Blog | Page 886 of 890

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29 November 2015

Political style, such as leadership style, is unique to every politician (what a negative aura the word has!). Mannerism, Sensibility, Intent and Charisma define the style of a political leader. Ten years of Congress regime has left India with a huge leadership deficit, as most of their so called leaders were either Political Managers or Political Administrators or merely (for lack of a better word) Political Agents!

Hariman, in his book “The Artistry of Power” identified four distinct Political Styles — Realist, Republican, Courtly, and Bureaucratic — all having significant literary exposition and political effect. Though Hariman carried out his analysis in America, the styles and their social and moral consequence applies to India as well.

I am personally Impressed by the Political Style of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra (having worked very closely with him). He is the “eternal nice man”, who is all set to change the face of Maharashtra. I personally want to declare that in the fast changing phase of the Indian political scenario, I feel that it is his Political Style and methodology that will define the politics of tomorrow.

Interestingly, I shall not categorise him in any of Hariman’s styles (though most people will categorise him as “Bureaucratic” owing to his emphasis on institutional procedures and rule-book approach). I feel he is a great combination of Charisma, Integrity, Sensitivity and Righteousness — perfect for a political leader of his stature. Hence I would call his political style as “Statesmanship” — because such people have the will to distribute power and resources, build relationships and make decisions based on whats best for the nation and its people.

Ironically, he was known to be the underdog who was once made the party president in the absence of a better choice (so the world thought!) He very smartly outshone his competitors due to sustained efforts and consistent focus (remember, the turtle who won the race from the hare). For people who know him closely, he is the simpleton who least craved for the CM’s chair. Truly, the one who never sought power but had authority conferred upon him by others who valued his judgement.

He is the kind who will never make an effort to grab a headline (unlike the likes of Mr. Kejriwal) but will certainly make heads bow and hearts swell. And I am sure, slowly but steadily he will take Maharashtra up the ladder.

He made headlines c81e728d9d4c2f636f067f89cc14862c_240 when he moved the then Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria 15 days prior to his tenure ending, but never aimed at taking credit of the high-profile Peter Mukerjea arrest. He took the bashing and apologised on national television in the case of (again assumed) VVIP Racism but never ever spoke about how he and his government, and of course his set of lawyers, worked day and night for the Yukub Menon verdict with empathy and finesse.

His style of politics is not only motivational but highly infectious. I meet at least a dozen people on a daily basis who are connected to him on SMS, he replies to every message that lands in his Inbox (Wooosh!!) Go to Nagpur and every single person you will meet is related to his “Deven Bhau”. With his simple demeanour, he can work with a range of people regardless of political party or opinion with a focus on coalition and persuasion.

For me, he personifies “Sthit-Prajnah” the way Krishna signifies it in Geeta Updesh; someone with a conscience to reject the lures of the political arena, someone who glorifies character and stays “Shradhha- Saburi” in good times or bad. A true Karm Yogi in action.

With a man of that character on the helm, the state is surely in Good hands. Needless to say, but like people have blessed his signature scheme – the Jalyukt Shivar and his relief Fund has grown over 23 times in the last one year.

The man with his sustained efforts (a daily regime that starts at 6:30am and ends at 3am) will make a mark and his name will be penned in history books in big, bold letters. Till then, he is and will remain every Karyakarta’s (like me) Unsung HERO !
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Analysing fourth pillar of democracy

Media

lalitsharma

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28 November 2015

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Indian democracy is not based on separation of power but based on cooperative working. This was done to ensure check and balances. There is always debate whether 3 organs of the Indian government have done justice the role assigned to them. But little is debated about effectiveness of 4th pillar of democracy – the media.

Has media evolved as an alternate centre of check and balance for other 3 pillars? Or it has deviated from its path?

3 things are required from media: It should tell truth, it should be unbiased, and it should not act to spread propaganda. Indian media is failing today in all these 3 aspects.

It is telling half truths and even lies. Every media group has ideological or political bias, and to serve its prejudice it is spreading propaganda.

Shashi tharoor once famously commented: “My friend’s father earlier wouldn’t believe in any news until it was in TOI and now he doesn’t believe in any news if it is in TOI”. This is the level of credibility of media.

In a hurry to be a first in news they fail to check authenticity of news, or worse, attribute news to a internal sources. A leading newspaper had news article that Baba Ramdev had claimed to cure Ebola. Later it turned out that source of information of newspaper was a fake website.

Similarly a Firstpost editor unhappy with a Padam Bhushan awarded to Baba Ramdev wrote an “hate article” with all sort of news from Patanjali not having licence to Income tax regularities. All turned out to be false. It drew sharp reactions from social media and Firstpost had to remove the article.

NDTV is considered to be one of the most authentic media news channel and oldest of all English news channels, but in hurry to discredit Narendra Modi, it flashed news that Sushma had dismissed that there was any Modi wave, which later proved to be false. It drew sharp reactions from party and it boycotted channel for many days.

