Friday, September 20, 2024
Home Blog Page 6851

Delhi Secretariat Media Ban – Is Rajdeep Sardesai just an AAP enthusiast?

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Delhi Secretariat Media Ban – Is Rajdeep Sardesai just an AAP enthusiast?

In one of its first acts after winning the Delhi Assembly elections, AAP banned Media from the Delhi Secretariat. Oral orders were issued as early as last week, to ban Media persons’ entry. At the same time Media Advisor to Arvind Kejriwal, Nagendra Sharma said “Before new government took charge, a circular was already in place which banned the entry of media into the Delhi Secretariat. New government has issued no direction in this regard. Give me one or two days, I will sort out this matter”

On Monday evening, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia attempted to hold a press conference to brief the Media about the Government’s decisions. But the assembled Journalists tried to first seek his response as to why they were not allowed inside. When Sisodia tried to pacify them, they didn’t relent and refused to attend the press conference. Seeing this commotion, Manish Sisodia walked away from the media room and then went towards his office.

In all this it is natural for people like Nagendra Sharma, the CM’s Media Advisor, to come and defend his party. But Tuesday morning we saw AAP “enthusiast” Rajdeep Sardesai take to twitter to put up a defence on behalf of AAP. AAP had on Monday failed to convey anything to the media on this issue, hence maybe Rajdeep took the mantle and tweeted this:


As can be seen, Rajdeep, only based on what AAP leaders told him, was quick to give a clean chit to them, disregarding virtually all the objections of his colleagues in the media. Luckily, one reporter decided to counter Rajdeep’s unofficial spokesman-ship. In a series of tweets, Sonal Mehrotra, a journalist at NDTV, tweeted her first hand experience at the Delhi Secretariat.


We will know the real truth, only when a real journalist stands up and states it, after taking into consideration statements by all concerned, not when an “AAP” enthusiast decides to give a clean chit based only on the statement of Political leaders.

Is BJP the new Congress as far as handling media is concerned?

Ullas
-
0
Is BJP the new Congress as far as handling media is concerned?

If you are like me and watch nightly debates on prime-time shows, there is a certain ineptitude visible in BJP’s approach to issues. If you have started making comparisons between a Sambit Patra with a Sanjay Jha, I wouldn’t blame you.

I always sympathize with spokespeople (of all political parties), as I consider theirs as a thankless job. I compare them to “the Guard” in a goods train in the last bogie, who has no idea what the train driver sees ahead of him. However, he has a job and kids wave at him on finally seeing a human at the end of a long train and at the same time, he also gets blamed for any accidents.

I am fairly certain that a GVL Narsimha Rao has no power in the decision making, but has a job of appearing on TV every night. Other than mouthing talking points, I hardly see the BJP spokespeople come up with reasoned analyses. When they make a humorous quip, twitter explodes with appreciation and otherwise, they are panned regularly. They are rarely well read in the topic at hand, and never come out with facts and figures to counter allegations. If BJP has any intentions of changing the political discourse, it has to prepare these spokespeople with solid arguments. I will try to illustrate a few examples, where the BJP has miserably failed.

Example 1: Targeting of Christian Institutions
Immediately after the attack on Churches and a school on Delhi, the media went ballistic about the communal hand in the attacks. Some incidents, as was reported here, were not even communal by any stretch of imagination. Knowing very well that the first reports in situation of chaos are usually wrong, instead of waiting for the truth to come out, the spokespeople were promptly present on prime-time shows. Needless to say, they started on the defensive and allowed the “secular” participants to pounce on them.

It has been over a week since the Delhi elections, why hasn’t the BJP organized the press conference to give a detailed response to each of the incidents? It has been clear that these incidents were cases of theft, short circuit and acts of drunkards. It baffles me that BJP is now accepting these charges to stick on them. Let me be explicit: if a spokesman, in a chaotic debate, tells the truth – it does not get registered. Concerted campaigns are needed to address this issue powerfully in a press conference and, preferably, by senior leaders.

Example 2: The Rs 10 Lakh Suit
Most of India now believes that PM Modi’s suit indeed cost Rs 10 lakh. A party won an election on this lie. Cartoonists and satirists are having a field day with this. The culprit, the Times of India, has issued a correction to the story too. Yet, the BJP is still in slumber. In situations like these, I wonder if BJP misses a Ahmed Patel to plant a “Modi is disappointed on these false allegations” story.

