“Indian army’s operations along the Indo-Myanmar border”
“Lalit Modi’s expose on Indian politicians”
“Hooch tragedy in Maharashtra”
“Indian economy likely to grow in double digits by 2016”
These stories are from a wide spectrum of fields from defense to politics. From sports to socialissues and economy. Common sense tells us that each of these topics need in-depth analyses and discussions. Detailed understanding of these topics helps in giving viewers a platter of views and perspectives.
Unfortunately, Indian news channels have either failed to understand this or they take the viewers for granted. Viewers clearly understand that news anchors must be able to conduct debates. However, whats the need for having the same faces in panels for all discussions? Chitra Subramaniam, of the The News Minute, had coined a term for them – “G-37”. This includes the likes of Hartosh Bal, Kumar Ketkar, Kavita Krishnan and so on. Chances are that, we will find one or many of these faces talking about any topic under the sun. I fail to understand how a Kumar Ketkar can help viewers understand the complexities of Indian army’s operation in Myanmar. He may have a view – but so can I. Just few years of experience in journalism must not be the sufficient condition to be a panelist. We know that each of these members of G-37 talk in general terms. Rarely have they ever brought out a new perspective that altered the course of a discussion. Moreover, post May 2014, there seems to be just two views – Modi is wrong and Modi is right! Any or all of the events will be discussed so that the panelists end up falling in one of these two buckets.
Needless to say, there are some faces who know what they are talking – like a Maroof Raza or a Nitin Gokhale. People appreciate the fact that these two appear for discussions on defense or national security matters – and NEVER on other topics. It is indeed worth appreciating that Times Now have a designated position of “Strategic Affairs Expert” for Maroof Raza. In the same breadth, why do these TV news channels not have a “Chief PMO correspondent” for news from the PMO or a “Chief Legal Affairs Expert” for news that come from the high courts and Supreme Court? I am sure there are some folks in the background who analyze news for the anchors. According to me, there could only be two reasons why these folks aren’t on our TV screens: either the anchors are scared that they will lose the spotlight from an in-house expert OR the anchors think that the experts cannot break the news for the viewers to understand.
I cannot comment on the first reason. However, if the issue is about making the news palatable for viewers, I completely disagree. What the anchors do to make news palatable, is to bring a political angle to this. Identify a villain for the night and thrash him for 3 hours on prime time. The anchors can feel good about their herogiri, but news channels will continue their positioning as another entertainment channel. After all, why do viewers need to be look at all news items from the political prism? Also, aren’t these channels insulting the intelligence of the viewers?
Many commentators, often, bring out examples of how things are better in the West. To buttress my point, I would like to make a similar comparison. NBC News, a channel which has a political left stance, have the following positions (examples):
Capitol Hill Correspondent – Kelly O’Donnell
Chief Pentagon Correspondent – Jim Miklaszewski
National Investigative Correspondent – Michael Isikoff
Justice Department and the U.S. Supreme Court Correspondent – Pete Williams
Chief Science and Health Correspondent – Robert Bazell
Any news relating to a new revelation of a document that has been leaked/released has to go through the desk of the National Investigative Correspondent. This brings and builds credibility, not only within the news organization – but also among the viewers. This also avoids confusion during critical news breaks, where one channel reports 7 terrorists being killed and another 50 and the third one quoting hundreds. When the expert shows his face on TV screen, he will be held accountable for every word he says. People will judge whether he/she is indeed an expert! To some extent, this can also end this nonsense prevalent in Indian news organizations of “source based reporting”. This has been reduced to a joke on the social media recently – when Barkha Dutt began reporting on an email sent by one student from IIT Roorkee. Every time Barkha breaks a story now from an unnamed source, social media has a name for her source – “Ankit”. Barkha will remember this Ankit more than one Chaitanya Kunte.
Things have to change on TV news – many things. Right from bringing in experts, to letting every panelist complete his/her chain of thought, to covering wider range of topics. If the death of approx. 100 people due to hooch in Maharashtra does not turn heads of editors and appointments by a LG and Chief Minister in a municipality gets more prominence – the famous “moral compass” is surely lost. More so, when these star anchors preach on social media on how news need to be covered – as if they have nothing to do with media. Like these, on another important story that has been ignored by the national media:
Only if these knowledgeable ladies were in media to protect national interests… Sigh! pic.twitter.com/2RwCi39ZJ8
Early this year, we had seen MSM go crazy over the narrative “Christians under attack from Hindu Right Wing”. Every alternate day there was some news about some church being “attacked” or “vandalized”. Most of these reports were based on preliminary information, while some of them were stemmed from pure bias. A robbery attempt in a Delhi School was converted into an “attack”. The rape and robbery at Kolkata was communalised. Some like Rana Ayyub even prematurely pinned the blame on RSS. Eventually the culprits were found to be Bangladeshis.
With all this false reporting being exposed, the entire narrative was destroyed and even some genuine cases of communal violence began being questioned. It’s no surprise that suddenly all such communal attacks have stopped becoming news items since Media became the boy who cried wolf too often. A similar story might unfold as far as the VYAPAM scam is concerned.
As things stand, there are more than 40 deaths, which are believed to be linked to VYAPAM scam. At least this is what media says. If we go in to the actual deaths, many of them have only some tenuous link to VYAPAM, and some of them are still under investigation. Hence, even the primary whistleblower in the case, Dr Anand Rai, is careful when linking any death to VYAPAM. He says:
10 of the deaths that have occurred so far are in suspicious circumstances. The rest may be a matter of coincidence
But virtues like caution and propriety are unknown to Indian Media. While initial media reports about deaths can be discounted, because at that time, information available would have been minimum, it is unpardonable if someone keeps repeating something this, even when subsequent revelations may have caused a change in initial perception.
