Trolling was considered an art on Twitter before it was given a bad name by people who know only abusive or bullying language. If you don’t believe, you need to check out replies by a Twitter user “The-Lying-Lama” to the tweets of celeb journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
There is no abusive language, there is no threat, and there is no obscenity. It’s all about wit, and some biting sarcasm. While “The-Lying-Lama” has a long list of replies to showcase, we bring to you some of his best ones.
By the way, it seems that the lying lama (or @KyaUkhaadLega per his twitter handle) was blocked by Rajdeep Sardesai (obviously!) but later he unblocked him. Maybe he too appreciates that it’s good trolling!
Apart from having a Twitter account, the ‘Rajdeep replier’ also has a Facebook page, but he doesn’t seem to reply with the same passion for Mr Sardesai on Facebook, yet. 😉
The lying lama’s apart being a master troll on Twitter has a day job as Chief Business officer of India’s top sports website Sportskeeda.
(Editor’s Note: Role of the BJP led government at the center, in government formation and governance in the state of Jammu & Kashmir has often led to intense debates on social media. We believe it would be an interesting thought experiment to put yourself in the shoes of the Prime Minister and come up with some ideas that you think could solve the Kashmir issue from a nationalist perspective. We are not endorsing any suggestions, but just facilitating a discussion. You can put your articles on MyVoice.OpIndia.com and take this debate forward. For now, hear this one out.)
The origin of the word ‘Kashmir’ as per Hindu Puranas have been linked to ‘Kasmira’ which is derived based on the name of Hindu mythical sage Kashyapa. From medieval times Kashmir had been one of the epicenters for the development of Buddhism and Hinduism so much so that a sect of Hinduism is known as Kashmir Shaivism. In the 19th Century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh rescued local Kashmiris from the barbarism of Afghans and Mughals and thus brought significant portion of Kashmir under the Sikh dynasty. During the independence, Kashmir got acceded to India as Raja Hari Singh sided with India and pleaded Lord Mountbatten to assist state of Jammu and Kashmir from the onslaught of Pakistan guerilla warfare and state sponsored terrorism. Indian Army led to the rescue of Maharaja Hari Singh and drove out the Pakistani state sponsored terrorists. This however led to the never ending conflict between India and Pakistan and since then Pakistan fought and lost three wars with India in 1965, 71 and 99. Between these wars, Pakistan continued with its sponsoring of terrorism in J&K.
In the late eighties and early nineties, Pakistan even won a passive war against India as Kashmir witnessed a Holocaust of Hindu Kashmiri Pandits, which had not been witnessed ever since the rule of Afghans and Mughals ended. There were chants through the loudspeakers, which vociferously thundered ‘Agar Kashmir mein rehna hai toh Allahu Akbar kehna hai’, ‘Zalimon O Kafiro, Kashmir Hamara chhodo’. After this, many such atrocities against the Hindus continued in Kashmir and Media and successive Governments continued to ignore the plight of Kashmiri Pandits who till date live as refugees and cannot go back to their homeland. It is now since the current Government has come into power, all these noises have gained attention, be it JNU where anti India slogans are raised and such people are labelled as saviors of freedom of speech or NIT Srinagar where students who chanted pro India slogans and hoisted the Tricolour were lathicharged.
It often amazes me on how these Kashmiris have been brainwashed since generations that they send their children for education (if at all), medical treatment, business, employment to Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi and other cities and still spew venom against us. Their State Government salaries are paid by us, we have reignited the tourism industry in the valley, our Indian Army which is stationed there maintains the law and order and rescues them from floods and other natural calamities. Yet there is no credit given to them, in fact during my recent visit to Srinagar, I asked various people on what they will gain if at all Kashmir becomes part of Pakistan (although it is never going to happen), they were clueless on what to answer. Maybe they can graduate from being professional stone pelters to being recruited for various banned organizations (no need to name them).
But somewhere I feel we are also to be blamed for ignorance of Kashmiris as they do not have a sense of belongingness to India. Few questions come to my mind while I think about state of affairs in Kashmir –
Who is ruling J&K – It’s the BJP-PDP Government.
Who is ruling the Centre – It’s the BJP Government.
Forget about previous Congress Governments at the Center and State as least is expected from them but what is BJP’s USP – A nationalist political party with core principles of non-appeasement and finally who heads BJP Government – Shri Narendra Modi, a nationalist, a leader known for his aggression with a no nonsense attitude who himself hoisted the tricolor at Srinagar in 90s. Then why is Shri Narendra Modi silent on this issue? Why is the situation of Kashmir not changing? Or is it that this is a deliberate attempt by Central Government to bring our state of affairs in front of everyone which media continued to ignore until two years back.
I often ask myself what could I have done if I were Modi under these circumstances. What often comes to my mind is that in 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. As the summer capital, Shimla hosted many important political meetings including the Simla Accord of 1914 and the Simla Conference of 1945. The British empire took the trouble of moving the administration twice a year between Calcutta and this separate center over 1,000 miles away, despite the fact that it was difficult to reach. During the “Hot Weather”, Shimla was also the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, India, the head of the British Indian Army and many Departments of the Government.