Then recently, India today attributed a statement to Sonia Gandhi that Naga deal was unacceptable to Congress, which was never said by her. They had to delete that news later. Worse was reported by HT in August that said that Muslims in Gujarat had declined from 46 lakh in 2001 to 30 lakh in 2011. But fact was that Muslim population was recorded 58.46 lakh in 2011 and 30 lakh was male Muslim population. Was it so hard to get checked all these fact before publishing?

In second criteria of being unbiased, none of the channels fare well.

Way of reporting same news by different channel will tell the side to which they are biased. On Rahul British passport issue, Zee news ran a news “Rahul exposed by Swami” while other news channels ran with a headline “Rahul alleged to be a British citizen”. A word exposed amount to announcing a verdict.

Similarly on Arvind hugging Lalu, Zee news was questioning Arvind’s anti-corruption stand while Ravish of NDTV was trying to downplay the incidence by running a picture of Modi with Lalu from a wedding event. In other case, NDTV removed news of statement made by Salman Khurshid in Pakistan from its portal. Under pressure from top?

Moving to third point: media instead of spreading news and awareness, is spreading propaganda and even media trial, where media decides guilty even before probe is over or case is filed, leave aside waiting for a judicial decision.

Most recent example is death of two children belonging to a Dalit family. On very next morning media linked killing to a growing intolerance in country and a caste based violence. While violence against dalits is reality in India but is every case where victim involved is dalit and perpetrator is non-dalit (including OBC) is case of caste violence?

While deciding this, shouldn’t we see reason behind violence? By that criteria every violent act by Muslim will be a terrorism and every confrontation between black and white a racial act.

If one looks closely into incidence in Haryana, one will find that it was family rivalry. Members of same dalit family have been alleged to murder a 3 members of a Rajput family (same family against whom police have registered FIR of killing 2 children). No other Rajput family or dalit family of village is involved in this rivalry and they deny presence of caste based violence.

More shameful is the fact that media announced the guilty even before police registered a FIR, only on basis of “allegation” of children’s mother, who admits that she has not seen the attackers. Her allegation was based on perceived notion based on historic rivalry as her family members are in a jail based on FIR filed by Rajput family. It is very probable that her allegation is true but media can at least add word “alleged” before them to do justice for their work.

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The silence of journalists over sexual crimes of fellow journalists

Media

Manithan

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27 November 2015

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On November 7 and 8 of 2013, a young reporter of Tehelka faced sexual harassment allegedly from its then-editor Tarun Tejpal. What followed then was a series of analysis from his fellow journalists, which went from right wing conspiracy to shaming the victim.

Fast forward to 2015, noted Indian columnist Hasan Suroor was arrested on November 9 in United Kingdom, as he was about to meet a minor girl, under the pretext of meeting over a coffee but alleged now of walking into a possible sexual encounter with ‘her’. Her had been kept under quotes, because it was a man from a paedophile watchdog, who trapped Hasan as he walked willingly to it. As usual, there was not a single condemnation from the usual suspects, who would condemn India, Hindus, BJP and Modi, at the drop of a hat.

Let us rewind back to 2013 now. Tejpal had sent an internal e-mail requesting a break to ponder over his mistake, to do self-laceration. Tehelka’s second-in-line Shoma Choudhary tried to diffuse the situation by forwarding that e-mail to Tehelka staff, which got leaked to social media. Once it got leaked, it took an effort for media clan to push the news to mainstream. Given the observation that media had jumped the gun and publish any statements or events that malign BJP even without a tiny verification, it took a lot of guts to publish news that was tarnishing their cabal.

Our concern here does not end with news of Tejpal affair coming out in the mainstream media, but the absence of outrage in the form of tweets or opinion columns, from the thekedars of journalism. Siddharth Varadarajan, Tunku Varadarajan and Shivam Vij came out with honest criticism of the actions of Tejpal, without dropping any doubts on the character of the victim. Apart from strong opinion columns on Tejpal issue, the trio also took into Twitter. Shivam Vij of Scroll, was particularly vocal on this case in Twitter. (Take a look at Tunku, Siddharth and Shivam’s tweets on Tejpal). Malini Parthasarathy of The Hindu took time to condemn the action of Tejpal and tweeted about her support to the victim of Tejpal.

Barkha Dutt of NDTV made shows on Tejpal issue, but there was no direct tweet condemning the act from her, who otherwise would tweet like an angry young rebel. Rajdeep Sardesai, who would otherwise outrage poetically with ‘gnight’, just mentions the coverage of Tejpal case in his show via his tweets. No direct outrage or outright condemnation via tweets. Sagarika Ghose follows the cue of her husband, just dropping few tweets of Tejpal case being covered in her show. Apart from a tweet that questions Tejpal about political vendetta, Sagarika was not in her form that day. Rana Ayyub, who wrote for Tehelka, highlighted the abuses directed at her, but never took time to condemn Tejpal. While abuse of anyone is bad and condemnable, that doesn’t prevent Rana from uttering her usual harsh condemnation at Tejpal. But sadly, she just made a general remark about the case after she resigned from Tehelka. (Kindly note that we have considered only Twitter here and not other social media outlets, because the above mentioned journalists had used Twitter to regularly condemn the activities of people associated with Hindu groups).