BJP has tried to give a spin to story claiming that the Prime Minister will auction the suit. Great idea! But, can anyone please explain to me how this changes the narrative? A Rs 10 lakh suit can be auctioned at Rs 10K (if a base price is not set) or may be Rs 1 Cr. If it is Rs 10K, the narrative will claim Modi’s stock has fallen since Delhi elections. If it is Rs 1 Cr, the narrative will simply be – “Modi’s suit – Rs 1 Cr”. Don’t underestimate the media to spin it the way they want to. This was a self-goal, where the opposition wasn’t even on the field.

Example 3: Obama’s Sermons
There’s an unwritten rule in politics – “Any criticism/allegation must be responded by person of the same stature”. Obama started giving sermons to India after his return from the Republic Day celebrations. As expected, the Indian media spinned it, as if Obama was rebuking Modi. Unsurprisingly later, it was the usual herd from the BJP that started appearing on media trying to spin what Obama had to say – in vain. Firstly, when Obama says something on India, it is PM Modi who has to respond. Secondly, if India needs to be seen on equal footing with bigger powers, respond with gusto. Else, you will be seen as the minor partner. Thirdly, if you are afraid of offending Obama, let me be clear – that is not the Modi India elected! Fourthly, now that there has been no Prime Ministerial push-back on Obama’s statements, the allegation will stick.

My suggestion to the BJP media cell is clear. Don’t try to win daily news-cycle – this is not election time. People will hardly care if you skipped a news show. Have a better argument and clarify those in a media interaction on the next day based on facts. It is imperative to “kill” the narrative than allow a drip-drip to stick on you. “The nation” expects BJP to be as deliberate and logical in its responses, as PM Modi was during the campaign. I would like to see a Prime Minister’s press conference, as soon as possible. Once the budget session starts, the cacophony of reforms will dwarf any clarity the PM can give.

If BJP continues further with the same strategy as now, twitter will have a field day mocking Sambit Patra as the new Sanjay Jha! PM Modi is remaining silent on various issues, by letting the party speak about it. This sounds awfully similar to one Manmohan Singh. Apparently, MMS used to give private audience to newspaper editors (as mentioned by Sanjaya Baru in his book) and we see PM Modi doing the same. By what is on evidence, BJP is inching closer to the Congress media strategy. If arrogance of the Congress spokespeople comes in, we will see the complete metamorphosis of BJP into Congress. If the BJP media cell does not foresee this, then what’s the point in having an expert team?

Postscript: There are many other recent examples that I have not mentioned viz., Rajyavardhan Rathore statement on women, Rahul Kanwal’s lies on AAP oath taking ceremony, countering AAP’s Free WiFi promise, etc. You can find an earlier list of lies by media that have not been well defended by BJP here:  But, the criticism to the BJP media strategy holds.

The rise of Pro-Pakistan voices in India

OpIndia Staff
-
0
The rise of Pro-Pakistan voices in India

Pakistan Zindabad, a slogan that gained notable impetus at the national level during early 1940s as a battle cry for creation of Pakistan, has now become one of the most celebrated expressions of patriotism in Pakistan.

One of the biggest ideological challenges to the existence of Pakistan has been its failure to identify itself without putting India as a frame of reference – as a neighbor, as an enemy, as a competitor or as a parent geography, due to which Pakistan Zindabad, which should ideally mean victory of Pakistan, stretches to victory of Pakistan due to downfall of India.

This phrase was alsojubilantly raised after creation of Pakistan by the locals to welcome the refugees coming to Pakistan.

Over years, it become one of the most identifiable catchphrases in Indo-Pak wars, India-Pakistan social media bashing, separatists’ movement in Kashmir and anti-national movements in several parts of India.

Society can be crudely pegged around ternary systems. People are atheist, believer or agnostic; social, antisocial or asocial; liberals, conservatives and fence-sitters. The spectrum of Indian socio-cultural collage consists of nationalists, anti-nationals or fence-sitters. Anti-national philosophies become more complex when Pakistan is involved, and the anti-India feelings spring to anti-India-pro-Pakistani feelings.