As a sample, we can see what Times of India published on its front page today:
The Uma Bharti part aside, Times of India now claims, rather hilariously too, that the number of deaths related to VYAPAM, “as put by media” has reached 48. They include 4 recent deaths in this count, that of India Today Journalist Akshay Singh, a trainee SI Anamika Kushwaha, that of the dean of Jabalpur and of a constable named Ramakant Pandey.
Firstly in respect of Akshay Singhs’s death, the post-mortem report said that there were no internal or external injuries on the body of the journalist. Even the doctors have “reserved” their opinion on the cause of death and advised to wait for the result of viscera (internal organs) analysis, but the forensic experts at Times of India did not need any such tests and have come to their own conclusion. Comically, the assistant editor of Economic Times (Part of the Times Group), also tweeted and later deleted this tweet, hinting that there was no foul play in this case:In a situation where even doctors aren’t sure of the cause, it is intriguing to note Times of India has made up its mind.
The second recent death “related to VYAPAM scam” is that of trainee woman sub inspector Anamika Kushwaha. She is believed to have committed suicide. Her only link to VYAPAM is that she was recruited via the VYAPAM exam. Here it is important to understand that VYAPAM runs ALL professional and Government admissions in MP via exams. Hence it is highly illogical to link everybody who got through VYAPAM, to the scam. This was reiterated by NDTV journalist Gargi Rawat:
Death of Trainee Cop Anamika Kushwaha had nothing to do with Vyapam ‘scam’ It was due to personal reasons.She was recruited thru Vyapam exam
Another female police officer known to Anamika also said that “was mentally stressed from the past few days”. In such a scenario it would be unfair to link to her death to VYAPAM, but when was MSM fair?
Third we go to the death of the Dean of Jabalpur. This is a tricky one since he was the chairman of the committee appointed to investigate fake doctors appointed through VYAPAM. Also his predecessor DK Sakale too was found dead in July, 2014 with 90 per cent burns. But, as of now, the police have ruled out foul play and his family too informed the cops that he had a heart ailment. Again, this is not a clear-cut, proven death related to VYAPAM, but it is more likely to be related to VYAPAM than others.
The last one is of constable Pandey. He was questioned 4 months ago in relation to the VYAPAM scam and was found hanging from the ceiling at a tourist outpost yesterday. Even here, the police denied allegations of the death being linked to VYAPAM scam claiming that Pandey was an alcoholic and was depressed over mounting debt. Again, Gargi Rawat concurs with this theory.
We are not saying none of the above deaths are related to VYAPAM, but we are saying that it’s too early or too hard to definitely say these are VYAPAM related deaths. Some cases maybe more intrinsically linked while some have very weak connections to VYAPAM scam. 4 other deaths were probed by Indian Express and even in those, the links to VYAPAM the scam were dubious.
Investigations are going on, all the facts are not out. It is known that over 2000 arrests have been made, and possibly an equal number could be suspects, hence there are bound to be some natural deaths, given such a large pool size. Further, even the main whistle-blower himself says only 10 deaths are suspicious and rest maybe a coincidence. Given all these facts, and when media credibility is at an all time low, once would expect Media to take it slow, try to bring some sense into their reporting, to regain the lost trust. But it seems some people never learn.
On 3rd July 2015, it was reported that the female research student from St Stephen’s College, who raised molestation charges against her PhD guide, submitted audio clips to Delhi Police in which the principal of St Stephen’s College, Valson Thampu was allegedly heard asking her to “take back” the complaints.
In the audio clip posted by Hindustan Times, Thampu is heard saying, “Trust in God. You have to take that complaint back, If you don’t do it today itself there will be complication…”
The molestation complaint – first raised on 10 December 2014 – was published in in bits and pieces, but it never made a big story. This is not the first case of molestation in one of the premiere colleges of Delhi University. Many stories can be read on blogs and social media. However, such reports don’t make big news stories. In a contrast, the ban on Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (APSC) in IIT Madras was run on prime-time as deeply concerning news. The elite cadre of media concluded that IITs don’t let the student grow on softer aspects, IITians need to remove their blinders and peep into the social and political realities of India. It is surprising that the elite alums of St Stephen’s College – steering national and international media houses – had strong opinions on education system and class divide inside IITs, but they remain silent on molestation cases inside posh colleges of Delhi University. Adding to the disgust, when a magazine was banned in the college, a few journalists, instead of questioning the set-up, tried hard to incoherently drag “Hindus and Hindutva”. The article which hardly talks about the real issue i.e., ban on publication is full of Hindu, Conversion, Slaughter and RSS.
Another interesting story which is drawing the attention of people across India is the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). Chauhan has a very non-impressive career in Bollywood. In fact, Chauhan, in his 30+ years of stay in Bollywood, has not worked in a single movie which can even be called a mediocre piece of art. His appointment as the FTII chairman is a big disappointment in cinema fraternity. In his article, Vivek Agnihotri argues that FTII has already been facing stepmotherly treatment from the government. FTII requires someone who is naturally attached to the chords of FTII, and not just a manager. Sadly, the attacks on Chauhan have shifted from concerns on his artistic capability to his political choices. How many of us ever heard about political inclinations of previous chairmen of FTII or how many of us ever heard about chairmen of FTII or how many of ever heard about FTII. In an interview, Bhupendra Chaube, after preaching his fake ethos of freedom and choices, bluntly mocked his right-wing politics. The propaganda driven journalist, who was already exposed by us, demeans Chauhan by asking if he fits into the category of previous chairmen and then alleges that Chauhan is fixed in FTII with a vested agenda to effectively curb and control the freedom of speech, liberal values associated with the Indian cinema.
