Page 1: Allege freely Page 10: Denial

The Hindu published a front page article yesterday - in essence saying that Pakistan has lodged some secret complaint with the UN that the Indian Army killed its civilians and soldiers over the last 15 years. 

Remember, front page. 

Today, the Indian army denied Pakistan's claims. Which page was it published?

Page 10 - the last letter in "Letters to Editor" column.

The author says this denial did not come when he mailed them before publishing the story. How does that imply that they can publish such a story on page 1 and a denial in some obscure corner of the paper? 

This happened earlier too - Guilty, Page1. Not Guilty-Page 14

The "power" struggle in AP...

This article was written for Niti Central. Reproducing it here. 

Would the state be divided or not? Will the Congress buy peace with Jagan? When will Jagan come out of jail? Will TDP President, Chandrababu Naidu gain from his 114 day (and still counting) padayatra? Will PCC President buy peace with the AP CM? Will Cong-MIM rift affect peace in Hyderabad? 

These and many such questions might dominate dining table discussions across the state, but come first week of the month - the only thing every single family dreads is the power bill. The power of woes in AP are not some recent random occurrence - they have been around in a sustained manner since nearly 2 years. 

The woes first began in Aug-Sep 2011. There were production related issues (owing to strikes etc) and instead of trying to atleast resolve the issue, the AP government started imposing power cuts on hapless consumers. Matters did not improve even days after the strike was called off. Infact matters started to become worse, and the government increased the time of power cuts in the state. And when there was uproar from the hapless citizenry, we were given the ultimate explanation - the power situation is precarious in the entire country! A side note here: When the power scenario was "precarious" in the country, Sushil Kumar Shinde was the Power Minister! 

But am being vague about these power cuts, so please allow me to give you some details on the timings. It started like this - 2 hours in cities, 4 hours in district HQ, 6 hours in municipalities  8 hours in mandal HQ and 12 hours in villages. In November 2011, it was emphatically announced that there will be no power for villages during the day time. We were also told that if "If any village gets supply for one or two hours during daytime now, it may be by mistake of the field staff."

And since then, the power cut times have been slowly increased by an additional 2 hours. So the state was facing power cuts for 4-14 hours. 4-14 hours per day! Thankfully, since October last these power cuts are not happening (for long hours) but we are being warned that the upcoming summer is going to bring back those haunted memories! 

Domestic consumers will still survive these power cuts. What about industries? The power situation went so bad that the government, at one point of time had to tell industries to have a 4 day power holiday per week! That's right - industries were running only in 12 days per month! Their situation is still precarious. All small scale industries have been hit badly - since they cannot afford to have more man power than required for those 12 days, layoffs had to happen. And it takes no genius to understand that lesser number of working days leads to lesser production which leads to slower growth! 

It was widely advertised that the farmers though are still getting 7 hours of power supply; that there would be no compromise on that aspect (even if others had to compromise massively). With a situation as precarious as this, it is anybody's guess if farmers were getting 7 hours of power supply too! 

So now we have all sections of the society pretty much frustrated with long hours of power cut, for more than a year - unfortunately this situation did not receive as much attention in the "national media" as much as the TN power situation received, but that debate is not needed now. 

I mentioned that these power cuts have come down since October, so you must be wondering what is all the fuss about now? Amidst all this, the government first increased the cost per unit. Understandable, since no increase has been effected since 2004. And before the hapless consumer could grasp the repercussions of this increase, another bombshell was dropped. A new concept called Fuel Surcharge Adjustment (FSA) was introduced! Many consumers were even unaware of what this FSA even meant - all we knew is that an inflated bill started showing up and we had no option but to pay.  Simply put - the distribution companies are transferring the fuel charges incurred in 2009-2010 to the hapless consumer in 2012-2013. So even if one did not stay in that house in 2009-2010, one still has to bear the tax burden on electricity consumption that one was not responsible for! 

Let's leave the jargon aside. A snapshot of two different bills from two different consumers in two different months! below:

Consumers plan for a monthly budget of  Rs. 400- Rs. 500/- at the end of the month, a bill ends up at their home that says they hve to pay Rs. 1500! And this tax will be imposed till July 2013. So from October 2012 to July 2013, every single bill will have amounts that are 50-200% higher than the actual energy consumption bill. Explanations would not matter to small time consumers - to dish out Rs.1000-1500 instead of Rs. 450, all of a sudden is a burden many will find it difficult to take! 

As if this was not enough, early this month, the state government was presented with proposals to effect another massive hike in the power tariff itself! The uproar amongst political circles and the local media must be seen to be believed. Entire local media dedicated front page space for about a week on this topic, detailing how the proposals will break our backs. Ministers themselves were strongly opposing these proposals (Congress has an amazing work culture, no?) - for now they have been put on hold but it wouldn't be long that another tarriff hike will be effected. 

