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Survey reveals 80% people dissatisfied with the quality of mainstream media in India

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Survey reveals 80% people dissatisfied with the quality of mainstream media in India

A latest survey has revealed sad news for mainstream media that includes both television and print media. The survey sought responses on a range of questions to gauge the perception of mainstream media. The survey was conducted by The Indian Iris,  a group of individuals from IIT, IIM A/B, Univ of Southern California, professional from top firms, and authors include research fellows from IIMs, XLRI etc. It was conducted both online (email and Facebook) and offline among over 500 respondents, mostly in the age range of 18-40 years.

When asked if they were satisfied with the quality of news produced by today’s mainstream media, a whopping 80% said that they are dissatisfied. Only 12% were satisfied, whereas the remaining 8% were undecided.

When asked if they thought that today’s mainstream media was fair or unbiased, the responses are even more startling. A vast majority of 87% thought that today’s mainstream media was heavily biased. Only 7% believe that the mainstream media is fair, and the remaining 6% are undecided.

In terms of utility and value, over 70% found the prime time debates on news channels to be more of a chaos without any meaning. Only about 7% people found some value in these debates, whereas 23% found these debates more of an entertainment show than anything else.

When asked which media they thought was the most reliable, 44%, a majority of the respondents, called for a new fair and reliable media outlet. 30% see Social Media/Internet a more reliable source of news compared to the print and the electronic media.

Electronic media seems to have completely lost the trust of people, whereas print media is still reliable with 22% people finding it that way. Shockingly, only 4% of the surveyed people found the Electronic Media reliable. It’s time that the Electronic Media do some introspection on why the trust has eroded to such an extent.

The survey also asked respondents to comment on their expectations from the future media. People put forward variety of ideas and concerns.

The first and the foremost, fairness and transparency are what they expect from the media. Media, considered the fourth pillar of democracy should honestly play its role. They should not propagate a specific political or business interest. Many people mentioned that media should be corruption free. They need to come out of their current image of being ‘news traders’. They must present facts without fabrication. Over sensationalization may also be killing the trust in the news channels, many felt.

Survey Results Infographic

Two recent examples shall shed more light on the issues plaguing our fourth pillar of the media today. The first is pertaining to the controversies surrounding Lalit Modi, and Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje. Barring a few media channels, all news channels were running live commentaries, organising prime time debates and arranging special interviews until a few pictures of Robert Vadra, Priyanka, and Rahul Gandhi surfaced on social media. This now raises serious questions on the credibility of media as to how it got silenced so quickly. Noted writer Tavleen Singh did write a detailed article commenting media’s dubious role in raising and then silencing the issue.

The second example is the death of a four year old child in a road accident involving erstwhile dream girl turned MP, Hema Malini. This too raises serious questions on how media prioritizes its news. While full attention was given to the head injuries of the MP, death of the child was largely ignored by the media in the quest of TRP. A quick Google image search on this news clearly shows how much attention was given to the death of the poor child compared to the head injuries of Hema Malini.

There are countless other examples of how Media has failed to fulfill its duties as the fourth pillar of democracy. The Internet is providing power to the people and social media has emerged as a new source of information. However, the gullible and the young may not be able to discern between real news and propaganda running on the social media. This calls for a fair and reliable source of information which objective and backed by data. It’s time that the mainstream media revisit its key role in our democracy.

Author, Narayan Singh Rao, is co-founder at www.theindianiris.com and an IIT- IIM alumnus and can be reached at [email protected] 

When the ‘Smart Troll’ forced Media houses to correct themselves

Gaurav
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When the ‘Smart Troll’ forced Media houses to correct themselves

In a fine article in DNA, award-winning film director Vivek Agnihotri wrote a sort of rebuttal to Chetan Bhagat’s ludicrous “Anatomy of a Bhakt” piece, and also managed to do a fine study on the type of trolls on Social Media. As per him, there are mostly two kinds of trolls on social media:

1. Abusive, frustrated trolls whose idea is just to insult you

They go after anybody and everybody who is celebrated and abused them without much logic with them. Agnihotri believes these are not “trolls” but are losers, and must be ignored.