Media is quoting it as saffronization of an institute before Chauhan implemented any policy. If political choices and ideologies are really respected in the elite ecosystem, why are people demeaned for their choices? Not only that, many messiahs of who frequently outrage against look-based-hatred attacked him for his looks:
Ganjendra Chauhan (Yudhishthir) not only has no cred to head FTII, he was also the WORST in a cast of more than 500. Aaloo-bonda look-alike.
These hypocritical biases raise many concerns. The preamble of equality and humanity flagged by most of these elitists is actually shallow. Many of these people can preach social equality, but they can’t hide the class and ideology based discrimination deep-rooted within them.
Madhya Pradesh’s VYAPAM scam has recently come into media focus. On the face of it, it just a run-of-the-mill admission and recruitment scam. News about educational seats up for sale is not new to India, but Vyapam has managed to grab eyeballs for more sinister reason. Although it is a scam which is common in India, it is uncommon to see so many people somehow connected with the scam, die mysterious deaths. Right from middle men, to Deans, to students to journalists, all have perished in this case, or at least that’s how people are interpreting many of these deaths.
If locals are to be believed, similar admission scams were going on in Madhya Pradesh since the 1990s. This is corroborated by the fact that the current VYAPAM scam kingpin Dr Jagdish Sagar was arrested for similar charges way back in 2003. But due to police negligence, he got a free hand to continue his activities.
By 2009, more complaints emerged and by 2013, whistleblower Dr Anand Rai, had blown the lid off the scam. To be fair, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan had begun investigation in 2009 itself by setting up a committee. But as of now, the Madhya Pradesh Government has no role in the investigation.
The probe is currently being monitored by an SIT set up by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, and a Special Task Force which is investigating the matter with them. In March, Kapil Sibal, on behalf of the petitioner, approached the Supreme Court demanding that the investigation be handed over to the CBI. The Supreme Court did not heed to this plea and reiterated that since the High Court is monitoring the case, no interference is needed.
But now, the Supreme Court may have to revisit its decision. It may not be wise to bring in the CBI at this stage, but the entire investigation of VYAPAM scam, needs to be moved out of Madhya Pradesh, for several reasons:
1. The VYAPAM scam in Madhya Pradesh, has reached the door steps of the highest individuals.
Madhya Pradesh CM himself was a target of allegations in this scam. Digvijay Singh, along with a blackmailer-turned-“witness”, claimed to have an “excel sheet” which proved Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s complicity. But the High Court deemed the evidence as forged .
Laxmikant Sharma, ex-Education Minister in BJP Government in MP too was arrested in this case and had to resign.
But perhaps the biggest MP individual is this mess is its ex-Governor Ram Naresh Yadav. A Congress stalwart, Yadav has a FIR against him and was asked to resign in the wake of this scam, but continues in his post. Further, his son too had a FIR against him, and he died in March 2015. The autopsy could not conclude the cause of his death.
When power individuals of a state are under the spotlight in scam, it is generally advisable to take the case out of the state, to prevent any interference.
2. Deaths and Death Threats
Many of the people involved or connected to this scam have dies in the past few years. A total of 42 people have died till date, and many have mysterious deaths. To be fair, all deaths in Madhya Pradesh should not be linked to VYAPAM scam. Egs almost all professional colleges use the VYAPAM entrance exam, so technically all students are “connected to VYAPAM”. Hence the death of any such person may or may not have a bearing to the scam.
While death of people connected is important, it is also to be noted that people who are investigating the scam are also receiving death threats. Just last week it was confirmed that 2 members of the special task force had also received threats. With danger lurking around, it is hard to believe that an impartial and free investigation will take place.
3. Complicity of the state bureaucrats
Let me start with an anecdote. India’s Defence Minister and ex Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was once speaking about how he had trouble bringing corrupt politicians from the previous Goa Government to task. He explained that, although the ruling MLAs had changed, the bureaucrats were the same. Some of them were the same babus, who were present in the ministries in which scams took place. Today, if he had to investigate these scams, he had to use these same babus, to get information. And these babus may themselves have been involved in these scams in some capacity or the other. Hence he noticed that many times, cases would slow down, probably deliberately by such babus.
What if there is a similar case in Madhya Pradesh? Why only bureaucrats, even police and even some MLAs could be involved. Would these people with all their clout allow free and fair investigation?
In such circumstances, it seems that the process must move out of Madhya Pradesh to ensure that justice is served. The only question is whether it should go to the CBI or the Supreme Court. Although many people are clamouring for a CBI probe right now, it would be wise to avoid the CBI because if by chance, no BJP person is found to be guilty, there will be all hue and cry that CBI’s independence was compromised. Hence, the Supreme Court seems to be the best bet. But, as seen above, the Supreme Court has refused to interfere once. We wonder if recent developments related to the VYAPAM scam, will change the Apex Court’s decision.
At the outset, I would like to clarify that electricity bill of a minister (whether he is CM or PM or just an MLA) is a non-issue. Indian mainstream media often creates stories instead of covering facts.
OpIndia.com has already covered this issue of misreporting of Arvind Kejriwal’s bill in little more detail here.
Rather than leaving this issue aside, The New Indian Express has gone a step further and tried their luck at spreading canards. They wrote an article with half-baked truths about the electricity bills of some central ministers and other political leaders. They tried to make the article neutral by including Rahul Gandhi and PM Modi’s electricity bill as well. They also tried to make it a well-researched article and attached the electricity bills as proof. But then the reporter had a brain fade. He/She forgot to double-check the amounts or probably the reporter has never seen or understood his/her own electricity bills. And the reporter also forgot to attach Arvind Kejriwal’s bill in the article.
