Friday, November 15, 2024
Home Blog Page 6947

The success of AAP and the end of Hand-outs

Guest Author
-
0
The success of AAP and the end of Hand-outs

In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to make some points evidently clear before I offer my not so expert commentary on the importance of the success of the AAP in the recently concluded Delhi election. I am an NRI, center-right leaning agnostic Hindu, who believes that Narendra Modi is the best option that India has in the current political landscape, and am someone who has a pathological distaste for ostensibly left-leaning economics, which I believe has been the bane of the Indian state since its inception, and has largely been the reason for many of the socio-economic malaise.

Thus, I believe that AAP is not just the old Congress socialist handouts in a new bottle, but is spiked with highly potent Methanol that has ended up blinding the Delhi electorate and potentially bankrupting the state. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel that AAP winning the election has been a major blessing in disguise, with the five-year tenure of Kejriwal possibly signing the death warrant to the culture of handouts that has been a veritable cancer since Nehru’s times. Looking at the situation in front of us, there are only three possible outcomes that can happen from the AAP’s attempt to fulfill their wild promises:

  1. They fail absolutely miserably in delivering even the bare minimum.
  2. The party achieves marginal success and on a qualitative note might even end up fulfilling all their promises but doesn’t end up fulfilling everything to the letter.
  3. The AAP, in a stunning display of performance which would put the director of Nayak to shame, manages to fulfill all their promises qualitatively and quantitatively making Mr. Kejriwal the real alternative to Mr. Modi and the prima-donna in the center-left political space.

Let us examine each scenario individually. Scenario 1 is a no-brainer. The AAP fails miserably, there is chaos and the party is no longer deemed worthy of even a municipal seat by the electorate. This is highly unexpected as there are many tangible promises in the AAP manifesto that they can fulfill without too much difficulty.

Scenario no. 3 is where the AAP is poised to earn substantial political dividends. In this highly unlikely scenario again, the AAP would have fulfilled their promises, but it would have been at the expense of basic fiscal prudence. Indeed, the electorate of Delhi would be thrilled at the freebies on offer, and might even offer Kejriwal a second term, but come 2019, Kejriwal will be genuinely staring down the proverbial debt barrel, with nowhere to run and hide. Additionally, he would have to placate an ever-hungry electorate who for example might be expecting 4G data speeds from their free Wi-Fi.

All these things cost money, and it’s unlikely that Kejriwal who has a habit of rubbing his opponents the wrong way on a consistent basis will be able to cough it up (pun unintended) from the central Government which he is unlikely to control any-time in the next decade even in the most optimistic scenario. Come 2020, the usual noises of ‘tough times’, ‘fiscal prudence’, ‘weak finances’ would be used and the sops would slowly see their demise, infuriating the public to no end and costing him his support.

Scenario no. 2 is the more interesting one, and the one I think that is most likely to happen. Indeed, Kejriwal will manage to provide subsidized water, subsidized electricity and free Wi-Fi, but this will come with a lot of caveats which wouldn’t surprise the middle class but will definitely be a rude shock to the poor and marginalised who are the ones who overwhelmingly voted for him in this election. The AAP manifesto claims to fulfill these promises with innovative solutions but in no way does it present tangible plans, nor the costs involved. As this report suggests, the cost of the 50% electricity subsidy will cost the Delhi exchequer 3400 crores, out of a total budget of 36800 crores.

As stated in the article by the AAP’s chief intellectual Prof. Yogendra Yadav, the party is essentially banking on the CAG audit of the discoms which will throw up irregularities that the Government hopes to tap into. This is not a guaranteed source of income as it is quite possible that the audit does not find any irregularities and/or does not manage to fill the budget deficit. Either way, the subsidy could lapse very quickly bringing a rude shock to the aam aadmi and disillusionment with the party. This argument qualitatively holds true for the water subsidy as well.

The free wi-fi is a huge canard as it will be limited to less than an hour at best, after which one would have to buy an internet pack. There is no ambiguity in the AAP’s promise which shows very clearly that AAP is promising free wi-fi without any statement anywhere that says ‘conditions apply’. This is again poised to create major disillusionment in the minds of the Delhi youth who formed a sizeable chunk of the AAP vote base.