2. Smart Trolls

“Smart Trolls go after journalists, media handles, opinion-leaders, influencers, politicians, novelists, socio-political commentators and so on,” says Agnihotri. He further argues that these “Smart Trolls” are the ‘R & D of Social Media”, often doing what journalists are supposed to do. “They question your reports, your research, your analyses, your stands, your status and your integrity” he adds.

This piece by Agnihotri has caused double heart-burn in the clique of elite Journalists. Firstly, it glorifies at least a subsection of the lowly trolls which these journalists love to hate. Secondly, it rightly shows journalists in poor light, by saying that Smart Trolls have been doing their job. While the first cause of resentment is purely subjective, the second reason is justifiable.

Over the last 6 months, we have been diligently tracking Lies spread by Mainstream Media in the garb of news. For the 6 month period from January to June 2015, 82 lies were detected. Mind you these are what have been detected, and that too only in English media. And this is not the work of one individual, but it is a collective effort of collating and investigating various claims by media, done mostly by these “Smart Trolls”. Can Journalists deny these facts?

In fact, Smart Trolls have been so effective that far from journalists denying their claims, they have made many media houses accept that they were wrong and have made them subsequently change their stories or sometimes, delete them altogether. Following are few of such cases in the past 6 months, where media was forced to retract by “Smart Trolls”:

January 2015:

Firstpost wrote an article on how Baba Ramdev had built an empire on “blind faith” and was selling cures for “psychological, sexual, emotional” problems including “premature ejaculation”. The article fully relied on products found on a site called “www.swamibabaramdevmedicines.com”. The author, blind in his hate for Ramdev, did not bother to check or maybe deliberately omitted the fact that on every page of this site, it was mentioned that it had no connection with Baba Ramdev.

rm

After our expose, Firstpost was forced to delete their article.

March 2015:

Sadhvi Prachi, who was repeatedly referred to as a BJP MP when she had never won an election, was quoted to have said that “ Vladimir Putin’s original name is Vaarahmihir Putr Singh, says Sadhvi Prachi” by India Today. The truth was this statement was made by a humour columnist in a satirical post on dailyo.in, which is ironically also owned by India Today group. It is unimaginable how a media house like India Today, could mistake a satirical comment in a post within its own group, and publish it as news. Eventually, India Today deleted the story, but not before Sadhvi Prachi was ridiculed on Social Media.

Also in March, and again India Today, claimed that people arrested in the Mumbai Church attack, belonged to Right Wing groups. It was only after @rupasubramanya (who was branded a troll by MSM on two occasions) pointed out that the men arrested were gamblers, did India Today correct the story.

April 2015

Paragon of Truth, Times Now’s twitter handle tweeted that Vivek Oberoi had been awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.  Facts, however, were different. 2015’s Phalke award was already declared to Shashi Kapoor in March 2015. The award which Vivek had received was a similarly named award from a private body. Times Now had even managed to get a byte from Vivek on this story. Later that tweet too was deleted after “Smart Trolls” exposed Times Now on Twitter.

The Hindu ran an interview of Arun Jaitley, quoting him as saying “Saffron Bullies Cautioned,”. It gave an impression that Arun Jaitley has used the term “Saffron Bullying” in describing some elements. The introduction to the full transcript of the interview says that Jaitley spoke about the “vexatious saffron bullying by some of the Central Ministers”. But when we actually see the transcript, it is clear that Jaitley never used the above phrase. In fact, this term “Saffron Bullying” was used by the interviewer herself in her 3rd question. Attributing this term to Jaitley is incorrect. There was outrage on Social media, again thanks to “Smart Trolls”, after which The Hindu printed a correction clarifying this issue.

In another case, Scroll.in and Firstpost claimed Modi had planned to rename Delhi, when actually, was the plan of an NGO, approved by Delhi State Government and late by Central Government, done in order to help in getting a UNESCO Heritage City Tag, which would boost Tourism. We wrote a separate post on this and eventually Scroll.in had to surreptitiously change their report. 

May 2015

On 4th May, ABP News fell for a satirical post on Times of India and claimed Arvind Kejriwal called Akshay Kumar’s movie Gabbar, “non-nonsensical”. After incessant trolling by “Smart Trolls, ABP News apologized and retracted.