Let’s ignore the last statement as I believe that the whole purpose of doing this story is to justify the huge electricity bill of AAM CM.
Let me simplify this. I am going to examine some of the electricity bills provided in the Indian express article and then will cross reference it from Delhi Municipal Council Website.
Some other news portals have gone ahead and have done a similar comparison (NewsX story here) but they all are fed from the common source. And as I mentioned earlier, this was the half-baked Indian express story.
Let’s take Arun Jaitley’s electricity bill of 3,62,938. Let’s see what The New Indian Express has written in their article –
“Not just Arvind Kejriwal, other top politicians from different political parties consume electricity bills exceeding lakhs of rupees.
Initially it came to light that the electricity bill of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Civil Lines residence was about Rs 91,000 for the months of April and May, according to an RTI reply.
Interestingly, it also came to light that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s electricity bill is around Rs 21 lakh and finance minister Arun Jaitley’s around Rs 3.62 lakh.”
For Arvind Kejriwal’s bill, it’s clearly mentioned that it was for period of May and June. However, the article doesn’t mention the period of the bill for PM and Finance minister. Further, quite amusingly, a copy of the PM’s Rs 21 lakh bill has not been given. Considering that this was the most outlandish claim, this proof should have been furnished, especially since other proofs were given.
Coming back to Arun Jaitley’s bill. Here are the facts –
TNIE mentions that the bill is for 3.62 Lakh. They have not mentioned the period. And that is the mistake or rather the half-truth. The actual bill for the billing cycle of June 2015 is only Rs. 33471.7. And the reason why the bill is showing Rs 3.62 lakhs as payable is, there is an arrears amount of 318008.73/- (For Oct-14 to Apr-15) and a late payment surcharge of 11458.45/-. Here is the relevant extract from Arun Jaitley’s bill:
In the main article, TNIE put a screenshot of only the top half of the bill, and only gave a link to the entire bill, hoping that the readers would also not check.
TNIE has made the same mistakes of overstating the electricity bills of other leaders. I have summarized it in the table below. Uma Bharti’s actual bill is only Rs 7788.07 which is very common for a middle class family. I have received a bill of Rs 7400 for this billing cycle. However,The New Indian express has reported a bill of 1.2 lakhs.
Arvind Kejriwal’s consumer number is not known. In fact, AAP can do a similar analysis and publish the consumer number to put a full stop on the discussion. But expecting our political leaders to be logic is a wishful thinking.
* Rahul Gandhi’s bill is the total of bills from two different meters.
If you wish to check the above electricity bills, you should be able to do that from the New Delhi Municipal Council’s website. No need to file an RTI. Just use the above consumer numbers (provided in TNIE article) and you will get the bill. For Arvind Kejriwal’s bill, you might need to file an RTI as the bill has not been attached in the above article.
– The author of this guest-post wishes to be anonymous
On 1st July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Digital India initiative. On the sidelines of this event, MyGov, a Government of India platform to connect to citizens, hosted an informal interaction with a few selected individuals. Active contributors to MyGov and other social media influencers, were handpicked for this event. They were granted an interaction with Narendra Modi at his official residence at 7 Race Course Road, from 12.00pm to 1.30pm. We talked to some of the invitees to find out what happened behind closed doors.
About 150 such individuals from all around the country were present for this once in a lifetime opportunity. The Prime Minister met each and everyone invited. Modi personally greeted everyone, shook hands and felicitated winners of the MyGov contest. He even posed for photos with each person individually, but there were no selfies, since mobile phones were not allowed.
Modi even recognized some of the prominent social media users, like Temsutula Imsong, who is doing great work cleaning up the Ghats in Varanasi. Imsong recalled that Modi had mentioned her in a tweet on 1st April 2015, for her work in Varanasi. She remembered how when her friends told her about this, she thought it was an April fool prank. But after that, she received tremendous help from people in her work.
Modi too spoke at length to all the participants. He asked his social media supporters to not use abusive language on Twitter and other social media. He stressed on speaking about “positive things in a positive manner”. He gave his own example, saying he receives loads of abusive messages all day on Social Media. “If all the abuses I receive are printed on a paper, entire premises of Taj Mahal will be covered”, he said, but he stressed that in spite of this, he hasn’t blocked anyone on twitter. Hence, he said, no matter what others do, his supporters should try to say positive things.
He also said that his website has an old blog post too, where he talks about social media, abuse and how to deal with it. He said that abusive language will finish this exciting medium and it should be used for spreading positive news.
Understanding the power of technology in our lives, Modi said that the relevance of a “thumb” has changed in our lives. Earlier a “thumb” (angootha) was used in context of illiteracy, today a thumb on mobiles, is about digital power. Further elaborating on the power of technology and social media, he said that Social Media has forced Main Stream Media to change its agenda. And because of this power that social media has, all users of social media must realize that they should behave responsibly and in an appropriate manner. In what could be a sly dig at media, he also said that some people who criticize all the time, never tolerate criticism.
The Prime Minister also thanked the MyGov users for spending their valuable time and giving suggestions on various aspects on his site. He asked them to spread the word about MyGov and keep using it regularly since he too checks the feedback he gets there. After the program, all the invitees were transported to the Indira Gandhi stadium for the official launch of Digital India week.
There was a lot of confusion on the Maggi issue, and Times of India was one of the players. On 7th June, Times of India said that Maggi would not be banned in Karnataka, following a test in a private lab, authorized by the Government. Curiously, on the same day, The Hindu ran a story which said the opposite. The Hindu claimed that Maggi would indeed be banned in Karnataka. By 19th June, finally Times of India got its act right and reported that Karnataka Government had ordered Nestle to burn its Maggi stock.
