The grace challenge for Congress and media
Ravinar
13 May 2014
Writing an article on the future prospects for society from an election whose full results are yet to be declared runs a minor risk. It’s a risk worth the trouble.
People may remember Sergey Bubka, the legendary athlete from Ukraine. Bubka broke the world record in pole-vault some 35 times. Most of the time, he wasn’t breaking records of others but his own record. He set his own standards and set his own challenges even as competitors surrounded him. Each time his aim was to better himself and not merely beat others. The renowned writer on ‘thinking skills’ Edward De Bono (who coined the famous term ‘Lateral Thinking’) calls it “Sur/Petition”. De Bono states that competition is a very normal thing but great companies go beyond merely competing with others; they compete with themselves and against new benchmarks of their own. He explains that beyond competition your products and services will climb greater heights through “Valuefacturing”. Nothing describes Narendra Modi better than this concept and I would call him a Bubka of sorts as a political competitor and a “Valuefacturer” as a leader. He has clarity in vision, thinking and delivery systems. As a politician he does compete with others in elections but he sets his own standards and goals beyond merely beating the competition. That he has done this in the face of the most gruelling witch-hunt against him is a testimony to the character of the man.
In one of the finest campaigns ever witnessed in India, Modi traversed the country with nearly 500 rallies. He used sarcasm and ridicule to attack his opponents but not once has he been abusive about any candidate or opponent. He is the first politician to directly challenge the failing Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. In contrast, from an abusive Sonia Gandhi to gutter-mouthed Mamata Banerjee, there has hardly been an opponent who has not abused Modi, called him names and predicted the end of the world if he becomes PM. They didn’t stop at him, they dragged his wife, his ‘chaiwallah’ life and even his mother. Modi has taken such extreme abuse in his stride not just in this campaign but ever since the 2002 riots. The abuse extends to folks in the MSM whose loathing of the man has seen no limits. In 2014 media houses hired foreign hands to heap more abuse. They failed to read the man as in each election he not only changed the dialogue but dictated the agenda. For the first time in India’s history, here was a man who dared to talk about growth, development and jobs instead of caste and doles. In the interview to Arnab Goswami on May 8 here is what he stated in the context of Hindus and refugees:
“I will tell you. I don’t have any regret. I don’t resort to vote-bank politics. Votes come and go. Governments come and go, but the nation is important. A person living anywhere in this world, whose passport may be of any colour but if his blood is similar to ours then he is invited”.
Modi’s passion for the country and her people come out every time he speaks. Some in the MSM even abused Gujaratis for repeatedly electing him. They called the Gujjus an “effete” people. I wonder if they are going to now call the whole of India an “effete” people. The campaign is over! The good, the bad, the ugly, let’s put it all behind us for the moment. It’s how those who have been defeated now respond that will have to be watched closely. That is mainly the Congress and its clones like SP, TMC, NCP and so on. In 2012, the break-away group of Keshubhai Patel campaigned hard against Modi. After the elections, as in the previous elections of Gujarat, Modi met Keshubhai, touched his feet and sought his blessings. He did not hold any grudges or bitterness and showed humility in victory.
The campaign is over. The exit polls show a victory for BJP and NDA and a thrashing for Congress and its allies and clones. The exit polls show BJP between 230-240 seats. If the exit polls hold good with even minor changes then Modi will be sworn in as the next Prime Minister of India. It is something millions have wanted and deeply desired. I have no hesitation in saying that Modi’s opponents included some of the most vile, characterless people ever seen in politics and in the media. The outcome is going to be painful for them. What we now need to see is how they respond.
Firstly, at the end of the December 2013 Assembly elections where BJP scored massive victories in four States, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were shamelessly unwilling to congratulate the BJP. All that Sonia could say was “I congratulate our opponents” without the grace to name the BJP. Rahul Gandhi, instead of congratulating the BJP, merely said there was a lot that his party could learn from the AAP. Remember all that? What they missed is that the AAP had learned all their filth from the mother-party and nobody else. So let’s see what are the issues on which the Congis and media will still lie, peddle filth and likely show absolute disgrace.