And worse of all, there have been no words of solace from the Chief Minister. All that we keep hearing from him is that the consumer has to bear this burden; we keep hearing that the power situation is precarious and the consumer has to support the government (as if we have a choice). Sometime in these 2 years, we were also told that the problem is because of Reliance also, but frankly will the consumer care? 

So whilst the political unrest and machinations make good dining table discussion points, the woeful power management in this state is what will spell doom for the Congress government. 

A compilation of all his rants!

This piece was written for Niti Central. Reposting it here: 

In the summer of 2007, Rahul Gandhi uttered these sagely words: "I belong to the family which has never moved backwards, which has never gone back on its words. You know that when any member of my family had decided to do anything, he does it. Be it the freedom struggle, the division of Pakistan or taking India to the 21st century"

In the spring of 2011, Rahul Gandhi enlightened us by saying: "Corruption is taking place because doors of the political system are closed and the average person who wants to do good is not allowed in"

In the winter of 2013, Rahul Gandhi further asserted, by saying this (amongst many other gems): "All our public systems....are designed to keep people with knowledge out. They are closed systems. They are designed to promote mediocrity."

Ever since that summer of 2007, Rahul Gandhi has been dishing out such rhetoric on a very regular basis. Rahul Gandhi's latest Jaipur speech would have been just another repetitive rant against the "system", but for the fact that he was appointed as the Vice President of the ruling party of this country. And hence it becomes imperative for us to understand what exactly he wanted to convey. There was a lot of anger in the speech. A lot of "we" don't do this, "we" don't do that etc - but ranting is what we mere mortals would do. "Leaders" like Rahul Gandhi and "his family" have been given the opportunity to show us the solutions for these rants - which they have spectacularly failed to do. 

In his Jaipur speech, he also says "Power is grossly centralized in this country. We don't believe in empowering all the way to bottom." Who exactly is "we" here? His family? His party? Or the wretched "aam aadmi"? 

There was a lot of anger that poured out in his speech. At the fag end of his angry rant, he says thus: 

"The time has come to question the centralized, unresponsive and unaccountable systems of decision making in governance, administration and politics....The answer is to completely transform the system".

Perhaps this is the time to take a quick look at who led this wretched "system".  Rahul Gandhi's great grandfather headed this "system" for 17 years. His grandmother headed it for 16 years. His father headed it for 5 years. His mother has been heading it for 9 years (and still continues to head it). That makes it a grand, 17+16+5+9 = 47 years. The ever magnanimous Rahul Gandhi always fails to mention 2 other Prime Ministers (who are not from his "family") from the Congress, who have ruled us for 7 years. So, that makes it 54 years out of the 65 years we've had independence! 

So essentially the bulk of his speech is a damning indictment of the very same political system nurtured for 47 whopping years by his own family! Strong words were used left and right - no accountability, no respect for rules, all mediocre leaders - yet this speech is being hailed for it's "emotional" value. In the entire speech, there is not a single solution he proposes for all the ills his family has thrust upon us. He makes the cursory reference to Aadhar cards, MNREGA, RTE, DCT etc, but that's about it. He even rues that the very same Congress party headed by his family gives little regard to rules, and yet somehow manages to win elections because "India is in it's DNA". 

9 years is long enough time to bring in massive changes - we have leaders who have shown us what can be done in 5 years only! Yet, Rahul Gandhi does not have a single achievement to boast of (as an MP, as general secretary of his party). He seeks more time to bring in changes, telling us that he learnt that we have to correct things however long it takes! Irony died a million deaths when Rahul Gandhi rued that mediocre people become powerful in this country. 

It might not be a big deal for many, but when a "leader" reads out even personal anecdotes and experience from a written speech, it speaks volumes about his articulation abilities. Flawless articulation comes when there is clarity of thought - something that's missing in Rahul Gandhi, as is evident from his rant at Jaipur. Remember he said " You know that when any member of my family had decided to do anything, he does it." Are we to infer that his family decided to to bring in all those ills he is frustrated about? 

The speech is merely a compilation of all his incoherent rants all these years, and has failed to convey anything to the people of this country. The compliant media doesn't seem to question him on any of these aspects - they are just happy to tag along with his "emotional" speech. A cursory reading of various newspapers and viewing of various news channels only create the impression that he is the "eternal opposition leader" waiting and wanting to usher in the much needed change and relief to our "system". Or maybe that's the gameplan - to isolate Rahul Gandhi from the ills of UPA 1 and UPA 2 and set the stage for UPA 3 based on anti-incumbency of UPA 1 and 2! If that succeeds, we have no one else to blame, except us. 

అదే మాయ, అదే మాధుర్యం

"గోవుళ్ళు తెల్లన గోపయ్య నల్లనా, గోధూళి ఎర్రన ఎందువలన" - సప్తపది సినిమా లోని ఈ పాట జానకి గారు పాడి దాదాపు 30 ఏళ్ళు కావొస్తుంది. చిన్న పిల్లల గొంతుకి జానకి గారి గొంతు మాత్రమె సరిపోయేది ఆ రోజుల్లో.