These two cases are a clear example of how the AAP might achieve some success in the short-term but will fail miserably in the long run. Moreover, being a highly urbanised city, it’s unlikely that in the long-term, the aspirational Delhiite would tolerate low-quality handouts without any actual, tangible improvement in their lives via proper job creation and true wealth building; both of which will definitely take a hit in an AAP Govt.

In summary, the AAP has managed to win an election on the strength of schemes and promises which are either impossible to fulfill, or which will end up bankrupting the state. Neither is sustainable in the long run, and it would end up alienating the electorate. For the first time in post-liberalised India, a party has offered handouts to every strata of society, without rhyme or reason. The failure of the AAP will thus see the biggest abandonment of senseless neo-communist ideas in 21st century India, hopefully putting an end to this cancer forever.

– Robert Barker

On Twitter, the Right Wing’s greatest enemy is the Right Wing itself

Gaurav
-
0
On Twitter, the Right Wing’s greatest enemy is the Right Wing itself

Yesterday an ordinary trolling incident brought to light a more serious problem. I was egging on Mr Bhupendra Chaube for a reply to my post, a reply which he had promised me. Quite a few people found it amusing and Retweeted it. One person chose to reply to it, with this tweet:


The absolutely unnecessary use of an abusive word upset me. I explained to him that there was no need for such language and he eventually apologized.

But that woke me up to a reality: Why do people use abusive language when the same message can be conveyed differently, and why are Right Wingers (in popular discourse, though the term entirely means something else) said to be more abusive? Using such language definitely doesn’t help their cause.

The main topic at hand gets diluted, the environment becomes tense and vicious, and worst of all, the person towards whom the slur is targeted gets a golden chance to play victim.

The most recent example of such false victim-hood was written about by @bhak_sala when BuzzFeed India editor chose to poke first and when she got the responses she wanted, gladly picked up the victim card and topped it on with the unbeatable sexism card.

And as things stand, the image that is driven in most people’s minds is that it is always the right-wingers who are abusive. This message has been propagated widely by many influential people:


But this too is a propaganda. Even the so called “Liberals” of Twitter, who claim to have different ideologies from “Bhakts”, have repeatedly used abusive language for people. Even an artist like Varun Grover, who I appreciate for his art, has used such language on multiple occasions:



And mind you, most of the Right Wing abusers are small fries, sometimes anonymous, and “fake” profiles. They are not high profile members of Bollywood. And also there is no question of “consent” here, which was used to justify “insult jokes” by All India Bakchod.

Of course, one is free to say what he wants, but in a civilized world, abusing people isn’t acceptable or worth encouraging. Although “liberals” are as much abusive (and most of the times they encourage their own trolls – also known as eNREGA coolies – to abuse), the tag of being vicious and abusive has stuck to “Right Wingers”.

But two wrongs can’t make it a right. The Right Wing has to realize that abusing doesn’t help. And the only way to remove this tag, is to change one’s own behavior. Imagine if Right wing criticism is objective and civilized, will the recipients of the criticism have any excuse to hide behind the “burqa” of victim-hood?

Please realize that the so-called “liberals” are often on wrong foot and lacking sane arguments, abusing them gives them an excuse to evade the probing questions.

Forget that, is it appropriate to abuse almost strangers, sometimes even dragging their families? PM Modi has launched a Swachchh Bharat campaign, can Twitter not be covered under it? Can we not expect Twitter users, especially followers of Modi to take his message in a the right spirit and exercise control over one’s language?

It will not only be beneficial for Twitter as a whole, but also for the people who indulge in usage of bad language.

And yes, for the happily abusing “liberals”, who have fallen from grace of being creative artists to being abusive propagandists, my friend and colleague at OpIndia.com, Rahul Raj aka @bhak_sala, has written the following poem:

गुल्लक में ख़्वाबों को इकठ्ठा करने चला था फ़कीर
मज़लूमों का ग़म देखकर बड़ा विचलित हुआ अधीर
humanity का entrepreneurship बहुत बड़ा हरजाई है
पहले investor fund के बाद फिर दिखता नहीं दुहाई है
संघर्ष नशा है – cocaine की तरह नसों में चढ़ जाता है
मज़लूमों को छोड़ फ़कीर propaganda पर उतर आता है
क्रांति में कुचले गए आंसू हफ़्तों में हो जाते हैं बंजर
liberal ढोल पीटने वाले उठा लेते हैं ज़हर का ख़ंजर

AAP volunteer attends Delhi govt meeting, calls lady officer “RSS ki masterni”

OpIndia Staff
-
0
AAP volunteer attends Delhi govt meeting, calls lady officer “RSS ki masterni”

NEW DELHI: Everyone remembers how some AAP volunteers had created ruckus in a government hospital during the 49-days rule of Arvind Kejriwal last year. Apart from acting like supervisors, they even ordered a doctor to give drugs to a patient according to their own understanding of the disease.