When the British empire can have their Summer Capital as Simla in those times, why can’t we have Srinagar as the Summer capital of India, even if it is for a period of at least 3 months in a year. In this era of technology, internet etc. where people can ‘Work from home’, do Skype calls and do video conference for conduct of business, why can’t Government office work be conducted by leveraging this technology? and why not? Which leader values and uses technology like our tech savvy Prime Minister. I can’t think of many.
Or is security the reason for not doing it? No, I don’t think so as majority of our Army is already stationed in the Valley and the only security personnel that may have to be moved would be personal commandos & NSG, which I think is a non-issue. Now the important point is, what we as Indians will achieve by doing this – Won’t India achieve in making Kashmir an integral part of India in the ‘True sense’? The positives of such a move could benefit the state and the country as follows:
Srinagar being the Capital of India will enhance its prominence and visibility globally as it would be called the ‘Summer Capital’ of India, implying its very much an integral part of the country and valued;
With Central Government machinery in Srinagar there would be development of Infrastructure;
Development of Infrastructure would definitely attract investments / FDI’s and also help in achieving the ‘Make in India’ mission;
Aren’t the Diplomatic area, Shanti path, 7 RCRs and the Rashtrapati bhavan etc. the cleanest part of our National capital? So will Srinagar be and that will be a big step towards achieving the ‘Swachh Bharat’ mission;
Tourism will get a further boost. Tourists both national & international will feel more safe and secure if they know that the PM himself operates from the Valley;
All of the above, it will generate jobs in the Valley. Majority of youth of Kashmir who are getting wasted and are becoming ‘Professional stone pelters’ would be employed in respectable jobs. This will create a sense of belongingness and loyalty towards India, which is largely missing at present;
And this will also position BJP as a party with a ‘Difference’ having a clear strategy for the Valley, which many including BJP supporters doubt at times.
But for all this, a debate followed by revocation of Article 370 will be required. Can this Government show its might? well only time will tell!
And last but not the least, the obvious benefits of the above will be the real strong message India would send to the world and especially to Pakistan when the Prime Minister of India delivers the Independence day speech on the 15th of August from Lal Chowk, the Summer Capital of India, Srinagar and the President of India delivers the Republic day speech on the 26th January from Lal Qila, New Delhi the National Capital of India followed by the Republic Day parade.
This will ensure that our Tricolour, our beloved Tiranga, our national flag would be unfurled from Lal Qila to Lal Chowk.
April 23rd is celebrated as the World Book Day. An important area where many Indians lack access to published word is the post Independence period – the contemporary period – because our text book histories stop with the country being free from the British. This “… and they lived happily ever after..” approach to understanding the events around us needs to be discarded. There needs to be a greater emphasis on critically assessing what went on in the terms of policy making and politics, impacting our own lives and of our generations to come.
In this context, the World Book Day is a good time to reflect on events which shaped us as a country and learn about how the country has been governed in the modern era.
One Life Is Not Enough by K. Natwar Singh
Natwar Singh spent many years in the Indian Foreign Service and later joined the Congress party, assuming many senior ministerial positions in the government. His closeness to the Nehru-Gandhi family, which has controlled the Congress party and the Indian government for most part since Indian independence is well known and well documented – including by Natwar Singh himself. This book is an intriguing account of the way Delhi functions – from someone who had a great view of the process. This is an ideal autobiography – he attempts to hide nothing or no one. His likes and dislikes are made public and so are his own qualities and shortcomings.
Singh covers how the bureaucrats stand to benefit by being close to powerful politicians. And conversely how things can go wrong when these relationships fall by the way. Singh gives frank opinions on key personalities who he worked with. Pandit Nehru is lauded as the leader who brought India together after Independence but fell from his high pedestal in the later part of the tenure. On Indira Gandhi with whom Singh worked the closest, the book covers the qualities – power and authority and the flip side of the same qualities – carte blanche and dictatorial ways of operating in a democracy. The husband-wife duo of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are examined through the lens of reluctant politicians becoming omnipotent. The author presents a not so charitable view of PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh who are described as weak but opportunist individuals who made the most of political windfalls.
Singh gives as many details as one possibly can from such a long and connected career. He ends with covering the “Oil for Food” program in Iraq sketchily which caused his own downfall. The links to the eventual beneficiaries aren’t spelt out, but Singh ends his story describing two closed door Manmohan Singh – Paul Walker meetings and Walker’s later role as the UN committee head for “Oil for Food” probe. The reader is left with unspoken words and events to be pieced together.
1965 Turning The Tide – How India Won The War by Nitin Gokhale
The title of the book itself provides a big hint on what the author – veteran journalist and defense expert – Nitin Gokhale brings out in the detailed account. The 1965 Indo-Pak war has been the least celebrated of the four Indian victories in the battlefield (though some authors describe 1948 and 1999 as localized skirmishes, not full blown wars like 1965 and 1971). The popular accounts in the media and on television commonly describe 1965 as a tie or a stalemate.