Later in May, Scroll.in and Quartz, spun a landmark law to reduce child labour, as “Government set to send millions of children back into exploitative labour“. We did a detailed take-down on this lie and eventually, the story was corrected. 

And these are only some of the times Media had to correct itself. So, it is no surprise that Mainstream Media Journalists love to call anyone who disagrees with them as “Trolls”. The next step is to brand all of these trolls as abusive and lowly, thereby removing their credibility. But as Director Agnihotri’s post rightly points out, Smart Trolls are “watchdogs”. They are the watchdogs of an unregulated, biased and propaganda driven Mainstream Media. Social Media is the big leveller here and the game has just begun. 

Adarsh Liberal Journalists form “Teesta Defence League”

OpIndia Staff
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Adarsh Liberal Journalists form “Teesta Defence League”

As the Government’s crackdown on a large number of NGO’s violating various norms and rules continues, Teesta Setalvad, activist and founder of trusts like the Sabrang trust, found herself under the CBI scanner. The allegations against Setalvad are multiple. She is alleged to have cheated victims of 2002 Godhra riots, and “embezzled funds” collected in their name. One of the riot victims from Gulbarg housing society had filed a complaint against Teesta and her husband Javed Anand. The alleged misappropriation of funds is said to be to the tune of Rs 1.51 crores.

Further, it was also found that her trusts had violated FCRA norms. Sabrang Communication and Publishing Pvt Limited, with which Teesta is associated, recieved $ 2.9 lakh from Ford Foundation as grant to “address communalism, caste-based discrimination in India, including media strategies”. But unlike the Sabrang Trust, this company was not registered under FCRA and hence was a violation.

To investigate on these allegations, CBI conducted searches at the residence and offices of Teesta Setalvad on 14th July 2015. CBI has as of now claimed that they have found documents supporting the allegations against. But this story is not about Teesta Setalvad. It is about her friends. No sooner did CBI raid this person accused of Financial Irregularities, the Adarsh Liberal coterie of Journalists took to twitter to support her, and the statements were almost identical.


All the tweets above had the same tone to them: claiming CBI raids were not needed and action was vindictive. Do are neutral journalists realize they are supporting a person who is accused of Financial Irregularities? Because if they don, they will note that Lalit Modi is also in a similar, if not same position. He too is an accused, facing investigation for Financial Irregularities, albeit at much larger scale. Yet, when he is given an NOC to visit his ailing wife, media has a massive problem. And when another accused is probed by CBI, then too they have a problem. Double Standards? Or just saving one of their own? Further, CBI conducted the raid, armed with a court order. Are courts also vindictive?

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Ironically, these are the same journalists who were demanding a CBI probe in the VYAPAM scam. CBI was free of Government interference then, but as soon as dear friend Teesta is involved, CBI becomes vindictive?


And Mr Truth vs Hype Sreenivasan Jain also tried his best to obfuscate the truth with his hype:


If indeed Teesta is innocent, why are her friends shivering at the though of an investigation? Sreenivasan Jain even tried to portray that this was the first time CBI was raiding NGOs for financial impropriety:


But as @rajudasonline pointed out, Mr Jain had missed out on some Chhota-Mota bits of Truth. In March 2012 CBI had conducted similar searches on an organization claiming to be an NGO, for alleged FCRA violations. In that month itself, the Home Ministry had asked CBI to probe 12 NGOs for FCRA violations. So when CBI probes other NGOs, in UPA rule, Mr Jain has no problem. And when they probe Mr Jain’s friends, he goes crazy?

The entire media grilled ministers for alleged connections with an accused, but who will questions these self-appointed messiahs of truth when they shield similar offenders?

Salman Rushdie slaps his Adarsh Liberal parody account hard on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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Salman Rushdie slaps his Adarsh Liberal parody account hard on Twitter

Sometime late last year a Twitter handle @RushdieExplains (now changed to @IndiaExplained) which called itself “Rushdie Explains India” became visible, thanks mostly re-tweets and media mentions by some celebrity journalists.

The account was supposed to be “parody” of the well known India born English author Salman Rushdie, who is known for his frank views on many things including religious fundamentalism.

