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What is wrong with the discourse around the Orlando terror attack

Gaurav
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What is wrong with the discourse around the Orlando terror attack

As thing stands, if you are discussing the horrific terror attack in Orlando which claimed the lives of 50 LGBT individuals, you must first ask yourself: Am I in anyway responsible for this attack? Because if you listen to some so called “liberals”, the blame could very well lie at the doors of everyone except the main cause of this act and many other terror attacks: ISIS

This much we know:  A CNN report says, Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, the son of Afghan immigrants, called 911 during the attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS, mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers and started shooting in an LGBT club, killing 50 people and wounding at least 53. With this it becomes the deadliest mass shooting in the United States and the nation’s worst terror attack since 9/11. ISIS claimed responsibility for the shooting, with the terror group’s news organisation, Aamaq Agency, saying the attack was “carried out by an Islamic State fighter”. Mateen’s father claimed that his son became enraged recently when he saw two men kissing.

So much for the facts. There are many issues which arise from this gruesome incident: Homophobia, Gun Control, and of course Islamic Terrorism, for which ISIS is the flag-bearer.

There have been some commentators who have argued that Homophobia is at the core of this. The arguments of these lot have wound down from Orlando, Florida to India, asking PM Modi to get rid of Section 377 which is anti LGBT community. The tenuous arguments being: we must show empathy by rolling back this law or that India too is open to such mass shootings thanks to its homophobic laws.

That Section 377 is regressive and must at the very least be modified is a given, but dragging it into an incident that occurred on the other side of the globe is disingenuous. The shooting happened inspite of USA having very pro-LGBT laws, so the question of homophobic laws doesn’t arise. Florida has even legalised same-sex marriages. The real reason is that ISIS preaches gays should be killed, in fact even throwing gays off buildings only because of their sexual orientation. Even more worrying is the fact that a Shia Imam recently proclaimed in Orlando itself that gays must die:

At last check, no group wielding any kind of influence has asked for LGBTs to be killed in India, and certainly just a change in the law will not deter such a twisted mind. Whoever heard of a deranged soul being afraid of doing something just because of the law? At the cost of repetition, this does not take away from the fact that Sec 377 needs a major relook at the very least.

So when lying journalists like Barkha Dutt try to spin this around to “Onus on India” we know exactly what they are doing:


In fact Barkha Dutt even attempted to distance ISIS from the killer, albeit in an extremely confused fashion. She initially retweeted a tweet which said ISIS had claimed responsibility. And within hours claimed that FBI had “ruled out ISIS angle”:


This even when journalists from USA were claiming the opposite:


When we asked Barkha for clarifications, she backtracked and claimed that she had “read a comment by FbI that said he was self-radicalized, not ISIS organised“. We couldn’t find any mention of any FBI official claiming this, but till the time of writing this, inspite of repeated requests, Barkha has not been able to provide any proof.

Now we come to this new defence of being “self -radicalised”. The argument by many is he wasn’t trained or actively radicalised by ISIS, but rather converted into a terrorist on his own, probably under the influence of some social media propaganda material from ISIS. This technicality can be used by some to distance him from ISIS. The obvious logical fallacy is the material spread by ISIS is targetted exactly to create such events, where so-called “lone-wolfs” carry out terror attacks in the name of ISIS, without their direct involvement! In fact ISIS has released videos  and even a 64 page guide explaining how such attacks must be carried out. In fact, such so called “self radicalisation” is an even graver threat than regular ISIS activities because this means just about anyone anywhere who can be brainwashed by social media content of ISIS can turn into a terrorist.

The other issue which some apologists keep harping on is gun control. Case in point, AAP cheerleader Saba Naqvi, who twists and turns to avoid mentioning ISIS or Islamic terror but is quick to blame gun control:


Again it is not a completely invalid argument, US probably needs stricter gun-control rules to prevent the frequently occurring shootings. But not everybody with a gun is likely to go on a rampage. Guns don’t kill people, nut-jobs with guns do. And can religious terrorists ever been stopped by such gun-control laws? The Boston bombers, who were referred to by Mateen and who also cited extremist Islamic beliefs as their motive, used pressure-cooker bombs, not guns. The point being once you get into the deranged zone of being a bigoted terrorist, laws such as gun-control may make it a bit harder, but eventually you will find a way through, either by improvisation or by getting illegal supply of guns. To then place the entire blame of this act on a fringe topic such as gun control is again being an apologist for terror.

The worst arguments have been put forth by some, who are still stuck in the terror-has-no-religion bit:


The ignorance or the deliberate misinformation is frankly unbelievable. Here is an attacker who pledges support to a terror organisation which claims to be religious for all purposes but here we have some individuals with blinkers on who want to say that even though an attacker thinks he is doing it for religious reasons, he is in fact just a “crazy person” who cannot be religious!

The solution to all of this is to make some very rational arguments: ISIS has been finding reasons to shoot people and homophobia is just the latest one. Also, gun control can only help you to an extent because as terrorists have shown, they can kill without guns too (bazinga!). Further, this does not mean that all Muslims are terrorists or radicals or that Islam is beyond redemption. If only we all could say the terrorism in the name of Islam is the key issue here, we could at least move towards solving this issue which seems to be the single biggest threat to the world. Let us not live in a world where we cannot even call out ISIS sponsored or inspired terrorism.