Gokhale narrates the war not as a monolith but takes a battle by battle, theatre by theatre approach, looking at every engagement between the two armies in isolation. Every such event is then analyzed for impact on the war as a whole. The research is meticulous and the reconstruction very real. The detailing is authentic covering everything including locations, directions, terrains, troop positions, troop movements, and the actual battles. The author has taken several first hand inputs and going through this account is almost reliving the events of 1965.
The book clearly establishes that India had a net advantage in this war – a statement which hasn’t been categorically made very often in media or in TV studios. This book fills a big void in the Indian military history writing.
Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer by Yashwant Sinha
Yashwant Sinha, a bureaucrat turned politician, served in key ministerial positions with two Prime Ministers – Chandra Shekhar and Atal Bihar Vajapayee. This book, styled as an autobiography, but with greater emphasis on his professional life as a politician, is an excellent account of not just Sinha’s contributions to Indian politics and policies but also serves as a precise summary of the tough operating conditions for the country through the 1990s.
Sinha can be called the architect of the first wave of economic reforms in 1990-91 when he was the Finance Minister in the Chandra Shekhar government. His iconic 1991 budget document was never presented in its entirety with Congress pulling its outside support to the government. But this document formed the basis for the changes which Rao – Manmohan combine pushed vigorously in the later part of 1991.
Sinha also talks about the immense difficulties through which the Vajpayee government completed its term. The government faced hostility not just from opposition, but from NGOs, bureaucracy, interest groups, and from its own allies at times. Sinha, who served as the Finance Minister for part of the term, describes how the government still pushed reforms in the areas of Agriculture, Banking, Taxation, Electricity, Telecom, and Disinvestment with a strong will.
Reading this book is like imagining riding a roller coaster while being in charge of the controls of the apparatus – it is a great account of the context in which the Vajpayee government worked and eventually lost in 2004.
Ayodhya – The Finale by Koenraad Elst
This book on the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi movement recaps “science versus secularism in the excavations debate” as the tagline mentions. Koenraad Elst laments why with modern techniques available, the debate on the disputed Ayodhya site continues. Elst also explains how science fell prey to the sociologists in this matter and how the procedures and assumptions involved in the Ayodhya excavations followed a path guided by historians and not by scientific methods.
The book covers the events from 2002-2003, when the Supreme Court had ordered the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to determine if there was any extant structure underneath the disputed Ayodhya site. The radar based underground imaging studies conducted in this period had revealed the existence of “something” under the ground. The ASI then had to build up on these studies via excavations.
The author explains how the ASI could have inferred nothing else but the presence of a temple under the demolished Babri Masjid. Evidence after evidence pointed to the presence of a structure which could have been nothing else but a Hindu place of worship. But as the details continued to emerge and leaked, various groups of sociologists and historians continued to put pressure on the ASI and kept presenting alternative histories like they have done since 1950.
In this short book, Elst rubbishes these alternative versions and bats for using proper scientific methods to prove what should be obvious.
The Sanjay Story by Vinod Mehta
Vinod Mehta wrote this book soon after the Emergency was lifted and a beeline of authors came forward to write on the life and times of the worst period of Indian democracy ever. Mehta does not talk about the Emergency much, but focuses on the life of Sanjay Gandhi, who was the main protagonist of the Indian politics in the 70s.
This book is actually quite an average one – it has basic research, sweeping statements, conflation of events with no sense of proportion, and sketchy details fill the book. It is a collection of hearsays with several author made inferences on what may or may not have gone behind scenes. And the best part is the author himself accepts that in the course of the book.
Yet, the book provides an account of Sanjay Gandhi’s life, personality, style of thinking, friendships or lack thereof, and ambitions in one single account. Mehta does bring out the total control Sanjay had over the Congress party starting in 1976 and how his schemes actually brought the worst face of Emergency closer to the voting masses.
It is worth going through this account not so much to learn about a rather ordinary individual who had his place in the sun given his surname, but to understand the backdrop of how a country was run by a family over several years as its personal fiefdom.
Happy Reading!
(The author had written a similar piece last year too, recommending 5 other books)
Buoyed by the bravery of those we find ourselves in the midst of, sometimes we take safety for granted. The same happened with me, as I accompanied and followed Sadanandan Master when in Kuthuparamba, Kannur.
I heard of Sadanandan Master a little over a month ago. By then, Kannur had already captured my attention. In February this year, a young man Sujith was brutally hacked to death in front of his parents. There was no clear case of provocation, only the fact that this village do-gooder had accompanied a group of people to sort out a neighbourly dispute between two school-going teenagers.
Sitting in Delhi, I skimmed through channels to find visuals and debates and interviews of another young man, Kanhaiya. There was one news item of his being roughed up outside the court house that generated justifiable outrage. Kanhaiya walked away from that surrounded by police.
