC and Reuters, whose propaganda it is to portray India as a poor country with no workers rights, social security, and with one of the highest food inflations in the world.   A week back, Medha Patkar’s fast entered it’s eighth day. Yeah right, eighth day. I didn’t see the TV channels exploding. Did you? Is there something we are missing or something missing in all of us. If the collective conscience of a nation does it’s reality check based on reality TV, when what is playing on TV determines our political priorities, it speaks a little tiny bit about ourselves.

I would like 10 Constitutional changes and  a mango lassi to go with that

Like Shanti Bhushan and Anna Hazare want the Lokpal panel discussions televised. Policy making should be like MTV Roadies, or so they say. And as a tax paying citizen who votes, I chose the government representatives, I wonder who chooses the “Civil Society” representatives. Then I wonder why the civil society representation has no women in it. So much for civil society. I am not nitpicking here, a policy making committee in our country now has men (only men, and all upper caste men) who made back door entry through a well televised protest, and my “well educated aam aadmi” friends are asking me not to trust people who I elected, and trust people I did not elect. This I find irrational. The incredible arrogance of that, as P.Sainath put it.

And then last week another random Baba ordered an ala-carte of ten constitutional changes he would like to have, and decided that unless the democratically elected government of the country gives it to him, like they did with the demands of another individual a few weeks back, he would go on a fast unto death. The democratically elected government of the country went overboard to prevent, and once it started, end, the peaceful, Gandhian protest by this Baba and over a thousand of his followers. Even after the government assured the Baba of the steps  it would take to meet his demands, this Baba reneged on his written promise to end his peaceful, Gandhian protest, thereby lying to his followers and rendering his protest non-Gandhian. Once the Baba cheated them, to be precise, within minutes of the Baba cheating them, the democratically elected government of the country suddenly realized it’s larger constitutional responsibility, and also the mammoth power entrusted in it (this includes nuclear weapons and one of the largest standing armies in the world), and ordered a local Superintendent of Police to go arrest the man.

The Baba had obtained permission to do Yoga at the historic Ramlila Maidan, and as per the government, this was the first time Yoga was creating a law and order situation. They were wrong – Bhagwan Rajneesh’s Yoga had set a historic precedent in Oregon state of the United States, and unless one is a strong supporter of communal riots and tearing down mosques, nothing good has ever come out of the ‘JaiSriRam’ crowd over the past thirty years. Also to note Sadhvi Ritambara (known for her incendiary anti-Muslim oration and implicated in the Babri Masjid terrorist strike) was with the Baba, dreaming and fasting for a corruption free India.

Back to the incident, as the police cordon tightened the Baba refused to be arrested, and over the mike (goes to show he is a political novice) asked his women followers to form a ring around him, and then, on live television, his followers started pelting bricks at the police rendering his protest violent. Now there is this adage in Kerala, where reportedly every child is a protester at birth, that when you deal with the police force in a volatile situation, you can try to bend them, but never break them.

What happened in Delhi after that was sheer brutality by the police force. Nothing new, the same brutality, workers and students protesting across India are subjected to on a daily basis, the same brutality Dalits complain about in the southern hemispheres of our national newspapers, the same brutality peasants and tribals stripped of their ancient lands go through as their protests get muted. To be precise, the police used only teargas and lathis, not even rubber bullets and water cannons, so it was much better. Like that other adage in Kerala, our police is much better than other states, they badmouth and once in a while beat us up, while in other states they rape and murder.

Bollocks (word of Anglo-Saxon origin, refers to testicles)

The reason the government gave for chucking Baba Ramdev out of Delhi can be called Bollocks. Rather very childish bollocks. A democratic nation needs the safety valve of protests in the interim of elections to lobby and influence the legislative process. It is a basic human right, and in our eternal struggle to catch up with China, India should give breaking up peaceful protests a miss. The Hindu fanatic mobilisation and the Baba’s squeamish immorality notwithstanding, armed police action against a public protest is deeply condemnable, and it displayed the Indian state’s rampant tendency to bark at public protests of it’s choice and bite at certain protests. The biting part usually reserved for worker’s strikes and peasant protests, was in this particular case oddly pointed at televised air-conditioned protests of the new-India with islands in Scotland and Wales. Surprising.