Sitaram Yechury, will you be hosting an iftar party?

Guest Author
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Sitaram Yechury, will you be hosting an iftar party?

It isn’t a mere social media mock when one hears about Indian Communists opening their umbrellas when there is rain in Moscow or China. Indian Comrades still look up to their foreign mentors as much as they accuse BJP of looking up to Nagpur for ideological inspiration.

It’s only natural to emulate one’s mentors. With the Chinese government imposing a ban on fasting during Ramzan, I was curiously watching which way Indian Communists will go. Going by their penchant for things Chinese, one would have expected them to make some noise about Indian Muslims keeping fast! After all, as Karl Marx said, ‘religion is the opium of people’ and Ramzan represents one of the most overt displays of masses getting high on that ‘opium’!

Frankly speaking, I didn’t expect them to barter their ideological cap for a skull cap so easily! But then in the days of vote-bank politics, who cares for ideological sincerity. Though Indian Comrades work overtime to show how they are against religion, they often give in to the lure of its political dividends.

They always find cheap ways to be seen as pro-Muslim while pretending to be anti-religion. Take the curious case of what happened when West Bengal CPM stalwart Abdur Rezzak Mollah wanted to go to Haj pilgrimage a few years ago. All ideological resistance evaporated when Mollah threatened to tell his constituency (read Muslim voters) of the ideological opposition of the party to Haj. He was allowed to go after a not-so pious manipulation of making it look like a fun-trip to Mecca rather than a pilgrimage.

The harsh fact is that Mollah not only performed Haj, but also openly proclaimed that his devotion to the faith he was born into and the almighty is always hundred per cent.

Does it signal a readiness to smoke the opium pipe? Or is it just another case of speaking in many voices for political expediency? Unfortunately, the later was the case. The keenness to relax the ‘no religion in the cadres’ norm seems to be driven by pure vote-bank politics. The intellectual hypocrisy was further exposed when a party senior from the same state was reprimanded for being seen around the Tirupati shrine!

Last year when the Left parties debated whether they should attend Sonia Gandhi’s iftar party, the contention was less over whether Comrades are ideologically allowed to be pro-religion and attend iftar parties, but more over whether they should seen as pro-Congress! Pro-Congress, they already are. Pro-religion, they don’t have the courage. Nor are they ready to pay the price of denouncing it totally. That explains why they are seen swinging between crying foul about Yoga Day or Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s spiritual Olympics and putting on a skull cap for the next iftar party.

It will be foolish to expect CPM boss Sitaram Yachury’s much talked-about pragmatism to go much beyond ignoring the Beijing diktat for the sake of appeasing Indian Muslims. The chances of him daring to talk against the Chinese ban look as remote as him embracing Bharatiyata by turning up for Yoga Day or chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. Looks like India Comrades take Leon Trotsky seriously, albeit with a twist. The end may justify the means as long as there is something to gain politically.

M Rajaque Rahman

Twitter roasts Kejriwal with ‘KejriwalShayaris’, after he gets poetic with Modi

OpIndia Staff
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Last night Twitter discovered the hidden poets among many. It all started with Delhi CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal placing his own couplet on record. The “shayari” was addressed to PM Modi and was in reference to the movie Udta Punjab and the censorship issue around it. Earlier, Kejriwal had tried to circumvent the question by many as to what was an AAP member and communication team adviser Sameer Nair doing as a producer of Udta Punjab. Kejriwal’s couplet was as follows:


Twitter erupted after this tweet from Kejriwal, and many parody couplets surfaced along with a hashtag #KejriwalShayaris. Here are some of the funniest:


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Top Lies spread by Indian Media in May 2016

Gaurav
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Top Lies spread by Indian Media in May 2016

Big Lies:

1. NDTV: Chanting OM on Yoga Day is mandatory

We had a separate report on this. Even after the ministry had clarified in multiple ways and had shown proof that chanting of Om or Vedic hymns was not mandatory, NDTV continued to carry the opposite news, that Om was indeed mandatory, on their TV shows.

2. NDTV: Online trolling against women will be considered as violence – Maneka Gandhi. 

We had a separate story on this. NDTV’s report initially claimed that Maneka Gandhi had said the above. But the video of the interview proved that she had said no such thing. In fact she never even used the word trolling. Once they were questioned, NDTV changed the headlines repeatedly in order to salvage something out of the controversy, but could never prove that Gandhi had said the above.

3. Multiple media houses: Railways charging/levy Rs 4 crore bill on Latur for providing water via Jaldoot

We had a separate story on this. Based on a PTI story, media houses like NDTV and Economic Times had reported the above in their headline. But the body of the story had the complete truth. Central Railway’s General Manager had clarified that the amount was not being charged to Latur and the bill was sent on their request:

“We have sent the bill to the Latur district collector as per the administration’s request, It is up to the district administration whether to pay us or seek waiver of the amount, through proper channels. We sent the water transport bill as per their request.”

The Ministry of Railways too tweeted the above and clarified that the amount was not being charged but the bill was sent purely on the request of Latur authorities.