But in my mind, a parallel timeline of events was playing out. That of Sujith’s death; the fact that he was pulled out of his home at night by CPM cadre, that a plank of wood with nails on it was one of the weapons used to tear his skin from the back of his neck down before killing him, were not mentioned or commented on, or even acknowledged in the media or debate.
They echoed in my head, in my imagination. The only escape from him was to let in the living – his mother with her broken arm from when she had rushed to save him, a woman I would subsequently meet.
The author with Sujith’s mother
I was haunted. Sujith’s mother is a small woman, no more than five feet one inches tall, maybe 35 kilos. I embraced her two days ago and only felt bones rattling against my body as she cried. Amma I called her, the word for mother in Kerala, it only made her cry more, and I felt as if I had wronged her as well.
Amidst this, Sadanandan Master became hope for me. I have never visited a political party’s office, let alone supported a candidate. But with Sadanandan Master, all of those considerations became incidental.
Here was a man who had his legs taken away from him by an act of such barbaric cruelty that my sanitised world of imagination and urban outrage was demolished to the rubble of well-meaning thoughts and comment that it was.
I don’t know who I expected to meet when I first met him. We had already spoken on the phone. He was always pleasant. I had seen his photographs and watched an old YouTube video. They reflected a man of quiet dignity and of a compassionate temperament.
But would there be bitterness? I was to find none. By now, I had heard the stories, of his attack when returning from distributing wedding cards for his sister’s wedding, to the aftermath. I met his friend who accompanied him to the hospital in an old battered ambulance, as he drifted in and out of consciousness, losing blood, losing hope.
His friend carried his amputated legs, they were no good, having been dragged on the ground by his assailants and tossed aside. But his friend carried them to the hospital anyway, hoisting them on his shoulders. Why? So no one could say that Sadanandan Master never had legs in the first place and no crime had been committed.
This was 1994 and as it is today, the RSS had no access to political power in Kerala, a dangerous situation in a state where every institution is politicised. Where even police associations have elections and candidates are backed by political parties and the victories are recorded in newspapers.
As the rest of the country conjectures about RSS’s presumed unchecked power, Kerala is a time warp, it tells you what it was like for this organization for most of its years of existence. Here, Sadanandan Master had picked the losing side.
What followed after his attack, were months of depression. I met the man whose wife used to force feed him, because he refused to eat, sitting in his hospital bed all day staring at the walls. Even his beloved books gave him no company. At almost thirty, this young man who once stood at six feet had lost his two limbs and the will to carry on.
He had also been in love, with a co-student, pushing the marriage till his responsibilities were settled. He now told her to carry on with her life and not waste it on a handicapped man who would only be a burden. She refused.
Sadanandan Master
When I meet him, he laughs about her, she is very determined. “Your soul mate?” I ask. “Yes”, he blushes, “you can call her that”. Together they had a child, a daughter. Together, they built a home, away from Kannur. Together, they restored his dignity. Together, he has learnt to laugh.
His students make him laugh. They treat him a lot better than other colleagues beleaguered by the constant battling of wits with precocious teens. They keep an eye out for Mashe’s (an endearment for Master in Kerala) car, modified to suit his special needs. They rush to open the door and carry his books. They give him little trouble. His story is known to all.
But to hear him tell it. He doesn’t blame his assailants, the CPM men who came to him later to ask for forgiveness. They are forgiven. He blames the masters that sanction this violence, cocooned in their world of privilege, their children in the safe embrace of foreign lands, far away from the killing fields of Kannur.
Moved by his story, I had rushed to garner support, requested people to canvas for him, be his legs.
Many volunteered. I went there ahead of them, on a recon as it is called in the world of cinema, to see if it was safe, to tell more people his story. I hoped the Prime Minister, a popular man, would go to Kannur.
His itinerary leaves it out. One reason could be security concerns. It is difficult to sanitise this area for even the most powerful person in the country. Crude bombs are built in homes and lobbed at passing vehicles. We drive through areas, unguarded, vulnerable; I can taste the tension in the hot breeze.
Lutyen’s Delhi and its strutting masters with security that covers the entire alphabet from A to Z, fill me with a new distaste for something that I have grown accustomed to. The ink attacks and the shoe hurling that finds air-time, and the maimed and dead bodies that pass without comment.
I see it all as I sit to write. Changed, humbled, saddened and all too aware of my own insignificance and that of any platform which will give me space to write of this cruelty in the face of dehumanising ambition and agenda. But I write anyway. What else is there to do when in the presence of staggering courage and the lurking inevitability of violence?
Sadanandan Master’s car was attacked yesterday. He had left it a few moments before the attack. I spoke to him after, he seemed surprised. “It is unexpected, isn’t it?” he asked me. And I realised that he is misled by his own courage.
(Advaita Kala is an award winning screenwriter and author. You can contact her on Twitter here)
The Indian media loves bad news and that is making everyone negative – this is what well-known cricket columnist and commentator Harsha Bhogle thinks.