But what is important here is the government’s official response after the crackdown. We as citizens didn’t know who was in charge. To a nation waiting for answers, there wasn’t any. The government could have easily pointed out the political reason behind the crackdown, and that reason is justifiable. One of the largest groups supporting the Baba was a group called Youth Against Corruption also known as ABVP (was formed just in time by BJP’s student wing), VHP was shipping it’s cadre to Jantar Mantar for a new kar-seva, RSS had openly started mobilising cadre for the protests – all signs of a farcical hindu fundamentalist attempt at the central government. And in search of the real political reason, one needs to look no further than the heartland. No further than UP.

With Jagan Reddy’s by-election sending clear signals of where Andhra is heading come 2014, the Congress needs either a good showing or a powerful alliance in UP, and INC’s ability to dictate terms in UP is all dependent on it’s showing in the assembly elections. As for the BJP, surely there will be no Delhi without UP. These are real numbers, not bollocks. In UP, Mayawati had announced her intentions to advance the UP elections to possibly end of this year, and then Rahul Gandhi joined the famer’s protest in UP, Congress announced the Kisan Manch mobilization, BJP announced Ram Rajya as it’s poll plank for UP, and  then all of a sudden Ramdev happens, taking the wind out of the violent farmer protests in UP. The day after his arrest Ramdev asks for permission to continue his strike in UP. Not Mumbai, not BJP cities like Ahmadabad or Bhopal, but UP. And Mayawati knowing the Baba is a black sheep and a trojan horse, said “Bollocks!”.

A new 7 Race Course and a Prime Minister to go with

See the reason can be political, but you need a leader to take responsibility, and be able to explain to the polity where we are headed. This is where I miss the Nehrus, and Vajpayees, and the Vishwanath Prataps of yester years. UPA government faces a vacuum when it comes to leadership. Digvijay Singh is the only person speaking the politics of matters, in a party that vacillates between soft-Hindutva and it’s secular constitutional obligations. I am a pseudo-secular citizen(isn’t that what they call people who want Narendra Modi in jail), and I expect the government to crush any right wing misadventures because I cannot have another Babri Masjid like terror attack or another Punjab or another Gujarat. Corruption when compared to right wing fundamentalism is a lower priority issue for me, because the India where I live 20 years from now could be a Pakistan or a Rajapaske Lanka  or a Gujarat if right wing forces are not defeated every single time they seem to have an upper hand. Because my India is a Sufi, and I would like to have it that way.

But I need a Prime Minister who can explain this to the nation. Manmohan Singh over the past years has alarmingly proved his impotence as a leader, and while we are at it an honest impotent leader. The new-India seem to care more about the “honest” part than the political impotence part. The new-India does not seem to hate political impotence, they just hate politicians making more money than them.

I am not saying I need another Prime Minister, all I am saying is it would be great if Manmohan Singh could just step down, and someone, my first choice being Rahul Gandhi step into seven Race Course. Rahul Gandhi will never be able to say “it’s these arseholes around me who are corrupt, I am a nice guy, but I have no power”. Vajpayee and V.P.Singh who managed crazy coalitions never shirked responsibility. When his own party man Narendra Modi killed thousands of Muslims in Gujarat, Vajpayee didn’t do much. But he said “what face will I show to other nations now”. Yeah, that’s how you lead a nation, that exactly how we felt those days, each and every pseudo-secular Indian, and that’s why leadership is called the face of a nation. We haven’t had that spirit here since 2004. Manmohan is a failure, Manmohan must go. And as someone put it, need someone in 7 Race Course who can call out the dancing Sushma Swaraj in Rajghat saying Rajghat wouldn’t have been built in 1948 if the essential philosophy of hate her party subscribes to wasn’t there in the first place.