4. Business Standard – ‘Can’t get rid of public sector, nor should you’: PM Modi

In a very cunning and shrewd move, Business standard used the above headline, by dropping just one word of what Modi said, so that the meaning changes entirely. Seeing the body of the above article itself it is clear that Modi said the following:

“In any developing country in the world, both the public and private sector have a very important role to play. You can’t suddenly get rid of the public sector, nor should you,”

But Business Standard dropped the word “suddenly” from Modi’s sentence and made it the headline, giving the impression that Modi was not at all in favour of getting rid of public sector companies, when he was actually pressing for a gradual transformation

5. CNN News 18: Rishi Kapoor hits out at V K Singh

In the bizarre world of Indian media, the tweet-storm in which Rishi Kapoor hit out at the naming of buildings and structures after the Gandhi family, was reported as if Kapoor had attacked General V K Singh.

6. All media: IRCTC website hacked, user data stolen

Multiple media houses reported this story on 5th May claiming that IRCTC’s site was hacked and personal data of around 1 crore users was feared to be robbed. IRCTC though clarified on the same day with a detailed press release explaining how they had checked their systems and found no evidence of any hacking whatsoever. Further, the Ministry from its Twitter handle explained that such news was common for the past 2-3 years and was most probably based on some people selling 1 crore email ids and phone numbers, claiming that they have obtained the same from IRCTC.

7. All India Radio News: Government favours reservations for SC/ST/OBC in Private Sector

In the above tweet which was later deleted, AIR news claimed that the Government had favoured reservations in Private Sector. The truth however was that the Government had only favoured reservation in promotion for Government employees, provided the right “atmosphere” was created. This also was in response to the demand for reservation in promotion raised by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge during a debate on demands of grants for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

8. Multiple media houses: Udta Punjab banned by Censor Board

In the last week of May, this news was spread by many media portals that the CBFC i.e. the Censor Board had put a complete blanket ban on the movie Udta Punjab. The facts were tweeted by co-producer Anurag Kashyap much after the controversy erupted, where he clarified that there was no ban, and it was only being referred to the Revising committee, following due processes.

9. Aaj Tak: Showing videos of 2013 to prove rise of Cow protection groups in Punjab, in the recent past

In the above report, Aaj Tak claimed that in the recent past, many cases of vandalism in the name of cow protection were noticed in Punjab. To prove this Aaj Tak showed many videos of such cases. But as was found out later, at least 2 of such videos were in fact of 2013 and could in no way be presented as “recent past”.

 

Miscellaneous Lies:

1. ET Now: Jaitley: Do not have a problem with 18% tax cap for GST

In a case of selective reporting, ET Now cut elements from Jaitley’s speech and claimed he said the above. At the same time, other media houses like Bloomberg had reported the correct news:

The real story

2. IndiaSamwad: I am a very proud Hindu, why should I work with Khans now – Kangana Ranaut

In this poorly spun headline, IndiaSamwad picked up 2 different answers by Kangana Ranaut and put them together to get a sensational headline. On the issue of her now being a big star, she said:

“Now I get a lot of offers to work with the Khans. I’m my own hero on the sets, why should I work with other heroes? The Khans did not want to work with me when I started, why should I work with them now?”

And later, to a question on witchcraft and her religious practices, she said:

“I am a very proud Hindu. The foundation of my personality is laid on the teachings of Swami Vivekananda or Sanatan Dharm or the Gita. And if my religious practices or anybody’s religious practices are given any kind of sadistic name, it instills fear about other person’s religious practices,”

There is absolutely no connection between the “I am a proud Hindu” part and the “I wont work with Khans” part, but IndiaSamwad chose to twist the interview.

3. Times of India: Use of picture of fire-crackers in place of bombs

"Bombs"
“Bombs”

Although CID bomb disposal squad was brought into action to diffuse these bombs, Times of India played down this incident by using an innocuous picture of fire-cracker “bombs”. Were they trying to suggest that in the midst of elections, in West Bengal which has been in the news far too often for crude bombs, 3 people died while making fire-crackers? The Times of India report also failed to mention the fact that Bomb Disposal squad was used, hence further confusing the reader.

4. Scroll.in and some other sites: UAE wants to build a ‘rainmaking mountain’

Based on syndicated reports some media houses reported that UAE is about to build a rainmaking man-made mountain. The fact is however that no UAE official or agency has confirmed the existence of any concrete plan to geo-engineer a mountain. The closest thing to this news is the fact that National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the US agency is doing preliminary research on the feasibility of the idea and is downplaying the idea of actually building a mountain, noting it is too early to speculate on any concrete outcomes for such a geo-engineering project.