OpIndia.com team has tried to capture some of the recent anti-India-pro-Pakistani events from different parts of India:

  • On 2 Feb 2015, while Main Stream Media was discussing around GharWapsi and Falsification of the news, people in Buland Shahar (Uttar Pradesh) shouted “Islam zindabad, Pakistan zindabad, Hindustan murdabad” and terrorized people.
  • Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a separatist leader of Jammu and Kashmir, has fabricated his support based on the demands for Free Kashmir. In the video tagged below, he shouts Pakistan Zindabad slogans and convinces people that religion is above nationalism and secularism. Sadly, the crowd, which cries woes of victimhood and exploitation, chants to his tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxyZS-OoCvk

  • On 30 June 2014, Samajwadi Party leader Mehmood Alam was booked in Uttar Pradesh on the Meerut-Karnal highway when he was extorting money from the passers-by. When he was objected, he started raising pro-Pakistan slogans.
Flood-affected people commute in the city center of Srinagar (Photo: PTI)
Flood-affected people commute in the city center of Srinagar (Photo: PTI)
  • During floods in Jammu & Kashmir, a group of tourists from Karnataka was forced to shout pro-Pakistan slogans and they were robbed at gun-point in Srinagar.
  • On 6 January 2015, six Muslim men and a Hindu man were arrested in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly putting up a hoarding with the Pakistani flag printed on it. It was also alleged that these people shouted Pakistan Zindabad slogans.
  • On 5 March 2014, 67 Kashmiri students were arrested in Meerut for ‘cheering’ Pakistan in an India-Pakistan match.
  • There are many reported and unreported incedences where Pakistan Zindabad Slogans were cheered in specific areas of Patna, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jamshedpur, etc.

Even if we leave aside extreme cases where a few Indian Muslims from Hyderabad, Bangalore, Varanasi, Mumbai, Kolkata, etc. have joined ISIS or other terrorist organizations, but we can’t neglect or understate serious issues like public shouting Pakistan Zindabad. Terrorist setups don’t question religious and cultural background of a society beyond a limit, but these organized events, which involve huge social gatherings and public speaking, impact public opinions for a long time and raise some very serious questions.

Kejriwal promised 15 lakh CCTVs, now Sanjay Singh of AAP says no such promise

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Kejriwal promised 15 lakh CCTVs, now Sanjay Singh of AAP says no such promise

We had already seen, how 15 lakh CCTV cameras for Delhi, is a completely illogical plan, which is not feasible from any angle. Yet, this was used as a major poll plank during the Delhi Elections. Now that the elections are over, Sanjay Singh, member of AAP National Executive, has made a statement that AAP never promised 15 Lakh CCTV cameras. On a TV channel, Sanjay Singh made the following statement:

“…Media is the fourth pillar of democracy, it is also your responsibility. Yesterday I was on another channel, they had from somwhere obtained a figure that 10 – 15 lakh (CCTV) cameras will be installed. Delhi has a population of just 2 crores, 15 lakh CCTV cameras means, 1 camera for every 10 persons. Nobody will believe these talks. And they said, on these 15 lakh CCTV cameras, Rs 2 lakh crore will be spent. This figure is also wrong. Such illusions are being spread, such figures are being thrown around, a wrong environment is created among the people, hence Media must act responsibly.

The video can be found here. We are pretty sure, whichever channel he is referring to, has got the Rs 2 lakh crore figure from our earlier post itself. But what is interesting is, Sanjay Singh seems to have not seen the video of Arvind Kejriwal where he very clearly declares that Delhi will get 10-15 lakh CCTV cameras. Is the media guilty of spreading misinformation? Or is Sanjay Singh guilty of not being aware of his own leader’s statements? Is this a U-Turn? (see following video from 1.08 minutes onwards”

Transcript of relevant portion: “In entire Delhi, AAP will install 10-15 lakh CCTV cameras”

Not only this, Kejriwal, in his interview with Ravish Kumar of NDTV, did not deny this, and in fact went on to declare the cost estimate also of 15-20 lakh CCTV cameras. Transcript:

Ravish: You will install 15 lakh CCTV cameras in the city?

Kejriwal: 10-15 lakh

Video is available here. Watch from 27 minutes onwards. It will be interesting to see if any mainstream media picks this up and how Sanjay Singh and Arvind Kejriwal respond to this. Will this be another “terms and conditions apply” promise like the Free WiFi promise?

Open Reply to @BhupendraChaube’s reply

Gaurav
-
0
Open Reply to @BhupendraChaube’s reply

On 12th February I had written this post on Mr Bhupendra Chaubey. Unlike most MSM journalists, who would have and have in the past ignored such critiques, Mr Bhupendra Chaubey decided to respond and attempted to rebut some of my claims. For this alone, I applaud him.