In looking for a solution, all of us should have the basic humility displayed by one of the one hundred thousand workers who marched in Delhi, Akhil Samantray who had come from Orissa to take part in the march said “We have come here so that our voices reverberate inside the house (parliament) and they can see what pain the common man is going through”. Yeah voices should reverberate inside the house of democracy where each and every individual of this country is represented, and if my MP does not act on the burning issues the workers, the marginalized, and the middle-class of this country faces, I will press my forefinger on the voting machine and set the Republic straight. And for the time being I would like to my government to ward off Babas, Swamys, Lawyers, Nobel Prize Winners, Film fare winners, pimps, and other lowlifes who try to hijack this democracy.

And for an immediate solution, we need a new Prime Minister, and if possible someone elected to the Lok Sabha. I’ll tell you why. I think this nation is in trouble and we have been rudderless for long, we have GDP’s growth numbers but no direction estimates. India is marching forward, but we are unsure about where we are marching. Because we have the highest number of poor people in the world, and one third of our kids are malnourished. Because right wing politics all across the world including the Nazis and even the BJP have come to power raising a hailstorm around corruption. So I need a leader who can explain that corruption is just a symptom and the bigger infection is somewhere else. I need a coalition which ensures there is social control over the leader, like the left did in UPA-I years. This is all politics, and this opportunity to set things right is the beauty of politics. And I think we need a leader who can set things right. And if you want to call him a politician, you can call him a politician.

It was in August 2008 that Daval first raped the girl, who was studying in class VI at that time, at home after threatening her at knifepoint. The ordeal had just begun — Daval would rape her whenever his parents were not there. Later, in the same month, Daval and his friend, Raju Sharma, took her to a lodge in Kurla where they raped her. It was that day that both also made an MMS clip of their perversion.

See I am not sure if such a sad story needs so much of detail. Should we readers feel outraged after reading this or is the reporter trying to provide us the same turn on he felt when he heard about this. Could be perversion on my side but the soft porn angle in the reporting of these stories on a daily basis is undeniable, and is pervasive in Indian mainstream media. Don’t forget the TV9 episode.

No point in blaming the media alone, they work based on web statistics and TRP analysis, and may be such a story has more clicks than the story of Kanu Sanyal. Otherwise why would I click on this story ignoring the ‘Telengana lull’ right next to it. May be some of us should be outraged, may be the girl was plain unlucky, may be some of us managed a subtle turn on,  may be parents should take better care of their young children,

or may be

the fault,

dear brutus

is not in the stars

but in ourselves.

Video link

Many of us who read newspapers would have seen the furore when B.Lenin, editor of ‘Dinamalar’ was arrested in Chennai a few weeks back, after film actress Bhuvaneshwari’s prostitution racket was busted. Bhuvaneshwari it seems had mentioned the names of a few very prominent film actresses who were involved with prostitution rackets. The next day B.Lenin’s ‘Dinamalar’ newspaper ran a strory with photos and rates of all the women mentioned. Even when one forgets the fact that these women are established artists with a social reputation, the very fact that they live in a society and has families, and has not committed any verifiable crime (except allegations by another actress) should have put some sense into the head of these third rate journalists. I was more outraged when “The Madras Union of Journalists condemned B.Lenin’s arrest and blocked traffic in Marina”. If these protests meant their creed is like (only), then civil society has an immediate enemy at hand – Media. The Third Rate Media.

Yesterday’s News9 sting operation in Bangalore is no better, if any SOB with a camera and a satellite uplink can be media, we have a bigger issue at hand.

After confirming that she was indeed in the business of selling sex, the team returned with a camera. They broke open the apartment and started recording. Apparently she was with a customer. What followed reminded me of what happened on a New Year Eve in Mumbai and what happened in the Mangalore pub.

What gives these journalists the right, to violate the rights of a woman, even if she were a sex worker. She was wearing a two piece suit, when they broke open and the channel had the audacity to force her to reveal her body. She was trying to cover her breasts and her face with her hands. Two men pulled open her hands to reveal her body and face on camera. WTF!!!!!