5. ANI News: LOP raised the issue of absence of Law Minister Sadananda Gowda in LS

Initially ANI News had tweeted the above that the Leader of the Opposition had raised the issue of absence of the Law Minister. Later ANI seems to have deleted the tweet but the Minister was well aware of the situation and countered ANI:


6. The Economic Times: Buddha In A Traffic Jam was screened on a Giant screen in Jadavpur University

In the above story reporting about the violent behaviour of Leftists students at the University, Economic Times claimed that “Finally, the film was screened using a giant screen inside the university premises”. The film was indeed screened but not at the auditorium. Instead a make-shift screen was erected using bed-sheets. It was certainly not a “Giant screen” and neither did Economic Times explain the nature of this “screen”

7. Indian Express: Target to raise India’s defence exports to $ 2 million: Manohar Parrikar

The Indian Express got the above headline wrong when they claimed the Defence Minister had set the target at only $2 Million. As the body of their own report, and other media reports confirmed, the target was in fact $2 Billion and not $2 Million.

8. Multiple media houses: Air ambulance crashes at Najafgarh

Media houses like Firstpost, NDTV and India Today reported initially that the air ambulance had crashed in Najafgarh. The fact however was it was an emergency crash-landing done by the pilot and a major disaster was averted, as both the engines of the aircraft failed.

9. Aaj Tak – We run Bajrang Dal for the safety of the nation – BJP spokesperson Vindo Bansal

Although the above was said by Vinod Bansal, he is not a part of BJP but instead is a VHP leader. Still, Aaj Tak reported him as a BJP leader and later deleted the tweets once the error was pointed out.

10. News X: Ram Madhav says that Abhishek Manu Singhvi was a liar 

In their above story, News X claimed that Ram Madhav had called Singhvi a liar, but if one sees the video it is clear that Madhav had called Singhvi a lawyer, and not liar. This was even tweeted by Madhav, but News X did not correct their story.

11. The Hindu: Narendra Modi wishes Maryam Sharif speedy recovery 

Modi had actually wished Nawaz Sharif, who was undergoing a heart surgery. Although The Hindu got this right in the main story, they tweeted out the wrong version that Modi has wished Maryam Sharif, Nawaz Sharif’s daughter.

12. The Economic Times report on Tanmay Bhat and others

The above report had far too many errors to be taken seriously. Firstly some other user’s twitter handle was claimed to be that of Tanmay Bhat. The amount quoted as monthly earnings was also grossly overstated. The report also claimed that the AIB channel had 143.23 mn views, whereas on the day of publication, the channel had more than 150 mm views. Overall it was a shoddy piece of work.

13. Multiple media houses: Sunny Leone has added a “No Kissing” clause in her contracts.

Multiple media houses like Zee News, India Today and Times of India reported the above. This story was seemingly based only a speculative story in a bollywood site which claimed that because Sunny Leone had not been seen kissing any of her co-stars in her movie till date, it seemed odd. Daniel Weber, Sunny’s husband and manager trashed the reports and claimed there was no such clause.

14. News X: Tanmay Bhat wants cash for insult, asks Snapchat to pay him after video goes viral

News X clearly doesn’t get sarcasm. After his video insulting Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar went viral and became the latest outrage, Tanmay Bhat sarcastically tweeted that Snapchat should pay him for the free publicity. News X managed to believe this was an honest tweet and made a news story out of it.

15. Mumbai Mirror: Buzzfeed Editor Rega Jha is the daughter of Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha 

This tabloid news was obviously false and after severe twitter outrage, Mumbai Mirror admitted that they goofed up.

 

January 2016: 20 lies

February 2016: 22 Lies

March 2016: 17 Lies 

April 2016: 20 Lies

Cartoonist alleges Congress forced him to take off his cartoon

OpIndia Staff
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Cartoonist alleges Congress forced him to take off his cartoon

Even as Udta Punjab is facing trouble from the draconian chief of Censor Board, Pahlaj Nihalani, cartoonists are also feeling the heat of censorship, but from the party which professes to be of a liberal bent: Congress. The Congress party has seen a steady decline in vote share and popularity all over the country. The number of states under its rule has come down to a handful, the largest state being Karnataka.

Satish Acharya, a professional cartoonist, he has mocked many political parties, and famous personalities in the past. He has been vocal on various issues and has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies quite often:

But Acharya’s luck ran out when he dared to poke fun at Congress CM of Karnataka Siddaramaiah and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. Echoing the fact that Congress in India was losing its grip, Acharya drew the following cartoon:

The cartoon
The cartoon that Congress could not tolerate

It seems the political masters in Karnataka were not “tolerant” enough. Congress, which has earlier used censorship as a tool to silence critics on social media, was at it again. Yesterday Acharya remarked on Facebook that he had been getting calls from local Congress party leaders to remove his cartoon hung for public display, because it was “hurting”. He also revealed that although Congress claimed it was “hurt”, Municipality authorities claimed he should remove it because it violated a “No Flex” rule.

The truth though was out today. Acharya was forced to remove the cartoon from the hoarding on his building. Acharya claimed that Kundapura Municipality officials gave the excuse of “No Flex” drive, but unofficially they admitted to being under lots of pressure from the local Congress leaders to remove it.

censorship
censorship


Now as a form of protest, against this intolerance shown towards an artiste, Acharya has decided to help spread his cartoon as far and wide as possible. He has made the same cartoon his Facebook profile cover and is urging his fans to share the cartoon as much as possible.