Few journalists even tried to malign the victim and tried to prove that Tejpal is innocent. Scroll had covered how two journalists and a filmmaker were pushing themselves above their limit to rescue Tejpal. Manu Joseph wrote a detailed “investigative” piece about the Goa incident, by analysing CCTV images which aren’t allowed outside prosecutor and defendant circles.

Except a handful of prominent journalists, almost the rest of the team was busy in burying their head in the sand, trying to make it appear like the crime of totally unrelated person (from their very own industry). But, the stunning silence of the media in the recent Hasan Suroor case is appalling. Not only were there indirect methods to suppress the news of his crime, there were attempts to even distance him from the journalist circle by Malini P of The Hindu. Rana Ayyub tries to bring out her humorous side while she should had been expected to condemn the act of Hasan.

Take a look at below collage of tweets with keyword Hasan Suroor from other famous journalists in Twitter:

That is right! None of them have tried to outrage on the Hasan Suroor issue. Shivam Vij of Scroll, who previously criticised Tejpal for his sexual crime, tried to tone down the gravity of Hasan’s issue. Similar to how Manu Joseph wrote for Tejpal in the Outlook, a female journalist wrote in Outlook that Hasan Suroor should not be treated as he was by the Unknown TV crew. Arunabh Saikia wrote in News Laundry about how the UnknownTV crew asked for money to release details about their encounter with Hasan. While the title of that article has words like ‘media ethics’, there is no questioning of the ethics of Indian media by the author. Though he makes a note of Indian media trying to brush the case under the carpet, the author could have asked some serious questions over such actions of Indian media, which he had missed to.

The influence of a journalist is much bigger than the influence of a politician. The motormouths of BJP, whom the journalist treat as the mouth of the party, like Sakshi Maharaj, have just one vote in any of the bills passed in parliament. The maximum the likes of Sakshi can do is give ‘hate’ speeches and we had not faced any major or minor communal disturbance on the ground because of his speech. But, Tarun Tejpal was someone who influenced a whole generation. Tejpal was the face of rebel, who had sown the seeds of aspiration for journalism in many young minds then. Tejpal ran a magazine which had fed young Indians with new thoughts and ideas. In short, a journalist like Tejpal had more influence among young Indians than a politician like Sakshi Maharaj.

So, if a Sakshi Maharaj can be condemned anytime for opening his mouth, why can’t the same journalists make up their mind to condemn Tejpal and Hasan Suroor? Sakshi Maharaj may make bad suggestions, but it needs the approval of parliament to bring it into action. But, Hasan Suroor can just publish his opinions and millions of readers are implanted with his ideas. So, a journalist must be more responsible than a politician. Because, people do not take a politician seriously as much as they consider a journalist’s words. Common people trust journalists more than politicians and hence, a journalist doing a crime must have more condemnation than a politician. But, have we heard any condemnation from these torchbearers of justice on Radia tapes? Oil Ministry leaks? No!

This arouses a doubt in our mind that, whether by remaining silent, do our country’s journalists send a signal that sexual crimes are fine as long as the perpetrators belong to their industry? Do they try to behave like a herd, trying to defend even wrongdoers, if they happen to be from their industry? If so, how much different are the journalists from the politicians whom they criticise all round the year?

The elite can’t tolerate the “dirty unwashed masses”, and thus the intolerance is rising

Opinions

Anuj

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27 November 2015

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Aamir Khan, raised a storm by saying that his wife, fearing the rising intolerance in India, had spoken to him about migrating out of India. This is not an isolated case and the debate on rising intolerance has been raging for some time now. Intellectuals have been returning the awards by the score and media has been quick to latch onto it and the issue has captured the front pages of newspapers and prime time on TV debates.

Let us looks at the people who have returned their awards. It started with Nayantara Sahgal and continued with Anand Patwardhan, Dibakar Bannerjee (with all due respect to those whose names I have not mentioned) and reached its peak with Shah Rukh and Aamir Khan adding their support to the for-Intolerance voice on the debate. Journalists like Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose and Barkha Dutt have been running prime time debates to prove this notion correct. Now they all come from very different backgrounds, authors, actors and journalists, a fact used by opposition parties to rubbish claims of a pre-planned attack on the government.

They are intolerant unless they change their choices as per whims and fancies of the elite

But if you look closely they all have something in common. They are all used to a one-way medium of communication. Since time immemorial their ilk has tossing their opinion out to the general masses that have by and large lapped it up as the gospel truth. All this changed suddenly with the advent of social media. Their opinions no longer went unchallenged. Their opinions (and lies) were not allowed to pass. Earlier even if one knew what they were propagating was untrue he/she was limited in the ability to counter it because the media would not give space to a contrarian view. They had together formed a cartel which monopolized the Idea of India.

These intellectuals could not digest the fact that their fortress had been breached by people who they believed were incapable of making choices of forming opinions. Lies and propaganda spread by the media was countered and by facts. The other opinion had found a voice. Thus they teamed up together to quash this voice and termed it intolerance. The intellectuals cry themselves hoarse freely on public forums and still claim their Freedom of Expression is being stifled while anyone who counters them with facts is labeled a troll and hence intolerant. The intellectual then immediately claims to be a victim of this intolerance. And the cycle continues.

