VIR, BARKHA AND WIKILEAKS

As 2010 draws to an end it can be easily concluded that the past year has been one of the most action-packed (for a journalist like me) what with scams of magnum proportions in every corner of the country and in every sector from sports to telecom. 2010 was surely the year of scams.

But come to think of it, our country’s affair with scams is as strong as a Fevicol ka jod, joh ache se acha na tod paaye. The way we got independence from the Britishers we were subjected to a new kind of anarchy- that of our political class. They in the garb of development be it the military development (Bofors scam) or rural development (Fodder scam) and various other drought and famine aids have filled their coffers over the many decades.

So, in hindsight, there were not a lot of scams committed in the year, they were only exposed as many of them were in the making for years but their lid was blown off only in 2010.

The reasons behind writing this blog, are firstly because for the very first time has the media been caught red-handed in the middle of corporate lobbying and political arm-twisting

The likes of the mighty Vir Sanghvi and the mightier Barkha Dutt were humiliated and embarrassed by a certain Nira Radia, the person in charge for handling the corporate communications of the country’s two leading industrialists- Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata.

Radia’s recorded (without her knowledge) conversation with both the ‘mighty’ journalists reveal how they actively took part in the process of appointing certain political leaders to certain ministries so that their clients would gain from those corrupt fools. Case in point- Radia discussing A. Raja’s inclusion in the Telecom Ministry with Dutt and worse Vir Sanghvi shamelessly influencing public opinion through his column ‘Counterpoint’ in Hindustan Times.

No matter how much the duo denied the allegations and instead launched an all-out attack on the editor of Open magazine which printed the transcriptions Manu Joseph, the fact remains that they both were guilty of wrongdoing and no amount of foolish statements of being innocent and error of judgement can prove them innocent.

Moreover, it is a human tendency that if we are caught cheating we either accept the crime or make a ruckus by giving frivolous excuses because we want the attention to divert from the main subject. Being the snobs that Sanghvi and Dutt are it came as no surprise that they chose the latter.

People like Barkha Dutt who were lobbying for the Congress party must have got tonnes of personal and professional favours from the party as well as people like Radia. After all she was awarded the Padma Bhushan for heavens’ sake. So, do whatever you feel like but just be prepared to pay for your actions because sooner or later your luck will run out.

But if one fine day a gentleman like Manu Joseph armed with an edition of Open magazine comes around to expose you, do not be startled.

So, coming to the second point which is also the best thing that happened to journalism in 2010 was WikiLeaks. Frankly, the storm that it generated globally It definitely was not a leak but a flooding of massive proportions.

For the uninitiated, WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources and news leaks. Its website, launched in 2006 and run by The Sunshine Press, claimed a database of more than 1.2 million documents within a year of its launch.

However, if we just talk about the content related to our country revealed by Leaks, the ‘flooding’ has only reaffirmed the many stereotypes prevalent in our nation since decades while some others amazed and shocked.

Like when Rahul Gandhi talked about the ‘Hindu radicals being more dangerous than those Muslims who support cross border terror outfits’ it was no surprise to me as he is just toing his party line. There is nothing new in the appeasement of minorities by the Congress party. In fact many of the veterans read sycophants in the party have become an expert in it like Digvijay Singh.

Radicals, irrespective of their religion should be measured with the same yardstick. Rahul’s statement was absolutely biased and immature. What is terrifying is that it came from a person who is all set to become the Prime Minister of the country in a few years down the line.

Further, the leaks exposed the Gandhi scion telling Timothy Roemer how he was focusing on rural India to gain a stronghold for his party as it would be tough for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to beat them there.

I was deeply hurt by this as the future PM just like his predecessors was only thinking about political gains and not about the upliftment of the poor and backward. It is because of these political motives that a Kalawati, a downtrodden citizen of India is promised better living conditions when the ‘Congress Prince’ spends a night in her shack and a year later the same Kalawati’s brother commits suicide because of poverty.

WikiLeaks is a boon to a country like ours which is ruled and not governed by sycophant and corrupt jokers who think thet they can get away with anything. What the ‘courageous and mighty’ journalists of this country would not do, WikiLeaks is doing for them.

Everybody has their vested interests and it is because of this very reason that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook was chosen over Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks as the person of the year by the Time magazine, the same publication that voted Lady Gaga’s ‘Meat dress’ as the fashion of the year. Just Amazing!!!

WikiLeaks has spared no one from the United States war on terror to the local thullas of Delhi Police. The fear that it has generated in the minds of people is tremendous which have gone onto doubt and question the credibility of the cables.

