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Sagarika Ghose & Amartya Sen: The Interview That Wasn’t

India Speaks
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Sagarika Ghose & Amartya Sen: The Interview That Wasn’t

Sagarika Ghose’s recent interview of Prof Amartya Sen on Times of India was yet another example of how Indian media’s incompetence has become a bigger risk to the health of Indians than cholesterol. The sense of acute frustration and rage one experiences while witnessing Sagarika Ghose treating Prof Amartya Sen with kid gloves is enough to initiate multiple cases of spontaneous human combustion.

The only coping mechanism one can employ to deal with such acute exasperation is to rely on imagination. This is exactly what I have done here by dreaming of a parallel universe where the same interview happens. But there instead of playing the role of the patron saint of victimhood, Amartya Sen comes to the interview as a forthright individual eager to help Sagarika out with her questions. One could argue that why doesn’t instead Sagarika Ghose ask probing questions in this parallel universe scenario. My answer is that even imagination needs to work within some realistic boundaries.

So let’s see how the interview would have gone. The same questions from the original interview have been repeated.

What explains AAP’s big win in Delhi?

Interesting start Sagarika! I thought you are going to grill me about my chancellorship of Nalanda University. Perhaps you want to first ask me about things which I am comfortable with so that you can get some false sense of complacency going and then Wham! I like that. No wonder you are one of India’s most feared journalist.

Coming back to your question, I am not a political commentator so it is difficult to correctly theorize on why AAP won so big but it is evident that Kejriwal is a fantastic communicator. He had a better message than the BJP, he worked harder than the BJP and he communicated better than the BJP.

There’s disappointment with Modi’s government?

Sagarika, please do not put words in my mouth. And why are you presuming there is disappointment with the Modi Government? In the last five state elections, BJP has been trounced in a staggering one of them. So I don’t think there is enough evidence to suggest people are disappointed.

Is pro-poor, Left politics re-emerging?

No questions on Nalanda yet? Great! I am really enjoying this. But I will still answer your question.

Being an economist, I do not have the luxury which you journalists have of drawing conclusions based on a ridiculous sample size of events. If Left politics is re-emerging then why is Prakash Karat seen most of the time wandering about in Palika Bazar? I would like to reiterate that please do not come to such major conclusions based on one election in one city. Tomorrow if BSP wins a by-poll in UP, will you say that people have now begun to support the building of statues?

Has it brought back subsidy politics?

Nothing on Nalanda yet? Ok. This has got to be my lucky day.

Can I skip answering this question because you are continuing to assume that everything has changed because AAP has won in Delhi? In real life where the rest of us exist and operate, we form opinions only after we have sufficient evidence. If I comment on the consequences of the AAP victory so early then there is a good chance I may look like an idiot later. I know that is not a risk you face anymore but professionals like me need to be careful with what we say and why we say it.

Your assessment of Modi’s government 

It depends on their assessment of my performance as the Nalanda Chancellor. Hahaha…

I apologize for such a frivolous answer. It was just a desperate attempt by me to bring you back to the topic which is of relevance today. But something tells it is not going to work.

You can’t see yourself voting for BJP?

Didn’t I just request you not to put words in my mouth? A cynical reader may assume by now that you are desperately trying to make me criticize the government and the prime minister. Please don’t let people start feeling that you have an axe to grind with the current regime. I often partner with the Indian Government in an official capacity and it would be terribly unprofessional of me to publicly discuss my private opinions on political parties.

Are you worried about the minorities?

Ok. How is this question relevant AT ALL? Even if you had asked me whether I am worried about the Pakistan cricket’s team’s performance or whether MSG should have a sequel, it would have been more relevant to what is happening today.

Sagarika, it is not my place to advise but you may want to be more prudent with your line of questioning. Some misguided Internet Hindus may use these interviews to accuse you of trying to forcefully create a false narrative that minorities are currently under threat. It will be like the time when without rhyme or reason, you said the media is being muzzled. Right on cue, New York Times soon followed with an editorial about how the media is under threat from a Modi administration. If you insist on continuing to play such games, please do so but I would like to excuse myself from the role of being a pawn in it.