మొన్న శనివారం నాడు "మా మ్యూసిక్" అవార్డ్స్ కార్యక్రమానికి మేము వెళ్ళాము. జానకి గారికి జీవన సాఫల్య పురస్కారం ఇచ్చారు ఈ కార్యక్రమం లో. దాదాపు 30 ఏళ్ల తరువాత కూడా గొంతు లోని అదే మాయ, మాధుర్యాన్ని వినిపిస్తూ, జానకి గారు చిన్న పిల్లాడి గొంతు లో మల్లి ఇదే పాట  పాడి వినిపించారు. ఒక్క సారి గా సభ  మొత్తం ఈలలు, కరతాలధ్వనులతో  తో మారు మొగిపోయింది. నాలుగు గంటల పాటు జరిగిన కార్యక్రమం లో ఏ ఒక్క సారి కూడా సభ మొత్తం ఒకే సారి ఇంత పెద్ద ఎత్తున చప్పట్లు కొట్టలేదు!

మా అదృష్టం అంతటితో ఆగలేదు. సభ కు విచ్చేసిన వారి కోరికను మన్నిస్తూ, జానకి గారు "మౌనమేలనోయి" పాడారు. సభికుల పులకరింత చూదాల్సిందే తప్ప, చెప్పలేము ! ఒక్క సారిగా అందరు లేచి మరి చప్పట్లు, ఈలలు !

మా అదృష్టం అంతటి తోనూ  ఆగలేదు. జయసుధ గారు మాట్లాడుతూ, "సిరిమల్లె పువ్వల్లె నవ్వు" పాత కి జానకి గారు నవ్వింత అందంగా తను నటించలేక పోయాను అని చెప్పారు. తరువాత జానకి గారు మాట్లాడుతూ, అప్పటికి ఇప్పటికి జయసుధ సిరిమల్లె పువ్వల్లె ఉంది అంటూ కితాబు ఇచ్చారు. ఒక్క సారి నవ్వు అని జయసుధ ని అడిగారు. జయసుధ గారు "మీరు నవ్వండి, నేను నట్టిస్తాను " అని చెప్పారు -జానకి గారు  ఆ పాట లో నవ్వినట్టే నవ్వేసారు ! సభికులు ఇంత కన్నా ఎక్కువ ఏమి ఆడగలరు చెప్పండి!

ఇంకా కొంచం సేపు ఈ సన్మానం కొనసాగి ఉంటె బాగుండు అని అనిపించింది. ఇంకా కొంచెం సేపు ముందే మొదలు పెట్టి ఉంటె బాగుండేది.

కాని,  అరగంట పాటు "ఐటెం" సాంగ్స్ కోసం కేటాయించారు :( . బుర్ర వేడెక్కిపోయింది  అసలు - అర్ధం పర్ధం లేని బాష, అంత కన్నా అంతుపట్టని , చెవులు మీద భారం వేసే "బీట్స్"! ఎప్పుడు ఎప్పుడు అయ్యిపోతుందా అని వేచి చూస్తూనే ఉన్నాం ! ఈ అరగంట మోత అయ్యిన తరువాత చెవులకి వినసొంపు గా ఉండే జానకి గారు పాటలని పాడి వినిపించారు, ఈ తరం గాయని మణులు. హమయ్య అనుకుంటున్నా తరుణం లో , సమయాభావం వాళ్ళ ఆ పాటల్ని ఆపేసి సన్మాన కార్యక్రమం మొదలు పెట్టారు!

ఈ కార్యక్రమం లో మేము ఆస్వాదించిన మరో ఘట్టం - చిత్ర గారు 6-7 పాటలు పాడారు. ఎంత ఎదిగినా ఎలా ఒదిగి ఉండాలి అని చిత్ర గారిని చూసే నేర్చుకోవాలి. ఆవిడ మాటల్లో లోని నిజాయితి బహుశా ఇంకా ఎవ్వరిలో ఉండదు ఏమో. జానకి గారికి సన్మానం జరుగుతున్నప్పుడు కూడా ఆవిడా అందరికంటే వెనకాలే నించున్నారు! "నాకు అమ్మ లేదు, జానకి గారే నాకు అమ్మ" అని ఆమె జానికి గారి పక్కనే కుర్చుని చెప్పారు! చిత్ర గారు పాడుతునంత సేపు సభికులు పరవసిన్చిపోయారు! ఇంత కన్నా ఇంకేం కావాలి అంది ఒక సంగీత కార్యక్రమ నుంచి :)

పండిట్ జనార్ధన్ అని ఒక సితార్ కళాకారుడు ఒకళ్ళు ఉన్నారు అని నాకు ఆ రోజే తెలిసింది. నేను ఎంతో ఇష్టం గ వినే ఘంటసాల భగవద్గిత కి సితార్ ఆయనే వాయించారు అని తెలుసుకుని మురిసిపోయాను ! కార్యక్రమం లో సితార్ కళాకారులు అందరు, ఆయనకీ ఇచ్చిన మర్యాద అపూర్వం ! కాకపోతే అయన పక్కన ఒక్క సినిమా తీసిన గబ్బరి సింగ్ డైరెక్టర్ కూర్చోవడమే నాకు ఇబ్బంది అనిపించింది!