Apart from celebrity journalists, who desperately wanted “their type of humor” as most humorous and parody accounts on Twitter targeted them, Rushdie himself enjoyed some tweets from the Twitter account in the initial days:


However, as they say “all good things must come to an end”, everything good about that parody account ended today as Salman Rushdie tweeted this:


So what irritated and disappointed a once admirer and well wisher that he was forced to publicly express his displeasure?

If you are one of them who have followed @RushdieExplains on Twitter, you most probably know the answer. The person who was running this Twitter account had started taking benefit of using the name of Salman Rushdie to propagate his own biases and prejudices and fight his personal battles.

The person, someone called Rohit Chopra as the ‘bio’ of the handle said, had run out of all objectivity and was tweeting as a person filled with hatred for a particular ideology and some particular individuals.

And the worst part was @RushdieExplains hobnobbing with some anonymous Twitter handles that were cheerleaders for Islamic fundamentalism at worst or apologists of the same at best. This could surely not have amused Salman Rushdie who has a bounty over his head issue by Islamists.

Not only that, Rushdie has been vocal against “but brigade” i.e. people who never condemn Islamic fundamentalism unequivocally and would always bring in false equivalences when debating problems within the Islamic society – a trait that is also found in people known as “Adarsh Liberals” in India.

While Rushdie detests all form of fundamentalism, and has made comments against Hindu fundamentalism in India too, his parody account was acting as an apologist for Islamic fundamentalism in India of late, bringing in false equivalences, such as:


Apart from acting as an apologist of Islamic fundamentalists, the account was also being used to further personal interests and release personal frustration by the handler. The so-called parody of Salman Rushdie will often make personal comments against journalists like Rahul Kanwal of India Today and Smita Prakash of ANI.

Not only journalists, the account targeted economists like Rupa Subramanya and satirists like Ajayender Reddy of The UnReal Times, just because they pointed out logical fallacies in his tweets.

The tweets from the account were increasingly becoming vicious and political in nature, attacking only one group of people. Funnily, the account header had the following picture:

Salman Rushdie quote
The irony never struck the account handler, who did everything to shield his favorite leaders and ideology from criticism.

The account handler should have known that he had made a set of ideas free from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt – and those ideas were the “idea of India”. The account had become an Adarsh Liberal pamphleteer.

Clearly such immature and propagandist behavior by the handler, who perhaps thought himself to have grown bigger than the mask he was wearing, didn’t impress the original Salman Rushdie and he decided to express his dissatisfaction openly today.

After the public rebuke, the handler changed his username, hinting that he was not ready to change his ways and continue doing what was not appreciated by Rushdie. Interestingly, the original parody handle @RushdieExplains is still alive, and it is yet to be seen what tweets come out of it.

Times of India lies brazenly, falsely claims Amit Shah talked about “Achche Din in 25 years”

OpIndia Staff
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Times of India lies brazenly, falsely claims Amit Shah talked about “Achche Din in 25 years”

Times of India has done it again, and this time, they left clues in their own article. Today, Times of India published a story titled “It will take 25 years for ‘achhe din’ promised by BJP to come, Amit Shah says”. In its first paragraph, the article goes on to make the following statements, all in quotes:

“Achhe din aane mein 25 saal lagenge (It will take 25 years to bring achhe din),”

One would imagine, this makes for a compelling proof to say that Amit Shah has said these words, thereby clearly showing that the NDA Government has gone back on its “Achhe Din” promise. But Times of India has other ideas.

In the second paragraph Times of India while elaborating on this claimed Amit Shah also said this:

“Desh ko duniya ke sarvochch sthan par baithana hai to paanch saal ki sarkaar kuchh nahi kar sakti (Five-year rule (by BJP) cannot make India the top world power),”

This statement though makes a rather logical point that India or for that matter any country in similar situation as India, cannot become a world leader in just 5 years. So, from a sensationalist headline and opening paragraph, we come to a rather logical statement. 

The third paragraph is the real undoing of Times of India. The third paragraph says:

He elaborated that in its first five-year rule, the BJP government could reduce inflation, ensure secure borders, make a strong foreign policy, achieve economic development, provide jobs and remove poverty. “But the BJP needs to win elections at every level, from panchayat to the Lok Sabha, for 25 years to take India to the No. 1 position in the world,” he added.