It appears that the same menace of mob justice and vigilantism is all set to return in the second innings of AAP rule in Delhi. With the party getting an unprecedented mandate, the “volunteers” are set to return as “guiding forces” to correct government functioning, and with a vengeance.

Aam Aadmi Party volunteer
“The government is in our hands”?

According to a report published in Amar Ujala, an AAP volunteer was allowed to attend a meeting of Ministry of Social Justice. The volunteer was included as an “expert” in the meeting by the Minister.

This “expert” soon started throwing around his weight and is reported to have misbehaved with a lady IAS officer working in the Women and Child Development department of the Ministry.

According to reports confirmed by senior IAS officers, the AAP volunteer interrupted the lady officer in the middle of her presentation and asked her not to behave like a “RSS ki masterni” (a teacher owing allegiance to RSS).

The AAP volunteer’s insinuation of the lady officer owing allegiance to RSS instead of the government infuriated her. She immediately protested against the comment in the meeting. She told the Minister that she won’t be able to work if she was subjected to such humiliation by people who were not even part of the government.

Reports say that the situation was brought under control by the Minister before it could turn ugly, but it gave a glimpse of what the government officers could expect in coming days – AAP volunteers acting as extra-constitutional authorities who would demand the government officers to work the way they want.

Apart from the risk of vigilantism, the incident also shows that in the second innings, AAP has chosen “experts” with an ideological preference as part of a well thought strategy.

Political analysts believe that AAP has chosen anti-RSS volunteers so that they get support of mainstream media, which had by and large criticized AAP for the hospital ruckus and vigilantism by ex-Minister Somnath Bharti. AAP hopes that media will not criticize the vigilantism if the government officers are painted as RSS agents.

It doesn’t seem to have worked in the first instance. At least one newspaper has reported it.

BuzzFeed India editor will continue to provoke the “ugly” and play victim, this is why

Rahul Raj
-
0
BuzzFeed India editor will continue to provoke the “ugly” and play victim, this is why

On 15 February 2015, when two of the fiercest cricketing nations were putting all their blood and sweat to win glory for their nation – which is what sport is meant to do, unless one thinks that this animal instinct is harmful to the human psychological growth – some of the great minds in India were preparing apology drafts for Pakistanis so that world peace is not disturbed by a few howzzats.

It is a well-known fact that India and Pakistan share “special relationship” in the real universe as well as on the internet created the virtual universe. The nature of interactions, especially during cricket matches, crosses all the limits of expected social demeanour. It may be unfortunate, but that’s where the fun lies: we would be living in a fool’s paradise if we expect supporters of India and Pakistan to cheer their rivals in Lucknowi Tehzeeb and praising their nazaakat and shaili.

813f461a-00d1-45f3-85b7-eef64d17dbb9HiRes

The cross-border verbal firing was set weeks before the match started; it exploded on 15 Feb 2015. The debris of this explosion dispersed entertainment, satisfaction, sorrow, an apology.

The apology part of this whole saga tickled me the most because I was eagerly waiting for the Don Quixotes of social media to glorify their battles against imaginary windmills.

Though there were many protagonists, the Buzzfeed India editor Rega Jha stole all the ovations. In fact, she exceeded my expectations with such grandeur that I was caught in a Catch-22 situation – to bang my head on thoughts floated by her or to ignore her ploy of forcing me to bang my head.

When I saw that many liberal, tender-hearted, intellectually grown people are taking a stand for her and questioning people who were questioning Rega Jha, I decided to bang my head instead of leaving the topic like an escapist.

Let us recount the incidence. Rega Jha, a rising young journalist if one is to believe the Indian arm of Huffington Post – even though her best posts are like 10 things tomato must know so that it doesn’t become a potato – but given the nature of journalists in India these days, we assume that she is a rising journalist – left the floor open with this tweet:


I am not sure why the prophetic Ravi Shastri’s style, “no matter who wins, cricket is the winner” was forcibly morphed by embedding it with “ugly Indians” part, which can only be justified by UFO riding aliens or fake-seculars, but I was amused to read that Rega Jha was among those selective out-of-the-box-thinkers who were watching the match to evaluate hotness of Pakistanis and Indians.