Coming to Mr Bhupendra Chaubey’s reply. Sir, let me first clear that I am a male, as is evident from my twitter DP and the “bwoy” in my handle, which for some reason you did not notice. So please stop addressing me as “Mr/Ms”.

Mr Chaubey starts off with the assertion that I am guilty of bracketing him “with the “bazaaru “ media“. I re-read my post and couldn’t find any line which could mean the above. Next he declares that since he is from Varanasi, his English may not be as good as mine. Sir, you are/were the face of a leading, if not the most popular (going by your own channel’s claims) English News Channel. I am sure your English is as good or even better than mine. Anyway we are not playing Spelling bee or Grammar Nazi so we can skip the attempted victim-hood.

Mr Chaubey then goes on to say his tweet cannot be a threat, especially because he has previously showered accolades on Modi. Sir, there are several journalists who take turns on praising Modi as and when required. You’re own ex-colleague Mr Rajdeep famously declared he was never “anti-modi”, just when his book was about to release. So I don’t think precedence is something we can rely on. Mr Chaubey further claims he is a “small fry” and his opinion wouldn’t matter to the PM.  Dear Sir, if you are a small fry, I wonder how I could describe myself. Yet my opinion mattered to you (hence the reply from you). Similarly I am sure your opinion also matters to the PM especially since you command such a huge following.

There are some more irrelevant and factually incorrect points like a quote from a CSDS post poll survey, which I would skip as it would make me digress from the core issues.  Mr Chaubey next says that his tweet was “meant to start introspection” among BJP and its supporters. It amuses me that when Modi calls some media “bazaru”, you want BJP to introspect, but when Kejriwal calls the media “paid” and wants to jail media people, you call for introspection within the media. Sir, Why these double standards? Why is Kejriwal’s word Gospel Truth and Modi’s word slander. I have gone through your entire post and at no place you have even touched on this issue. I was disappointed.

Mr Chaubey is also silent on my question that why he treats Gujarat and Gujarati voters differently from Delhi? Are they dumber, less educated, more communal, more subservient than Delhi voters? I sadly get no response. 

Mr Chaubey, coming to your repeated assertion that your tweet isn’t a threat, Let us see what you tweeted yet again:

Two loud and clear messages to Modi: 1: dilli is no Gujarat; get rid of politics of autocracy. 2. If you call media “bazaaru”;u won’t go far

You say there are clear messages to Modi. You don’t say from whom. Firstly, let us assume the messages are from the voters. Would an ordinary voter be bothered and troubled by Modi’s branding of media “bazaaru”. I could understand if Modi had called the voters names, and hence they reacted in a a particular fashion. Also, in Lok Sabha elections, Modi had called the same media “Newstraders” multiple times. The voters gave him a message of “282” seats. Even Delhi voters gave him 7/7 seats. So I cant see any great affection of voters towards media.

Next, since the tweet is from you, could it be a message from you? If its not from the voters, it has to be from you, as a representative of the media. And it also makes sense, since you, by virtue of being part of the media, were also called “bazaaru”, hence your natural reaction. So essentially what you’re saying is: “My/Media’s clear message to Modi: You call media “bazaaru”, you won’t go far”. I am sure every student studying at the lowliest schools of Varanasi would interpret that as a threat, especially in the backdrop of Delhi election results.

Even so, let us forget about the “threat” part, and let us only focus on the other two questions, which I had already asked but you hadn’t answered, which I will repeat now:

1. When Modi called Media “bazaaru”, and his party lost Delhi elections, you say it’s a message to Modi to stop calling media “bazaaru”. When Kejriwal calls media “paid”, says he wants to “jail media”, and then loses Lok Sabha elections, you say “media has a lot to answer” and introspect about. Why the hypocrisy?

2. Why is Delhi no Gujarat and why does autocracy work in Gujarat and not Delhi? What are the clear shortcomings in a Gujarati voter as compared to a Delhi voter?

I hope your next reply (if any) will clearly address the above two questions instead of beating around the bush with irrelevant details. It is a matter of your credibility sir and I hope you will clarify on the same.