మొదట్లో కోటి గారు కొన్ని పాటలు పాడారు - "ఈ పేట కి నేనే మేస్త్రి" లాంటి "మాస్" పాటలు పాడారు - ఈ మధ్య వచ్చే "ఐటెం" సాంగ్స్ కంటే ఎంతో వినసొంపు గా ఉన్నాయి అలనాటి "మాస్" పాటలు!  మొత్తానికి ఆ రోజు సాయంత్రం చాల ఆస్వాదించాం - ఆ అరగంట "ఐటెం" సాంగ్స్ లేకుండా ఉంటె, జానకి గారి సన్మానం ఇంకా బాగుండేది ఏమో :)

చివరిగా ఒక మాట. ఒక కార్యక్రమం ని నిర్వహించాలి అంటే,  సుమ ని ఎవ్వరు దాటలేరు. పక్కన ఉన్న వాళ్ళు ఎవ్వరు ఆమె తో సరి తూగరు .

  

Blow to media, not to Modi!

This article was written for Niti Central. Reposting it here for reference :).

I am no legal luminary, nor am I a wannabe lawyer. I mostly rely on written articles available on the web/newspapers, to understand Court judgements.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of India gave its ruling on the appointment of Lokayukta in Gujarat. The popular site DeshGujarat.com has a detailed timeline of this case. Immediately after the verdict was out, news media was out in full force. The celebrated "Blow to Modi" headline was back!

Let's take a look at the initial report in NDTV. Snapshot below (thanks to tweeple - sharmarohitraj):

To make it easier, I will zoom into the operative portion of this report:

The image might not be clear, because I had to zoom into this a lot. So I will just paste below the text (emphasis mine):

"Mr. Modi challenged the appointment on the grounds that the Governor has not consulted his cabinet. The Supreme Court disagreed. The judges said that the Governor must seek the advice of the cabinet to select the Lokayukta, and this was done. "

Pretty plain english. Easy for any layman to understand. Essentially, according to the report, the SC was saying that the Gujarat government lied to them when they said they had not been consulted. I was wondering why such a simple factual case had to go all the way to the Supreme Court - after all, all correspondence between the Governor and the cabinet will be documented well! 

Please note - this report was filed moments after the verdict was given. And told us that the SC said that the cabinet was consulted. 

Guess what! NDTV changed their report by the evening. 

Let me present to you a zoomed in version of the operative part:

"Mr. Modi has argued that the Governor did not consult his cabinet for the appointment. The Supreme Court appeared to agree with that."

Whoa! In the morning - "The Supreme Court disagreed.". In the evening - "The Supreme Court appeared to agree with that". How is this possible? The only way this is possible is that NDTV was in a tearing hurry to put up an article without checking on the facts! And what does "appeared to agree" even mean? What kind of a language is this?

The Supreme Court judgement can be found here: http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/outtoday/39886.pdf . The staff at NDTV must really be some geniuses, to have read and filed in a report in no time! 

It details out the reasons for the delay so far in appointing a Lokayukta. (Just FYI - NDTV merely says "The post has been lying vacant since 2003.")

On pages 55 and 56 of this exhaustive 82 page judgment, all three judges agree (and not "appear to agree") that the Governor has to take the advice of the council of ministers. There are other nuances in the case, which I will leave it for the legal experts to explain to all of us. My understanding is that though the cabinet was not consulted, the CM was in the know of the discussions between the Chief Justice and the Governor, and since majority of the stake holders agree with the appointment of Justice Mehta as the Lokayukta, the Gujarat government's request was not accepted. 

The limited point I am trying to make here is the media's overzealousness in reporting anything remotely negative on Mr. Narendra Modi. Most NDTV scrolls refer to "Governor" and "Modi". Why not name the Governor, if you are naming the Chief Minister? This was a case filed by the Gujarat government, not by Mr. Narendra Modi in his personal capacity. So why is the uniformity lacking in the media, while reporting such stuff? That's all, Your Honour :) 

The death and funeral of the gangrape victim...

On the night of 26th December, in a series of tweets, NDTV's group editor tweets information she received from "sources" about an impending Cabinet decision. 

Even before an official announcement was made, it was leaked that the girl will be shifted to Singapore. Very little further information was flowing. Many questions remained unanswered, and since this happened in the middle of the night, the morning newspapers simply gave out information regarding the move to Singapore. 

On the evening of December 27th, NDTV even enlightened us with "How the plan to fly 'Amanat' to Singapore took shape". We were told that there were a "series of well-coordinated moves". NDTV also tells us that the government wanted to move the girl to a country with "liberal organ transplant laws". Read the article to find out more on the "series of well-coordinated moves".

On the morning of 28th December, The Hindu had this front page story. 