Bombay Dosti guest posts on News 9 outrage in Bangalore -

Yesterday, I lost it. Another WTF moment. If it was just another ‘third rate journalism’ as a friend calls it, I would not have bothered so much. But this was the limit. The trouble is, if not curtailed now, I am not sure, what it would turn into, in the future.
News9 is a bangalore based English ‘News’ Channel and of course, it is a 24 hr channel. This channel does give a lot of local news which may be useful to the city residents. This channel often has programs which shows a highly biased moral stand. When possibly half the population has such a point of view, it is possible that a channel could thrive on that. After all, our soaps are not different.
But, what made me angry, was the latest bit of breaking news that the channel released yesterday.
News9 made a sting operation and found that a service apartment in Bengalooru was being used for prostituition by a Russian lady. The channel team member posed as a prospective customer discovered this fact. Had they stopped with that, I would have not bothered, thinking it was another sting operation. But what followed was a gross violation of human rights.
After confirming that she was indeed in the business of selling sex, the team returned with a camera. They broke open the apartment and started recording. Apparently she was with a customer. What followed reminded me of what happened on a New Year Eve in Mumbai and what happened in the Mangalore pub.
What gives these journalists the right, to violate the rights of a woman, even if she were a sex worker. She was wearing a two piece suit, when they broke open and the channel had the audacity to force her to reveal her body. She was trying to cover her breasts and her face with her hands. Two men pulled open her hands to reveal her body and face on camera. WTF!!!!!
Later, the police was called to take action and probably take her into custody.
By what limit of imagination, can we accept this?
Even if I were the worst criminal in this world, and even if I was of the loosest character possible, you have no right to violate my body , without my consent. PERIOD.
There has always been a debate about this moral judgement even in the case of rape. In some countries, even the law mandates that a rape victim’s sexual habits should not be questioned. Her sexual habit, should not come in the way, of delivering justice to her.
Its similar in this case as well. Does her, being a sex worker(that too alleged) deny her the right to human dignity? And who decides? News9??????????
To put it simply, the channel must be taken to task for having abused her physically and for having tortured her mentally. This is Violence instigated against a woman. Whether she is a sex worker or not is not a matter of consideration. This channel had obviously no right to do to her what they did. By the way, why am i talking about their rights?
They were doing things against the law. How else should I describe a man forcing a woman to reveal her body on camera? If this is not violation, what is?
Sorry, an apology will not do. The channel was violating the law and they should be answerable. Now, it would be great to see them report that! Would be a good dose of local news!
The sad part is, even a local news channel has a lot of influencing power. It they shout stupidities for an hour and show the same stuff, people watching it will be programed to think in that direction as well. It was a live phone in program, and many people calling in, were talking about how the Police is not taking action and how the Police is involved in such sex rackets.
Oh ya, blame the system.
But in that process, we are letting this mind poisoning devil into our living room. I really need some air!

P.S: What do you think? Should the Government step in here? I need Free-media for free news, not a free-turn on along with my evening news.

….that time has come

- Signed: Prakash Karat, A B Bardhan, Debabrata Biswas, T J Chandrachoodan

- and a few of us sighed and others,

Good Riddance! said the TOI editorial,
Lal Salaam! said Bloody Mary and,
in the mayhem added that
airports must be privatized.

I dont know why Sagarika says that all the time,
maybe even the media has an agenda
Do I know what the Left’s agenda is?

then I don’t know why they’re leaving,
Or where they gonna go,
I guess they got their reasons,
But I just don’t want to know.

Because in early 2004, in reply to a mail which asked whether he was still alive an old comrade said “I am very much alive, and so is the hope for a non NDA alternative at Centre“. AMEN. Hope as a strategy works in theology, not in politics. But then YSR Reddy swept Andhra for the Congress, the BJP declined in key states and the Left posted their best tally ever. The national destiny was re-written with the UPA and Left coming together based on a Common Minimum Programme, and Sonia Gandhi delivering the master stroke by relinquishing the PMO and denying BJP its last straw.

Now that the UPA and the Left are parting, or cutting the flab, the Congress and the CPM are back to their pre-2004 line ups, it is time to take stock. Critics across the divide are looking at the half year they did not give the nation, but what about the four and a half years they gave the nation.