The icing on the cake was when the “dirty unwashed masses” decided to choose a PM who they did not approve of. They have now taken it as a challenge to restore what they believe is order. The ruling class must remain the opinion forming and decision making class while the masses must simply agree to whatever they are fed. To quote a line from Aamir Khan’s Lagaan “tum saala ghulam log hamesha humara jooti ka neeche rahega” (add a Brit accent for effect).

3 years of AAP – the birth, the rise and the fall

Opinions

lalitsharma

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27 November 2015

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बचपन में इक कहानी पढी थी खड़गसिंह और बाबा भारती की। जब बाबा भारती का घोड़ा खड़गसिंह इक बिमार का भेष बना छीन लेता है तो बाबा भारती ने केवल यह कहा कि इस घटना को किसी के सामने प्रकट न करना। लोगों को यदि इस घटना का पता चला तो वे दीन-दुखियों पर विश्वास न करेंगे।

Aug 2011-75 year old man started a movement pledged to start a fast unto death until anti corruption legislation is passed.We saw truth in his eyes and a determination to fight. We believed in his every word. Why not? A 75 year old fighting on behalf of all of us. We joined the movement. We protested going against authorities, taking leaves from our school, colleges and workplaces (paid, unpaid). Disheartened by corrupt government,ineffective opposition and more importantly cunning politicians and black politics. We saw a hope.We wanted to send a message that we will no longer “tolerate” this.

13 days in fast government agrees to demand, fast called off. We felt victorious. Besides Anna there were his 2 main satraps – Kiran bedi maam and then you yourself Arvind. We admired you all for forcing the government to be on negotiation table to prepare a draft. But all celebrations soon vanished when one day you came out with news that government back-stabbed. We all were disappointed but team Anna wasn’t. You all were ready for second round of battle, battle with one more hunger strike. Government was unmoved. No response. We all were anxious for a diabetic man on hunger strike who was ready to die for nation.

Government was still mute. Then one day you declared that Government is not listening. So you are considering to give a political alternative. People expressed shock for this sudden u-turn as during this whole period of movement you claimed to be apolitical. Some said that your hunger strike was staged to announce political party (2012 one). I said it doesn’t matter if it was staged, I believe in you and you have right intentions and so nothing wrong in being political.

Anna and Bedi maam refused to join your party but I expressed faith. You fought elections and formed government with support of Congress. Your supporters who voted you for your anti Congress plank were dismayed. But I knew the difference between outside support and coalition government, I knew its political necessity but my only concern was that you were too immature to be in government. My view was that you should spend a term in opposition benches to learn about governance and government. My concerns proved right, within a week of government formation you were on a street with dharna and in another couple of weeks you resigned from government and then came your failed gamble of fighting Lok Sabha elections.

It seemed that you lost the track but then you apologised for your mistakes. It was first time we saw a politician admitting his mistake.We were amused. We wholeheartedly voted you again to a power, this time with overwhelming majority. But that proved to be our blunder.

You started to fumble from very first moment. From defending the indefensible Tomar, to charges of irregularities in elections levelled by your own companions. What have you done for it? Instead of acting on complaints you shot the messenger. The violence in the meeting of national council of AAP and subsequent removal of Yogender Yadav and Prashant bhushan in most undemocratic way was black day in history of a party who claimed to be a party based on internal democracy.

My confidence was shaken but not shattered even after that because what a government will do was more important for me than how party was working. But there were certain silver lining-a budget well focussed on education and health, CAG Audit against power discoms. But that silver line was very bleak. You seemed to be loosing your focus. A man who was voted to power for his positive promises seemed to attract everything negative.

Instead of focusing on Delhi governance you kept criticising Modi and his policies. Every platform that was Anti-Modi you were eager to join it,without giving a thought whether as a CM it was ethical for you to take part in it? You failed to draw a line between Arvind as party convener and Arvind as a CM. Then one unfortunate day you announced support to Nitish alliance. It was shocking as Lalu was part of same alliance. You could have supported any XYZ, I wouldn’t had objected so much. But Lalu is proved corrupt and you were voted in, on single issue of Anti-Corruption.

I was hoping that you will realise your mistake until last week when you were seen embracing Lalu and please don’t make excuses like it was just courtesy call. We are not fools. We know what joining hands in political platform means. It seemed that all through these 5 years it was all drama,you were acting perfectly playing with public emotions to fulfil your selfish motives.

Now back to story of Khadak Singh and Baba Bharti. I ask you one question.What is biggest crime against humanity? I say killing a hope. A hope that was once created by you has been killed by you. Now will anyone believe in any mass agitation? Will anyone believe in candidate if he will claim that he is there to change politics? You have shattered hope, hope of the people who believed that politics will change in India.

But don’t be in illusion Arvind sir, fooled by public support like previous governments. Public may not speak or agitate but it responds and responds in every 5 year.It will respond to you also, for breaking promises,making fools and speaking lies. And yes I know, it will start hoping again and not only hoping but will start acting this time.

