You can forgive Digvijay Singh in the wake of his recent communal stunt because the whole nation knows that he feeds on a liquid diet made up of the holy water drawn from the gutter next to 10 Janpath. This time around, he has bettered his own record by defecating on the memory of a valiant police officer who died fighting for the country.
It is only natural that Mr Digvijay Singh should have found a soul mate in Amaresh Misra; the two now toil together to keep the tattered and torn flag of ‘secularism’ flying. It is also natural that he should have articulated such hideously malignant thoughts while releasing RSS ki Saazish — 26/11 (26/11 — An RSS Conspiracy), a book authored by Aziz Burney, editor-in-chief of Urdu Sahara, at the taxpayer-funded India Islamic Cultural Centre on December 6. His audience comprised notables like Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha K Rahman Khan, Mr Shoaib Iqbal, Chaudhry Mateen and Mr Asif Mohammed Khan (MLAs from Delhi), Maulana Mahmood Madani from the Deobandi sect, Maulana Touqir Raza Khan from the Barelvi sect and Shia leader Kalbe Jawwad [...] Hemant Karkare’s widow, Kavita, who has been extremely dignified in her sorrow which we can only feel but not share, has rubbished Mr Digvijay Singh’s fanciful story, saying it’s “wrong to suggest that Hindu groups were linked to the 26/11 terror attacks”. She has put in words what millions of Indians believe: “Such statements will mislead people and benefit Pakistan… Mockery of my husband’s sacrifice for political gain should stop.”
Diggy wouldn’t have dared to sing such a vile cacophony if not for his well-placed confidence in the abilities of a media, which is only eager to approvingly broadcast divisive wisdom that the Congress party spews from time to time. This is not an innocent gimmick, not something that a media house does to pander to the party in power and/or to a party that is sympathetic to the paper’s editorial slant.
It is a phenomenon.
It’s like a deadly boa with a mouth each at both ends of its body. A Congress politician mouths a perversion and the media bestows it with intellectual and ethical legitimacy. Some date in the future, the Congress politician cites this legitimate piece of wisdom conveniently forgetting that it was originally his/her own piece of bullshit. At other times, the media on its own cooks up a foul broth of insinuations, which is really, a cue for secular politicians to pick up and expand on, in their press releases and speeches. After which the media quotes these press releases, arranges for interviews, fake-the-nation shows, writes reams of op-eds and more self-righteous hogwash. In all, the boa is not just evil–it’s deceptively, cunningly, and shrewdly so. It knows when to shut which mouth, when to play coy, when to hiss and when to swallow wholesomely. The end result is that public opinion is not merely twisted out of shape but is comprehensively–for the want of a better word–fucked.
Case in point: “free and fearless” Tehelka.
Before we examine the fearless paper’s fearlessness a little background is necessary. Insinuation is the oxygen of the Indian secular atmosphere. More appropriately, anti-Hindu insinuation. The latest insinuation doing rounds is a mythical and dreaded beast called Saffron Terror, which can be reasonably traced back to the Malegaon blasts following which a poor woman named Sadhvi Pragya Thakur was taken into custody and shown a taste of police brutality despite the fact that nothing concrete has been established against her. But given the noxious climate of politics and public discourse, the Congress was quick to pick up Saffron Terror. No less than our dhoti-clad, ever-smiling but endowed-with-balls-of-steel Home Minister picked it up and thundered thus at a police conference:
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday cautioned the chiefs of State police forces, security and intelligence officials against continuing attempts to infiltrate militants into India as well as the recently uncovered phenomenon of “saffron terrorism”.
There, the phenomenon. And this wheedling was attempted in less than 24 hours after the 26/11 War on India by none other than Turdesai’s channel.
In a news report, [CNN-IBN] inserts a cunning speculation about the religious identity of a terrorist who was found wearing a religious band on his wrist. The speculation hints at the possibility that the terrorist was Hindu but adds a disclaimer that it is unfounded.
And look who quotes that story with glee: an Internet forum dedicated to Pakistan’s defence and military capabilities.
