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!!!