The upcoming talented journalist who discriminates people based on their physical appearances left a silly comment, which was enough to provoke people whom she termed “ugly” (She could have just ended with calling Pakistanis hotter), but when people started rebutting, she picked selective comments to play her victim-card and to further prove how right she was in terming Indians “ugly”.


And her trick worked. From being someone who cracked a silly joke that reinforced racial stereotypes about beauty, she became the victim of misogyny. The Huffington Post wrote a post on the Rega Jha incidence in which they say, “Buzzfeed India Editor Comes In For Vicious Sexist Attack On Twitter”.

The outburst against Rega Jha was well exploited by her to gather publicity, but the more unfortunate part was a sudden upsurge of lazy intellectuals who started standing in her support saying it was just a “joke”.

Well, the same intellectuals gang up and write editorials when Chetan Bhagat cracks equally silly jokes. Remember this outrage when Chetan Bhagat cracked a really old and lame joke on Father’s Day? If they can criticize Chetan, why should they defend Rega?

They ganged up to defend their own, as Rega Jha is supposed to be a “liberal” while Chetan Bhagat has not earned that coveted label.

And as if on cue, Rega Jha did what a jazzy intellectual would have done. With “ugly” nationalism and jingoism over, she moved to misogyny and patriarchy in India. Very “liberal” topics.


She is correct in stating that the Social Media is hostile to women, but she was not “attacked” for being a woman. Not even for calling Pakistanis hotter (by the way women are treated in a really hostile manner by many “hot” Pakistani men). But for terming an entire group of people “ugly”.

Let me be honest. Yes, most of us on the social media face criticism and abuses for putting opinions, whether the opinions are silly or serious. My facebook page (Bhak Sala) has 550,000+ subscribers and I get 100s of messages in which I am referred as AAPtard, ModiTard, IslamoPhobe, Sickular, Naxal, etc.

I used to react to abuses in the past, but now no more. People grow by accepting, tolerating and/or ignoring these attacks. It is a personal choice. Rega Jha can either choose to ignore or play the victim in future. My bet is on the latter, as she will always find support for her jokes and stupidity because somehow she has earned the label of being a “liberal”.

How media calculated the figure of Rs 10 lakh for Modi suit without caring for facts

OpIndia Staff
-
0
How media calculated the figure of Rs 10 lakh for Modi suit without caring for facts

Ever since PM Narendra Modi wore a pinstripe suit with his name monogrammed on it on the Republic Day earlier this year, Mainstream Media and Social Media has been spreading all sorts of stories about the origins of this suit. The most “believed” figure for the suit’s cost is Rs. 10 lakhs, which has been repeated as gospel’s truth by many leading journalists.

OpIndia.com traces how it all started, and how media comes up with “facts”.

Our team went through all the comments and information available in the public as soon as the suit was found to have been inscribed with Modi’s name. The first reaction was terming Narendra Modi a megalomaniac, which was followed by claims that what he did was not new. Many other state leaders had done that, most notably Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Soon the commentators tried to find the origins of Mubarak’s suit. And they discovered some news reports from as early as March 2011. Such reports revealed the name of the company that stitched the suit for Mubarak.This particular news report said “According to cloth maker Holland & Sherry, from London’s Savile Row, the stripes may have cost around 10,000 pounds per suit.”

And for some strange reasons, everyone assumed that the company that stitched the suit for Hosni Mubarak, also stitched it for Narendra Modi. This assumption was made mainstream by some foreign press reports.

An article in the London Evening standard, a UK based publication, on 26th January said – It appears that the suit has come from our very own Savile Row, with fabric made by “cloth merchants of distinction” Holland & Sherry. The fabric alone — seven metres required to make a suit — would have cost somewhere between £2,500 and £3,000.

Note the term “it appears“, which means that London Evening Standard had no definite information about makers of the suit. Essentially it had published a report on guess work. Perhaps they wanted to find a British link (note the term “our very own”) to every international event just as our media tries to find an Indian link to every international event.

But that didn’t deter many on the social media, especially those aligned to the Congress party, from spreading this weak assumption it as if it was some gospel truth.