Harsha had been in news lately after being dropped from the panel of commentators for the ongoing season of IPL. Many in the mainstream media had linked his removal to “rising intolerance” alleging that he was dropped because he was not someone who’d say “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.
How some in the Indian media reported Harsha’s exit from the IPL commentary team.
Your average celebrity will milk such a situation and play along with the media, trying to be in the thick of such controversial and negative news for as long as possible, but Harsha Bhogle believes otherwise. He believes in being positive and making others feel positive in the process, and wishes the Indian media could also feel that way.
Recounting his visit to Mussoorie on Wednesday for a corporate speaking program, Harsha Bhogle said that he could see “immense positivity” in the corporate India.
“People are planning big things because they believe they can be achieved.” Harsha shared his observations on his Facebook page.
“And yet the media is still telling me how wrong things are. Maybe it is the people they invite; people who need to say things are bad. Maybe they should invite hard working Indians and ask them if they are positive about India,” he further argued.
“I am not asking for a saccharine view of things but a perspective from people who are doing remarkable things too,” Harsha clarified, but reiterated that “Twelve people screaming simultaneously from caged windows isn’t the only picture of India.”
This is not for the first time that Harsha has come up with such observation. In December last year too, in another Facebook post, he had pointed out that many journalists were obsessed with negativity and confrontational approach.
Harsha’s observations are important because a large section of media is indeed hell bent upon portraying an image of India where nothing is going right.
While it’s the duty of media to report and highlight shortcomings of the society and the government, we’ve seen that often they are resorting to half truths or plain lies to push a particular narrative. Our media lies list is where you can find plenty of such examples.
Aamir Khan has been working hard towards solving the drought issue in Maharashtra. His Paani Foundation has collaborated with the Maharashtra Government to ease an enduring water crisis in the state. He has inspired many from the film world like Nana Patekar and Akshay Kumar to join him in lending a hand. Recently he even launched a Water Cup in Maharashtra, to promote water conservation.
A few days back, a news story broke out that Aamir Khan had now gone one step further and had adopted a 2 drought-hit villages in Maharashtra. A search shows that this story was first tweeted by the Pro-AAP news blog Janta Ka Reporter:
The tweet was sent on 18th April at 8.38 pm and the story was also published on the same day. Today, Janta ka Reporter even went on to claim credit for breaking this news story:
This story was then picked up by almost every media outlet. The story was widely shared, and it seemed some people, were interested in settling political scores by raising the anti-national issue etc, rather than appreciating the move.
The tone of the tweets floating around
Now it turns out this entire story by Janta ka Reporter was fabricated. This has emerged after the tweets of a journalist who claims to have spoken to the actor’s agency:
So where did a small outfit like Janta Ka Reporter, which usually only curates posts, which has very little geographical reach, get their exclusive, first-hand, breaking information? Did they actually manage to have a reporter on the ground at the place where Aamir Khan had “announced” his action? If one reads the story broken by Janta ka Reporter, it appears their only source was a tweet. Yes, a solitary tweet is quoted by Janta Ka Reporter in its story:
Shahryar is a journalist with a site covering Bollywood news. He later wrote a piece on his site, titled “How ‘Anti-National’ Aamir Khan shames ultra-nationalists”.
But even before Shahryar, there is another mention of this “adoption” that never happened. A Twitter account by the name Aakib Sayyad, who claims to be staying in Mumbai (as per his bio) tweeted out on 17th April itself that Aamir had adopted “2 villages” (see update below) of Tal and Koregaon:
Amazingly, the tweets of both Shahryar the journalist and Sayyad use the exact same photo of the function where Aamir allegedly announced this. The exact same photo from the same angle of the exact same moment. And the journalist tweeted the image almost 24 hours after Sayyad tweeted the picture. So it is highly possible that Shahryar was not even present at the venue and basically believed this story from a tweet he saw, that of Sayyad.
But what could be the source of Sayyad you may ask? He tweeted out the entire “breaking news”, and the last tweet in the series probably reveals his very credible source:
So it appears that a random person got a message on WhatsApp, which he tweeted out, which was picked by some random journalist, which was blindly trusted by a media portal like Janta ka Reporter, which was further picked by almost every National media house, and possibly even some International media houses! One Whatsapp message, and a breaking news story!
And now as the chickens have come to roost, the journalist Shahryrar has tweeted a clarification:
What does this show? Indian media reporting standards are at rock-bottom. A WhatsApp message can become a national news without as much as a simple clarification from the person about whom the news is. Media houses in their race and hunger to feed breaking news, especially politically loaded news, have forgotten to do the basics right: Confirm a damned news story!
Update:
As a reader points out, the first tweet on this issue, that by Sayyad says “two villages of Tal. Koregaon”. This is to be read as 2 villages from the Taluka Koregaon, and not as MSM reported saying 2 villages named Tal and Koregaon!