The Modi Wave: The elections are over and only a moron of the first order will deny the huge impact Modi has been having on elections since last year. The BJP is slated to get 230+ and the Congress is predicted to go below 100 seats. Will they accept that the Modi wave was underestimated? Will the media that peddled lies to support the Congress and hailed Mrs Priyanka Vadra as the latest queen acknowledge their mistakes? Will they still maintain people are fools to have bought what Modi offered to them? That the Gujarat model is nothing but empty bluster? Watch how they deal with it. And what exact impact has the Modi wave had? The BJP was around 116 seats in the last Parliament. If from that number the BJP rises to over 210, that would probably be the highest ever for a single party in the coalition era. It’s a damn good rise which would have been unimaginable with anyone else leading the campaign. This is the reason why the Congress+ and the media were very keen that LK Advani or Sushma Swaraj were campaign heads or PM candidates. Their slip showed? Will the media admit their inner desire for BJP to lose?
Divisive Polariser: This is another big lie spread by the Congress, its clones and the media. Editor after editor has screamed that Modi is a divisive and a polarising figure. Simple fact is, elections are actually about polarising people to your point of view and your agenda. Why is that seen as so sinful? It seems when they are playing a losing game the Congress and the media create terms to create fear among people. It also seems people are tired of this crap and aren’t willing to buy this nonsense anymore. When Modi has been consistently saying “India first, Sabka saath sabka vikas” which action or speech of his has ever provided evidence of his being a divisive person? A man of strong character who refuses politics of appeasement and vote-banks is “divisive” to them. Will they be graceful enough to respect the fact that people do not see Modi as a divisive figure? Will they have the guts? I doubt it, but let’s watch for it.
Fake Marketing: The Congress and the media brazenly claimed that Modi’s campaign was nothing more than excellent marketing. This is a fallacy that people should never consume. Firstly, marketing is not evil. Secondly, “marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people” which is why chairpersons and MDs are involved in key marketing decisions. This is the same rule Modi used in leading the campaign from the front. After all, if you are going into a war you don’t leave it to your frontline soldiers alone. Do you? Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw is honoured as the face of the 1971 war. Do they say Sam Bahadur shouldn’t get that leadership honour? One needs a good general to lead the soldiers. That is what Modi has done. In contrast, Rahul who was propped up as the Congress general, was never a match for Modi. It was the media’s fake wet dream of a Modi-Rahul battle which it never was. It was just Modi versus all the rest, especially regional kings and queens. Some have acknowledged that it was a historic campaign by Modi which will be the benchmark for a long time. Will they have the grace to admit it? Or will they live in denial? Will they be silly and claim all this was merely “image manufacturing”? Everyone clamours for innovation in every domain. Why scoff at the innovation that Modi has brought into political campaigning?
The Congress and media will most likely wash the BJP victory as anti-incumbency for the UPA. But would it have been the same if the campaign was led by someone other than Modi? Trends show Modi has impacted outcomes across India.
The Gandhis: The Gandhis (and the Vadras) have rarely lived outside the corridors of power in India. Even while in Opposition Sonia and her family have been the beneficiaries of extraordinary kindness from the Vajpayee-Advani duo. Those stories will come out in due course. But will the Gandhi-Vadra clan have the decency to congratulate Modi? Will they attend his swearing-in ceremony if he is elected PM? The Gandhis have not shown any ability to learn lessons. This is a test for them. The rest of the Congress members are nothing more than durbaris who survive on crumbs of the Gandhis in terms of power. Will Sonia and Rahul accept responsibility for all the corruption and misrule and apologise to the nation? Will other Congress members demand a restructuring of the organisation. Time will tell and we shall watch.
Now that the voters have spoken, there is a need to end fraudulent debates in the media that talk of minorities being threatened and killed or fear-mongering about war against Pakistan and so on. Modi has demonstrated exemplary skills as a strategist and tactician. It demands that the Congress and media show the courage to stand behind a new Government and Prime Minister. It demands that pettiness is cast aside and grace is demonstrated. Or will they still scoff at Modi because he is from a lower caste and doesn’t speak English like Lady Macbeth? Modi’s character is not on test. It is the character of those in the Congress and its clones and allies and many in the MSM that is under test. The Congress has a history of never allowing any Government to complete its term. Such is their contempt for the Opposition benches which they now will have to occupy. The only exception was the six years of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This time if the Congress doesn’t show the grace and courage to accept defeat honourably, I believe their extinction is not entirely impossible. All of them have paid a price for underestimating Modi. If wisdom prevails, they would show the grace and not make the same mistake again.
