You are hearing and will continue to hear lots of propaganda dressed up as facts and of course, half-truths and lies about the NDTV “takeover” by Adani-owned entities. You must remember that doing such propaganda is the very core competence of many of the people involved.
Global leftist media has joined the party and has been writing articles and Op-Eds filled with doomsday prophecies for Indian democracy. After all, anything that fills pages and helps them avoid discussing the disastrous Biden Presidency or the energy crisis at home is welcome. Modi and India are convenient whipping boys unless of course we are looted by fascist dynasties then all is well with the “Idea of India”.
This NDTV “hostile takeover” which incidentally has not happened, came through convertible warrants issued as part of a loan given to controlling shareholders of NDTV. Even if the deal comes through, the Roy family still owns much more than the Adani Group and will have to be bought over.
Let us examine a few questions and narratives.
- The question of “hostile” or not hostile is a smoke screen. It DOESN’T MATTER. If I take a loan against my scooter, car, house etc., and have never paid it back, obviously I don’t want to lose my asset. I just want the lender to go away and suck his thumb. If he takes back the car or scooter, I am going to be unhappy. There is no question of a friendly re-possession!
- In fact, the scooter or flat example is somewhat incorrect because the instrument involved is not a typical loan but a ‘warrant’. Which usually implies conversion to equity on certain terms, under certain conditions, and therefore much more explicit about the intentions of parties. You don’t take a loan against your house hoping to lose it anyway.
- Did the original agreement provide for conversion to equity WITHOUT notice? Very unlikely. If it did, firstly the person that signed it, presumably with proper legal advice (after all you don’t sign Rs.400 crore deals in a coffee shop or vegetable market), is a complete idiot or desperate. Or both. In either case, crying foul today makes no sense.
- If as likely, the agreement did provide for the notice period, give time to repay the loan and cancel the warrant before it is turned into equity etc., and the notice was NOT given, then it is an open and shut violation of terms and the takeover can be easily nullified in courts. Both parties know their medicine and can afford it and deserve no sympathy.
- Why is the ownership pattern of a TV channel certified by Sibal and Sanjay Jha as the last bastion of independent journalism (lol) so murky and non-transparent?! Does Ambani own it? No? Who knows? Shouldn’t we the people, know? Because we should expect disclosure of conflict in every article involving owners or their commercial interests. Even WaPo for all its lopsided propaganda dressed up as journalism does it!
- Roys are pretending that they never saw this coming as if they sleepwalked into signing the warrant agreement! And the corrupt pseudo-liberal media ecosystem and the palazzo serfs are buying it at face value without any of the scepticism or criticism that one expects from those that want us to believe they are fearless and independent!
- Crying foul and playing victim, which NDTV owners are trying to do, is absolute nonsense because it is a commercial matter between two well-educated, wealthy parties, not that someone’s child has been kidnapped.
- Projecting it as a ‘press freedom’ issue is even more farcical. In any case, if questions of politics and press ‘freedom’ are to be mixed up in this, let us oblige the Roys and get to the core of the matter
- The loan was given during the UPA regime when things were going well for it. BJP was in disarray, Modi nowhere in sight for the PM post. Any smart businessman wants to keep the ruling party and its friends on his side of the ring.
- NDTV is well known for its “independence”. It is filled with such “journalists” as Sreenivasan Jain, Nidhi, Ravish Kumar Pandey and Sonia Singh and owned by the equally “independent” Roy family.
- Why exactly was such a huge amount given as a “loan”? On what collateral? Was it given on usual commercial terms or not? What was the interest percentage? Was it zero, as rumoured? If yes, why are courts punishing government servants that receive cash for presumed bribes and later claim it was a “loan”?!
- Can someone please grant me a few hundred crores in “loan” without interest and no fixed repayment period, so I can also speak truth to power?
- If not on commercial, arm’s length terms, what was the quid pro quo? Speaking truth to power journalism? Dynastic bootlicking and silence on loot? Do the public have no right to know these things?!
- After all, it cannot be “Oh we are a business, why should we publicise our commercial matters” on odd days but “Oh we are the bastions of press freedom and anyone questioning us is a fascist against press freedom” on even days?
- Since NDTV owners seem to be upset with the conversion of loan into equity, what else was the loan for? After all, someone loans money either to earn interest or to gain from the appreciation of value.
- Unless there were ‘considerations’ we don’t know about or are not supposed to know?
- Rs.400 crore is not a loose change but is also not a lot of money, especially in Dollars or Euros. Was alternative funding sought? From who? Why didn’t that work out? Did the ecosystem refuse to throw a lifeline?!
- Why did the share run up so much in the past few months and become hot stock? Global warming? As some netizens have pointed out, other media stocks have not been so blessed. Was there insider trading? Leaks? Will SEBI investigate? Will all bulk deals be scrutinised?
- What exactly is this nonsensical criticism we hear about “Corporate media”? Is there ANY major TV channel or newspaper etc., run as a charitable institution? Controlled by cooperative societies? Nonprofit trusts? I am obviously not referring to ones controlled by political parties, be it CPM or CONgress or fake nonprofits that pay fat salaries to founders and insiders way beyond their capabilities.
Finally, as Prof Abhishek Banerji has rightly pointed out, the “chilling climate for dissent” is turning out to be a great climate for monetising anti-Modi hate! Who’s next?