Was the government behind your quitting as Nalanda University VC?

Finally!! A question on Nalanda!

A journalist right out of journalism school would have asked why did I quit but you jumped to the assumption that it could be the government. Perhaps you want to save time so that you can ask important questions like where did the 2700 crore investment go or why do we see no infrastructure on the ground at Rajgir or why are there only fifteen students or why do the existing buildings look so shabby?

To answer your question, the Government has not fired me. I resigned because the Government has not taken a decision yet to extend my tenure. And that could possibly be because they are waiting for some paper work from the Nalanda Board.

They wanted you out?

Well, there is no official statement on that and if I said yes, I will fail to back it with evidence. So the right answer is I do not know whether they want me out. And I am surprised you didn’t ask any of the important questions even after I helped out by spelling out each and every one of them. At least ask me about why President Kalam dropped out the Nalanda project or the concerns raised by the Finance Ministry about how the 2700 crore was spent? You seem to be skirting the main issues in the manner I try to avoid any Nalanda related event at Rajgir.

Are you deeply pained?

Well, no one likes to lose such a wonderful salary. So that’s a little painful.

I am now convinced that you have no intention of asking absolutely anything of relevance. May be I can redirect your question to the Indian public because if there is anyone who might be pained it’s the Indian public. If you ask whether the Indian people are deeply pained, I would say yes. They are deeply disappointed that so much money and so much hope was entrusted on one of the most revered sons of India and all they got in return was a puny two-storied shabby building and a lot of self-righteous drama on prime time TV.  An apt metaphor would be those tacky T-Shirts saying “My girlfriend went to New York and All I got is this T-Shirt” except here the Indian public paid 2700 crore for me to come to Nalanda and there is less than a T-Shirt to show in the end.

Is academic freedom in danger?

You have not phrased your question accurately. It is not academic freedom which is in danger. It’s the freedom to take public funds and the Indian Government for granted that is in danger. And after 67 years of liberal elites attending government funded conferences in five star hotels and pontificating on what is good for the Indian poor, may be its time to bring some accountability into the picture. May be its time to ignore what prizes or awards people like me have won in the past & instead hold me responsible for all the promises I made to revitalize India’s future.

When an “Aam Aadmi” exposed a journalist called Mihir Sharma

Gaurav
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When an “Aam Aadmi” exposed a journalist called Mihir Sharma

On 19th February, the Government launched a site called “eBiz Portal”. The press release clearly said that this was an ‘Integration’ of Services, which were earlier available on scattered sites, onto one platform, to provide an end-to-end solution. I did not know of this until I saw the following tweets from journalist Mihir S Sharma:


Through his tweets, Mihir tried to portray that the Government was essentially “reselling” services which were existing since 2011, as a “PR” campaign. Once I checked and realised it was indeed only an “integration” and the Government never claimed to create something new, I countered him. That’s when an “Aam aadmi” came up to fight the spin by a seasoned journalist.

Enter Venkat Goli. On the face of it, an ordinary Twitter user, with less than a 100 followers. In a series of tweets, he claimed to have led the IT team involved in this project some time back, and gave some details. He said he was an employee of a software giant, which the Government had roped in to help with this project. Intrigued, I asked him to send me a mail on this topic. And that was when I knew the complete truth about this project, which I will now reproduce.

Venkat revealed that this “eBiz” portal was one of the 27 “Mission Mode Projects” envisaged by the UPA Government in 2006. The project finally started in around 2009, when Venkat’s company got the contract. He said, “eBiz was envisioned as a project that would help improve the ease of doing business in India. In fact, the successful roll-out and adoption of eBiz would improve India’s rankings in the World Bank’s annual “Ease of Doing Business” Report”.

eBiz was aimed at providing aggregated services across multiple departments shifting from a department based to an investor-centric perspective. It would serve as a one-stop shop for all the needs of a businessman. Using a set of questions and an intelligent wizard, the portal would determine the set of regulatory procedures required and forward these applications online to various departments. The investor could then track the request on the portal and receive the permits, licenses and clearances in a digitally signed online format.

But sadly, the eBiz project never took off and struggled due to inter-department turf wars. This project needed integrating various departments like Corporate Affairs, Labour, Income Tax, Environment Ministry etc and for this, it needed co-operation from all departments concerned.