Open Letter to Aamir Khan of Intolerant India from a resident of Incredible India

Open Letters

rajatlaw

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27 November 2015

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To,

Amir Khan,
Citizen, Intolerant India

Dear Aamir,

I write in the wake of much debated statement of yours at the highly publicized media event, expressing alarm and despondency over growing intolerance in India. So much so that you contemplated moving out.

To be honest, it was shocking to hear what you said but a careful look at the video when you uttered those three magical words – ‘despondency, disquiet and intolerance’ and the loud cheer and claps with which it was received, it almost appeared that some people were happy to hear what you said. The speed and language with which your words were reported makes me almost certain that this was a fixed match with a fixed script. You knew what you were doing, after all you are what they call a thinking man’s actor. True to the image of a perfectionist that you are, you played your role beautifully, sticking to the script.

You knew that your words will be used to put down the Government for no rhyme or reason but you chose to play along and bracketed India with host of other intolerant nations like Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. At what prize and for what gain is anybody’s guess. But from what I see, there is a message and symbolism beyond the obvious – some of you have not been able to reconcile with the fact that a man of humble means has become the Prime Minister of this country.

And Sir, if this is the real reason for your ‘despondency, disquiet and intolerance’, please leave the charade of being apolitical and neutrality. Stray incidents of violence don’t make a country intolerant. A country becomes intolerant when their heroes incite minority scaremongering instead of calming and stabilizing nerves. It is no body’s case that intolerance does not exist in India, it does and it always has but instead of using your status as celebrity influencer to be a part of the solution, you chose to become a part of the problem. Insinuating that ruling dispensation has got something to do with growing intolerance is using your influence to create a fear psychosis amongst the minorities, which is extremely disturbing.

Artists have in the past expressed anger against ruling parties through protest arts, satires, etc. but no went so far to label it ‘Intolerant India’, particularly so when it used to be ‘Incredible India’ just about eight months back. Doesn’t the irony of your statement on rising intolerance at a highly publicized event on live television strike you even once? Or, is this part of your blind side?

Sir, remove the blinkers and see the bright side – the three biggest stars ruling the hearts of millions in India are religious minorities and for all its fallacies remember these lines from your own movie – koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota, use perfect banana padta ha! And if you still think the country is intolerant and blame lies with the Central Government, don’t leave the country just yet, wait another 40 months and let us all install another robot as PM of this country for ten years. Maybe then the winter of your discontent becomes a glorious summer.

Yours,

@rajatlaw
Citizen, Incredible India

Sachin Bansal is right, the “Award Wapsi” brigade should listen to him

Opinions

Rishabh tah

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27 November 2015

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As a back lash to the statement made by Aamir Khan on the issue of rising intolerance in India, people of India downgraded the SnapDeal’s app rating and approx 30,000 apps were uninstalled within 1 day. Demanding removal of Aamir Khan, who happens to be its Brand Ambassador at the moment.

SanpDeal has issued a very politically correct statement and distanced it self from Aamir Khan’s fiasco saying, “Snapdeal is neither connected nor plays a role in comments made by Aamir Khan in his personal capacity.”

Mr. Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart, India’s biggest online ecommerce website and SnapDeal’s arch rival, came out in support of SnapDeal and tweeted that “This is a flawed logic. Brands dont buy into brand ambassadors personal opinions. Snapdeal shouldnt face this”.

Though, I myself had uninstalled SanpDeal’s app supporting #AppWapasi, now I may “reinstall the SnapDeal App” because Mr. Bansal indeed has a very strong point. SnapDeal only renders services from Aamir Khan and other than that there is nothing that it has done wrong.

But, if we look at the bigger picture of Mr. Bansal’s statement, it gives a perfect answer to the writers who are returning their awards and why they should not do that and in fact should humbly accept it back.

The answer is simple, their awards are for the writing work that they have done and the intolerance is not due to the noble profession they practice.

Like people are doing #AppWapasi of the SnapDeal’s app due to Aamir Khan being associated with it, are the writers doing #AwardWapasi because Sahitya Kala Academy is spreading Intolerance?

If the logic of #AppWapasi is flawed due to the fact that SnapDeal is altogether a different entity just rendering Aamir Khan’s popularity, how can one justify #AwardWapasi due to rising intolerance when they both are altogether different entities?

Writers are considered to be people with high intellect and creativity, but returning an award that was bestowed upon them due to their profession, for something that is not related to their profession at all seems like having tea when you want water.

Instead of #AwardWapasi, writers should have used their writing skills and written directly to the government or should have written directly to people urging them to control themselves and use mind in every situation, which would have increased the harmony.

Their act not only proved to be an act of foolish, but also divided the nation in two parts, one supporting #AwardWapasi and another not. Resulting in more fight and debates, which resulted in rise of intolerance, which they did not want to happen in first place.

I am ready for #TakeAppBack as I understand the mistake that we are committing. Are writers ready to finally show their intellect and #TakeAwardBack?

‘Legally India’ resorts to ‘clickbait’ journalism, attacks critics of bigotry when questioned

Reports

kalakhattabaniya

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27 November 2015

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One of the biggest challenges that journalism is tackling today is the overreaching hysteria surrounding ‘clicks’.