Once spread by Congress allied social media accounts, this was then blindly picked by up Indian mainstream media. A DNA article was one of the first to start this propaganda. Of course, they were ably supported by the usual suspects from Social Media.


Later Rahul Gandhi repeated the claim in run up to Delhi elections, and the figure of 10 lakh became a fact. While certain sections of the media blindly copied the British figures and Rahul Gandhi, Times of India tried to estimate the cost from scratch. In this piece, they said an Indian designer estimated that “cost is anything between Rs 80,000 and Rs 5 lakh, depending on the fabric”. They also claimed that the suit was stitched by Jade Blue, the same company which makes the famous Modi Kurtas.

So as of this stage, our stellar journalists had a range of Rs 80,000 to Rs 10 lakh as the cost of Modi’s suit, and it could have come from London or from Ahmedabad.

Today, it was declared that Modi’s famed suit will be auctioned and the proceeds will go to the Namami Gange Trust Fund for helping fund girls’ education cleaning of Ganga river. It was also made clear that the suit is among the nearly 363 items that were received as gifts by Modi and Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel and that will be auctioned.

This is line with what Modi has been doing for a long time. Much before he became PM, he had raised Rs 89.96 crore by auctioning all gifts he received as Chief Minister and donated this to the Kanya Kelavani Fund.

As to the details of the origins of the suit, it is now revealed that the suit was a gift from a Mr Rameshkumar Bhikabhai Virani. Mr Virani said, “I am from Gujarat. I presented this suit to him (Prime Minister Modi) when I attended the recent Vibrant Gujarat Summit. I gave it while extending an invitation to him to attend my son’s wedding on January 26.”

He also rubbished the claims that it could have cost Rs 10 lakhs saying “My son does not have the guts to spend that kind of money or that amount.”

While the cost of the suit is not yet known, some commentators believe that Modi’s suit “cost” the BJP the Delhi elections. We hope someone catches hold of the tailor who made it as soon as possible. At the time of writing this, the suit had attracted a bid of Rs 1 crore!

How the Government might recover more than 8 times the money lost in CoalGate scam

Gaurav
-
0
How the Government might recover more than 8 times the money lost in CoalGate scam

In India, our attention is always on the negative aspect of things. In 2012 the Media was constantly reporting the infamous Coal-Gate scam where in the then Government had allocated coal blocks in an inefficient manner.  The crux of the matter was, while the Government did have a choice to auction the coal blocks, they chose not to, thereby causing massive loss to the country. The Final CAG report pegged the loss at an astounding Rs 1.86 lakh crores, making it one of the biggest scams in India. Finally through court intervention, the Coal allocations were cancelled.

Now the Government has finally begun the process of re-allocating these Coal blocks, in a transparent manner, and by adopting the auction route. Along with this, the Government has taken numerous measures to ensure the best possible result to this auction process. But sadly, the national media has not covered this with the focus it gave the Coal Scam.

The entire bidding system is a bit complicated but very rewarding to the consumer. The Government has introduced reverse bidding for bidding in regulated power. The Government first determines the cost Coal India incurs in extracting and processing the coal. This is called the ceiling price. Bidders take part in a reverse bid to bid the lowest price. For egs: if the Ceiling Price (Cost to Coal India) is Rs 1000, then the winning bid will be lowest bid below Rs 1000. So if there are 2 bidders, A bids Rs 500 and B bids Rs 400, B wins. The effect of this bid is B claims he can process the coal at Rs 400 only, as compared to Rs 1000 incurred by Coal India. Thus the Government pays the bidder only Rs 400 for processing the coal, which would have cost Rs 1000 to Coal India, and the differential Rs 600 cost saving gets passed on to the consumer. 

Another move the Government took was pruning 50% of qualified bidders after opening price bids were received. This creates a fear of premature disqualification and forces the bidders to put forth the best possible price, thus ensuring that bidding is aggressive. 

Now in the above Reverse Bidding model, there can theoretically be a case where the bid comes to zero i.e. two or more companies can say they will process coal at zero cost, which means they will pass on the entire benefit to the customer (Rs 1000) from above example. To resolve such ties, the Government devised a Forward Bidding mechanism. In reverse bidding we saw what amount the Government must pay the bidders to process coal. Once that comes to zero, the bidders start paying the Government to allow them to process coal! So now, the bid is for who pays the Government the most. For one of the non regulated sector mines, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Cement had to make a bid of Rs 1,402 per tonne, more than nine times the floor price of Rs 150 to bag a Coal block.