Media reports saying India admits to error in GDP figure untrue

Gaurav
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Media reports saying India admits to error in GDP figure untrue

Call it economic illiteracy or plain malicious intent, Indian media has done it again. India posted a GDP of 7.6% for the last financial year, which positioned it as the fastest growing large economy in the world. But some media reports were out to find non-existent chinks in this data. The Deccan Chronicle for example ran this headline:

Deccan Chronicle
Deccan Chronicle

The popular site “The Logical Indian” too attempted to raise questions about the GDP, albeit with dubious logic and poor English. The central question revolved around the data point in the GDP figures which is called “discrepancies”. The Deccan Chronicle chose to rename this technical term as “errors”, which made it appear as if the the GDP data itself is erroneous.

So what are these “Discrepancies”? It was well explained in this article on the Wall Street Journal:

Understanding these “discrepancies” requires first understanding that an economy’s size can be measured in three ways: by totalling up the value of all goods and services that are produced, by totalling up the amount that gets spent on those goods and services, or by totalling up what’s earned by selling those goods and services.

In theory, all three methods should yield the same number: GDP. In reality, it’s complicated. And in India, it’s even more complicated.

The country’s statisticians first calculate GDP from the production side, with GVA and taxes and subsidies as outlined above. They then compute another GDP estimate by adding up various kinds of spending, from personal consumption to business and government investment. But because timely, reliable spending data aren’t available in India, the two GDP estimates don’t usually match.

The difference between them is what’s labeled “discrepancies.” And this amount, whether positive or negative, gets added to the expenditure-based estimate in the reported data so that the two estimates come out equal, just as they would be in an ideal world.

In short, “discrepancies” is an element inserted just to balance the GDP equation, so that it fits the theoretical formula. The country’s chief statistician T.C.A. Anant further explained that:

Discrepancies don’t represent an actual part of the economy. They are inserted just to make an accounting relationship hold true. If India collected better data on expenditure, discrepancies would be closer to zero.

He reiterated that “it doesn’t make sense to say that the magnitude of discrepancies is causing GDP growth to be overstated”. These views were echoed on twitter by economists such as Dr Bibek Debroy and Dr Arvind Virmani, who were almost at wit’s end explaining the technical jargon to lay people. Even Huffington Post reported that the analysts and economists they talked to had no reason to doubt the GDP figures. Later, Debroy, who is also a member of the Niti Aayog, even wrote an article to explain the point in layman’s terms:

I asked someone what her income was last month; she gave me a figure and produced a pay-slip. I then sought to know how she had spent the money; she thought of various items but couldn’t account for Rs 15,000. I told her, I believed neither her income figure nor her pay-slip. I am sure you agree mine was a stupid statement.

Notice that just because I have been unable to explain how some income was spent, that income doesn’t vanish into thin air; any more than Rs 15,000 from a pay-slip becomes “spin”. There is no dispute about those goods and services (their value) having been produced.

In summation, India has more data from the supply side, but inadequate data from the expenditure or demand side, which is why although supply side information gives the correct picture due to better data availability, expenditure side information falls short, hence the variable which is unknown is labelled as “discrepancy”. “Discrepancies” are essentially a balancing item, but also represent components which do not fit into a specific category. Also, in case of India, inventory data is quite poor, so looking at both inventory and discrepancies helps narrow the impact over time. To call this discrepancy an “error” is nothing short of malicious intent.

Hypocrisy of liberal artists is hurting art in India

Rahul Raj
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Hypocrisy of liberal artists is hurting art in India

Pahlaj Nihalani is back in news. This time for Udta Punjab.

I would not like to discuss Nihalani because it is useless to talk about an incompetent man who has done no good for Indian cinema even after facing enormous internal and external criticism. It will also be futile to delve into roles and responsibilities of Censor because at the end we would be rephrasing same old discourses which we have been doing for years. But this time I want to talk about many of those intelligent cinema artists who can possibly bypass the stupidity of censor and society, but they don’t. First, let us  quickly walk through the post-Censor controversy on Udta Punjab.

The drug-themed Bollywood film Udta Punjab, co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, picked limelight when media reported that The Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) has demanded 89 cuts and removal of any references to Punjab politics. Like most of the news stories, this story first ran rife on media and social media, then it was exaggerated with lies and finally fabricated into a political narratives. Not long back, on 28th May 2016, Anurag emphatically mentioned that Udta Punab is not banned, and people should not spread rumours. This was in repsonse to media stories doing the rounds that the film had been completely banned:


Udta Punjab gathered attention from media and social media. As expected, within no time, Udta Punjab became a BJP-Modi thing. Anurag Kashyap had to again request people not to make it a political tool, but then there are some who wait for such opportunities:


As on today, the war is still on — with theories, conspiracy theories and conspiracy theories behind conspiracy theories.

Back to the discussion of cinema artists in India. Before I talk about status of art in modern India, let us agree to some harsh realities of the Indian society. Non-commercial art has a very small market in India. It is neither very well appreciated nor acknowledged by the majority of the Indians.  Had it not been true, many good artists would not have died penniless. Had it not been true, the decent earning middle class people would not have downloaded TBs of music and movies from pirated sites despite several appeals from artists. Had it not been true, parents and teachers would not have demotivated kids for spending time on music, dance and paintings. Some artists do enjoy adulation and prosperity, but the percentage of such artists is so low that it brings more despair than hope. It directly and indirectly means that most of the artists have to drive art on their own by creating an ecosystem which can stand, struggle and change attitudes of people.

Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. Anurag may be feeling that he is living in a North Korea type censor system today, but the reality is that when voices are suppressed in the entertainment industry, when artists are sexually, mentally and physically exploited in the entertainment industry, when junior artists are discriminated in the entertainment industry, then most of the intelligent artists choose to selfishly stay silent due to fear of future.

But apart from this selfish cocooning for survival, there is a bigger complication within the cinema fraternity. Many of the cinema related artists don’t want other artists to grow. Due to limitations of opportunities, long struggle and inflated egos, many of these artists undergo a Darwinian evolution those-who-doesn’t-agree-are-wrong syndrome. If you talk to these peddlers of Mayanagri, most of them would talk about their works and would not leave a chance to demean and malign other struggling artists.

For my convenience, I will take the recent example of Buddha in a Traffic Jam, written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri. I chose this movie because of couple of reasons a) it is a very recent example b) Vivek Agnihotri is a good friend of mine. When students of JNU and Jadavpur University created a violent ruckus in their campus and opposed the screening of the movie because of ideological differences, not many people involved with film-making stood up to this hooliganism. Even those who did, added disclaimers that it was a bad or a propaganda movie. During an interview of Vivek, Abhinandan from Newslaundry conceded that he was painting the movie as a propaganda movie even without watching it. He also admitted that after watching the movie he agrees that he was wrong. Abhinandan was gracious enough to accept his mistake, others didn’t even care. Sure, the Udta Punjab case is not exactly comparable with what happened to Buddha in a Traffi Jam, but it reveals a mindset.

There are several examples of hypocrisy of liberal artists, but I will pick Varun Grover because I know him from my college days. I know his passion for cinema, I know how after quitting a well paying job, he has struggled for cinema and I also remember that he contributed INR 4,000 for my college play, even when he was struggling to survive.  Another reason why I picked his name is that his platform Aisi Taisi Democracy often talks about hypocrisy of Indians, and during Vivek’s case it did the same what it jokes on.

Varun often talks about independence of art, but when Buddha in a Traffic Jam was under attack, he supposedly supported the FoE with many disclaimers, as if he is doing favour” to art and free speech. He couldn’t even resist himself from slyly mentioning how the movie is getting benefited due to controversy


Varun didn’t stop here. He also shared and promoted tweets which were intended to make personal attacks on Vivek.

Varun Grover

There are several similar examples.

Given the fact that Nihalani is incompetent, people have political biases, and art doesn’t have a strong support in India, here are some points to ponder:

  1. If an artist lampoons other artist, who and what is harmed the most?
  2. If a set of artists declare works of artists with different ideologies as propaganda and inferior form of art, why would they get support from the other sets of artists, when needed?

We can easily figure out the answer.

P.S: It is important to mention here that Vivek Agnihotri completely backed Anurag Kashyap and his movie and Kashyap too acknowledged this in the media.

P.P.S: I am a big fan of Anurag Kashyap

Modi vs Kejriwal – A Tweet Analysis

rohitagarwal
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Modi vs Kejriwal – A Tweet Analysis

Having followed both PM Narendra Modi and CM Arvind Kejriwal on twitter for a while, I noticed a distinct pattern to the way they each of them tweets. To confirm my impressions, I did a detailed analysis of their tweets over 50 days (1 Apr to 20 May 2016) and tried to broadly group them into different categories. For ease of comparison, I tried to make the categories as similar as possible.

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Modi vs Kejriwal

Wherever this was not possible, I tried to group them into bigger categories which would be common (For example – Governance affairs). And since the volume of tweets over the fixed period were also substantially different – the PM tweeted almost twice as much as the CM of Delhi – I converted the number to percentage for comparison.
The resulting compilation threw up some very interesting data points which give a great insight into the thought process and leadership styles of the two leaders. It also gives a fair idea about what they’re preoccupied with. The detailed comparison is as per the table below, followed by some observations I have had.

1Observations based on this limited, 50-day study:

1. The highest percentage of tweets by Arvind Kejriwal are ones attacking / criticizing others (44%), and by Narendra Modi are about government business (50%). Therefore, the former spends far more time in attacking others while the latter spends more time talking about his work.

2. Both devote almost an equal proportion of their tweets to compliments. However, the PM’s complimentary tweets are more varied, and include festival greetings for almost all denominations of the country. Three of Arvind Kejriwal’s tweets are self-congratulatory.

3. Just 27% of Arvind Kejriwal’s tweets are about his government’s activities, as compared to 50% by the PM. Apart from attacking others, he also tweets about affairs of other states. Some of his tweets are also offered as explanations / self-defence to criticism. While the PM also faces quite a lot of criticism, this is not reflected in his tweets.

Conclusions

While the readers are invited to draw their own conclusions after studying their data, my takeaway from this is that Arvind Kejriwal should spend less time in attacking other people, and focus more on the governance of Delhi for which he has been elected.