Times Now has obtained the Ishrat Jahan file through an RTI query and the documents prove that Chidambaram had in fact signed the first affidavit that admitted Ms. Jahan was indeed an LeT operative.
What is the significance of this?
Chidambaram has all along maintained that the first affidavit was filed without his approval. Now these documents bust that claim. In other words, in August 2009 he accepted the fact that Ishrat was a terrorist.
Chidambaram has never had a problem owning up to the 2nd affidavit. (Of course, he wants G K Pillai also to own up to the affidavit. Pillai for obvious reasons is distancing himself from it.) What necessitated the 2nd version? The first one, in his view, was erroneous as it rested solely on inputs from intelligence ifnormation. ‘Intelligence information is not a conclusive proof, it is for the investigative agency to gather evidence and present it before a court,’ said the former cabinet minister in justification of the 2nd version. And to make it more robust, he got the 2nd affidavit vetted by the then Advocate General. All these sound very convincing and reasonable, don’t they?
Now comes the twist.
All these documents are missing. According to the home ministry the following documents are missing:
Office copy of the letter and enclosures sent by GK Pillai to the then attorney general GE Vahanvati on September 18, 2009
Draft note of second affidavit which was vetted by then AG
The letter written by Pillai, along with its enclosures, to the AG again on September 23, 2009
The draft of final affidavit amended by the former home minister PChidambaram.
What would these documents, if traced, prove?
The list of missing documents as above traces the movement of documents between MHA and AG’s office before the 2nd affidavit was finalised. It would be easy to discern the changes/ improvements made at each stage.
Chidambaram has famously claimed that he made only ‘minor editorial changes’—‘a comma here and there or strike out a word.’
The 2nd affidavit, as all of us know, drops the reference to Ishrat having been an LeT operative.
From all the above it will be clear that the missing documents hold the key to who made what changes and whether those were indeed minor editorial ones. Who will benefit from the disappearance of these documents? To answer this question, one needs to look at what happened after CBI explained to the Supreme Court the movement of the draft status report in the coal scandal between PMO, Coal Ministry, AG’s office and Law Ministry and the nature of changes made to the draft by PMO officials, Law Minister, Coal Ministry officials and AG. It cost Ashwani Kumar, the then Law Minister, his job.
If, in spite of all these, Chidambaram asks somewhat righteously, ‘To whose advantage has the vetted draft gone missing?’ it is nothing but bravado.
Is it the first time papers on a controversy relating to Chidambaram go missing?
No. Two years ago Ram Jethmalani wrote a scathing letter to Chidambaram accusing him of harassing an honest income tax officer who was probing alleged financial irregularities at a prominent TV channel and Chidambaram’s role in the same. It is not the purpose of this article to go into the merits or otherwise of the allegation. Activist Madhu Kishwar, journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and others have written about it. My purpose is to focus on a reference to some missing documents in Jethmalani’s letter.
The annexure to Jethmalani’s letter narrates a curious story of how 12 pages in a finance ministry file went missing and how they were ‘replaced’ by papers from a different file. Now some background before we proceed with the details of the missing documents.
SK Srivastav is an income tax officer whose case Jethmalani was espousing in his letter to Chidambaram. Srivastav, it seems, applied to the ministry of finance under RTI for copies of files and papers purporting to contain incriminating details on Chidambaram. One of these documents was a file bearing reference number F. No. DGIT(V) /NZ/Com/113/06. And when he got the documents, Srivastav got the shock of his life. According to Jethmalani, the first 12 pages of the said file were replaced by the 12 pages from another file bearing reference number File No F.No DGIT(VIG.)/NZ/Com./36/06(Part).
Jethmalani elaborates further: ‘After the pages 1-12 substituted, the file F.No. DGIT(V)/NZ/Com/113/06–marked “Secret” continues from page 13 onwards;
‘Result, the first 12 pages is marked as F.No DGIT (VIG.) /NZ/Com./36/06(Part) without the word “Secret” [File 36/06] and rest of pages is F.No. DGIT(V)/NZ/Com/113/06 [File 113/06] marked “Secret”–something extraordinary and unprecedented.’
Of course, this is not a simple of case of missing documents. It is a planned operation wherein incriminating documents were removed and replaced by other irrelevant papers.
While Chidambaram replied to Ram Jethmalani within a fortnight, his reply did not offer any explanation on the alleged switching of documents.
My point is to highlight a pattern that emerges from most of the scams/ controversies of UPA: A scam/ controversy breaks out. UPA, its ministers and allies defend by making false claims. When facts to the contrary emerge, papers/ files/ documents that would fix responsibility on UPA heavyweights go missing. Apart from the above, the following cases strengthen my argument further:
Crucial documents relating to 2G case went missing.
That Indian media has very little credibility is a known fact. Month after month, we have been exposing how Indian media has got its facts completely wrong, sometimes due to incompetence, sometimes out of malice. Today, again another of media’s goof-ups came to the fore on Twitter, when BJD MP Baijayant “Jay” Panda took on some malicious reporting.