Again extremely logical statement that basic goals can be achieved in 5 years, but for India to reach number 1 position in the whole world, 25 years would be needed. Also key here is while in the opening paragraph it is said “Acche Din in 25 years”, the third paragraph says “India will be no.1 in 25 years”.

So why this contradiction? Which part of the Times of India article is true?

Most probably the third paragraph. We say so because virtually the same thing has been reported in a local edition of the Dainik Bhaskar:

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Roughly translated, Amit Shah says:

“In 5 years we can reduce inflation, provide employment. But to change Nehruvian policies influenced by Western ideology, we will need BJP in power at every level from Panchayat to Parliament for 25 years”

This is exactly what Times of India says in its third paragraph, and since two media houses are quoting the exact same thing, we can broadly conclude this was indeed said by Amit Shah. And does the Dainik Bhaskar piece also mention “Achhe Din” in 25 years? See for yourself here. Nowhere in Dainik Bhaskar’s piece does the phrase “Achhe Din” even find a mention! 

So has Times of India invented this “Achhe Din in 25 years” phrase? Chances are high. EDIT: Yes, the audio of Amit Shah’s speech is out, and there is no mention of “Achhe Din”. Listen to the audio here:

Transcript of relevant part of the audio:

Friends, If India has to reach the topmost position in the entire world, then a 5 year Government cannot do anything. When I say “a 5 year Government cannot do anything”, it doesn’t mean we *unclear* from things. We can reduce inflation in 5 years, we can secure our borders in 5 years, we can redraft foreign policy and restore India’s honour, we can have economic development, we can also give jobs to youth, poverty can also be banished, unemployment can also be ended. But in 5 years, we cannot fulfill our dream of making India a “Vishwaguru”. It can only happen when we get control from Panchayat to Parliament, like Congress got from 1950 to 1967. Similarly, from today till 25 years hence, BJP should win all elections from Panchayat to Parliament, only then we can achieve this goal.

Even people in the know on twitter, like Sunil Alagh have said that media has misquoted the statement:


And NDTV anchor Gargi Rawat has also raised concerns on the authenticity of the story:


We have also contacted the writer of the Times of India report asking for evidence to back his claims and the report will be updated suitably in case any clarification is given to us. Will Sachche Din in Times Group come after 25 years?

Media and Kejriwal look other way as celebrity AAP supporters use filthiest abuses on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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Media and Kejriwal look other way as celebrity AAP supporters use filthiest abuses on Twitter

Barely a day after celebrity journalists and leaders from Congress and AAP cheered Chetan Bhagat’s substandard-as-always article on online abuse by “bhakts” (a term used to refer to Modi supporters), they have been found turning a blind eye towards filthy abuses hurled by celebrity AAP supporters like singer Mika Singh and TV personality Raghu Ram.

It is no secret that ordinary AAP or Congress supporters are as abusive, if not more, than an ordinary BJP supporter, but it is indeed shocking that even public figures related to AAP are indulging in a language that will put anyone to shame.

The issue was raised by alert Twitter users earlier today who showed how the media and AAP leadership have been silent on abuses by their supporters while they always point out to abuse by any user claiming to be a BJP supporter.

(warning: the tweets below contain extremely boorish language by AAP supporter Mika Singh and Raghu Ram. Discretion is advised below scrolling down)

Following are some tweets where TV personality Raghu Ram, a vocal supporter of AAP, has used filthiest of abuses for ordinary users:


And another celebrity AAP supporter, singer Mika Singh, was found to be using filthier language:


It should be noted that Mika Singh was confirmed as an AAP supporter by party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who also follows him on Twitter:


However, despite being pointed out by many on Twitter, Arvind Kejriwal had not tweeted to condemn such language used by Mika Singh or Raghu, till reports last came in.

Arvind Kejriwal with Mika and Kumar Vishwas
Mika has been a prominent public figure supporting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

While AAP’s indifference to abusive language can be explained by the fact that party would try to avoid owning responsibility for its supporters’ behaviour (though they ask BJP to do the same), what is more shocking is Mainstream Media’s attitude towards such abuse.

The same media, which didn’t waste a minute before pillorying pro-BJP celebrity Alok Nath for using abusive language in a tweet (which he had deleted), doesn’t think it’s important to name and shame these pro-AAP celebrities in their news reports.