Saba Naqvi: The line between being a journalist and being an AAP cheerleader

Gaurav
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Saba Naqvi: The line between being a journalist and being an AAP cheerleader

The news of controversial journalist turned AAP leader Aashish Khetan threatening journalists online is still fresh in our minds. When some journalists tweeted a link to a very damning report of the corrupt practices being followed by AAP the party and also its Government, Khetan lost his cool and admonished them and even went as far as threatening them. Perhaps the realisation that this information will open a pandora’s box was what led to the outburst.

One of the allegations made in the report was that AAP had appointed as many as 25 journalists on the governing bodies of  28 colleges funded by the government affiliated to the Delhi University. They achieved this by dissolving the governing bodies despite opposition from the university and hundreds of non-permanent teachers. Apparently, most of them were working journalists, many of whom report and write about AAP. The list of these journalists got leaked online and can be verified from here (some of them have rejected the appointments):

As columnist Anand Ranganathan noted on twitter, most of the names of journalists are mentioned as “recommendations” but it seemed that the recommendations were accepted in totality. Two very prominent names on the list were those of journalists M K Venu, founding editor of thewire.in, a leftist site, and that of Saba Naqvi, a journalist and TV panelist. While Mr M K Venu rejected the appointment, Saba Naqvi happily chose to accept AAP’s gift to her.

What might have been the reason to give Saba Naqvi this honour? Surely it had nothing to do with her hagiography of the messiah of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal? The other ex-journalist who wrote on AAP, Ashutosh is already in AAP.

After the leak that Saba Naqvi had indeed been appointed on a Governing council, old media followed the code of Omerta, with no one reporting this news, while social media began asking tough questions of this journalist. She had remained silent when she was appointed, but now, the justification given by her on twitter, after she was questioned, was this:

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Saba Naqvi’s response

Has a journalist, who is supposed to be an independent, unbiased reporter, openly accepted that her single-minded goal is to thwart the RSS? Is this the role of a journalist? Can the bogey of RSS be raised to justify the acceptance of a political handout? The appointments were recommended as early as  July 2015. It is almost a year now. Did we see any disclosure or announcement from Naqvi for so long, before this leaked out?

It is not illegal for anyone to accept political handouts and largesses. Many parties do it and have done it in the past and so also journalists have also accepted the same. But once journalists openly admit that their agenda is not reporting, but is rather to keep a section of the society at bay, for which they have a visceral hatred, then the so-called journalism of such journalists must be placed under scrutiny.

Take for example this flowery “tribute” to Arvind Kejriwal and AAP offered by his co-opted political appointee, Saba Naqvi. This was written long after the appointment to the Governing Council.

A tribute
A tribute

Is this a fair, unbiased, honest assessment of AAP then? Or is this a piece which is written out of gratitude to dear leader who rewarded a hack? The entire article only speaks of the glories of AAP rule, some maybe genuine, some maybe over-hyped. A rally in Punjab means AAP gets entry into “new terrain”. The odd-even scheme which failed in reducing pollution is hailed for reducing traffic and “the special ability of Kejriwal and his young party to do unconventional things“. The piece is littered with praise and adulation for the great leader.

Naqvi signs off the piece as “Delhi-based author and journalist”, no disclosure about her being appointed by Arvind Kejriwal, the person who she is deifying, on the governing council of a college. This is how journalism works in India.

Or take the time when AAP’s nationwide ad frenzy had created a furore. For days on end, Delhi based AAP advertised in virtually every part of the country, with double-page “advertisements”. The ads, were designed to give the effect that they were news reports, whereas they were actually advertisements. Eventually it was revealed that the Delhi Government had splurged over Rs 15 crores in 3 months on this blitzkreig. And Saba Naqvi came to the defense of her benefactor AAP:


The tweet is stunningly idiotic.

Firstly, the use of whataboutery as the only means to defend her benefactor Kejriwal.

Secondly, comparing the advertisement expense of a national party, to that of a regional party which has electoral presence in only 2 small Northern Indian states.

Thirdly, the ad expense during a national election campaign being compared to the ad expense when there are no state elections coming up in which AAP is contesting.

Fourth, the AAP ads were paid for by the Delhi Government, i.e. by Delhi’s common taxpayer, whereas BJP’s 2014 ad campaign was paid for by the party, not from taxes collected for the welfare of the state.

To a layman, the argument put forth by Naqvi may seem illogical, but when you consider she has been benefited by AAP, it all makes sense.

There seems to be a growing conflict of interest situation. Naqvi praises Kejriwal in her book, gets a plum posts, goes on to further praise Kejriwal. All fine, but until you consider she is supposed to be a journalist. Ironically, this is what she wrote on “Augusta Patrakars” (she spells Agusta as Augusta):

We can question the accepted practice in the media of accepting hospitality from anyone, but just the act of going on a sponsored trip does not make a journalist corrupt. Personally, no one ever offered me such trips as I am unlikely to accept a corporate sponsored trip. But that’s me and my personal code.

Seems she broke her personal code for AAP? Or are only foreign trips included in her code? As this secret is now out, that she is one of the journalists who were rewarded by AAP, we must now wait and watch how many media houses drop her from their shows, their columns, or at least educate the reader about her background. And we must also wait for Naqvi, to claim that she is being attacked by Hindutva misogynistic bigots for being a free-thinking muslim woman, and not for her gross impropriety as a journalist.