1. The Corporate Affairs services that were envisaged to be made online were blocked citing various technical infeasibilities.

2. The Environment ministry at that time did not even consent to meetings to chart out a roadmap for integration.

3. Other departments such as the Controller General of Accounts (CGA, not to be confused with CAG) had reservations on the Payment Gateway envisaged.

In spite of the project being tracked by the Minister of Commerce and Industries and the Junior Minister and later being escalated to the PMO and the Cabinet Secretary no serious tangible progress was made. Finally, in January 2013 during the CII summit in Agra, the eBiz project was launched as a static website portal. There were no services online but just information and content that included a license wizard.

From all that Venkat said above, it is clear that this was an important project, to help businesses in India, and the UPA Government failed miserably at implementing it, even though it worked on it for almost 5 years. In contrast, in around 8 months, Modi’s Government has managed to at least partially achieve what this site envisaged. Many more services are yet to be integrated but a lot has been achieved:

1. The Corporate Affairs services have now been integrated

2. The Controller General of Accounts gave permission to establish a payment gateway solution

Was the Government “reselling” anything? Was this a “PR” exercise? OR is Mihir Sharma guilty of spreading false propaganda wilfully, out of his blind hatred for Modi and his Government? Sadly, these are the kind of journalists we have today, and it is upto ordinary citizens like Venkat Goli to stand up to them and set the record straight.

The Rohtak “Bravehearts” and the truth Media ignored

Nupur J Sharma
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The Rohtak “Bravehearts” and the truth Media ignored

On 30th November 2014, two girls parachuted into our lives and created quite a stir. As soon as their video where they valiantly fought off “Sexual predators” surfaced on Times Now, Twitter was abuzz with congratulatory messages lauding the brave sisters for standing up to the menace of sexual molestation head on. The boys were called “Sexual Predators”, “molesters”, “cretins” etc. And just like that, India had found its newest heroes. The Rohtak Bravehearts.

The Girls were made overnight heroes, but the rest had to suffer:

  • Kuldeep Hooda, one of the “sexual predators” was denied the permission to sit for the Army written exam.
  • The bus conductor and driver were suspended (later reinstated pending internal enquiry)
  • By 14th December, this issue had taken a dangerous casteist turn. The Bairagi Samaj demanded that the sisters be awarded the bravery award which was put on hold due to conflicting stories. Members of the Samaj took out rallies in Jind and submitted a memorandum to the DC stating that the affidavit that was provided by the Jat family of the accused be probed by an SIT and that the members of the Bairagi samaj would hold a mahapanchayat demanding the girls be honoured.

As all molestation crimes go, this would ordinarily be the end of it for the Media. The case would have dragged on and Media would have moved on to juicier scoops. In this case, however, the plot only thickened.

A second video surfaced where these very girls were seen beating up two others boys in a parkway before the Rohtak incident. Activist Deepika Bhardwaj also posted videos with eye witness testimonies that vouched for the boys’ innocence. Labelling the girls as serial offenders who would beat men up alleging sexual molestation, film the incident and then blackmail the accused for money.

While I laud the mainstream media and especially Times Now (since they spearheaded this entire campaign at least till the women looked like the victims) as a woman for taking up our cause so valiantly and unabashedly, as usual, they made certain errors that has probably cost three seemingly innocent men their dignity and their career.

  1. When the allegations started to fly towards the women after the second video surfaced, The Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) and the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) Invited the sisters’ to “Clear doubts that have emerged on their integrity”. NOBODY bothered to invite the boys to clear the doubts that had emerged on their honour.
  2. The boys’ side of the story was that when they were asked to change buses, the girls were occupying a seat that was allotted to an old woman. When the boys asked the girls to make way for the old lady, they started a brawl. This story wasn’t pursued by the Media like the original story was.
  3. In Activist Deepika Bhardwaj’s interview with the sarpanch, he mentioned that the girls wanted a scooty each for letting the boys off the hook. This was agreed to by the boys’ families. But since their other demand of beating up the boys publicly was refused, the video found its way to Media houses. Nobody followed up on this.
  4. There was another story that emerged where a man alleged that they had extorted Rs.20,000 each from four other men using the same reuse.
  5. The final nail in the coffin was when we were told recently, that the girls had failed their Polygraph tests, while the accused boys passed theirs. Are polygraph tests foolproof? Not by a mile. “But Proponents will say the test is about 90 percent accurate. Critics will say it’s about 70 percent accurate,” said Frank Horvath of the American Polygraph Association. Judging by those odds alone, it seems prima facie, there’s a 70% (Minimum) probability that the boys were labelled predators for no good reason. These test results were out on 31st December 2014. The police only made it public recently. However, I don’t see the media pursuing this angle or labelling the women predators.