The Good of UPA-Left years

Stability with Dignity: If one remembers the NDA years, despite the coalition having 300 odd seats in the 545 member house, there was George Fernandes and Pramod Mahajan skirting from one “Allied” capital to another appeasing the allies, and the national political scene became a circus around the whims of Trinamool,the DMK, the Sena and other regional and single-issue parties. Despite their differences, and the fact that they are political opponents in the Left’s bastions of Bengal and Kerala, there was a certain dignity maintained by both parties even during the WB & Kerala assembly elections in 2006. Which other two political parties can do this?

The UPA too had constituents, if one looks closely, who don’t have any national accountability and could have rocked the boat any time. This was prevented by those 59 MPs from the left, who sat right in the middle of the house and to some extent by Mulayam Singh’s 39 who toed the Left’s line on any issue. The leaders of the Congress party and the CPM never crossed the limits, and India had 4 and a half years of a stable coalition that worked with dignity.

The Centrist Centre Stage: If one remembers the NDA years, the national stage was pretty much dominated by whether the Vishwa Hindu Parishad will give more time to the centre before they start building the Ram temple? or whether Godhra was the trigger for Gujarat riots? or whether Narendra Moditva can be replicated?

The debate shifted with the 2004 verdict. The Left had no need to interpret the 2004 verdict as one for secularism – for them it was an anti-Congress verdict in Kerala and Bengal, but they did.  “Pseudo-Secularism” – I haven’t heard that word used that often in the past 4 years. India started talking about inclusive growth despite the shining. Programmes like NREG and the Loan Waiver, despite the criticism, made the nation’s priorities clear. The national debate shifted to the left of centre.

Reader’s Words has sanely put it, in the tragic end of an experiment

If the UPA had not gone ahead with the deal, it might have suffered a temporary loss of face, and the Left would have taken the flak for its obstinacy. Ironically, it was Mrs Sonia Gandhi who used the Gandhian technique of sacrificing a position and winning a moral battle. Manmohan Singh has done exactly the reverse- he might have won a battle, but he has lost the war and put to rest the experiment to build a Centrist United Front.

It is a political oppurtunity lost, but I hope the Congress and the CPM come together again in 2009 because they are both patriotic parties and dignified partners. Hope is not a strategy in itself, but as my friend said in 2004, hope is alive for a non-NDA alternative at centre.

One news item which was picked up by Forbes, Reuters and Wall Street Journal, which sent the LANCO stock up 10% in the bourses yesterday, found no mention in “India’s National Newspaper” and Kerala’s own Manorama which claims to have 7 billion readers as of today.

For Manorama online readers, Vizhinjam Port will be India’s deepest Port, India’s largest container transhipment Hub, the biggest infrastructure project in Kerala (pegged at 2 billion dollars) and work begins in 10 months time.

Official Press Release from LANCO is here

Excerpts: Vizhinjam, with a 15 metre natural draught and proximity to international sea routes, is best suited for the development of a world class, all weather deep-water port.The Vizhinjam port, situated about 16 km south off Thiruvananthapuram and at 10 nautical miles from international sea routes connecting Europe, Persian Gulf and Far East, when developed would attract a fair share of the container transshipment traffic meant for India, currently handled by international ports at Colombo, Malaysia, Al-Salalah (Oman) and Singapore.

To continue my rant, the same media which celebrated the “Smart City” deal((the inking of the deal was broadcast live) which looks puny in comparison to Vizhinjam or the upcoming Technocity, the same media which filled pages with the Vallarpadam Hub deal which is one fourth the size of Vizhinjam – chose to ignore one of the major developments in the state’s history.

If the question is Why should the media coverage be so important? The answer is, it raises the stakes for the people involved. It puts pressure on the administration to deliver when people are aware of it. Imagine the impact on the LDF government if the “Smart City” project goes cold. That is media’s job and in case of Vizhinjam they are doing a very bad job.

Vizhinjam is the result of the creative activism of a lot of people, a dream shared by millions of people, with powerful lobbies inside and outside the country working against it. The stakes are high, it is important to wake up and keep watch – closely.

Did I create fear from a happy news?

Cool!