Thus, the auction is expected to earn much more than the Rs 1.86 lakh crore, which was lost thanks to the Coal Gate scam. The auction could fetch poor states such as Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal Rs 15 lakh crore over a 30-year period, or Rs 50,000 crore a year on an average. Coal secretary Anil Swarup said that the current trend seen in the auction makes him believe the revenue could be more than Rs 15 lakh crore. We feel, even if this is being grossly optimistic and even just 20% of this is eventually recovered, that too will be much more than the money lost in the scam.

(With technical inputs from @DevanshiS_)

After vandals deface Hindu temple, some come out to support Hindus in US

OpIndia Staff
-
0
After vandals deface Hindu temple, some come out to support Hindus in US

Though it didn’t convert into a mass movement or even a hashtag on Twitter, some residents of Bothell city in Washington tried to reassure the local Hindu community, which was left shocked and dismayed to see hate message written on their temple on the occasion of Maha Shivratri.

Local US media reported that some people came out and put posters and cards in support of the community. The hateful words on the walls have been erased too.

A poster put up in support of Hindus
A poster put up in support of Hindus
Some came up with placards
Some came up with placards
While others were considerate to send cards
While others were considerate to send cards

While the authorities are investigating who could be behind these attacks, the unfortunate incident has also led to some US citizens discover that the swastika is a sacred symbol of Hindus and not some exclusive insignia of the Nazis.

Telegraph screengrab
Hope the education is complete among those who think they are superior

The level of ignorance and intolerance would surely have shocked the founding fathers of the USA.

Modi spoke about tolerance, but Modi haters can’t hear. Here are few reactions

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Modi spoke about tolerance, but Modi haters can’t hear. Here are few reactions

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at a function organised at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The event was organized to celebrate the elevation of two beatified members of the church to sainthood.

Modi has been condemned for his silence on some recent cases of religious intolerance, so this public address should be seen as a bold positive step towards nation building, however, as expected, Modi haters who disguise under the mask of “liberals” were least worried about the message. OpIndia.com team has captured some of the liberal bigots.

Few days back, OpIndia.com commented on a lame post by Scroll.in in which the Scroll editor and well known Modi hater Shivam Vij wrote, “Churches have been mysteriously burnt, adivasis have been beaten up and others made to participate in Hindu “reconversion” ceremonies, Muslim men have been falsely accused and put in jail for “love jihad”, anti-Muslim riots have taken place in Gujarat: the list is endless. Modi did not so much as condemn any of these.”

Today, when Narendra Modi has talked about religious harmony and appealed to all the religions to act with restraints, the aforementioned Modi hater chose to focus on typo by a news agency to dilute the message:


It should not surprise that this tweet was quickly shared by many of the same tribe, who share any tweet which mentions Modi and Religious Intolerance. Modi haters attack in packs. One Modi hater tweeted lame texts, another joined in.

Referring to attacks at Delhi churches, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, “these incidents and people have no place in India.” Modi also emphasized that religious tolerance should be in the DNA of all Indians. Modi appealed to all the religions, which means he appealed to “Hindu” group also, however, as usual our journalists had some comprehension problem:


Ideally, an attack on any temple should be an example of religious intolerance. However, some “known” liberals probably find attack on temples less scandalous than attacks on Churches. Recently, a Hindu temple was vandalized in the US.  The Seattle temple was vandalized on the eve of celebrations for the festival of Mahashivratri. However, Rana Ayyub, another committed Modi hater, didn’t want to question Obama on the attack. Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly, she was more concerned about thanking Obama: 

Rana Ayyub was joined by her ex-colleague and well known Modi hater Shivam Vij who declared it was all due to the greatness of Barack Obama:


Some Modi supporters were critical that Modi had erred by giving in to demands of those who hate him. And they were not wrong. Look at these two tweets for example:


They will show as if whatever good Modi does is due to their efforts, and yet he has not done enough.

It is sad that every time any BJP leader tries to spread message of harmony among religions, these “liberals” try to dilute and weaken the development by mixing it with useless topics. These self-declared custodians of religious tolerance create bait for fanatics, generalize people who are trapped, and kill any genuine effort.

And then they preach about communal harmony and tolerance.

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.

1...6,9466,9476,948...6,961Page 6,947 of 6,961

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