But as far as for me and many more common citizens like me, the cables did reveal David Mulford, former US ambassador to India calling the then Home Minister Shivraj Patil ‘Spectacularly Inept’ post 26/11, which is spot on and every informed Indian would swear by.

As we usher in a new year and brace ourselves for 2011, I hope there would be many more cables revealing, exposing, embarrassing those who deserve it worldwide and especially in India. Keep ‘em coming Mr. Assange… am loving it!!!

THE DUMB 'BABUDOM' OF INDIA

It is quite strange and funny how the system in our country works. For the last couple of days I have been watching a series of advertisements promoting social causes sponsored by the National Rural Health Mission, a department under the Government of India.

As per me, such ads should be promoted by all television channels free of cost and their more than those stupid deodorant and underwear ads in which there is a competition between the male and the female model(s) as to who can expose more skin?

So, what is so amusing about promoting a social cause you may ask? Well, these ads are aimed at people living in rural areas or the mofussil towns who are not educated enough to understand that a girlchild should not be killed in the womb or that child marriage is harmful to the health of a gairl as well as illegal.

But the problem with all these ads was, hold your breath--- they were in ENGLISH. Is the NRHM so dumb that it cannot even identify its target the language its audience speaks? They show ads set up in a rural background but surprisingly the villagers speak fluent English. Are they in their senses?

It looks so damn funny that you just cannot take the poor villagers seriously. Just imagine two women attired in a lehenga-choli drawing water from a well in a village in Rajasthan and talking about family planning in English.

On top of it these ads are being aired on English news channels when a majority of villages in India still do not have a cable connection and they only get Doordarshan. Is not this a wastage of public money?

Even if these ads are aimed at those less privileged who come to the metros to earn a living as a mason or a daily wager, does the NRHM seriously expect him/her to tune into Times Now and CNN IBN? And even if (s)he does, would these people hailing from Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar etc. understand a word of what is being said?

Well like many policies, rules and laws which were made in the bygone era and are protected by the babus, no one paid any attention to this too. Just because an ad is being aired on an English channel it has to be dubbed in the same language, no matter who the target audience is, This is sheer lack of common sense.

This is mere dumbness and stupidity on the NHRM’s part.

REALITY CHECK

Sample this: A chopper hovering metres above the ground and its blades trying to shred the hero into pieces when out of nowhere a jeep being driven by the hero’s sidekick at speeds much above the pice of junk is capable of ricochets off a boulder, crashes into the chopper and kills the enemy…sounds like a cartoon? It is actually a scene from a southern blockbuster flick, the name of which I cannot remember.

Southern India has a flourishing film industry in almost all the states just like Bollywood. Thousands of films are made there majorly small budget and B-grade movies. But if we talk about the mainstream cinema, the one thing that intrigues me the most is the high level of absurdity depicted in almost all the flicks.

I have come across some of the weirdest and funniest scenes in almost every read handful southern movie. The thing that intrigued me the most was in fact southern India has a higher literacy rate than the rest of the country; it houses the ‘Indian Silicon Valley’ in Bangalore, which means it produces some the sharpest minds. Still, their taste and preference in movies was perplexing.

Last week when Rajinikanth’s latest offering ‘Endhiran’ hit the theatres, it received an overwhelming response with movie halls being booked for weeks in advance. But more interestingly, it was surprising to see Rajini meeting his fans and followers sans any make-up or tantrums.

It was then that it occurred to me that no matter how surreal the actors, plot and sequences in southern movies are, the fact remains that fans as well as the stars down south are absolutely comfortable with their appearances. They are much closer to real life than the reel life… at least that is the case with Rajinikanth and his followers.

On the contrary in Bollywood a celebrity has to look young at any cost and any time. Bollywood stars nearing their 50’s whenever make a public appearance, colour their hair, shave their chest and put on layers of make-up to hide that saaging and wrinkling skin.

As a matter of fact many of the balding stars spent crores on special treatments like scalp hair replacements. Although playing characters 20 years younger their age with girls barely out of their teens is common to both, it is the Bollywood stars who have to do it with shaved chests and six pack abs.

So, the next time you try to make fun of a “Madrasi” film (I know people love to do it) just think about what you have read here.

CELEBRATING A SYMBOL OF SLAVERY???

“Great opening ceremony…proud to be a Delhiite”, “Delhi hosting the CWG games is a matter of pride”, “Yippeeee…the games have begun” these and many more were the messages, status updates and tweets that I read on the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games Sunday.

Evidently, there are people in the city who are delighted and supporting the games. But what perplexes me is that till a couple of weeks back everybody including the common man and media were bashing the games and the authorities for the sorry state of affairs.

Moreover, as the D-day approached many changed their stance suddenly. Out of the blue they were supporting the games and were all for it.