P.S: Chk out the WALL in Talkies page, will keep updating

The mainstream media which trashes blogs for their “opinionated posts lacking editorial control and thoroughgoing research” continues to surprise me with their half baked truths, thorough lies and embedded ideologies. The difference here is, they are paid to do what they are doing (with access to information) and many of them Bloody Marys are doing a very bad job at that. This time it is John Mary’s article in Outlook magazine on the Kannur situation. When such a senior journalist (who wears a cloak of political neutrality) trashes out such an article, it could be that…

a. He is the guy who doesn’t do his job – don’t think so?

b. He is lazy – thats me

c. umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu – whats this?

d. He sold out – you mean he wants to cheat people?

Now who is concerned about Kannur?

The incidents in Kannur have assumed a place in the national media centre stage after the attack on the CPM HQ in Delhi and similar attempts on party offices across India. Kannur was debated in the Lok Sabha and stalled the house proceedings. In a weeks time, the now controversial US report on Human Rights made a mention of Kannur. So when John Mary writes his article in Outlook, there will be readers who are as curious about Kannur as they were about Nandigram. And John Mary’s article is indeed an old art form, scattering facts, dates and third party opinions.

Excerpts:

What is the genesis of this hatred? It dates back to 1958 when the Ganesh Beedi factory shifted to Mangalore in neighbouring Karnataka due to labour problems, and many lost their jobs. The RSS stepped in and helped many secure alternate jobs, winning over several Communists to its side. Things turned bloody in 1968 when RSS swayamsevak Vadikkal Ramakrishnan was killed, triggering off the cycle of red-saffron war.

Factually wrong or rather a contended fact. Vadikkal Ramakrishnan’s name which is mentioned in the article should go in conjunction with Kunhiraman who died from the other side. The beedi factory issue should go in conjunction with Thalassery communal riots instigated by the RSS. Problem here is Thalassery riots which is the origin of the “legends of martyrs” in Kannur doesn’t even find a mention.

Both are equally brutal but violence escalates when CPI(M) is in power

of the 166 people murdered in Kannur in the past decades, CPIM has a comfortable majority. Very similar to their majority in the assembly. What does that say..let me think…

It might not have won a single seat in an assembly or Lok Sabha election in the state, but the BJP has been able to improve on its voteshare over the years, especially in the local council polls. Quite often, at the macro-level, in the assembly or Parliament elections, its net share of the vote eats into that of other candidates. The logic could be either to reduce the Congress in Parliament or checkmate the CPI(M) in the assembly.

BJP’s numbers in the state has been dwindling in the past five elections. Did John Mary write the article before that? BJP’s strategy has been largely successful in preventing Congress forming a government at the centre and the CPM in the state. Kudos!

BJP’s vote share was 0.5% in the Kannur disctrict. Thats a lot on a macro-level!

Added to that is the fact that the membership of RSS and the number of “shakas” in the state had a free fall in the past five years. A fact that even the RSS acknowledges, but John Mary refuses to.

According to the RSS, the Marxists suffered—and still suffer from—a fear psychosis because many of its cadres have crossed over to the rss. The CPI(M) leaders, upon seeing erosions in its camp, accuse the RSS of accomplishing this by violence.

There is only one Hindu fundamentalist force in Kerala and that is the CPM. Outsiders may not know, but a senior journalist should. Yes, the CPM membership has declined according to the RSS. Also according to the RSS, we had aircrafts in India in the later Vedic age. I didn’t see any “According to the CPM” btw. Not that I want to.

Kannur’s legacy of fighting the might of the British, then the Emergency and the pervasive traditional martial arts culture equip homegrown rss activists to position themselves as protectors of the middle class against CPI(M) cadres.

RSS fighting the British in Kannur, RSS cadres fighting the emergency and a direct lineage of the chekavar Samurais. RSS protecting the middle class. Is this a movie script or something? spoof?

John Mary’s witnesses

Ha the best part, John Mary quotes two very interesting people,

“Comments Congress leader K Sudhakaran” – Now who is K Sudhakaran? Atleast Keralites would remember the erstwhile leader of the anti-CPM mob violence in the state. Accused in the attempted murder of CPM leader P Jayarajan (who still carries a bullet). Very neutral point of view indeed. Why not ask Fidel Castro on who’s a jerk – Chavez or Bush?