(The author’s Twitter handle is @MediaCrooks)
SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2014
The Real Mass Murderers
(This is a MaxiPost)
Injecting poison into the public vein:
On April 9 someone from the Congress party made a grand claim. A person allegedly called Shaktisinh Gohil of Gujarat Congress claimed Narendra Modi wasn’t an OBC but was an upper-caste man. Having done that the rest of the party of liars joined in to scream the same claim. Actually, it should hardly matter what caste Modi belongs to. But trust our media to scream about it as if some great calamity had befallen the nation. Within minutes the fact came out that Modi’s community was declared OBC in 1994 by none other than a Congress govt in Gujarat. You would think that documentary evidence would have settled it. But no! The media morons kept running the same Congress crap through the day. Karan ‘The Tool’ Thapar even held a debate over it on HeadlinesToday despite the facts being out. Do you still need a debate once the truth is out? You see, this is what pigs like. No matter what, they like to dabble in filth. The media screams about every little thing Modi says and does; most of it irrelevant to any major debate.
There was a major crime by Rahul Gandhi a few days ago. He said “22000” people will be killed if BJP wins the elections. Looks like the man is naturally gifted with moronery and he claimed the Japanese were afraid of BJP too. Given such a statement there was no outrage in the media. There were no heated debates over it. No one even seemed to want to talk about it. It took even the EC another nine days to issue a notice to RahulG for violation of MCC. In any case I think the MCC is a load of rubbish and the EC a toothless body. Even if they had teeth the EC seems spineless and partisan. However, it seems any poison that is hurled into the public domain against Modi and BJP is acceptable to the media. Anything! With a stray exception here and there, the media is guilty of being an accomplice in such mass-poisoning.
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The mass murderers of journalism:
I call Barkha, Arnab and Rajdeep the lowest BAR in journalism. Degeneration of TV news owes them a great debt. Drama, sensationalism, fake news and even absolute lies characterise their TV channels. Despite their contempt for the man and their consistent loathing, all of them desire an interview with Narendra Modi. Like a jealous poodleRajdeep even ridicules other journalists who manage an interview with Modi. So what happens when one of these “news traders” (as Modi calls them) does get an interview? He makes an absolute sham of it. That’s what Arnab Goswami did. He didn’t have any real questions for Modi except a couple of stray ones on illegal immigration and Indo-Pak relations.
A man who could be PM is with you and all that the gasbag Arnab could ask him was about frivolous “Neech” politics and mundane questions on 2002 that have been asked a zillion times already. They really don’t know what to ask the man. I think more than obliging Arnab with an interview it is Modi who wanted to badly slap the moron for his pathetic behaviour as a news editor. Arnab has been batting for Congress, particularly Mrs Vadra, as if his life depended on it for more than a month. Even an idiot can tell that such campaigning for Congress can’t come free and had to come with a great payoff. Modi was scoring free hits off a guy who otherwise screams a lot but became a rat once a giant was in front of him. Here’s how I had quickly summarised this show:
Modi reminded Arnab of the “filth” in the media heads and their vendetta journalism. He directly asked Arnab why the media was so bent on protecting the “Gandhi family”. That’s a question millions have been asking too. Throughout the last six months Arnab would hold debates and no matter what the crime, invariably point fingers at Modi or BJP as being the criminal. Even when the EC behaved in a partisan and biased manner the debate was twisted to show the BJP being the offender rather than a victim of the incompetent EC. It is out of sheer respect that I am stopping short of calling the bunch of jokers at ECa corrupt bunch. They gave a clean chit to RahulG for meddling with an EVM in a booth in Amethi and then cancelled rally permissions to Modi in Varanasi.