Clicks represent the popularity of a story and the interest that information generates. These clicks have become the central point around which online stories are ‘made’ ignoring the limitations of such click-baiting. Popularity must not be the basis of journalism as it promotes baits and lowers the level of the discourse. It may even not be a true indicator of genuine interest in story as pages are opened by Users on varying considerations. Sometimes the absurdity of the story, its irregularities or the propensity and possibility to troll it is the overriding factor for the clicks. Tweets from J. Katju, opinion pieces from Rana Ayyub, political comments by Amartya Sen could be considered as examples.

This brings me to my story regarding how these tendencies of the MSM brush off on the small players in the media industry. Different Court/Tribunals in the country, have the power to designate lawyers with a requisite amount of practice as ‘Seniors’ or ‘Senior Advocates’. This is considered a high honour and has been done, like every selection in the legal profession, on the basis of undefined and highly subjective criteria in absolute secrecy. Being designated as a Senior Counsel by the Supreme Court is one of the highest honour that an advocate can strive for and results in numerous social, professional and monetary benefits to such an advocate.

A couple of months back, the former Additional Solicitor General during the UPA II regime, Indira Jaising, filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging nepotism in the non-transparent and arbitrary method of designating senior counsel by the Supreme Court. While the petition may or may not seem fair to people, Jaising raises certain very important points pointing to the lack of transparency and the number of Senior Advocates being less than 100 making legal services unaffordable.

Maybe due to her political inclinations, she cited instances of nepotism alleging discrimination on the basis of region, castes and minorities even though it is irrational and self-defeating mainly due to the fact that nepotism, by definition, is done on the basis of personal relationships and often breaches caste, religious and political boundaries. Also, these allegations are a statistical farce considering that there have been only 30 appointments in total which is too small a number for the it to be expected to be a representative of the ethno-religious composition of the country, or of the practicing lawyers in the Supreme Court. Further, such allegations simply result in tokenism and lobbies further weakening the rational, merit based, transparent criterion. To be fair, I assume the crux of Indira Jaising’s petition was:

Establishment of a rational and objective criterion for the granting or not granting of such designation
Transparency in the process
Adequate number of designations each year.

There are 2 major legal news reporting websites in India. BarAndBench and LegallyIndia. While BarAndBench had this headline to the news,

LegallyIndia, in it typically sensationalist, biased, conceptually shallow, and legally uninformed style, ran the same news with this headline

This is the shameless and nauseating reality of journalists of these portals masquerading as beacons of neutrality and fairness.Apart from dealing with allegations of highly biased reportage regarding certain Law Schools, Legally India is an expert in publishing random anonymous unverified articles by disgruntled students on Law Schools till they serve LegallyIndia’s agenda.

Further, the ludicrous system of Mooting Premier League (LoL) reinforces the unfair coverage of the allegedly “top” Moot Courts within the country. Service Law jurisprudence and common sense mandates that in case of appointments for top posts, seniority and merit must be the determining criteria even when there is reservation in Govt. services. But I guess it is juvenile to assume that LegallyIndia is aware of the laws of the country considering their tweets. Apart from not knowing the law, it seems like they are unaware of the basics of journalism as well. Avid Twitter followers pointed out that the headline represents the article and the petition in the wrong light.

The Official LegallyIndia Twitter handle responded in particularly Ostrich-esque fashion.

It was explained the nepotism and discrimination on the basis of caste/religion are two different things and that the petition represents more depth on larger issues of nepotism and transparency more rather than being a rant against ‘saffron nuts’ and caste-ists.

Then LegallyIndia said something that would baffle the regular reader the most.

Legally India replied by alleging that judges of the Supreme Court of India are so shallow that discriminatory towards particular classes due to their religion or their caste since the judges are not from those castes or minorities. Mind you, I’m not expert on Contempt of Court, but I’m sure this hinges on the borders of it.

Then LegallyIndia argued that how something is broken in the system and that the Dalit and the Muslim angle was necessary to mention. It was pointed out that such information is co-relative and not causative as the headline and editor’s attitude towards it makes it out to be. The inclusion of objective criterion and more transparency should result in fairer process but it may not result in more Muslims or Dalit or more representation from Backward States or Rural backgrounds or lobby-less States.

After losing the argument, in typically pseudo-liberal style, the personal attack was unleashed questioning my attitude towards a particular community. LegallyIndia’s personal attack questioning my sanity, ideology and bigoted-ness was:

It is funny how abuse on SM became an issue in India for ‘liberals’ only after John Oliver talked it as it suddenly became the ‘in thing’. Trolling and abuse doesn’t come only from Modi/BJP fans but is a larger issue touching interesting notes in the jurisprudential debate between right to privacy, right to expression and freedom in the cyber space. Personally, I believe ignoring is the best solution (and I should have) as the lobbying by similar liberals/politicians on similar issues was what prompted the 66A law, which was celebrated by these ‘champions of liberalism’ when it was enacted.