Is it that things are perfectly fine now? Everything the stadiums, roads, sidewalks, foot over bridges and so on are in place? Or were these people a part of a medical experiment which screws up their thinking process?

Perplexed I tried to find the reasons. The people of India as I have mentioned in my earlier blogs go by the principle of ‘Forgive and Forget’. I maybe going overboard but I suppose it is an outcome of having a short attention span like that of a toddler. Majority of them go by and believe what the media says which is also a gospel truth for them.

But honestly, the ‘Great Indian Middle Class’ which forms the majority of our society anyway does not have time to ponder over issues like the Organising Committee of the CWG going overbudget or allegations of a car rental scam in the baton relay in United Kingdom or for that matter a liquid soap dispenser priced at Rs. 187 but was bought for more than three times it value. It has got its own monthly budget to look after.

So, such sensational news leaves no impact as one ‘expose’ is replaced by another on prime time news shows across channels.

So, till the media was slamming the games everybody joined in but now as they began praising the stadia, games village, roads etc. it was only natural for the people to follow.

This worryingly also showcases the amount of power the media practices over people. Worrying because with power comes responsibility and we very well know how ‘responsible journalism’ is transforming our lives.

Then there are also those who argue that because of the games we got so many new flyovers, roads which were widened, beautiful sidewalks etc. I completely agree that Delhi has become beautiful. It has got facilities which might have taken a decade to complete had it not been for the games.

BUT AT WHAT COST?

No new roads, flyovers etc. can ever justify the total amount of money spend on the games which according to the official figure is 30,000 crores, lord knows what the unofficial figure is.

What are we happy and proud of? History has proved that whichever country hosted any such mega sporting event its economy was left in the lurch. Just like the Vancouver CWG held in 1954 in Canada, which was buried in such a huge debt post the event that it took them three decades to pay it off.

The only exception was the Loas Angeles Olympics of 1984, which through clever corporate sponsors and alliances managed to sail smoothly. This precisely was also needed in Delhi.

It was our taxes which formed a substantial amount of the total expenditure spent on the infrastructure and it will be once again us who will bear the brunt of the debt in the coming years.

Shockingly, the authorities are so darn lazy and unorganized that the games have opened today but still many of the roads, pavements, sidewalks, boundary walls have to be either built, painted or refurbished. Is it something to be proud of really?

A majority of the insane amount of money was spent on the one thing which would be of no use to the majority of Delhiites, the stadia. Will they be of any use post games? Or would the government convert them into ‘rainbaseras’ in the winters for the homeless? Absolutely not!

The stadiums would be locked down forever with the exception of hosting a few local sports tournaments or some government functions, just like the way it happened after the Asian Games of 1982, the biggest sporting event Delhi hosted before the CWG.

But even if all the above written facts are set aside for a second, the harsh reality is that the CWG is indeed a symbol of slavery. It forces down our throats the fact that we were once ruled by Britishers who did not see much difference between an Indian and a mongrel!

I can never be a part of or support any such symbol of slavery. Although, I am all for the spirit of sports and games and it is great to see athletes from different backgrounds mingling with each other, it also reinforces the fact that the ancestors of these very athletes were slaves some decades ago.

To top it all, the Queen (in our case the Prince) herself goes to the host city to open the event. Is not that a great gesture? Reliving the good old days when the English dictated the terms and the conquered countries obeyed them.

The CWG must be a trip down memory lane and must help boost the ego of an island nation which obviously is not as dynamic as it once used to be. Perhaps that is the reason behind the affixing of 'Great' before Britain... It immediately makes you an elitist. It must be ‘jolly good’ for them to tell their lads of their mighty past.

But in reality, the future belongs to emerging superpowers like India, China and Brazil. So, according to me Britain is as 'Great' as our western neighbour Afghanistan is 'Republic'.

Now some may call me a cynic after perusing this blog but then ours is a free country and everyone has a right to express his/her views.

Moreover, I would rather be a cynic than a pseudo-patriot fooling myself into taking pride in what can be termed as a symbol of nothing other than slavery.

P.S. It was delightful to see the Indian contingent entering Jawaharlal Nehru stadium with thousands of people rooting and cheering for them. Though watching on TV, the scenes easily managed to give me goosebumps. But again, I wished it was the Asian Games rather than the CWG and managed the way Los Angeles organised the Olympic.

HUM SAB ‘FAKE’ HAIN!

With less than three weeks to go, preparations are in overdrive for the Commonwealth games. If the huge government billboards are to be believed ‘Shera is on track’ but what about the Delhites, the majority of whom are crack?