Back to the fearless paper’s fearlessness, we see that Tehelka in February 2009 published an article entitled THE CURIOUS TALE OF MUMBAI TERROR by one Raveena Hansa. The full text of the article is here. An unending stream of the author’s medically-untreatable bowel movements on an overdrive, it basically says the following:
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There are unanswered questions about 26/11.
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There are doubts about who killed Hemant Karkare.
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The attack is not entirely the work of Pakistani terrorists.
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We can’t rule out the possibility of “Hindutva terrorists.”
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Pakistan is as serious about shutting down terror networks as India is.
And then inexplicably, Tehelka took down that article from its site, a fact that went by unnoticed except that the indefatigable Barbarindian detected this sleight-of-hand and posed a question to the fearless paper. The paper responded with:
@barbarindian Sorry that article wasn’t published on Tehelka. Altho, same article on Countercurrents w/ diff headline http://bit.ly/eaNDKo
You can read the entire conversation here. Perhaps the fearless folks at the paper haven’t realized the fact that the moment something is put on the Internet, it stays there. Forever. And so, here is the evidence that belies their “sorry’ claim. The following graphic is the screenshot of what Tehelka.com carried on their front page on Feb 17 2009. Highlighted in red.
But there’s more. If you follow Barbarindian’s exchange with the fearless folks at Tehelka, you’ll notice that he says that Tehelka changed its Webcrawler settings to prevent people from accessing their archives. To their credit, Tehelka has since restored the Webcrawler settings. Highly suspicious behaviour, ain’t it? However, the fearless paper still doesn’t admit that they ran the piece last year. What then explains the following facts?
1. The Winter Parking blog that reproduces the article is titled thus:
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Tehelka : The Curious Tale of Mumbai Terror Tuesday, February 24, 2009
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The URL that the Winter Parking blog links to is this: http://www.tehelka.com/dotnet/mainheadline.asp?id=3. Clicking that link now gives you an error message
2. In its response to Barbarindian, Tehelka claims “that story was definitely not a Tehelka story. Link may have been to the countercurrents article.” But what do we get when we read the same article on Countercurrents, a Marxist rag? Scrolling down to the References section yields this:
3. A Google search for “Raveena Hansa” reveals many interesting things. She has exactly written all of two pieces, both on the same “Hindu terror” issue, one of which is the one that Tehelka took down from its site. And nothing, yes, nothing from her at all on any other topic. Strange, no?
The unmistakable conclusion is a nagging doubt that Tehelka has something to hide. It can deny all it wants but this basic research is enough to show that maybe, you know, Tehelka is not abiding by its own pompous “10 THINGS JOURNALISTS OUGHT TO DO” though they’re bang on with #8, which is a clarion call to:
HAVE A THICK SKIN
Can be the most valuable thing in the wardrobe. Wear it every day, there’ll be terrible moments.
The reason for yanking that piece is not hard to discern. It is tenuous to say the least and stretches the limits of logic. If it’s accepted as valild, India won’t have a case against Pakistan over 26/11: if “Hindutva terrorists” were behind 26/11, what explains the fact that Pakistan has officially admitted that the attack originated from its soil? Like I said, the boa knows exactly which mouth it needs to shut when the prey escapes its grasp. It’s that simple.
Tehelka’s current reputation rests chiefly on these: its constant whining about how the NDA victimized it and the consequent flow of funds from secular quarters, its sting-op-a-day tactics, and its Pukeathon coverage on Gujarat. Of course, it also helps to have some fabeled vitriol-spewing India-haters like Arundhati Roy and extremists like Sandeep Pandey on its list just for the extra spice that these characters bring to the brew. And so when it offers you to “get paid to tell the truth,” you know what it leaves unsaid: “get paid to tell the truth as we see it.” Pulling down an article isn’t exactly truthful behavior. Or journalism.
Digvijay Singh is way better.