Everything discussed so far shows a certain Media apathy that can’t be escaped. There were pieces of evidence that a simple activist with a handy cam could unearth. It is unfathomable that the entire Media machinery wasn’t privy to that information. And if we make way for the fact that they really didn’t know, then the only conclusion I can draw is that perhaps, they didn’t bother finding out. So then, does NEWS FIRST always trump RIGHT NEWS? Even when the lives of five individuals are at stake?

Or is it that we don’t bother to look beyond the alleged victim’s version which points to an entirely different kind of apathy altogether. I’m a woman who has stayed alone for five long years in my college days. Sexual harassment is undoubtedly a heinous problem in our country. I have personally experienced it many times.  A lewd comment. A nonchalant brush against my chest while walking down a busy ally. Random men gesticulating and propositioning. A woman sees it all. I have even slapped a few of them which I talk about very proudly. But does this mean that every woman who alleges molestation is to be taken at face value?

The additional public prosecutor A T Ansari, one of the main prosecutors in the Nirbhaya case said, “This is an unfortunate trend. In many cases, women come up with the plea that they had registered the case out of anger and due to misunderstanding,”. A Times of India article states that the acquittal rate in Rape cases was 46% in 2012, it shot up to 75% in 2013 Legal experts say the high acquittal rates are because of a spurt in the number of false rape cases being filed. The observations of judges in acquittal cases also bear this out.

As a married woman, this is a worrying trend for me. To know that a random woman can allege molestation to extort money from my unsuspecting husband is scary. What is scarier is the collective apathy of the Media and the society alike. It begs a larger question. Do men have no dignity that can be compromised by these false allegations? Is it a given that every woman is necessarily the victim and every man the aggressor? Certainly, our Media thinks so because this “Rohtak Braveheart” story was a glaring example of how shoddily channels seem to report on sensitive issues. The moment evidence surfaced that perhaps proved the innocence of the men involved, the Media was conspicuously silent. The Boys dignity, their career, their lives, be damned.

I’m here in no way pronouncing a judgment on the Rohtak case however compelling the evidence might be. But the sad reality is that in this case, as in many cases the Media played the role of the Judge, Jury and the Executioner, pronouncing the women as victims of a heinous crime, and the boys as the sexual predators. They not only successfully ruined the lives of three probably innocent boys but also undermined the cause of every real victim who will surface henceforth. They insulted every individual who trusted their bogus and blatant omission of facts and was up in arms supporting the Rohtak sisters. I for one will probably think twice before I trust their reports again. And THAT would certainly be on conscience.

How the Government executed operation #CorporateEspionage – a Timeline

OpIndia Staff
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How the Government executed operation #CorporateEspionage – a Timeline

1. In July 2014, some national newspapers carried news reports claiming the oil ministry had made a presentation to the PMO on the new gas pricing options and that this had been critiqued by a former Planning Commission adviser. This was found to be a wrong story and a “motivated plant to embarrass the oil ministry in front of the prime minister“.

2. In August 2014, an original and sensitive government document that had been left in a photocopier indicated the work of an “over-excited corporate mole“. This reinforced the Government’s beliefs on Corporate Espionage.

3. Soon after that, NSA Ajit Doval , saw a TV channel’s report saying the Prime Minister was shown images of INS Arihant, a nuclear submarine, at a DRDO function. After this Doval asked RAW to initiate action.

4. In October 2014, Doval wrote a letter to a Cabinet Secretary based on the above TV report, that the leak was of classified information, and there was a violation of secrecy laws.