The story goes on to tell us that the doctors were only asked "were only asked if the patient was fit to be airlifted — not if the move was medically advisable."

The debate raged on - why exactly was the girl shifted to Singapore. Some said that the government feared more law and order problems if she were to die in Delhi. Some believed that the government actually meant good and sent her to a country with "liberal organ transplant laws". Some believed it was inhuman on the part of the this government to have sent her to Singapore at this stage. None knew who accompanied the girl to the Singapore hospital. 

Unfortunately, the girls condition started detoriating ever since she made it to the Singapore hospital. And on the morning of 29th December, she passed away. 

Her body was bought to Delhi in the early hours of 30th December (3:30 am according to this report). This report also tells us that the body was taken to the crematorium by 6 am in the morning. And by 7:30, the funeral was completed. Multiple reports have also mentioned as to how the police rushed the family into completing the funeral as soon as possible, fearing law and order problems. 

Imagine this folks. You lose your child to a ghastly crime. Someone is breathing down your neck to hasten the funeral. Just imagine how you would feel. That's exactly what this UPA government did. Many loved ones must have missed seeing her for one last time. At 3:30 the body came to India and at 6:00 it was at the crematorium - so imagine the rush with which the last rites would have been conducted. 

Custom says that funeral can happen only after sunrise - yet it is being reported that the family was pressurized into completing it earlier. Thankfully, the family stood their ground. 

So many questions still remain unanswered:

1. Did the doctors first approach the government, seeking to move her to Singapore? If not, what exactly prompted the cabinet to discuss the possibility of moving her to Singapore, under such conditions?
2. If NDTV report is to be believed, the Home Minister wanted to move her to a country with "liberal organ transplant laws". How different are the laws different from India? Why don't we have "liberal organ transplant laws?"
3. Was the family consulted about this move, or were they coerced into this move? Who spoke to the family regarding this move? Doctors or government officials?
4. Who accompanied the girl to Singapore? Was anyone from the family not allowed to go, even if they wished to? 
5. Was the arrival of the body at 3:30 am in the night pre-planned? Who in the family okayed this move?
6. Were the family members given enough time to grieve at the body?
7. Why was the funeral rushed through? Why was the already traumatized family of the girl put through further trauma? 
8. Despite knowing that the Hindu custom does not allow for funeral before sun rise, who pushed the family into completing it before sunrise? Police? If so, whose orders were they following?
9. Some reports indicate the fiance of the girl, who fought with the goons was not able to attend the funeral. Is this true?
10. This report says - " The electronic media was not present as Broadcast Editors' Association had asked news channels to refrain from covering the funeral." Was this a voluntary decision or was it prompted by the government (it's possible - read this order on the 23rd Dec) ? 

I believe it is utterly inhuman on the part of this UPA government to have resorted to such tactics. The "law and order" situation arose because of their mishandling (Part-1 and Part-2 of this mishandling have been documented). - and to rub their inefficiency into traumatizing the family further is incomprehensible. But then, what better can we expect from such a government? 

The political response to the mass protests - Part-2

Part -1 of the political response is here. 

In the first part, we discussed about the sequence of events and the lazy responses of the powers that be, to the ever developing crisis over the past few days. This part will talk exclusively about the top 3 people incharge of the country. 

1. Prime Minister's address to the nation.

One of the most fundamental things when a speech is written (at any level... from debate competitions in schools to the level of Prime Minister of India) is to start with a "Hello all" (or an equivalent phrase) and end with a "Thank You" (or an equivalent phrase). The audience will therefore know when the speech started and when it ended. 

In the early 90's, I was fascinated as to how Mr. Shanti Swarup of DD news (telugu) mugged up the entire news and is reading without looking at a paper (something he used to do before). It was then explained to me that they are reading from a prompter. Since then, a prompter has become a daily part of news reading. Leaders addressing the state/nation on TV have also started using this "technology". 

With this background, let's come to what happened on December 24th, 2012. (Part-1 explains what happened till the 23rd)

The press advisor to the Prime Minister, Mr. Pankaj Pachauri, tweets this: 

"Prime Minister to address the nation in a few minutes."

There were news reports since morning that the PM will address the nation that day, mostly at ~12pm. This tweet was sent at ~9:40 am. We were then told that the address would be at 10 am. 

Once the address started, I was surprised to see the Prime Minister of India reading from a piece of paper and not from the prompter. I was surprised as to why no prompter was provided to the Prime Minister. The speech began on a rhetorical note, and after about a minute, the PM stops and after a couple of seconds - asks the cameraman -"Theek"? 

The country watched as the Prime Minister mechanically read out a speech, looked towards the cameraman and said "Theek"? It spoke volumes about the intention behind speaking in the first place! There was considerable justified outrage against this goof-up. What was the action taken? 5 DD employees were suspended! ANI News telecasted this clip, because DD employees were late it seems! And because they were late, they were suspsended! 