While ANI News claimed this picture was from the recent anti-terror operation, alert users realised that it was in fact at least 2-3 years old. The next day Times of India went one step forward and published the picture on the front page, with all the faces of the soldiers visible and even proclaimed it was “issued by the defence ministry”. Immediately, Ministry of Defence issued a clarification that no picture was issued by them relating to action in Myanmar:
A Clarification: MoD has NOT issued any photo relating to Indian Army action along Indo-Myanmar border in the North East, so far.
Editor of ANI news Smita Prakash claimed that the picture was “authorised to be released”, but at the end of the day, the fact remains this was an old picture and had no connection with the Myanmar ambush, yet was shown as such by the media.
What was a frank, but possibly ill-worded statement from Defence Minister Parrikar, was twisted way out of proportion by many in the media. Firstpost, even went to the extent of saying Parrikar has a “hunger for war and a disdain for the army”. Parrikar, was instantly portrayed as a warmongerer. The truth of course, was different. One look at his complete sentence, gives us the context and also an important disclaimer ignored by most media:
“I have written to many Chief Ministers [over defence matters]. Some have acted on it and at many places, it [response] has ended. The primary reason for this is that we have not been to war for 40-50 years. I don’t mean to say that we should go to war. I mean to say that without war the Army’s importance has diminished,”
Firstly, Parrikar was speaking in the context of State Governments not giving due importance to needs and requests of the Defence Forces. Secondly, Parrikar clearly says “I don’t mean to say that we should go to war“, before saying that Army’s importance has diminished. Yet, he was painted as a warmongerer by the media, and hence he has recently taken the decision to avoid the media.
4. 18 June 2015: Indian Express – IIT JEE Advanced 2015 results out, MP girl Satvat Jagwani tops exam
Indian Express declared that the IIT JEE advanced topper was a “girl” named Satvat Jagwani. This, even as other news reports claimed Satvat Jagwani was a boy. Eventually it was clear that Indian Express had yet again goofed up. Later Indian Express rectified the story and hence we do not have a screenshot of the original news story. But there is adequate information to support the claim that Indian Express messed up. This user tweeted about the same, and even in the comments section of the Indian Express piece, a reader has asked Indian Express to change the story URL from “girl” to “boy”.
Times of India, relying on an IANS report, posted this highly misleading headline on 19th June. The body of the article though made it clear that India did send a high-level delegation. Apparently, the only “absence” was at a “morning roundtable”, where Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Commerce did not come. Even this “absence” was only because of Protocol, as her Russian counterpart couldn’t make it to the roundtable, and this fact too was reported by the very same news article. Yet a sensationalist headline was used by Times of India, to spread untruths. Further, the Minister herself cast aspersions on not only the headline, but also the content of the IANS report:
. @nitingarg456 The headline & content of the story surprise me. Both my TL & @CimGOI have recorded our participation. Pl check.
On reading this headline, one would imagine AIMPLB has asked Muslims to begin hostile activities against Hindutva. But once we read the article we find something different. The problem here is Firstpost has tried to sensationalize the issue by adding a “call to arms” phrase, which generally means calling people to take up hostile or military activities. The truth however, is that AIMPLB merely asked to start a campaign to spread their views, and not any violent activity. This is evident when one reads the quoted text in the article.
That Times Now is desperate for a resignation is now apparent. What makes it even more clear is how they are willing to misreport events just to suit their campaign. Following tweets will highlight the same:
Rajasthan cabinet passes resolution thanking Nitin Gadkari for giving clean chit to Vasundhara Raje in #Lalitgate
Firstpost once again gets it wrong. If only Firstpost had bothered to actually see the new IT Returns, the would have realised that the Aadhar number is not mandatory. It even defies logic since Aadhar coverage has not even reached some parts of the country. A screenshot of the IT return makes it clear:
This news report was out in April, but only now the truth has come out. If you read the report, it gives an impression that Adani has been “constantly” accompanying Modi on foreign trips. The piece starts with “Everywhere that Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes, it seems, Gautam Adani is sure to go”, thus making it amply clear, that if not all, Adani accompanies most of Modi’s visits. This theory has been trashed by Adani himself, in an interview now. He says:
“Since becoming the PM, Mr Modi has travelled to 18 countries. As a part of the CEO delegation accompanying him, I have travelled to just 4 – Japan, USA, Australia, and Europe.”
There are some errors in the statement. Firstly Europe is technically not a country. But Modi visited only France and Germany in that trip. So that makes 5 countries. Also, Modi has visited 20 countries till date. So Adani’s self-confessed score is 5/20, hardly “constant”. Even the Hindustan Times article states that Adani has been to United States, Australia, Brazil, France, Canada and Japan (Brazil & Canada not mentioned by Adani). Even if we go by Hindustan Times’ count, Adani scores just 6/20. Does that qualify to be called a “constant companion”?
We had written a separate post on this, detailing how Economic Times put up various versions of this story, all denied by Rahul Yadav himself, and also the obvious conflict of interest between which exists since Times Group owns a company which is Housing.com’s rival. Times Group and Rahul Yadav have a history of being at each other, possibly for such reasons alone.
In order to maintain a particular slant, Indian Express chose to post this story without asking the NIA their version at all. Thus many claims made in the article have turned out to be inaccurate. We had written a separate post on the same here. Firstly, while Salian claims she wants to ask NIA to be relieved from her duty, she has already been recommended to be dropped as a prosecutor, almost 10 days before her interview. Secondly, she hasn’t been “sidelined” in the process, but rules have been followed which says at initial stages, a junior officer handles the case. the case would go to the prosecutor, only at trial stage.