According to Panda, it all started a few days ago when a well known Odia newspaper (which he refuses to name) published a report about alleged poor utilisation of MPLAD funds by him, thereby making adverse comments on his performance. He further says that he had refuted this on his Facebook page on the very same day. One can indeed find posts relating to utilisation of MPLAD funds, on his Facebook page. He further says he even sent a rejoinder to the concerned newspaper, but it was not published by them.
Yesterday, he says, another Odia newspaper, carried the same news, without following “the basic journalistic practice of cross-checking information by contacting the ‘accused’ person”. He again took to social media to clarify and stated that there was a delay in the Government website which was hence citing outdated MPLAD- utilisation figures, which the media was blindly reporting. Hence, today he put out the latest Utilisation certificate which was issued to him, showing more than 99.5% utilisation of funds:
Answer2 lazy journalism claiming unused MPLADs based on old govt website: last 2yrs Kendrapada’s 99.5% utilisation????pic.twitter.com/VzYPJSgqsm
For some reason, Senior Editor Prabhu Chawla jumped in to defend his fraternity, giving some rather odd logic. This was what transpired between the two:
Why can’t they update information as it comes? Why blame journalists for Govt agencies not doing their job? https://t.co/0zntRNlK8C
If one goes by Prabhu Chawla’s logic, media must be given all data on a platter, which they are then to simply report, thus eliminating the need for media to do any work verifying the data. If Chawla feels it is too much to ask of journalists to verify data that they are using, and cross-checking with the person concerned, then it certainly is a new form of journalism.
The people maintaining the Government site should also be held accountable for the delay in updating the data, but this by no means exonerates journalists who are using the data.
What is even notable is that as Jay Panda alleges, the concerned newspaper did not even bother to publish the rebuttal sent to it by the MP, leave alone issue a correction. If the media house had made a genuine mistake, it should not have had any objection to publishing Panda’s rebuttal.
On a side note, if any of our readers from Odisha can tell us the names of the newspapers, it would be of great help!
A news report was circulating online, which was in all probability broken first by Times of India, saying: “Chandigarh set to ban short skirts in discotheques“. The story was consequently picked up by almost every media outlet and given its own fresh twist:
Zee News: Chandigarh all set to ban ‘scantily dressed’ women from discotheques
News X: #SanskariBullying: No short skirts in Chandigarh discos: ‘Ban skirts or face shut down’ says, administration.
Catch News: Chandigarh discos ban entry for ‘seditious’, ‘scantily clad women’.
HuffpostIndia: Chandigarh to ban short skirts in discos because it’s breeding ‘anti-national’ elements
All the reports are based on what has been nicknamed Chandigarh’s “Disco Policy”, officially called: “Controlling Places of Public Amusement 2016“, to “maintain law and order situation”. So does the policy really “ban short skirts in discos because they breed anti-national” sentiments? Lets have a look at the part which talks about this aspect:
The policy says, permission may be cancelled if “it”, that is the public place, is considered to violate any of the laid down norms. A few of the norms are:
To be indecent or of a scurrilous character;
To be seditious or to be likely to excite political discontent;
Any exhibition or advertisement whether by way of posters or in the newspapers, photographs of scantily dressed women;
Point number 3 above talks only of “exhibition or advertisement whether by way of posters or in the newspapers“, of scantily clad women, and not of scantily clad women themselves. Can Indian media not understand the difference between ads of scantily clad women and scantily clad women?
Further, from where did media infer that “scantily clad women” = “women wearing short skirts”? Are skirts the only medium of being “scantily clad”? What is the genesis of this word “skirts”? In fact, this conclusion betrays their own small mindset.
Point number 2 above talks about carrying out seditious activities. There has been a lot of debate on this and even without this “Disco Policy”, there are enough sections in the Indian Penal Code to take care of seditious activities, so what this law proposes may not be something brand new.
Point number 1, talks about “indecent” character.
These are three different, independent violations which have been listed out. But as usual Indian media has made a hash of the matter, either out of sheer incompetence, or deliberately. They have deliberately combined all the three points, added some imaginative bits about “short-skirts” specifically, and manufactured outrage-worthy headlines. This is nothing but lying.
Indian media could have raised many important issues about this “Disco Policy”, like:
What is the need of a “Disco Policy”
Is this a matter of priority?
Why ambiguous terms such as “indecency” and “scantily clad women” have been used in the policy? These are extremely subjective terms and can vary according to the moral bent of each person.
But our media, out of sheer incompetency or malafide intent, has managed to completely misreport a story. There is almost no chance any of these outlets will publish even a shred of an apology or clarification, and none of them will be taken to task either.