Surprise! BJP’s Censor Board actually unbans swear words banned by Congress’ board

Gaurav
-
0
Surprise! BJP’s Censor Board actually unbans swear words banned by Congress’ board

A notification sent by Pahlaj Nihalani, the chief of the new Censor Board as appointed by the BJP Government, containing a list of swear words which should be banned has the entire internet frothing over it. Most people find the list highly regressive and one which impedes creative freedom of an artiste. This has immediately been made political giving it the spin that BJP is now indulging in Moral Policing. The list of the words is as follows:

picture_moss_021315072722_650_021315073029

Ever since this list has come out, some people from the media have been constantly telling me that this list is being over hyped and that an old list of the old censor board could be equally scandalous. On some digging, I found some interesting facts. I couldn’t find the actual list, but some news articles which do indicate the words which were considered taboo back then.

A report in The Caravan, from March 2012, reveals that the Old Censor Board had a list of 30 words which it considered offensive. The article says “The censor board bars 30 offensive words, including ‘fuck’, references to mothers and genitalia, ‘testicles’, ‘screw’, ‘ass’, and the words ‘call girl’ and ‘prostitute’.” If you compare the sample of this old list with the new list above, you will find most words are common. Also words like “call girl” and “prostitute” have in fact been omitted in the new list. 

Coming to the new list, this list has been sent to all “Regional Offices of CBFC for necessary action”. I would presume that this means, the translations of the above words in various regional languages, would also be banned. For this, I accessed the Kannada CBFC guidelines from 2005 which has a clear list of objectionable words. Translating these Kannada words to English, could give us an indicative list of what the then Central Censor Board had communicated to the Regional office.

Translations of some of the Kannada words are: “son of a whore”, “son of a widow”, “Bastard”, “Gandu” “Banchod”, “Madarchod”, “Chutiya”, “Randi”, “Bitch”. Some words are variations of MC BC, which aren’t really swear words per se, but can be construed as swear words (double meaning words?). As you can see, most of these words are consistent with the new list issued. I also found a request by the Telugu Censor Board, to delete some words in a Telugu movie in 2012. Again the English translation of these words are variations of MC BC.

Since two state Censor boards are following broadly the same practice, it wouldn’t be too far fetched to assume that this was all mandated by the Central Censor Board. So it’s pretty clear that all the words we see in the new list, have been in fact taboo for a long time. Then why all this hooplah now:


Just to be clear I am not justifying anything by saying “Oh look Congress did it too”. My only problem is how the media has played this as if its a new issue and thus generated mass outrage. Wasn’t anyone aware that all these words are already banned? The media played a similar game when the word “Bombay” was asked to be muted. Are these repeated misstatements genuine blunders? Or this an organized attempt to show the BJP Government in bad light? It is an open secret that there exists a strong lobby within Bollywood which is quite openly ant-BJP, and some of these people are very active on Social Media. Is this being orchestrated by them along with the media?

As far as the actual list is concerned, some of the suggestions such as removal of “double meaning” words is indeed idiotic to the say the least. It is a welcome sign that Censor Board member Ashoke Pandit has already expressed his displeasure with this list.


Let us hope this Censor Board is the first one in a decade, to restore some sanity.

When theft in a Delhi school was used to drive mass hysteria on communal lines

OpIndia Staff
-
0
When theft in a Delhi school was used to drive mass hysteria on communal lines

NEW DELHI: On Friday morning, a day before Delhi gets a new state government, came the news that Holy Child Auxilium, a school in Vasant Vihar which is also the alma mater of Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani, was “attacked” by unidentified masked persons.

Since it was a school run by Christian missionaries, the secular ecosystem decided not to wait for facts and declare it as an attack on the minorities.

The first big celebrity to highlight the case was Arvind Kejriwal, who will become the Chief Minister of Delhi tomorrow:


With his tweet, Kejriwal set the tone that this was a “communal” incident, though his tweet didn’t mention it explicitly.

And after that, as if right on cue, string of “usual suspects” started claiming that there as a “pattern” and Christians were being targeted systematically.

They included journalists, who solved the case before the police: 

Congress politicians, who didn’t lose opportunity to attack Smriti Irani:


Muslim “activists”, who declared that India was already a fascist country: 

and Christian “activists”, who blamed government for planting these attacks:


But it didn’t take much time to prove that these assorted set of journalists, politicians, and activists were pushing a pre-decided propaganda.

To the credit of staff and management of Holy Child Auxilium, who too are Christians, they conceded that there was no “communal” angle to the incident and it looked a case of theft.

Some journalists too reported the truth, instead of spreading the paranoia and propaganda


But even after clarification by police and school staff, many journalists and activists were still spreading the paranoia as if this incident was “communal” in nature.