Historian M.G.S. Narayanan says the principal blame rests with the CPI(M) since it’s the dominant party in Kannur and now heads the ruling Left coalition. – Now, now, who’s history is it anyway? Kerala’s most reknowned saffron historian is indeed a nice catch!

Lopsided, nauseating piece in an otherwise great “Outlook”! John Mary’s previous articles gives you an idea of where he belongs, where his love lies. Why don’t he join CNN IBN?

And still if he hates the CPIM so bad, there are several valid issues to raise,

1. The dastardly acts of the Kochi administration in Muringur
2. The human rights abuses in the name of fighting Naxalism
3. The state budget of contradictions
Then the fourth estate cannot be advised on what to write. What drives John Marys?

Our mainstream media need not go far and around in search for “corrupt” politicians to expose their hypocrisy. They just need to sit around and read what their ilk write.

But then, no mainstream journalist will dissect this because…

a. He is the guy who doesn’t do his job – don’t think so?

b. He is lazy – thats me

c. umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu – again! whats this?

d. He sold out – you mean he wants to cheat people?

P.S: Whats happening in Kannur is something that every Malayali hates. It has grown beyond political forces over the decades and become legends, myths and a thirst for blood which puts the malayali masculine to shame. The post is not about Kannur, a solution for which may not emerge any time soon. Its just sad.

Now from the coverstory,

On paper, this looks terrific. It also helps that Kerala is one of India’s least corrupt states. And yet panchayat leaders, often drawn from feudal or political elites, can be as self-serving as any babu. S.M. Vijayanand, chief official of Kerala’s Local Self Government Department and a main architect of the reform, concedes that the new system also misses the collector’s managerial skills. He says: “It’s more equitable, more accountable, more democratic, but there’s a cost also in efficiency.”

In Kochi, the state’s seaside capital, the district collector, Muhammad Hanish, enjoys the same trappings of office, and suffers many of the same burdens, as Mr Samphel. Stepping out of his white Ambassador, Mr Hanish, who is 38, inspects a suburb of Kochi with relish.

First things first, Thank you on behalf of all Malayalees for calling Kerala the least corrupted state in India. We’ll surely quote you Sir when we talk about the Kerala Model. Secondly, when you write about Burkino Faso you know that the rest of the world doesn’t give a damn. But if you say that Florida state governor Charlie Crist is in Miami, the states sea side capital, I guess it would be factually wrong.

Though it occupies more space and takes more ink to print and is difficult to read, Tallahassee remains the capital of Florida. In the same vein, Kerala also has a beautiful sea side capital about 206 km from Kochi. Thiruvananthapuram is still the capital city, and you can’t call it for Kochi just because it saves more ink. What kind of cost cutting is this?

Its your frickin Cover Story man! and you charge 200 bucks an issue. Now I don’t know what dump they print about Chad and Darfur and Venezuela. How do we know?

I can understand Malayala Manorama’s new itch for Koch, but Economist – that some conspiracy!

And whenever I’ve doubts about being bad at my job, I go see CNN-IBN. They continue to call AB Bardhan a CPIM leader. I’m tired of commenting asking for a correction. Yeah it doesn’t make a difference, but the fact is that 32 council members walked out of CPI on April 11, 1964. AB Bardhan didn’t. He’s still in the CPI.

Link via Lijo (yeah tall, lean, handsome)

P.S: Mammooty btw was so pissed, he slapped three Economists.

P.P.S: Yeah, I’m overdoing this Mammooty bit. Mammooty might slap me, OMG!

courtesy: The Hindu

And people who follow the stupid channel make cartoons out of themselves. Rajdeep’s channel, yeah the same one which made this beautiful statement hours after Mumbai blasts “These pictures are now being beamed on all CNN networks all over the world. Indians all over the world watching CNN are now watching CNN-IBN. This is the power of CNN-IBN”, scoooped today morning that Tata’s car was called Jeh.(now they have changed it). Of everyone, Ratan Tata naming his new car Jeh (you know what it means) sounded quite impropable. And my colleague says “I know, I know, its called Jeh“. So he reads CNN-IBN doesn’t he. Today we have a unique oppurtunity to figure out who reads IBN, make the most of it. Because if news is religion, IBN is our anti-christ