What explains these double standards of the mainstream media? The latest budget by Aam Aadmi Party government that has set aside over 500 crores for advertisement? Or the fact that many celebrity journalists engage with abusive AAP and Congress supporters on social media and use them to fight their proxy wars against their critics whom they term “trolls”?

We leave that upon our readers to decide, while we hope that Twitter acts against these abusive celebrities just as they have been acting and suspending abusive AAP supporters reported by a Twitter handle called @AAPTardHunters:

One day after filing a complaint against Mulayam Singh, senior IPS Officer booked for a rape case

OpIndia Staff
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One day after filing a complaint against Mulayam Singh, senior IPS Officer booked for a rape case

Just one day after releasing an audio tape against Mulayam Singh Yadav, a rape case has been filed against UP IPS Amitabh Thakur in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar police station. The alleged victim came along with her husband to submit a statement against Amitabh Thakur. As reported, the couple stated that Thakur invited her inside a room for a job interview and then he raped the woman. Thakur has been booked under SC-ST act and other sections of IPC.

Amitabh Thakur told to news channels that he was expecting something like this. “I welcome the FIR against me. I want an impartial probe in the matter and that the truth comes forward”, he told to news channels

One day before this event — on 11th July 2015 — Amitabh Thakur filed a police complaint against Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for allegedly threatening him over phone. As posted on the Indian Express, the following audio clip captures a voice similar to that of Mulayam, telling Thakur: “Ab aap sudhar jaiye, itta he keh diya maine (now you must mend your ways, I’ve told you as much)”.

The caller is the audio clip is also heard saying, “Humne bachaya tumhe pitne se, sab maarna chahte the (I saved you from being beaten up, everyone wanted to thrash you)”.

Amitabh Thakur submitted an FIR complaint against Mulayam Singh Yadav for threatening him. However, as reported, police officials initially refused to receive the complaint. The complaint was filed after Thakur insisted that he will keep sitting if the complaint is not taken.

Anatomy of Chetan Bhagat: Was he talking about himself?

Gaurav
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Anatomy of Chetan Bhagat: Was he talking about himself?

In his much talked about blog for Times of India, Chetan Bhagat described “Bhakts” in his own inimitable nonsensical way. He also listed a few trademark characteristics of Bhakt, which as we will see, probably suit him just about right. So was it an autobiographical post?

1. “First, they are almost all male”

Chetan Bhagat is a male alright. Although he may try to mislead us with some tweets, we still believe he is male.CJoh44CUAAAmczQ

2. “Second, they have weak communication skills, particularly in English”

We really don’t need to discuss at length here. It has been debated far too often. Further, when your book itself is titled “Half Girlfriend”, we can judge your prowess in English. Hilariously enough, Bhagat himself got schooled, when he was trying to be smart about an alleged typo, in an article which was attacking his English. Also, Chetan Bhagat used to think English has become a “caste system” just until a year ago. Of course that time his book Half Girlfriend was about to release so we can forgive the hypocrisy. Paapi Pet and all…

Embedded image permalink

3. “Third, they are generally not good at talking to women”…..”They do desire women, but can’t get them. In other words, if i may say so, they are sexually frustrated with no way of getting it.”

What? Happily married Chetan Bhagat is sexually frustrated? You be the judge, from being happy at seeing girls who rejected him become fat & ugly, to asking for spots to lech at girls, Chetan Bhagat has done it all.

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4. “Fourth, there is an over-riding sense of shame about being Hindu, Hindi speaking and/ or Indian. Deep down they know that Hindi-speaking Hindus are among India’s poorest.”

This is a trait most evident in Chetan Bhagat. All his life he was lampooned by people for his poor English. That is why he always took a stand that knowing English is not essential:

UntitledThis was till 2014, but now he might have felt the need to emancipate himself from being branded a trashy author. His insecurities probably led him to try and his force his way in, into the exclusive clique of Lutyens based Adarsh Liberal columnists, “the Wannabe white, haters of India’s mainstream religion, languages & culture with an entitlement complex for speaking good English”: 

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Hence, he tried to position himself as a writer who has pitch-perfect grammar, and like all Adarsh Liberals, treats Indians who aren’t fluent in a colonial language with disdain. Hence, ending his diatribe on Bhakts with a curt advise:

“Smarten up, learn English and practise it”

He also makes additional points that thanks to all of the above, and “Since social media allows anonymity, their anger expresses itself as the worst personal abuse“. Abuse, like this?