Everyone is talking about the infrastructural development like the metro, stadias, roads and so on. But no one is emphasizing on the most important aspect, that is, the hosts.

The general attitude of Delhites, is very incourteous, to say the least. ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ is just a colourful poster, adorning the various tourist information centres in the host city.

The harsh reality is that we do not really believe in it. We are all doing a great job of pretending that we are all set for the games. Reality check, like it or not, we are all faking it.

People of Delhi are rude in there behaviour, foul in there language and a bunch of hooligans who are ready to fight or even shoot someone, over a trivial issue like parking space.

If you have a car, it gives you the right to hurl abuses at auto drivers and rickshaw pullers Mind you; the same does not apply to the ‘BIG’ cars belonging to the influential strata of the society.

Living in the age of road rage, you never know which one of his bodyguards might shoot you, if you cut him on the road. Interestingly, the size of a car is directly proportional to the arrogance of the one driving it. So, do not dare to hurt their fragile egos.

Let alone intelligence, we do not even have common sense. We have painted the town red with spats of our beloved benarasi paan.

We believe that passing lewd comments and ogling girls is our birth right and heavens save those poor souls if it’s late night!

When we don’t know how to behave with each other, what the visitors will go through is anybody’s guess. Moreover, they are soft targets for many; hence they are duped and looted.

Auto/taxi drivers, guides, shopkeepers etc. are the masters in the art of fleecing foreigners. On a lighter note, maybe, they have taken upon themselves to get back some of the wealth, the west took from us.

The situation is so grave that females are forced to remain indoors after darkness falls.

They are harassed and molested on streets, public transportation, in markets and almost everywhere else. If a poor girl wears a ’revealing’ dress, there is a strong chance that she’ll even be raped!

The government isn’t able to protect its own citizens, god save the visitors.

Furthermore, we have a disturbing mindset that foreigners are the most sexually active species (which is completely wrong as proven by India’s population) and are always ready for sex. We ogle at foreigners (girls) as if we’ll hypnotize them into having sex with us!

Moving on, at times we become violent unnecessarily. We merrily pelt stone and burn down buses, autos, taxis, dogs, cats etc. to show to the world that we are angry.

Few years back a Haryana roadways bus hit and injured a person gravely. As his friends and family couldn’t get hold of the same bus, they burnt down a DTC bus!

What is the relation between the two? Why are we so dimwitted? We just vent our ire on anything we can lay our hands upon.

Now, just imagine what will happen if a bus carrying the athletes gets trapped in such a situation?

Look at some of our residential colonies. We simply don’t know how to keep our surroundings clean. We have a habit of throwing our garbage out of our windows and balconies.

The government has planned bed and breakfast scheme for the visitors. Just imagine a tourist walking down the street and a bag of garbage lands on his head! ATITHI DEVO BHAVA indeed!

Once a friend asked me, which is the world’s longest toilet? After scratching my head for a few minutes, I gave up.

The tracks of the Indian railways, he answered. I was amused but at the same time was a bit upset. It is a sad reality.

Likewise, the roadsides of Delhi are a big urinal. Residents are forced to paste pictures of gods on their walls, so that passersby don’t urinate there (what a disgusting idea!)

Now imagine athletes coming out of a stadium and someone urinating against the stadium wall. What a relaxing sight for them after a tiring day, right?

But don’t you dare declare the government a failure. To tackle all the above issues, the government was getting special teams to teach ‘manners and etiquettes’ to Delhiites.

But just like many other projects this one also suffered a premature death due to time constraints.

But if it were to be done what a farce it would have been? Was the government expecting crores of people to change their lifestyle in a matter of months?

You can teach a rickshaw puller English, but how will you teach him to take a bath daily? Moreover, did we need an event to teach us the basic manners and courteousness? Should not they be a part of our self-conscience?

Commonwealth games were a bad idea to begin with. In a country where people are dying of hunger, there was no need to spend crores of rupees on an event that is not going to do anything for anyone, except for the organisers.

And the ‘dynamic democracy’ that India is, our politicians are going to make many such offers in order to fill their coffers. If the government was so willing to host the games, much better planning was required.

The government is not leaving any stone unturned in projecting a fake image of Delhi and its people and nobody cares, if we make a fool of ourselves. What if an athlete is humiliated, duped or worse raped? The government is happy patting its back.

The one line that would suffice the government’s attitude would be- ‘Shera is on track’…to hell with all the flak.

Finally, five events where Delhites can surely win a gold:

Boxing (due to road rage)

Javelin throws (a piece of garbage to replace the javelin)

Shooting (in a bar after a brawl)

Wrestling (for parking space)

Long jump (over open manholes and piles of garbage)