P.S: On the election front, its just 2 down with 48 to go and Edwards always has a chance. Btw if Hillary just scrapes through, think Obama will be her running mate. And if its her, Keshav’s tribe will have a field day (like good old Narasimha Rao days)

P.P.S: Btw, Tata’s small car Nano will have a three-cylinder 624-cc petrol engine with 33 bhp of power. It is externally app 8% smaller bumper to pumber than a Maruti 800, internally 21% larger. The car will come with air conditioning, but will have no power steering. The car will have front disk and rear drum brakes. The company claims mileage of 20 kmpl in city and 26 kmpl on highway. 

P.P.P.S: Go Watch it! (more later)

Every right thinking citizen of West Bengal has now realized that there is no alternative to industrialisation, that in order to create jobs there is no option but to acquire agricultural land and that private capital must be invited.

From Walmart, to the media, to private investment in higher education, to FDI in retail, the Left loathes everything the people of India seem to love.

Sagarika ought to define this – “Right thinking Citizen of West Bengal”. Are they the CNN-IBN crowd, hidden somewhere in the Bhadralok,who vote every other month that Left rule is over in Bengal. She is critical of the leftist intellectuals who are academic (studied), but has Sagarika ever wondered why CNN-IBN is so averse to facts. Why it is India’s upcoming “FOX” circus that makes no sense.

Who is Sagarika’s people of India? The Welch critic would take issue with Sagarika for repeating the same idea “Walmart” and “FDI in retail” in a sentence. Maybe it is just a pointer on who her “sugar daddies” are, who recently bought her very costly pen or yeah wordprocessor.

Its difficult to think of a left leader or intellectual articulate a real paradigm shift. Leftspeak is still about “imperialism” and “sovereignty” and “global capital” and “secular fabric”.

“imperialism”, “sovereignty”, “global capital” and “secular fabric” are very important words Sagarika. It means the difference of life and death for all of us, thats why the leftists use them. Maybe your words “Walmart”, “Hedge funds”, “Sweat shops” and “Tax sops” pull in more money for YOU – their mercenary. But until they pay us, should we dance?

“All over the world air travel has become mass travel.”

Sagarika. You are lost little girl.

“If China has allowed Walmart and even persuaded Walmart to allow unions when it does not allow them, then why does the Left believe it cannot do the same for India”

Mohanlal, playing M.N.Karthikeyan (not M.N.Nambiar), asked “So what! So what! I do not understand. So What!”.

I’m kidding Sagarika, you wouldn’t have noticed the South of India. We exist, make movies and all. Leave that. Well, there have been several instances in China, where “paid” journalist mercenaries (Word Count : Walmart – 5) were rounded up and screwed big time. Then I really don’t know why the Left believes it cannot do the same in India.

“As our economy opens, perhaps there is need for the Left to open its mind, otherwise the longest serving Marxist-led state government will make sure that India is soon rid of all its Marxists.”

A school kid would perhaps ask why the Marxists head the longest serving government in India, If Sagarika hasn’t yet, she should. She should ask why any state that had a Communist government in India goes back to the marxists time and again. Why politics in Kerala, despite the party in power is always leftist. Once a race tastes leftist ideology, why they never let it go. Why people love the Leftists? The answer is pretty simple, the leftist governments love their people. It could appear very simple, then it is.

Bloody Mary used to give some hope in the CNN-IBN circus, but Sagarika has lost it. Devoid of facts, crouched in some glass tower Sagarika proves she is just Mrs. Rajdeep Sardesai. There is a business to run, promises to keep.

Vintage post from Vantage Point, 

Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN covering the Mumbai Serial blasts - “These pictures are now being beamed on all CNN networks all over the world. Indians all over the world watching CNN are now watching CNN-IBN. This is the power of CNN-IBN”.

Yes Rajdeep, we are very proud of you. Your timing for patting yourself on the back is admirable.

One could ask, why I go back again and again to her columns if i so disagree.

Maybe, this is why