In their show called “Vyakti Vishesh”, based on Vasundhara Raje, ABP News used the following, 9-year-old, odd angle picture and claimed it was a liplock:
(This image was used by ABP News, at around 1.30 minutes into the video, with this voice-over: “..Aur Kabhi woh camera ke saamne, Liplock ki wajah se vivaadon mein ghir jaati hain”
This, even though Economic Times, which had originally published the photo way back in 2006, had then itself issued a clarification that ” It was bad camera angle that gives the impression of a kiss on the lip, in what is just a friendly embrace”. Even then, the clarification was given only because TV channels had gone crazy using titles like “Maharani Ka Chumban” and ‘Shahi Kiss’ for this picture. The video is now deleted from the site.
NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain, in his much hyped show titled “Truth vs Hype”, said this –
“Why did she not sanction only limited travel to Portugal? Lalit Modi used these 2 year travel papers with no conditions, to go globe trotting”
Later, in his hastily drafted letter, which was part of damage control after Lalit Modi exposed him on twitter, Jain once again takes a sly jibe:
“Modi was recently in Cuba, part of his ‘humanitarian’ world tour which also included Madrid, Ibiza and Venice”
Both the times, he deliberately chooses to hide 2 important facts:
1. As per own public admission on twitter, Susma Swaraj clearly said she only told the British High Commissioner to “examine Lalit Modi’s request as per British rules” and that if “they choose to give travel documents, it wont affect Indo-UK relations”. From this it is clear, unlike what Jain claimed Swaraj did not “sanction non-Portugal travel” nor did she give him “unconditional travel papers for 2 years”. She only told UK to do as they deem fit. If at all Lalit Modi got such documents for 2 years, it was due to the UK Government
2. Jain also forgot to mention that within a month of such “help” from Swaraj, the Delhi High Court too offered greater “help” to Lalit Modi, by giving him his passport back. So all of his trips post August 2014, could very well have been based on this passport. Why would he need travel papers when he has got his passport back?
By deliberately hiding these two facts, Sreenivasan Jain in effect lied on his show “Truth vs Hype” that Sushma Swaraj allowed Modi to go globetrotting.
Times of India, in some of its print editions, carried a picture of a Lioness jumping over water, with her cub held in her mouth. The image was credited to PTI. Times of India claimed that this was a picture from the flash floods at Gir. The truth however, is that picture was from 2014, shot in Kenya, with credits given to “Rex Features”. Greek photographer Kyriakos Kaziras captured moment during a trip in December 2013. Even more amazingly, Times of India Ahmedabad, printed the same photo and set the record straight that the picture was actually from Kenya. So comically, Times of India Ahmedabad knew, what many other offices of Times of India had no idea about?
We had tweeted this out with all the discrepancies here. DNA’s headline said the maid was murdered “at” Shripad Naik’s house. The body of the same article said, she was murdered “near” Shripad Naik’s house. The fact was that she was actually murdered in her own hut, which was located near Shripad Naik’s house. This was clearly reported by Times of India who had a local reporter, unlike DNA, which relied on a PTI story. DNA later accepted the mistake and corrected the headline.
Economic Times reported that Union Law Minister, Sadanand Gowda had indicated that Section 377, that criminalizes unnatural sex, may go. This was on the back of the decision from Supreme Court of USA. Atleast, this was the headline given by them. But if one looked at the body, where the minister was actually quoted, one saw this:
“The mood appears to be in favour of it. But it can be done only after widespread consultations and after taking all views into account”
Of course, this did not match with the headline. Gowda probably wanted to say that any decision will be taken after widespread consultations. Immediately Gowda clarified saying this:
“I never said that, I was misquoted. The topic was on USA legalising same-sex marriage. I just said that such decisions would need wide discussions in India”
Even on twitter, he repeatedly asked Economic Times to take down the report, which the eventually did.
This “source” based news, was an “exclusive” of IndiaSamwad. The story said:
“to relieve themselves from the scorching heat of Delhi, Kejriwal’s wife Sunita and his children were cooling their heels in Switzerland”
They gave the impressions that an Aam Aadmi’s family, was “holidaying” in “the world’s most expensive place”. The truth came out later, from the executive editor of IndiaSamwad himself. He clarified that Sunita Kejriwal, “was on foriegn tour sponsored by Finance Ministry.” and that “40 IRS officers were selected for tour”. He also tweeted that her kids joined her later, and the cost of their tickets, was met from a loan taken by Mrs Kejriwal, on her PPF balance.
Any report by any Times Group publication, on Housing.com is always dubious, because they have a conflict of interest, and a legal battle going on too, as we explained here. And to add to this, the story of Housing.com being sold also seems to be untrue. Especially when you see this email, sent by Housing.com CEO sent to his employees. Rahul Yadav is suggesting that since Times group is writing this this story, he is just playing around with media at large, by giving contradictory statements. Even the Economic Times story, Rahul Yadav is quoted to have said “Joke of the year” while responding to this story.
There are multiple aspects in this story, which media might have gotten wrong. We had mentioned all of them here. While some matters arent yet clear, we surely know that Media lied when they said the 1 lakh electricity bill was of Arvind Kejriwal. Fact is, Kejriwal had converted part of his house into a “General Administration Department” for work related to CM’s office. Hence, he had fitted 2 separate meters, one for his residential area, and one for office area. Media reported bills of both these areas as one, and claimed that the bill was over Rs 1 lakh. Actually, as per data given out by AAP, the bill for the residential area averages to only around Rs 15000 per month, which is not too high considering it was summer.
EDIT: Thanks to an alert user, we have to add one more MSM lie for June 2015:
DNA on 20th June, published this news that India has put Caritas Internationalis on prior permission list. Of course, this was “source” based news. Thanks to this misinformation spread by DNA, The Government of India issued a press release on 24 June 2015 to deny such news. The release clearly said the following:
A Netherland based foreign donor agency STICHTING CORDAID has been placed under prior approval category on Aug 06, 2012.