5. By around December, the Government decided to put additional CCTV cameras, to catch the culprits. At this time, some officials suggested this would create unnecessary hassles and cause discomfort to people who may feel they are being watched all the time.

6. Power and coal minister Piyush Goyal barred the entry of corporate executives in his ministry soon after he took charge. Oil minister Pradhan had taken similar steps and had also ordered that internet access of junior officials be restricted to prevent leaks.

7. Once the probe began, dozens of phones were officially intercepted, after clearance from the home ministry. The investigators now have about a hundred hours of recordings to back their case.

8. Fake papers were made to look like important ones to fool people under suspicion and even mock conversations were carried out to ensnare suspects. When such papers were leaked, the agencies could narrow down their probe.

9. Finally, when concrete proofs were obtained, the NSA and the PM were informed.  Delhi Police commissioner B S Bassi was then involved  to launch the crackdown.

Amartya Sen – Victim of Vendetta or a clever plot at Attempted Martyrdom

OpIndia Staff
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Amartya Sen – Victim of Vendetta or a clever plot at Attempted Martyrdom

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, today withdrew his candidature for a second term as Nalanda University chancellor. He blamed this on the Government’s delay in approving his candidature. He also alleged that the Government is using its political might to “interfere in academic matters“. He was helped by fellow “liberals” on Twitter, in playing the victim of political vendetta. But it is surprising that he never expected this, considering his views on Modi:

1. Minorities have reason to fear Modi, Amartya Sen says

On 30th April 2014, Sen proclaimed that minorities have valid reasons to fear Modi. Such statements during Lok Sabha elections are an example of practially campaigning against a person.

2. Narendra Modi not a good PM candidate

Even on 1st May 2014, during the Lok Sabha elections, Amartya Sen had made it clear that Modi is not a good PM candidate. He said Modi “is very popular among the business community” but not his favourite candidate. He also categorically stated he “would like someone who is more secular“.

3. Just Vote Modi Out

On 2nd May 2014, Amartya Sen came out in the open and said that people should vote out a government (the Modi Government) instead of migrating to another country. He raised the bogey of 2002 Gujarat riots saying it could have been “organized violence”. He called Modi’s administrative experience a “terrible record” on account of 2002 riots.

That is the brief history of Amartya Sen’s “love affair” with Modi. Sen openly criticizes a person, and then expects mercies from him in saving his chair, and a luxurious chair.

However, Sen’s hatred for Modi doesn’t mean that he could be given a raw deal. Yes, Modi has all the rights to choose people he can trust. And there is nothing to prove that Modi doesn’t trust his critics. Remember that Modi went ahead and appointed Arvind Subramanian as the new Chief Economic Advisor, who in 2013 had questioned Modi’s “Gujarat Model”

Then could Amartya Sen be snubbed for other reasons? As R Jagannathan points out, Amartya Sen has many flaws so far as him holding the post is concerned:

1. Amartya Sen is 81 years old. It is hard for anyone at that age, to function at his peak capacity. In fact, we have seen what another aged Economist, who was idolized for his actions in 1991, did to the Indian economy as Prime Minister. In fact, most Government posts have a mandatory retirement age of 60 odd years, Amartya Sen has gone far beyond that, and it would be only graceful of him to step down and let younger blood take the mantle.

2. We don’t even know if Amartya Sen was interested in the Nalanda University. The reason we say this is, Sen, the Chancellor of this University, was absent for its grand re-opening after 800 years! Some observers believed that the likely poor strength in the classes may have forced Sen to skip the inauguration. But if he claims to be so interested in the post now, one wonders why he did not show this enthusiasm on the inaugural day.

3. Amartya Sen’s tenure has been far from perfect. In fact, during his tenure as chairman of the board (and de facto chancellor), key appointments to the university have been dogged by controversies relating to nepotism and non-transparency. 

Once we go through this, we wonder if Amartya Sen is deliberately playing the victim card to hide his shortcomings behind the “burqa” of Political Vendetta.

The success of AAP and the end of Hand-outs

Guest Author
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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
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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
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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
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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.

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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
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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!

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