Anyways, this always works out perfectly for people arguing against ‘right-wingers’. Hurl allegations of Muslim hatred and just scoot. Doesn’t matter as it completely disregards a person’s logic and his arguments, as he/she is proved to be a bigot beyond doubt. Note that none of the tweets ever gave them any right to say anything close to such an obnoxious allegation but LegallyIndia still did it. This was done not just to question my ideology, which has no bearing on this legal issue, but to disregard my point and ridiculing it to the extent of making it irrelevant.

The ridicule did not end there on twitter, as a lot of people did target Kian, the handler/editor of LegallyIndia, on their website. In the comments section, he casually again refers to our Twitter duel and makes a self defeating point:

Rather than giving some fashionable secular phoney rhetoric, which completely negates the rational merit based criterion in designations, if Kian would have done some research, he would’ve known how nepotism shadows designations. What Kian fails to see is that no one will see beyond the communalism because the headline is irrational. If he wanted people to see the nepotism and non-transparency, he shouldn’t have made such a headline. Please let rational objective merit decide such matters. Non-sequitur back to you, Mr. Kian. (Note: Kian, don’t ever say that to a lawyer in the US, you’ll be laughed out of the room.)

In hindsight, I’m sorry for taking the bait. Clearly they know nothing about the law, about journalism or about basic decency. I’m not saying sorry to LegallyIndia, but I’m saying sorry to myself as I know my time could have been used better had I ignored it.

The next media hit-job to defame Modi is here: Modi sleeping in Parliament

Media

Dhaval Patel

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27 November 2015

0

PM Narendra Modi has the image of someone who has come from a poor background, who has toiled very hard to reach at this stage of his life and has maintained very high work ethics, working for 18 hours a day and person who has not taken a single leave in entire tenure as CM for 13 years and as a PM in last 1 and half year. There has been continuous fake propaganda from last 18 months to malign this image of PM Narendra Modi.

Congress and opposition before May 2014 attacked Modi on his personal life (Snoopgate,Jashodaben) and other cases like 2002, Fake encounters etc but it boomeranged very badly and made demi god out of Modi. There has been change in strategy now where they want to demolish image of PM Modi who is perceived to be hard-working and from a humble background.

Last year they unveiled a campaign with Modi pinstriped suit where they started a rumour that suit cost Rs 10 lakh rupees and it was spread like wild fire with dozens of Prime-time debates on all news channels and some even claim Modi pin-strip suit it was one of the reasons BJP lost in Delhi. By the end of the campaign it was established by media that Modi was no longer the poor Chaiwala and now live very posh life style. Reality was that this suit was gifted by a Surat businessman Rameshkumar Bhikabhai in Vibrant Summit in Gujarat on account of his Son’s birthday slated on 26th Jan 2014. He rubbished the claims that the suit cost Rs 10 lakhs. Later PM Modi auctioned this suit in Surat for 4.31 crore which was donated to charity.

After this success Congress media managers started a campaign that Modi’s Government is Suit Boot Sarkar which cares only for a few Industrialists. Rahul Gandhi propagated that Modi who claims to be Chaiwala is now busy only in foreign tours, flying in Jets, wearing expensive clothes and meeting influential people. This was re-iterated lately in Bihar election rallies as well on social media and main stream media.

To carry forward this propaganda today the same miscreants took a photo out of context from today’s parliament session to portray that Modi was sleeping. PM Modi alleged sleeping This was widely published and mocked on social media with #PMJetlag and IndiaTimes even carried a full article titled “PM caught sleeping” based on this picture and proclaimed that Modi was sleeping. Reality is that PM just looked down for a few seconds when HM Rajnath Singh was speaking which was established with the full video:

It will be very interesting to see what will be next hitjob by Congress on Modi to further damage his image. Lets wait and Watch.

Why I didn’t light candles at India Gate but uninstalled SnapDeal App

Opinions

K. S. Dwivedi

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27 November 2015

0

Two days ago, there were media reports that in an event, Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan said that intolerance is rising in India & he is considering to leave the country. I was not at all shocked. I know how Indian mainstream media reports. I tried to search for the video of that event, which was not a difficult task. As per my belief, those were not the real words of Aamir. But what he actually said was no less than that. Now it was really shocking. Such statements coming from the Aamir Khan, the brand ambassador of Indian Tourism, pride of Indian Cinema. Below are his actual words:

Kiran (his wife) and I have lived all our lives in India. For the first time, she said, should we move out of India? That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make to me. She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day. That does indicate that there is a sense of growing disquiet.

At first it may seem that Aamir is quite innocently narrating his chit-chat with his wife Kiran. But if one knows what his status is, at what platform he is sitting, how media is desperate to prove that India is facing rise in intolerance; the gravity of this statement can be understood. I humbly refuse to accept that Aamir made these remarks in innocence. Now coming to the point that he didn’t say that he was considering to leave India, but her wife was. The question is who was saying these things on a national platform? Here is an analogy: What if I say on a public forum where Aamir is invited “For the first time my friend says that Aamir is an asshole. That’s a disastrous and big statement for my friend to make to me.” I don’t think it needs an Albert Einstein to understand what Aamir wanted to say.