Perhaps their motive was never to secure safety for the Christian community, but to work on a pre-decided message. Or as Goebbels had suggested – repeat a lie till it becomes the truth – and these usual suspects are known to repeat a lie thousand times.

Kejriwal gets cracking, but what about his team?

OpIndia Staff
-
0

Delhi CM Designate Arvind Kejriwal yesterday met the President and the Home Minister, and from what is being reported, he has started off in the right earnest. He raised the issue of full statehood for Delhi at their first meeting with Rajnath Singh itself, showing his determination to get this done. He also met Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu and asked him to sort out issues of agricultural land in rural areas and for additional land to build schools, colleges and parking lots in the city.

He also asked his Chief Secretary to prepare an action plan on how to implement AAP’s 70 point agenda as per its manifesto. All concerned departments have been asked to make power-point presentations in this respect within the one week of Kejriwal becoming CM. This is very reminiscent of how Modi took stock of all departments once he became PM asking them to prepare presentations too.

But what are his team members and colleagues doing? Quite the opposite some would say. AAP MLA from Okhla, Amanatullah Khan has already termed the Batla house encounter as “fake”. He has said he would seek a probe into this matter. Raking up such sensitive issues to appease a section of the society is not a good sign. Highly amusing is the fact that Amanantullah is the person who AAP alleged put communally sensitive posters in the run up to the Delhi elections, and seeked his arrest, but now he is an AAP MLA.


Amanatullah, can of course be brushed off as a “fringe element”, but Kumar Vishwas is core team member. Vishwas, is said to have branded the NSG commandos who offer security as “informers”. He said that “Arvind Kejriwal did not need VIP security since the security persons around him are informers“. Raising question marks over the loyalty of the NSG, whose commandos are well trained to defend the country, may be justified to an extent when one is not part of the establishment. But it is not becoming of the ruling party to cast aspersions on our armed forces. Vishwas anyway is an experienced loose cannon and Kejriwal will have to control him.

Although it is too early to judge, is this a measured approach from AAP? Where Arvind Kejriwal keeps talking about administration and governance, while “fringe elements” make communally polarising statements and Kumar Vishwas takes on the role of AAP’s Digvijay Singh, to sow seeds of distrust against our own establishments, thus presenting Kejriwal as the outsider underdog who will continually fight the system even though he is also a part of the system.

Free WiFi for Delhi* —– Conditions Apply

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Free WiFi for Delhi* —– Conditions Apply

AAP made many poll promises which caught the imagination of the Delhi voter. One such promise was about the 15 lakh CCTV cameras, which was not quantified in the manifesto, yet Kejriwal declared it and the media hyped it. This may as well become one of AAP’s “chunavi jumla” because as we have explained before, it just may not be feasible. Another often repeated promise was that of “Free WiFi in entire Delhi”.

This Free WiFi promise though was clearly specified in their 70 point programme for Delhi:

38. Wi-Fi Delhi: We will make Wi-Fi freely available in public spaces across Delhi. Citywide Wi-Fi can help in bridging the digital divide. It will also provide an impetus to education, entrepreneurship, business, employment, and also tie in with women’s safety initiatives.

Note that there are no terms and conditions attached here. But today, this newspaper clipping is doing the rounds, which quotes AAP MLA and former Apple executive Adarsh Shastri, who adds that there are some “Terms and Conditions” to Free WiFi:

B9oo-BZCYAAZiGb

As per the news report, the Free WiFi will be subject to following conditions:

1. WiFi only in Public places

2. WiFi will be free for the first 30 minutes after which it is chargeable

3. WiFi cannot be used for “Private uses” such as Email, Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp

From the above three terms, only the first is spelt out in the 70 point programme. The fact that WiFi will be free only for the first 30 minutes is not mentioned anywhere. This is what most people online are outraging about now, calling it a U-Turn. Unfortunately for them, AAP had clearly said declared this condition, not in the manifesto, but to media way back in November 2014.

This is clearly a failure on part of the media, to highlight the difference between what AAP promises in writing, and what AAP says orally. More-over, the BJP media cell has to be blamed for not identifying this “chunavi jumla” from AAP and not disseminating this information to public at large. Remember how all parties and media jumped on BJP for using the term “immigrants” for  people from the North East in their manifesto. This is where BJP lost the battle for Delhi, and who knows how many more such failures will come to the fore in the future.