Alok Nath aka Babuji, faced lot of criticism from many media outlets for his use of the word “Bitch”. But we are sure Chetan Bhagat will be spared such trial by social media because he has just put his hat in the ring for being the next Shobha De.

In fact all four features needed to be a Bhakt are clearly visible in this one epic tweet from Chetan Bhagat:

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So was Chetan Bhagat indulging in self-flagellation when writing this absurd blog? Or was he being serious? Or was he being sarcastic? Yes sarcastic, because Chetan Bhagat himself said so:


 

To readers: Retweet deti hai to de, warna kat le

The FTII Solution and Why Gajendra Chauhan must go

Gaurav
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The FTII Solution and Why Gajendra Chauhan must go

The stalemate between students of FTII and the Government of India has been going on for many weeks now. Ever since Gajendra Chauhan, a mid-level actor at best, and also a mid-level BJP member, was appointed the Chairman of the Institute, the students are protesting against the Government. The reasons for protests are varied:

Some say Gajendra Chauhan is not qualified enough to be the Chairman of an Institute like the FTII. His body of work doesn’t have anything in it which would suggest he would be a worthy appointee.

Some have a problem with the fact that he is from BJP. FTII students have already defaced the premises with protest slogans saying they don’t want a “karyakarta” chairman.

And some of the more politically correct people, like some Bollywood stalwarts who have now been roped in by FTII, complain about excessive “Government interference” in FTII, while refusing to blame any political party per se.

We had already discussed that it is completely true that Gajendra Chauhan is not qualified enough when you compare him past Chairman, or even with the people in the Governing Council, whom he is supposed to lead. Solely on this argument, it is a no-brainer that Chauhan must go. But the fact is the second argument of him being a BJP member is equally at play.

What probably irks the Government is that the students, who have a problem with a BJP member, were completely at ease with past chairmen like Saeed Mirza and Mahesh Bhatt, who were openly political and were signatories to the “No Modi” signature campaign in Bollywood and Girish Karnad & Prof. U.R. Ananthamurthy who even went to the extent of forming a group called “Samakaleena Vichara Vedike” with the sole intention of opposing Modi and extending full support to the Congress in Lok Sabha elections. Hence the Government may be of the view that if past political appointees were given a free pass, why not now.

Even the third argument of Government interference may not be valid. The Government is pumping in good money into FTII, which is over Rs 10 lakh p.a per student, hence it probably expects to be in control of the Institute to monitor the use of its funds. But here a larger picture arises: Why should the Government be involved in FTII to such an extent?

And this is why the Government is considering moving out of FTII, either by shutting it down or by transferring it to Bollywood or even by bringing it on par with IITs and IIMs and giving it more autonomy. And this decision of the Government moving out of FTII is probably the best solution and a long term one too.

Considering that Bollywood is very rich, there is no sense in Government funding FTII wholly. A part funding mechanism can be considered to provide assistance to “arty” films which do not get backing easily. Secondly, since Government will move out, so will its appointees such as Gajendra Chauhan. Thus Government can save its face claiming he wasn’t sacked because of student pressure or for being a “karyakarta”, but only because of policy change.

Another important reason why Government should be out of FTII is that this would be in perfect sync with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance” which envisages reducing unnecessary Government interventions in every field. Also, if one sees other similar fields such as Cricket, the Government is not involved in its promotion. Its only in other sports which aren’t popular enough do we see a discernible Government influence. Bollywood being an extremely popular and rich industry (much like cricket) may not need Government hand-holding anymore.

The Government lost a golden opportunity to set the FTII “right”, by installing a worthy Chairman who could also be considered a BJP man, someone like an Anupam Kher maybe. But now it has another shot at cleaning up the FTII mess by completely moving out of it and granting freedom to the institute to function as it pleases. They shouldn’t mess this up.