Almost everybody on social media felt the same, filled with anguish they started ridiculing Aamir Khan’s statement. Their anger was completely justified. No one has the right to defame our country. Meanwhile some intellectuals started defending this pathetic statement by giving an example: saying “Air of Delhi is polluted” is not defaming Delhi, but it means the person is really concerned about the environment of Delhi. This statement is as funny as “terrorism has no religion” which we hear after every Islamic terror attack.

First & the most important thing: intolerance is not rising but falling, as facts suggest. Second: intolerance & pollution are not similar. If you say pollution is increasing, it shows your concern & it may lead some people to be cautious about air pollution. But to say “intolerance is rising” on a public platform, by a celebrity, causes intolerance to really rise. It’s like flooding the streets with paper pamphlets to raise awareness about misuse of paper or it’s like shouting 27×7 on PA systems to ask people to reduce noise pollution. And when it comes from a celebrated person like Aamir Khan, only purpose it can serve is: Give India a bad name globally.

I again refuse to accept that Aamir was not aware of the consequences. Especially when we all have seen similar incidents in recent past. Once questioned by media, his long-time co-star Salman Khan gave a perfect reply: “Who is spreading the intolerance? You, the people in media. If you think it’s rising, then don’t do it.”

Now it was time to register my protest against this condemnable behaviour of Aamir Khan. The first & most popular protest method is: light candles & sit at India gate. This is the method most of our intellectuals want us to follow. Being an aware citizen I strongly oppose this method. Burning paraffin wax candles emit varying levels of cancer-causing toluene and benzene, as well as other hydrocarbon chemicals called alkanes and alkenes, which can irritate respiratory tracts and trigger asthma. Candles are also known to produce soot and this microscopic airborne pollution can lodge itself deep in the lungs. Soot exposure can harm all of us, but soot specifically harms babies, as it can cause premature birth and low birth weight. Burning a candle in protest will be as ridiculous as defaming the country. Aamir Khan, me & intolerance will not exist in coming years but those harmful chemicals are going to stay forever in the environment. NEVER EVER DO IT

The next option came to my mind was stop watching his movies. But I already don’t watch movies. Even if someone stops watching Aamir’s movies it will cause financial damage to the producers or distributors not Aamir. Sitting on Dharna is not good for my health. After all I am also a human resource for the country. My bad health is a loss to nation too. The leftist way of burning public property sounds pretty effective but it causes a lot of financial loss to the nation. Throwing stones at Aamir’s house or throwing ink on his face are non-viable as these will raise the intolerance further; which will contradict my protest at the first place.

After thinking for a while it came to my mind that Aamir is brand ambassador of India Tourism & Snapdeal. I should target one of these two. Actually it didn’t come to my mind first. Some were already tweeting about it. And some were questioning that if Snapdeal then why not India Tourism. Again, any loss to India Tourism is a loss to the nation as its national venture. A tourist who is planning to visit India, if changes his/her mind and choses another country; it is a financial loss to our country.

What if I uninstall the app of Snapdeal & motivate others too to not buy products from this online store. It has many positive points & I couldn’t think of any negative aspect of it:

1. A buyer will buy the product from another seller. In a larger perspective, nothing changes. The manufacturer & buyer will not see any difference, only the channel changes.

2. It is not causing any kind of material or financial damage or environmental pollution.

3. The profit which should have gone to Snapdeal will go to some other market-place/kart. The poor seller who runs his store on Snapdeal will face a drop in his sales but at the same time another poor seller who runs his store on another site will see a high sales.

4. Snapdeal being a billion $ company can easily handle a fall of some lakh in sales.

5. Snapdeal may ask Aamir to compensate for the ‘losses’. This is very important. It’ll ultimately convey my message to Aamir.

6. Some other big companies may advise their brand ambassadors not to give such nation defaming remarks in future. An added advantage!

All of us who are in this protest, never want to cause any damage to Snapdeal. We love our country & Snapdeal too. It doesn’t mean that we’ll never use its services. We are just using it as a channel to convey our protest. As I explained earlier, among all the methods it the best as it’s not causing any kind of loss to the nation & global environment. We are common people, we cannot reach Aamir directly to say that he was wrong, so we are using this most harmless method. In fact it sounds perfect. It is better than those silent protest marches too, which causes loss of productive man-hours. And it’s a billion times better than that candle-march thing, which burns valuable energy resource & releases toxic chemical in the environment for ever.

Sources:

http://nepis.epa.gov/Adobe/PDF/P1009BZL.pdf

Analysing the political style of the Maharashtra CM

Analysing fourth pillar of democracy

The silence of journalists over sexual crimes of fellow journalists

The elite can’t tolerate the “dirty unwashed masses”, and thus the intolerance is rising

3 years of AAP – the birth, the rise and the fall

Open Letter to Aamir Khan of Intolerant India from a resident of Incredible India

Sachin Bansal is right, the “Award Wapsi” brigade should listen to him

‘Legally India’ resorts to ‘clickbait’ journalism, attacks critics of bigotry when questioned

The next media hit-job to defame Modi is here: Modi sleeping in Parliament

Why I didn’t light candles at India Gate but uninstalled SnapDeal App

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