Tags: Commentary, Democracy, Tehelka, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, India, Indian Media, Media Malpractices, Media Watch, Secularism, Smothering News, Society & Culture, Tehelka Pulls Down Article, Pseudosecularism Hall of Shame, Myth of Hindu Terror, Unethical Media, Indian Media Exposed, Tehelka Exposed, Rotten Indian Journalism, Raveena Hansa, Countercurrents, Tehelka is Lying
The media is a hundred times worse than so-called secular politicians because their poison is invariably diluted by the need of electoral politics while the media is free to carry on its virulent campaign without such restraints.
The degrees by which politicians shed their rabid ideology is directly related to the number of elections they face.
I believe in the cleansing nature of elections though the process might be inefficient and slow. But the English media poison is the greater danger that this nation faces. Probably our very existence in future generations will depend on how much of the poison is contained to a select few in the English media. In that way I am very glad that there is a strong vernacular media that reaches a greater heart of India: the common man.
Christian controlled Indian media is conspiring with Muslims against Hinduism and Hindus. They hope that muslim’s Taqiyya and brute force help India be cleaned of Hindu Idoltry and Hinduism. What they did not see is 09/11 kinda attacks on western world. Muslims use every tom,dick and harry to establish their religion. Once they establish, they will eat their helpers also. Christians, beware.
Sandeep,
No outsider can teach them journalism. They have determined that what they do is ethical journalism and if dictionary contains a different definition of ethics, dictionary itself should be termed communal (or saffron terrorist).
sandeep,
What scares me is this…With media constantly invoking saffron terror, what if some decide to really show what “hindu terror” is? to give them what they are all along wishing for. you will have french revolution. Does not bode well for the future!
Raveena Hansa is a pen name for Digvijay Singh
I don’t know whether it is God’s hand behind all that is happening in the last 3 months – Media empire shaken by Nira radia tape leak, St.Thomas appointment questioned by SC, Ex-CJI caught in suppression of fact, Ayodhya verdict against Secularist interests, CBI non-functioning questioned by SC on 2G, Bihar routing of Lalu and Congress, NaMO getting clean chit from SIT. The strong UPA against week NDA just saw a reversal of strengths. At least, one Secular media house spotted the sinking ship and jumped into the water with a life saver jacket and I meant the “Outlook”. Thanks Sandeep to give us the opportunity to see some one countering the intellectually dishonest Media houses.
There is a very simple questions that all those who subscribe to the theory of Hindu terror should ask themselves.
Would the minorities in India have survived if there was a phenomenon of Hindu Terror? The obvious answer would be NO.
Are those who are accused of carrying out terror acts doing so in the name of religion? The answer is No.
Has there been a history of Hinduism being spread by force? Answer is NO.
Hinduism does not proselytize.
We would need to have the basis before any act of terror can be categorized as Hindu Terror.
Yes there have been acts of terror and yes the people alleged to have carried those out are Hindus is that sufficient basis to classify that as Hindu terror? Would need very fertile imagination for that or a mindset that would want to only view this as convenient argument to justify the acts of terror by others.
This is a very dangerous argument that is being made the consequences of such baseless arguments could be to the detriment of the Nation as a whole.
Thanks Sandeep, for a piece that required a fair amount of rigour, effort, time, and of course cool-headed articulation (when the subject would make many people go nuts with fury!). This is one of the many reasons I could give on why you need to keep blogging
If time/resources is a prob, perhaps you could reduce the frequency of posts – but the job aint over till it’s over!
In random conversations with people across state-lines and social strata, I have not yet found ANYONE who is not appalled by the nonsense churned out by Digvijay. Similarly, a majority of people also agree that NaMo is a victim of a rather one-sided smear campaign. Yesterday’s column by Ashok Malik, which also features in todays SandeepWeb Daily, discusses this particular matter, and the repercussions, fairly well (http://bit.ly/fFGTsh).