This donor was traced when the Standard Chartered Bank seeked clearance from the Government for a remittance to Caritas Internationalis. So, contrary to what DNA reported, the Donor was under scrutiny and not the recipient i.e. Caritas Internationalis. This was also reported by Business Standard. Further, this was confirmed by Caritas themselves through a press release of their own.
There is a Television company, operating out of New Delhi, which we shall call MDTV for convenience sake. MDTV is run by a popular News anchor, whose name is Annoy Roy I think. There a few more characters to this story:
Another anchor who used to work for MDTV – Abhisar Besharma
Besharma’s wife, who is an Income Tax Officer, and who handled MDTV cases – Sumana Insane
Income tax officer who caught MDTV – OK Srivastava
Lawyer & Chartered Accountant who is fighting the cases – S Heromurthy
An influential politician: B Chidamboringam
In this entire story, there are some facts & some allegations, and it is imperative to separate the two. In the first part, let us tackle only the indisputable facts:
Fact 1: MDTV sold and bought back shares of its subsidiary company in a short span of time, thereby making huge money.
MDTV had 21 subsidiary companies all over the world, many in tax haven companies. MDTV itself had incurred losses in most years. MDTV had a subsidiary, which also was loss making. Book value of its shares was negative, face value was around Rs 45. This company had no business and no track record, only a postal address in a foreign country. Yet, this company managed to sell its shares, whose face value was just Rs 45, at Rs 7015 per share. No valuation of these shares was done by either by buyer or seller company. More astoundingly, these very shares were soon bought back by another MDTV group company, for only Rs 634.17 per share. Thus MDTV group made a cool Rs 6381 per share, by just selling and buying back the shares of a loss making subsidiary company. This profit, multiplied into the number of shares, amounted to Rs 634.17 crores. Eventually these shell subsidiary companies were either closed or merged.
MDTV tried to justify the above transaction to Tax authorities saying it managed to “sell a dream” to a foreign buyer, when the economy was booming, and when the “dream went bust” thanks to failing economy, the buyer sold them their own shares back. This story was of course rejected by multiple tax authorities who did not believe that these were genuine transactions. In other words, this was a clear case of roundtripping money using legal loopholes. The tax authorities concluded that MDTV introduced its own unaccounted “black” income under the garb of sale and repurchase of shares.
Fact 2: MDTV raised $100 Million through Bonds issued by subsidiaries, and later redeemed the Bonds for only $ 72.5 Million
In a somewhat similar modus operandi, MDTV via one of its many subsidiaries, issued “Step-Up” Coupon bonds worth $100 Million to some investors. Most of these investors were again based in tax havens like Cayman Islands etc. MDTV was repeatedly asked for details of the investors etc, but they kept replying that such information was already submitted in previous tax cases. The Tax Department checked their records and found no such evidence and eventually MDTV had to submit the details. But MDTV was unable to prove the creditworthiness and genuineness of these investors.
The issue before the Tax Authorities though was about the currency fluctuation on such bonds, and not the actual issue and redemption, hence eventually such currency fluctuation was not taxed. Also, from S Heromurthy’s letters to Annoy Roy it emerges that MDTV could not prove the details of the money repaid to the bond holders, the source of such money nor the amount.
Fact 3: MDTV raised Rs 254.75 Crores of Unsecured Loans again from one of its foreign subsidiary shell companies.
MDTV, took an unsecured loan of Rs 254.75 crores from one of its subsidiary companies. When the tax department asked for the details of the same, MDTV replied saying they had already provided details in earlier years. The Income Tax Department could not find any such details in its records. Eventually MDTV submitted a letter, with “annexures” claiming to explain the issue. But the Tax authorities found that neither were any annexures attached, nor did the letter contain anything related to the above issue. The authorities also noted that whatever documents submitted were only unverified photocopies, which could not be relied upon. Hence it concluded that MDTV could not prove the genuineness of the transaction and hence this loan was also added as unaccounted “black” Income.
Fact 4: MDTV’s tax cases at the first level, were handled by the wife of an MDTV employee (Conflict of Interest)
MDTV had hired a reporter named Abhisar Besharma. Besharma’s wife Sumana Insane was a Tax Officer. She was the Assessing officer of not only MDTV, but of all its group companies. Thus she was in a clear conflict of interest position. When she came in the position, she should have informed the Government that she has a conflict of interest. This is mandate by the rules governing the conduct of Income Tax officers. Neither did Insane do the needful and abstain from this post, nor did MDTV inform the Income Tax Department of this, and let Insane handle all their tax cases.
Fact 5: Abhisar Besharma was given Rs 39 lacs by MDTV via undisclosed underpriced shares and foreign trips.
When the Tax department heard the case of Besharma, in his personal taxation matters, it found that Besharma was issued 15000 shares in MDTV, by MDTV at only Rs 4 per share. The market price of such shares was Rs 32 lacs at that time. It is not illegal to issue such shares at low rates, but the market price should have been included in Besharma’s income by MDTV. But nowhere in his Form 16 or other documents, did MDTV disclose this amount. MDTV also gave an all-expenses paid vacation to Besharma and his family including parents and in-laws to United Kingdom. Besharma claimed that the expenses were borne by him, but could not prove the same. The Tax department worked out the value of such trip to be Rs 7.51 lacs. In total, MDTV had given Besharma benefits worth Rs 39.51 lacs, and hence they were added to Besharma’s income as unaccounted “black” income. This in fact is proof that MDTV indeed “bribed” Besharma and through him, his wife Insane, who was also MDTV’s Tax officer.