Once upon a time in India it was very difficult to catch hold of an auto or taxi (Kaali Peeli). With growing clout of unions the situation worsened. Even if you managed to get a Kaali Peeli they would not agree with the destination, throw tantrums and in some cases, even over charge you. Government couldn’t take action against them because of strong unions which would blackmail the government with threats of going on mass strike and disrupting the city transportation. The government couldn’t cancel their permits (which are a must for all Kaali Peeli) as they were limited in number and the shortage of such vehicles was already looming large, with respect to the growing population. Just to give a perspective, there are 32,000 taxis on road in Mumbai, for a population of more than 20 million.
Basically Kaali Peelis, with their permits and highly political unions started calling the shots – one strike and they could manage increase in fares.
The issue of shortage of taxis was present across the globe and all the regulatory bodies were facing similar problem for which they had no solution.
Then Uber happened and it changed the way we (mainly urban population) travel. Indian companies, lead by Ola, copied the same model (ok, more or less similar) here and it was an instant hit. Kaali Peelis had become such a pain for customers that they took to these new age startups as fish to water. Many clones came in the market, backed by investor’s money they provided steep discounts and mobility experience improved. Even Uber started it India operations and since then it has been no looking back for the industry. Most of the companies have launched affordable versions of their service and some have extended the platform to include autos with valid permits to join the community. The discounts have stopped or reduced but that smooth (not very smooth, still 10X better than Kaali Peelis) experience has stayed.
There was a problem – Acute shortage of Kaali Peelis and there was a demand from over growing population for local transport options
For which government had no solution – Simply because government cannot keep up on releasing permits to fulfill this demand for various reasons
And startups provided the much needed respite – By leveraging the tourist permit vehicles, creating a technology platform for connecting the drivers with the customers, investing in infrastructure for cashless transactions, accurate location services and uniform experience
Basically, the startups filled the gap and provided host of other services as well (breakfast on board, internet connected taxis, etc).
And government had no business in this. The vehicles servicing the customers here were not the regular Kaali Peelis, which are a function of local government controlled public transport. Perhaps, this is the reason why government didn’t think of interfering when the new companies were providing steep discounts (Ola still serving at 6/KM) at almost half the standard rate. Almost all the startups came in with free rides (one or even more), referral programs and such other offers which kept increasing the competition and even made few companies to bow out of the race (TaxiForSure got acquired by Ola). But the customers never complained – in a highly competitive market, they were the king and they never complained.
That is, till surge pricing came in!
Surge pricing is when customers are informed in advance that they would be charged at twice or thrice or much more than that for the ride they are about to book. The 2X, 3X or even the lately observed 6X surge is shown to the customer. These startups do not own the vehicle and are dependent on the drivers or the vehicle owners to provide the service. They claim that the prices are surged to attract drivers in a particular area to provide services, especially when the demand exceeds the supply. So if the number of taxis available in a particular area is less, than these startups will activate surge pricing which might attract the drivers to start providing services that particular location. Uber clarified on Twitter that the increased revenue from surge pricing is passed on to the drivers.
Morally, surge pricing might sound like a bad idea. But in reality, it isn’t.
No one is getting robbed here. Customers who are willing to pay for these services are free to do so and those who are not can either look at what competitors are offering or may even use the good old Kaali Peelis. The increased fares are shown to the customers in advance and there are no hidden costs. If the surge prices are not justified, soon, some other solution provider will rule the market – just like these startups have displaced Kaali Peelis from the market.
And these startups are not alone. We pay for the increased flight rates across the airline industry. Not many tickets are sold at the same price and the cost varies a lot. Similarly, we are fine with paying extra charges for the Tatkal Railway tickets –same seats, but extra cost for ensuring a seat late in the day. Historically, we have been paying almost 2X the price for late night movie tickets as compared to early morning shows. All of them follow the same supply–demand principle.
First Bangalore and now the Delhi government have tried to interfere by bringing a ban on surge pricing. This is wrong precedent, which might get some votes from the lower middle class but can prove detrimental for the society in the long run. The drivers attracted by surge pricing might not provide services at that moment when someone needs it – rendering Kaali Peeli as the last option, which ideally, many would like to avoid – hence the protest against surge pricing instead of the boycott. People want these services to continue, though few would continue to complain about the surge prices. The only solution which government can provide is increasing the number of Kaali Peelis by releasing more permits or by improving the government owned buses, trains and metros.
Tourist Taxis, which are used by companies like Ola and Uber have four times the presence than local taxis
It’s not that Arvind Kejriwal doesn’t understand this basic economics – it’s just that the votes and claps matter to him more than the business sanity. I hope other states do not imitate this step and make it difficult for the mobility startups to do their business. Imagine the populations being served by this startups coming back to using the old public transport system, do you think the system will be able to take that load? These startups are providing an interim solution to the crippling infrastructure and can be the torch bearers for our aim to reduce the pollution. On the contrary, by promoting their services government can keep a check on vehicle ownership and limit the investments in public transportation. A city in Florida has started subsidizing Uber rides and is focusing on building infrastructure rather than providing bus services.
While such a public-private-partnership looks like a far-fetched dream for India, the least we can do is keeping such services free from government regulation!