So, clearly, the media (and their anti-Hindu, treasonous cohorts masquerading as “intellectuals” or self-appointed reps of “civil society”) are out of touch with mainstream India. Yet, the problem is that people who reflect the views of a very small part of the nation’s populace control most of its media. That needs to be changed. The Internet has certainly helped – at least lies like what Tehelka tried peddling can be called out and the perpetrators can be shamed.
As far as Diggy is concerned, one would have dismissed him just as a fringe loony, but the tragedy is that while he might be a loony, he acts as per Raul’s instructions and represents the core of the ruling party’s dynasty. Cursed is a country where, in order to score some lousy political points, the ruling party turns focus away from the real dangers, disrespects its martyrs, and in effect protects the nation’s enemies.
great job on this expo-se ! it would have been on the site for a very short duration or else google would have cached it for eternity !
still … enuf evidence to nail tehelka ..
huh? turncoat?
there is no coat to turn if the emperor has no clothes
in the 6 years of UPA I and II the self-styled scorpion’s only ‘sting’ was over godhra (actually post-godhra, which is what ‘godhra’ as it is used in the media really means)
somewhat like the cold-war era anecdote about an american telling a russian ‘i am free to stand in front of the white house and say that nixon is a crook’ to which the russian says ‘i am free to stand in front of the kremlin and say that nixon is a crook’
God job, Sandeep! Keep it up!
sandeep,
wikileaks has leaked the gutters emanating from rahul ghandys mind
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rahul-fears-saffron-terror-a-bigger-threat-to-India-WikiLeaks/articleshow/7115703.cms
and we can see the effect of digvijay on it
Pl see the following link how media manipulates
http://dalalmedia.posterous.com/36632972
ramkumaran,
what can one expect from a frigging idiot catholic crackpot?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/16/wikileaks-cables-indian-torture-kashmir?CMP=twt_gu
A deeper conspiracy is probably present. Internationally there must be ardent support for invoking anti-Indian national sentiments. So money is freely being poured in for all the UPA political clowns and the media to constantly portray what they portray. The kind of intellectual dishonesty and anti-national stance we see on a daily basis from every media house and every UPA politician is possible only with loads of Swisss bank money and/or coercion.
It is high time we start a more focussed approach. Either you are a nationalist or not. Period. From this point of view every UPA politician and all the journalists in all the media houses are anti-nationals. They would be hanged for treason in a country like China.
Great piece, Sandeep. The real name for Digvijay is not ‘Diggy Raja; but ‘DHIMMI RAJA’. I have been writing for quite some time that more than stupid politicians the greatest danger to the country is the Media. As is becoming increasingly evident with each day, the mediacrooks need to be exposed just as much as politicians.
AP Keshari:”..This is one of the many reasons I could give on why you need to keep blogging
If time/resources is a prob, perhaps you could reduce the frequency of posts – but the job aint over till it’s over!”
ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE FOR FREEDOM.
this job will never be over.
Is there any one media outlet that is totally clean? I have seen how Shekhar Gupta interviewed Ratan Tata on NDTV (walk the talk). A few days later, a leaked tape shows Niira Radia mentioning how she got the spectrum for Ratan Tata’s firm (which he had denied in his interview with Shekhar Gupta, on NDTV). Burkha Dutt is back with a whimper, on her program ‘The Muck Stops Here’! Prabhu Chawla, who tailored his tape and put it on his website was surprisingly given a clean chit by N Ram in a talk show on Headlines Today (only Hartosh questioned him more closely) – it is pretty clear that Prabhu Chawla should have paid a hefty price for suggesting how to get things done in Supreme Court, and he being on record with Niira Radia about his frequent efforts to call Mukesh Ambani.
Yet, all these shameless journalist continue to use their space to leak muck on the readers, thinking they are dumb. With every passing day, their hypocrisy is seen more vivid colours and exposed on neutral media (blogs, like this). The Sardesais, Sagarikas continue their shameless efforts to insert privacy concerns when matters of great public interest are involved. What price did they settle down to go soft on the Tatas?