Many questions started going through my mind -

• Why did the speech end so abruptly? Why was there no "Thank you" or a "Jai Hind" at the end of the speech? How is the cameraman supposed to know the speech has ended?
• I got a doubt and looked at previous speeches of this Prime Minister. In his lengthy address to the nation on September 21st, he ends with a Jai Hind. A randomly picked "statement to the media" , he ends with a Thank You. 
• So why was this speech written in such a hasty manner? What was the crying hurry to go on air at 10am?
• I first thought this was a live address, and there is no point in blaming the ANI cameraman. But reading this article on firstpost, I realised that this was recorded earlier and then aired. 
• Which makes it even more embarrasing! Why did the highly paid press advisor to the Prime Minister not vet this clip before it was aired? Who approved the airing of the clip? Why is the highly paid press advisor not being questioned about this lapse?
• Some questions that were going through my mind were posed in this Firstpost article too - why should 5 hapless employees be suspended for something that was massively goofed up by the highly paid press advisor to the PM? 
• If this was not a goof up by the highly paid press advisor, why is he not coming clean on it?

Here's the link to the official video that was tweeted by the PM's office. Notice how at the end of the address, the PM looks towards the cameraman. Here's the link to the text of the speech - see how hastily it is written. The speech sums up the intention of this establishment - casual to the core. 

2. The Home Minister's interviews to multiple TV channels. 

The time management skills of the government was so superb that at the exact same time that the Prime Minister's address was being aired, the Home Minister was busy giving interviews to various news channels! First, I don't understand why a person as busy as the Home Minister of India should given exclusive interviews? Why can't he just call for a press conference (like he did earlier) and get done with it? 

Anyways, here's the first interview he gave. This one was to Rajdeep Sardesai - Editor-in-Chief of CNN-IBN. This was a very hard hitting interview. Rajdeep asks the Home Minister why they did not deem it fit to go out there and assuage the crowds? What followed was shocking beyond belief. 

The Home Minister of country says that he can't go and meet anyone and everyone who protests like this. He says that tomorrow Maoists will come and protest - "should we go and meet them?". He doesn't stop there - "If tomorrow 100 adivasis are killed in Gadchiroli, should the government go to them?" 

Note the choice of words - "should the government go to them?"! Baffling, shocking etc are all very small words to describe this low-level thinking process. Ofcourse the government has to go any place, where people are killed ! This man is incharge of the security of this country, and this is how callously he thinks. But since this callous thinking is not the "main issue", we are to simply forget about his utterances and move on. 

In the same interview he says that the protestors should have withdrawn after Sonia Gandhi spoke to them. He says all the action (meaning good points) that was taken by the UPA was after Sonia Gandhi telephoned him. He does not commit anything on the violence on Saturday and Sunday - he justifies what happened and says that an enquiry will be held. He abruptly ends the interview because of some hard hitting questions by Rajdeep. 

Next up - NDTV. He repeats this same stuff, but the interviewer, Barkha Dutt is less shocked about this. After that, I stopped viewing any further interviews! Later in the day we are told that:

Sh.Shinde: Govt has taken firm action on all demands of the protesters. Appeals them to return home.

Firm action = setting up of a committee to come up with recommendations for stricter laws; deciding to fast track this particular rape case to ensure speedy justice etc. Not a single word on the violence on both Saturday and Sunday. It's almost as if nothing happened on both the days. 

3. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of UPA. 

All we know is that:

•  she met some "protestors" and promised that action will be taken. 
• she demanded speedy justice. 
• she telephoned the Home Minister to take "action". He followed her orders (he himself said so, in not so many words)
• she wrote to the Chief Minister of Delhi "demanding" action. 

Such has been the political response to the mass protests that rocked the capital city of the country, right under their nose. Imagine the callousness if this happened at a place far away from them. Be scared, very scared that we are being led by these people. 

The Political response to the mass protests - Part-1

The last few days have been very stressing on the country. The last few days have also exposed the depths of ineptness (yet again) to which the UPA government can plunge to. Not wanting to be left far behind, sections of the "national" media competed with the UPA too! In a three part blog series, I wish to detail out the happenings over the past 10 days and discuss the political and media response to these events. 

From 17th December to 21st December 

On the night of December 17th, two friends (a boy and a girl) boarded a bus in Delhi at about 9:30 in the night. There were 6 people in the bus - these 6 people assaulted the boy; raped the girl and also assaulted her brutally. So bad was the girl assaulted that her intestines had to be removed, and she is still very critical and is fighting for life. The boy is recovering slowly and is able to walk around. All the 6 accused have been arrested, and produced in the court. They have agreed to having committed this crime. Infact, one of them has reportedly asked the judge to give him the death penalty! 

Since this happened in the heart of the capital city of India, the ugly incident set off a huge uproar - allegations flew left and right - the police were blamed for not stopping a bus with tinted glasses; for not patrolling enough; for not being serious enough about security to women etc. There were widespread demands that rapists should get the death penalty and nothing less. Fellow blogger at RealityCheckIndia superbly captures this entire death penalty for rape issue here. There is no further need to elaborate on that topic in this blog now. 