Also, please pay attention to the third condition, that AAP will decide which services can be used via free WiFi. While AAP must have readily sold this Free WiFi promise to Delhi’s youth in exchange for votes, it deliberately hid the fact that most popular services used by youth will not be allowed such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and even Email. This is a clear case of misrepresentation to the public of Delhi.

This condition also raises an important issue of Net Neutrality. Net neutrality is a concept which states that Internet Service Providers should treat all data on the internet equally, without using discriminatory charges for usage. Most recently, Airtel was in a soup for proposing higher net usage charges for VoIP services. This is a typical modus operandi of telecom operators to overcharge their customers.

Will companies like Airtel now use this as a precedent to further its own interests of violating Net Neutrality by saying “look, even the Government is doing it”? Or was AAP pressurised by any Telecom companies to exclude popular services like Facebook, Whatsapp etc. from its Free WiFi service, so that there is no revenue loss to such Telecom companies?

Is Kejriwal on his way to the post of Prime Minister?

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Is Kejriwal on his way to the post of Prime Minister?

In this piece, Rahul Roushan argues that Kejriwal might have been underestimated by the BJP, and he makes some valid points. Firstly Kejriwal is just like Modi, in the sense he is a regional satrap, who his detractors say is only a media creation (Modi was said to be an APCO product) and that he might have won in one state, but he cant spread his wings all over India. Hence Rahul says, its about time BJP took him seriously.

He analyses how Kejriwal has got sway over the media. It is an open secret that most Editors back AAP, for various reasons. These Editors and other journalists turned “volunteers” for AAP, and their newspapers and Media channels were AAP’s “pamphlets”. On the other hand BJP had no media strategy. He also reminds us that Media has always been anti-BJP, yet BJP bypassed it by using other means of communication like RSS volunteers, who obviously weren’t effective in Delhi, possibly because they couldn’t connect with the young urban crowd in Delhi.

Another important point Rahul makes is how both AAP and BJP deal with “fringe groups”. He argues that such fringe elements are double edged swords, secular voters get put off by them, but some voters will not vote for a party if it doesn’t have such hard-liners. The trick, Rahul says, is to again get the “communication” right. AAP gave a ticket to person in Okhla who had earlier put up communally sensitive posters, it took support from hard-liners like Owaisis, and at the same time brushed the Shahi Imam away, thus controlling the “communal” narrative. On the other hand BJP had to pay the price for statements from the likes of Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti & Sakshi Maharaj. BJP has a lot to learn from AAP in this regard.

Rahul also raises red flags over AAP’s “ideology”. AAP’s voters right now don’t associate it with any religious angle, rather they see AAP as a non-corrupt, dedicated party who will give them free bijli, paani and WiFi. But quite of a few of the AAP core members seem to exude the “Idea of India” (read Anti-Hindu) ideology, and hence “AAP represents the risk that it will make youth naturally allergic to everything Hindu, and thus anti-BJP by default.” This is even harder because in public, Kejriwal plays the charade well, by taking dips in the Ganga and by tweeting Hindu scriptures just before elections. The BJP has to try hard to expose this “Idea of India” ideology which AAP carries, which was also exuded by the same MLA who put up the communal posters, as soon as he was elected.

BJP is also losing the battle to reach out to the Urban poor says Rahul. While AAP managed to reduce petty corruption in their 49 days, BJP was projected as a pro-Industrialist party. Rahul further argues that “It is not the perceived closeness with industrialists that hurt BJP, but lack of some tangible benefits that this class could experience in the first few months of Modi government – contrast to the experience they had under Kejriwal government in those 49 days”. He also says that Swacch Bharat could have initially just focussed in areas where the Urban poor reside, thus building a connect with them. Here again BJP failed.

Rahul also makes it clear that BJP lost Delhi thanks to its poor strategies. Be it inducting Bedi at the last minute, or delaying Delhi Elections for so long, which gave Kejriwal a chance to rebuild his image, while all the Modi Wave goodwill of Lok Sabha was lost.

Now Rahul wonders whether AAP can take the place of Congress  as the principal opposition to BJP in the national arena. He admits that for this to happen before 2019, BJP will need to make major blunders, but still, the threat of AAP is very real.

1...6,8506,8516,852...6,864Page 6,851 of 6,864

Contact: [email protected]

About us

News and opinion website that brings you reports and narrative from a perspective often ignored or suppressed by the mainstream media of India.

Follow us

© OpIndia.com