In the RahulG case Arnab was questioning Smriti Irani on why she was complaining instead of hauling RahulG over the coals. When their crimes became evident the CEC put supervisors over the biased DM at Varanasi. Arnab’s unwillingness to speak the truth and call facts as they are and then protect the Gandhi-Vadra family as Modi pointed should classify him and his co-morons as murderers of journalism.They are the real mass-murderers of truth and guilty of injecting poison in the public vein with their lies.
If all that wasn’t enough, NDTV and CNN-IBN have a regular practice of peddling absolute nonsense about Modi. A few weeks back NDTV tweeted Modi’s mantra is to “eat and let others eat” (implying encouragement of corruption). They later apologised. Here’s the latest nonsense from Rajdeep Sardesai and his channel:
Modi’s assets are around 1.6 crores. There is no doubt the CNN-IBN lie is a blooper but the question people are asking is: “why are these bloopers happening with such unfailing regularity with only Modi and BJP and never with anyone else?” The motive is to simply peddle lies that can stick as long as they’re not caught. It’s a lot like the fake “billion votes” headline that CNN-IBN keeps blabbering about when voters are around 800 million.
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S. Varadarajan – Stats-Nazi & Murderer of truth:
When Arnab asked about justice in the 2002 riots cases, Modi pointed out, as he has done many times before, that he and MSM should research the recent history of communal riots in India. That they will find most convictions have materialised in case of the 2002 riots. So Varadabhai (as I fondly call him) promptly and obediently does some research of his own. Very diligent, I would say and he sends out this tweet:
How timely, eh? Who would have thought Stanford, of all people, would tell us about convictions in India and that too release their report just at the time of elections. So Modi asked media guys to do some research on May 8 and Varadabhai writes his research report on May 9. He posts a blog with nothing much but this pic of figures quoted from the Stanford report:
Splendid! So Varadabhai, the Stats-Nazi, wants to quote a Stanford report and tell us Modi is not right in claiming convictions in Gujarat 2002 episode was higher than communal riots of recent history. John McEnroe would have said “Of the thousands of research papers; you had to get a moron like Stanford?” Because a closer look at the Stanford paper reveals a poor study of the cases:
First, the Stanford reports includes cases of Section 144 where some arrests and prosecutions were made. Anyone in India would know 144 is imposed at the drop of a hat and does not always qualify as a communal riot. What is Varadabhai blabbering about? Besides, the report does not include any reference to the major communal riots of recent history. It appears to use frivolous data of cases from general unlawful assembly and riots and not purely communal riots as we know it. The anti-Sikh riots of 1984 alone claimed 8000+ lives (3000 in Delhi alone) for which there were hardly any cases. There is no mention of frequent riots in Assam, Bengal or UP and the list is a very long one. So the Stanford report relies on police files and not the actual lack of justice for communal riots. Besides, all the cases used by Stanford don’t fall under the classification of communal riots. They have also not provided any information on what major cases they used for this study. This is what academic researchers do and not alleged journalists.
Varadabhai conveniently quotes this piece of junk without elaborating on the lapses of the report. Importantly, if Stanford had done a research ONLY on communal riots in India one would understand even if it had errors but that they had a special focus only on Gujarat 2002 Vs general riots and that betrays their motives and intentions. (There were many riots in the 1970s against IndiraG which led to Emergency. Those do not qualify as communal riots). That makes them just one among hundreds who have attempted to milk 2002. Had Varadabhai merely tweeted about the report it would have been fine but he wrote a blog post promoting these stats as gospel. Considering he is anti-Modi, anything he can lay his hands on would be Godsend. But this is what I call mass murder of truth. And I also tweeted that “Pigs will find garbage anywhere” to conveniently nibble on.
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We have long held journalists and govt officials like the EC and many others in reverence. Indians should stop this unhealthy practice. Facts have proven over and over again that many of these persons and entities are corrupt to the core. It is good to have a healthy respect for high offices and public figures. But there is no need for Godification of any office or individual. Everyone must be tested and questioned. Most of all, facts have also shown that the real mass murderers in our society are in the media. They murder the truth and inject poison in the public domain every single day. Respect them when they perform honestly, trash them severely when they commit blue murder.
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