Violence on Saturday, December 21. 

Quite naturally, the outrage over this ghastly crime was to spill onto the street. Only this time, "street" became India Gate. On Saturday, December 21st, a leaderless crowd started gathering at India Gate, demanding "justice". "Justice" included tougher laws (like death penalty), fast track courts etc. The number of people turning up was just increasing by the minute. 

According to this report in The Hindu - "As the crowd swelled, it began moving up on Rajpath towards Rashtrapati Bhavan." And because "Raisina Hill" is a very high security zone, the police had to use water cannons and tear gas shells. 

NDTV reporters on twitter and on TV that day were continuously harping on "lumpen" elements in the crowd that have resorted to violence and they have hijacked this entire movement. They were continuously telling us that certain political groups have infiltrated the crowd and are now trying to politicize the event. 

So what exactly happened? Here's the depressing answer - we do not know. 

Who are those "lumpen elements"? Do we have even a single video which shows that these elements first provoked the police? If there was no provocation, why was such force used? Water canons, tear gas shells, lathi charges - all these were hurled towards peaceful protestors. Was this done only to prevent them from marching towards the high security area of Raisina Hill? When thousands of people are marching towards the power center of the country, why did no elected representative think it fit to come and talk to the crowd? Even assuming that "lumpen elements" in the crowd did provoke and instigate the police into such dreadful action - are our police not trained to differentiate between the "lumpen elements" and the rest? Why go about hitting anyone and everyone in the path? 

We need to know the answers to these questions, because it is this violence on Saturday that paved way for more on Sunday. 

Later, in the night (midnight infact), reports started pouring in that Sonia Gandhi "stepped out" of her house to meet "protestors" outside her house. Apparently, this same set of people also met the minister "incharge of internal security", Mr. RPN Singh (picture below). Assurances were apparently given that their "demands" will be definetely looked into. 

Some say they are NSUI activists, some say they were part of a sub group. So, who exactly were these "protestors"?  Here's the depressing answer - we do not know. 

Violence on Sunday, December 23rd. 

Now since Raisina Hill was off-bounds, the protesters were back at India Gate on Sunday, 23rd of December. They were back, because they were clueless on assurances. They were back because they now want to protest against Saturday's violence too. The police asked them to move to Jantar Mantar since there is no permission to protest at India Gate. The violence that ensued during the day was very reprehensible. 

In today's editorial, The Hindu says this:

"The police was ordered by the Union Home Ministry to clear the India Gate area of all protesters —evidently because of its desire to host Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, at Hyderabad House. "

In it's front page report on Monday morning, The Hindu had to say this: 

"Despite pleas by peaceful protesters, hooligans and political elements, including members of the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena that had assaulted Aam Aadmi leader Prashant Bhushan, battled policemen, damaged vehicles and set ablaze wooden lawn seats." 

That report itself goes on to explain that the assault by the police started well before "hooligans and political elements" battled policemen. Why was "Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena" singled out? Guess what - the police have registered cases against people who are supposedly members of the "Aam Aadmi Party" - so who do we believe now?

Why is there so much contradiction then? If the police were "ordered", were they also told on how to "clear the India Gate"? Who in the Home Ministry gave these orders? Incase you folks are not able to visualize how peaceful protestors got hit - there are many video available. Sample this one. A slide show of pics is also available here. Pictures clearly show who were throwing stones etc. Now, do you get the intensity of the violence that happened on Sunday? 

Also remember folks, it is the violence on Saturday that led to the violence on Sunday - that is the key point. There is a very very concerted effort to isolate the violence on Sunday with the one on Saturday. Even the Home Minister says that there will be an inquiry into the "India gate crackdown" - nothing about Raisina Hill !

So who precipitated the entire situation? Again - we do not know! 

So, who exactly is incharge? 

The Chief Minister of Delhi came on TV and said that the police is not under her control - so she cannot do anything. She started getting emotional and even said that she does not have the courage to face the victim. She was apparently hurt that Delhi was being labelled as the "rape capital" but she also says there is truth to it. The rape capital! 

She kept reminding us that the Lt. Governor of Delhi controls the police directly. Meanwhile, PTI puts up a report that the Union Home minister of state, who is "incharge of internal security" did a surprise inspection of Delhi buses. So the police reports to the Lt. Governor, who reports to the MoS Home, who reports to the Home Minister of the country, who reports to the Prime Minister of the country (constitutionally). 

The Lt. Governor was in the US, while all this was happening. He returned only on Monday, December 24th. MoS, Home, Mr. RPN Singh met "protestors" and promised to take a look at their demands. He was non-committal on who ordered the charge on the protestors. He even apologized to those who were physically hurt. 

The Home Minister of the country first held a press conference. On Monday morning, he spoke to multiple TV channels. A separate blog post is needed to analyse what he spoke. Till such time, here's an interview that you can watch and decide for yourself. 