Indian TV News Anchors – Jack of All Trades

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Indian TV News Anchors – Jack of All Trades

Let us sample some of these recent news stories:

“Indian army’s operations along the Indo-Myanmar border”

“Lalit Modi’s expose on Indian politicians”

“Hooch tragedy in Maharashtra”

“Indian economy likely to grow in double digits by 2016”

These stories are from a wide spectrum of fields from defense to politics. From sports to social issues and economy. Common sense tells us that each of these topics need in-depth analyses and discussions.  Detailed understanding of these topics helps in giving viewers a platter of views and perspectives.

Unfortunately, Indian news channels have either failed to understand this or they take the viewers for granted. Viewers clearly understand that news anchors must be able to conduct debates. However, whats the need for having the same faces in panels for all discussions? Chitra Subramaniam, of the The News Minute, had coined a term for them – “G-37”. This includes the likes of Hartosh Bal, Kumar Ketkar, Kavita Krishnan and so on. Chances are that, we will find one or many of these faces talking about any topic under the sun. I fail to understand how a Kumar Ketkar can help viewers understand the complexities of Indian army’s operation in Myanmar. He may have a view – but so can I. Just few years of experience in journalism must not be the sufficient condition to be a panelist. We know that each of these members of G-37 talk in general terms. Rarely have they ever brought out a new perspective that altered the course of a discussion. Moreover, post May 2014, there seems to be just two views – Modi is wrong and Modi is right! Any or all of the events will be discussed so that the panelists end up falling in one of these two buckets.

Needless to say, there are some faces who know what they are talking – like a Maroof Raza or a Nitin Gokhale. People appreciate the fact that these two appear for discussions on defense or national security matters – and NEVER on other topics. It is indeed worth appreciating that Times Now have a designated position of “Strategic Affairs Expert” for Maroof Raza. In the same breadth, why do these TV news channels not have a “Chief PMO correspondent” for news from the PMO or a “Chief Legal Affairs Expert” for news that come from the high courts and Supreme Court? I am sure there are some folks in the background who analyze news for the anchors. According to me, there could only be two reasons why these folks aren’t on our TV screens: either the anchors are scared that they will lose the spotlight from an in-house expert OR the anchors think that the experts cannot break the news for the viewers to understand.

I cannot comment on the first reason. However, if the issue is about making the news palatable for viewers, I completely disagree. What the anchors do to make news palatable, is to bring a political angle to this. Identify a villain for the night and thrash him for 3 hours on prime time. The anchors can feel good about their herogiri, but news channels will continue their positioning as another entertainment channel. After all, why do viewers need to be look at all news items from the political prism? Also, aren’t these channels insulting the intelligence of the viewers?

Many commentators, often, bring out examples of how things are better in the West. To buttress my point, I would like to make a similar comparison. NBC News, a channel which has a political left stance, have the following positions (examples):

Capitol Hill Correspondent – Kelly O’Donnell

Chief Pentagon Correspondent – Jim Miklaszewski

National Investigative Correspondent – Michael Isikoff

Justice Department and the U.S. Supreme Court Correspondent – Pete Williams

Chief Science and Health Correspondent – Robert Bazell

Any news relating to a new revelation of a document that has been leaked/released has to go through the desk of the National Investigative Correspondent. This brings and builds credibility, not only within the news organization – but also among the viewers. This also avoids confusion during critical news breaks, where one channel reports 7 terrorists being killed and another 50 and the third one quoting hundreds. When the expert shows his face on TV screen, he will be held accountable for every word he says. People will judge whether he/she is indeed an expert! To some extent, this can also end this nonsense prevalent in Indian news organizations of “source based reporting”. This has been reduced to a joke on the social media recently – when Barkha Dutt began reporting on an email sent by one student from IIT Roorkee. Every time Barkha breaks a story now from an unnamed source, social media has a name for her source – “Ankit”. Barkha will remember this Ankit more than one Chaitanya Kunte.

Things have to change on TV news – many things. Right from bringing in experts, to letting every panelist complete his/her chain of thought, to covering wider range of topics. If the death of approx. 100 people due to hooch in Maharashtra does not turn heads of editors and appointments by a LG and Chief Minister in a municipality gets more prominence – the famous “moral compass” is surely lost. More so, when these star anchors preach on social media on how news need to be covered – as if they have nothing to do with media. Like these, on another important story that has been ignored by the national media:


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