New York Times uses lies to insult victims of Godhra carnage in a report on Gulbarg Society judgement

Nirwa Mehta
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New York Times uses lies to insult victims of Godhra carnage in a report on Gulbarg Society judgement

Yesterday was the verdict of the Gulbarg massacre that took place during the 2002 riots in Gujarat. The 2002 riots were one of the worst riots which ever took place in Gujarat, a state which is prone to communal riots. Before 2002, the worst riots in Gujarat’s history took place in 1969 during the rule of Hitendra Desai, a Congress chief minister. The riots saw the death of over 660 people (official number) whereas, the unofficial number is pegged at over 2000, most of which were Muslims.

I don’t want to get into how fair/unfair the verdict is. I am no legal expert.

But I will take it upon myself to correct the international media when they write about my beloved Gujarat. I was going through this New York Times piece on the verdict.

I want to show how an international publication either misrepresents the facts, or chooses to completely ignore stating them.

Ellen Barry, South Asia bureau chief of NYTimes, in her article writes

A judge in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city, acquitted 36 people for lack of evidence, including a police inspector and a midranking official in the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Mr. Modi.

Agreed. I like how she describes Ahmedabad as Gujarat’s largest city, but misses out on the fact that it was no ordinary judge. He was a special judge appointed for the special court.

Rest of the article is in poor taste, but I will not let my political inclination cloud my dislike for the lack of facts.

However, my blood started boiling when she quoted Teesta Setalvad and described her as “an activist who has spearheaded a campaign to prosecute Gujarat officials”. She very conveniently forgot to give the disclaimer that Setalvad is accused by the residents of the Gulbarg society of embezzling donation money they collected for building a museum. Although the Supreme Court has said Setalvad and her husband should not be arrested, they have been told to provide all documents needed.

Barry could have given this little disclaimer to give the international readers a fair chance at getting a balanced view.

Moving along, Barry then describes how the 2002 riots started.

The Gujarat riots began on a February morning, when a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was surrounded by a mob of Muslims and caught fire at a train platform in Godhra. An investigation later concluded that the fire had been accidental, but it was widely blamed on Muslims. The remains of 59 people burned to death on the train were displayed in Ahmedabad, stoking anti-Muslim fury.

Pay attention to the point where Barry claims the train carrying Hindu pilgrims “caught fire”. To substantiate this, Barry links back to another NYT piece, this time from 2002 itself. And oddly, this piece does not even contain the word “caught”. All it says is the train was “set on fire” and multiple occasions:

An angry Muslim mob Wednesday morning set fire to a train loaded with Hindu activists………..some in the mob, who had been stoning the coaches, set fire to the train, probably with gasoline from a nearby pump….”

So Barry has no basis of saying that the train “caught fire” and in fact her own provided links show a contrarian view. Further, note how Barry says:

An investigation later concluded that the fire had been accidental, but it was widely blamed on Muslims

Again Ellen Barry is playing with facts. A Judicial Commission set up to enquire into the incident had found that it was indeed set on fire, and courts had sentenced several people based on this.  But Barry was probably referring to the report by the second commission set up, the Bannerjee Committee, which was set up by UPA 1, and which contradicted the first report. Barry chose deliberately to hide the fact that courts had subsequently thrown out the Bannerjee Commission report, even restraining the Centre from tabling the committee report in Parliament or taking any further action on it. How convenient of Barry.

If Barry is to be believed that the train “caught fire”, then Farooq Mohammad Bhana, who’s arrested under charges of conspiracy to set the train on fire must be innocent.

This is how Times of India describes Bhana’s alleged involvement:

ATS officials said Bhana, who was on the run for 14 years, was staying in the slums of Andheri (east) in Mumbai under the fake identity of Mohammed Umar for the last seven years. He even did some petty work on contractual basis at the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation. “We have seized some forged identity documents from him,” said an ATS official.

In 2002, Bhana was an independent councillor in the Godhra municipality, representing Polan Bazar ward. His arrest is considered a prized catch as investigators say he was involved in the alleged train burning conspiracy “right from the beginning till the end.”

J K Bhatt, inspector general of police, ATS, said, “We suspect that Bhana could have visited Pakistan while being on the run. He was staying in Mumbai for the last seven years. We are probing whether he had procured a fake passport.” He was remanded in eight-day SIT custody.

Elaborating on Bhana’s role in the train carnage, ATS officials said that he was present at a meeting in Aman Guest House where the conspiracy to burn the train was hatched on February 26, 2002. “Bhana had allegedly instructed other conspirators about the attack plan and directed them to store 140 litres of petrol to burn the coach,” said Bhatt.

J R Mothaliya, member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Godhra train carnage, said that Bhana was involved in the “entire planning, right from the beginning till the end”.

Bhana was arrested on May 18, 2016. By the way, NYT did not report on Bhana being arrested. Guess it wasn’t important enough. Guess, Barry has finally adopted Indian and Indian media when it comes to reporting news.

So called South Asia bureau chief for NYT, Ellen Barry, welcome to India. We love you

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