The Prime Minister asked the Home Minister to take appropriate "action". The Home Minister says he took action because Sonia Gandhi telephoned him and said so. 

The chairperson of the ruling UPA coalition, Smt. Sonia Gandhi writes to the  CM "demanding" that action be taken and the CM laments that she has no power to do anything. Why then is Sonia Gandhi writing to the CM? How has the main issue of rape manifested into so many issues of multiple dimensions?Who exactly was incharge of this whole fiasco? 

We do not know!  

Death of constable Subhash Tomar...

Too many things to blog about, over the past few days. But first, the need to document the media's coverage on the death of policeman, Mr. Subhash Tomar needs to take precedence. 

On the 23rd of December, Barkha Dutt tweeted this (thanks to mediacrooks for the image): 

Note the words very carefully - "...died as some people in the crowd turned violent"

Sometime later, the tweet was merely deleted. No clarification was forthcoming - the tweet just disappeared! Why? 

Here's the reason: 

That's right - moments after "reports" came in that he died, "reports" came in that he was critical. Rajdeep (and others) found it prudent to clarify. Barkha merely deleted it - no clarification was forthcoming. For someone who likes lecturing people on the need for "nuance" and clarity, it is appalling that she thought it fit not to clarify and merely delete. 

The debate picked up momentum saying, it is because of this violence that he is critical; that he receieved serious injuries as he was "beaten up". 

Unfortunately, Mr. Subhash Tomar expired on the 25th of December. 

Sample this NDTV report first: 

".... who had suffered serious injuries" . In the second para, they write: 

It was initially reported that he had suffered a heart attack after being injured. But top police officials later denied these reports and alleged that Mr Tomar was beaten up by hooligans among the protesters.

Initially reported? By whom? NDTV? Is there even a single report on NDTV where it was "reported" that Mr. Subhash Tomar had a heart attack? None. 

Fellow tweeter (cmmanoj) sent over this link in IE, where it is mentioned that the version of the doctors and the police are very different. No such story on NDTV. 

They don't stop here. They have a 36 minute discussion on this: 

Note the text below the video. "...badly assaulted by protestors". The first question that the anchor Vishnu Som poses is this- "Twitter is abuzz with rumours that Mr. Tomar died of a heart attack and not an assault. Can you confirm this?". He poses this question to the ACP of Delhi, and she says they have proof of him being attacked. After getting another reconfirmation, Mr. Vishnu moves on to some leader of AAP and demands to know "what on earth was Arvind Kejriwal" doing there. 

Do they mean to suggest that Mr. Kejriwal incited the unruly elements? If so, is there any proof? If so, why is  it not being shown? If not, how come such wild allegations are being made left and right?

Now, let's take a look at these "rumours" on twitter. First on 24th December, we were told that the Doctors at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital told that Mr. Subash Tomar suffered an heart attach and there were no external injuries. But then these were "rumours" only on twitter, that none of the main stream media guys bothered to confirm. 

Then came this picture: 

This picture shows Mr. Tomar lying on the ground. Three people, including one girl who is bandaged on her head are trying to help him. But then the picture is not clear. We do not know for sure if it is Mr. Tomar in the picture. So the "rumours" still stay. 

Next came this: 

Everyone can see very clearly - there is no sign of "serious injuries". No sign of being "badly assaulted". No chance of this being a "rumour" - A "rumour" that the main stream media did not bother to confirm. 

The boy who is seen helping Mr. Tomar came out last evening and refuted the claim of Delhi Police. In his own words, here.

He has made some damaging revelations - that he was the one who took him to the hospital; that the policemen just left him. He also mentioned about the brave girl, who despite being bandaged, has helped him and then rejoined the protests. 

This news was out last night - it remains to be seen how NDTV reacts to this news and issues clarifications. A tweet has been sent to the head of the ethics committee of NDTV. This particular blog piece is "work in progress" - if NDTV comes with detailed clarifications today, the same will be updated here. 

More blogs to follow on the violence, the political response, the media coverage etc... 

PS: Pretty much every news outlet mentioned that Mr. Tomar was "seriously injured". None have clarified so far. But to the extent that I have followed, none have been as brazen about this as NDTV was... hence the concentration on NDTV...

Update 1 (a few hours after the above blog piece was written): 

1. A video clipping of protestors helping Mr. Tomar, is now available. So even if you assume the pictures are morphed - here's the video. 

2. Few folks have even commented below saying IBN Live is now tweeting that the doctor confirmed that Mr. Tomar died of heart attack. 

3. When I mentioned the brazen behaviour of NDTV before, I did not see what was coming. Their group editor, Barkha Dutt has this to say: 

"If Cops version on Tomar's tragic death false it must be reported. If charges framed falsely- that too. But pls lets keep it above politics"

Keep it above politics?? Just what is political about this? This government is shamelessly trying to exploit the death of a policeman, but those who bring out the truth are playing "politics"? The abyss into which NDTV can continue to plunge seems to be unending.