Fact 6: Sumana Insane gave an illegal tax refund of Rs 1.47 crores to MDTV
Within a short span of time after the above gratification to her husband, Sumana Insane issued a tax refund of Rs 1.47 crores to MDTV u/s 143(1). This, in-spite of the fact that MDTV’s case for that year was already open u/s 143(2), thus making the refund illegal. This was noticed by the Audit team of IT Department in 2014 and the refund was declared illegal. Also, Sumana had taken permission from the IT department to go with her husband Abhisar, employee of MDTV, on a foreign trip. IT department had given a conditional approval stating that she should not accept any hospitality from MDTV, and she must also not be involved with MDTV tax matters, either in past or future. Obviously Sumana had violated both these conditions.
Fact 7: OK Srivastava caught MDTV in the act
In 2007, OK Srivastava an honest Income Tax Officer and Commissioner, caught MDTV’s hanky-panky. At that time, he only filed an “inspection note” alleging tax-evasion of Rs 200 crore. But as he went deeper into the case, he found much more data, which resulted in him writing to the Prime Minister in 2012, asking him to grant permission to initiate action against MDTV and even B Chidamboringam who he believed was the king pin in the money-laundering.
Fact 8: Within a month of OK Srivastava’s inspection note on MDTV, he was suspended on charges of Sexual Harassment.
Instead of being rewarded for his unearthing of a potential scam, OK Srivastava was suspended within a month, by his senior, on charges of sexual harassment of 2 women officers. Who were the 2 women officers? One was the very Sumana Insane who was involved in the MDTV illegal refund case. The same Sumana Insane who was the wife of Abhisar Besharma who was an MDTV employee.
Fact 9: OK Srivastava was cleared of these fake sexual harassment charges
Firstly, in 2010, the Central Administrative Tribunal set aside the suspension because there was no substantial progress in the case, and it was not as per guidelines. It noted that the suspension was biased and unreasonable, and that OK Srivastava was an officer with excellent service record. Next, in 2012, the preliminary report of the investigating committee (of which a majority were females), found that the allegations were baseless as at no point of time were OK Srivastava and Sumana Insane in the same office, neither were they ever in a senior/junior position. So there was no chance for any kind of harassment.
Fact 10: OK Srivastava continues to be targeted by these women in-spite of being cleared
In a last ditch attempt, now in 2015, these two ladies have filed a “PIL” in Supreme court against OK Srivastava, claiming that he is harassing them and hence the tax orders passed against them must be quashed. The importance of quashing these orders is as follows: At “Fact 5” above, IT Department determined that Abhisar Besharma, husband of IT officer Sumana Insane, had received benefits from MDTV, which were never disclosed. This amounts to proving that MDTV had bribed Abhisar and wife Sumana. If this order stands, it becomes very easy to prove that all of Sumana’s favours to MDTV flow from this bribe, thereby nailing her and MDTV.
These are the facts. Things which have been proved and cannot be disputed. But some things maybe unclear. Like how is Chaidamboringam involved. These will be dealt with Part 2, which will spell out all the allegations on MDTV by various people of repute. All of them may or may not be true.
(P.S.: Since the above post is purely fiction and does not bear any resemblance to any real-life Television Company from New Delhi, there are no sources cited for any of the above)
Today, various media reports came up that an RTI had revealed that Arvind Kejriwal’s official residence had used electricity worth more than Rs 1 lakh over a period of two months. This flew in the face of the “aam aadmi” image of Arvind Kejriwal and was used by many to show him down. Are these reports true?
Firstly, media is wrong in saying Kejriwal’s home electricity bill is Rs 1 lakh plus. AAP has claimed that the official residence was split up into 2 parts: One for CM’s residence, other for a “General Administration Department” for work related to CM’s office. So to say the entire bill is for Kejriwal’s home, thereby giving an impression that it was for personal use, is incorrect.
The second confusion is about the amount of the bill. News articles like this and this, which are based on ANI reports claim that the RTI has revealed Kejriwal recieved 2 bills of Rs 55,999 and Rs 65,780 (Total Rs 1,21,779). On the other hand, reports like this one by Times of India, based on PTI news service, claim “The general administration department of Delhi government has furnished the copies of electricity bill of Kejriwal’s Civil Lines residence running into Rs91,000“. The same report, quotes a BJP spokesperson saying that the bills are for Rs 55,000 and Rs 48,000, totalling to Rs 1,03,000.
AAP on their part, in their clarification have given the following data:
Firstly, AAP has not given information of the bill for month of May, claiming it is “Unpaid”. This is odd since, although unpaid, a bill is a bill, and naturally this information needs to be given.
Secondly, the grand total of AAP’s figures is Rs 1,10,865 (excluding “unpaid” of May), which doesn’t tally with any of the figures in the media. In fact, if a trend based estimate of May is taken, the figure may shoot well over any media estimates.
The only media estimate, which somewhat matches with AAP’s figures is ANI’s estimate, which says 1 bill is of Rs 55,999. This matches with bills of April which total to Rs 56,000. So if we assume ANI has got it right, the total bill would be Rs 1,21,779, which means AAP’s clarification saying total bills are Rs 1,10,685 is incorrect. If AAP’s clarification is said to be the base, then the RTI reply given by the Delhi Government may as well be incorrect.
Figures apart, one thing is clear, the bills for Arvind Kejriwal’s residence are a mere Rs 47,060 for 3 months, i.e. Rs 15,000 odd per month. Considering that this is during the summer, when ACs and other equipment run much more, the figure seems reasonable.
What is concerning though is that monthly bills for the “office” portion have reached near Rs 50,000. Considering that office will mostly have a few ACs and some computers etc, not any heavy machinery, this amount may seem excessive.