It seems that N Ram has used influence with HDK in Karnataka to get cheap lease for his publication. Their bureau chief has minted money, and it has gone unnoticed so far (should not be a surprise at all). The holier than thou attitude works until they are exposed by their rivals.
It took the Israeli embassy to call Dickvijay Sing’s bluff – they said it is wrong to compare RSS with Nazis. They know what it really meant to be at the receiving end of Hitler’s action. I am sure many Indians who suffered in the emergency would vouch for what Indira and Sanjay Gandhi led Congress was capable of. It continued to haunt the Sikhs in 1984 also. Why does Mr. Dickvijay Sing forget it? Isn’t Congress a more apt comparison for the Nazis than the RSS? Aren’t Congress politicians creating scare among minorities and trying to keep them captive to their ghetto psyche? Aren’t they working overtime to keep them less educated, tied in religious knots by preventing reform in Muslim society?
There is an article in Sunday Guardian about NDTV and its financial misdeeds. Pl see this link.
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/a/1082
If one observes the way news is being tweaked these days, one can see a shifting in the position of Mr. Vinod Mehta (he was on Times NOW yesterday – 22nd Dec), Headlines Today did a story on one Mr. Dheeraj Singh (ex-husband of Niira Radia) to claim they worked with Ananth Kumar and Nitin Gadkari to swing deals earlier in Maharashtra government (the man was not directly on the channel) – a discussion purported to be held with him was played. One Mr. Ashish Khetan (who seems better than a magician to bring out such investigative stories, or is he fed selectively stories) spoke of the ‘intimate relationship’ between Niira Radia and Ananth Kumar, and that he leaked her the classified documents. It took M J Akbar to state the disclaimers, and once again it was him who put Abhishek manu Singhvi on the mat when he tried to equate Man Mohan Singh’s serious blunders to BSY’s use of discretionary quota.
NDTV (Burkha Dutt) did a story we the people on Wikileaks and she (jokingly) said ‘journalists will now on never use phone!’ – but it was a great moment of self reflection in front of camera. She kept on bringing up how indiscretionary are the other media houses when Niira tapes were played out – it looked more of an effort to defend her own acts in facilitating Niira.
Suddenly there seems to be more Vir Sanghvi emulators in the media – who are trying to twist and turn and think they are able to change public opinion. Yahoo India carried a story titled something like did Niira speak with Narendra Modi, with a photo of him. No where in the story was there an iota of significant information on his interactions. But in the same story, the serious questions which Vinod Mehta asked earlier were mentioned – Mr. 15%, and a judge allegedly paid Rs.9 crore (mention of this made by an IAS officer)…- was Vinod Mehta in some other frame of mind when he wrote it? Or, somebody did a proxy writing for him? He seems flip-flop so easily, it is difficult to say who wrote the earlier piece in Outlook! Was he cornered by some in his own organization to do the story on Radiagate? And, in his personal capacity, he is free to defend MMS and attribute motives and twist words to say things against BJP?
Looks like some mega deals are being struck with the people in media to silence the opposition. Also there is deafening silence in the media on Rs. 2 Lac Crore Rice scam of Kamal nath. Why? Is anyone pursuing that case?
Welcome readers to my response to another Rahul Gandhi defence from Zia Haq of Hindustan Times:
http://www.mediacrooks.com/2010/12/zia-haq-of-hindustan-times-is-christmas.html
@Demo-crazy,
It is the hour of “Empire strikes back”. All the media henchmen have adjusted to the shock of Radia leaks, waves of scam and documented evidence. Now they have regrouped and in the mood of retaliation. Wait for more bizarre stuff with fake tweets and twisted tapes would be presented to discredit opposition. George Orwell would be delighted to see his predictions about mass media coming true.
For a change BJP is acting smart, instead of taking it on the chin by the mercenaries in the Media they are trying to do something. They should sue this Headlines Today TV channel for exorbitant amount of money and make an example of it. Then they would be feared by these sell outs.
“The Opposition BJP on Friday threatened legal action against a former aide of Nira Radia, whose claims about “close links” between the corporate lobbyist and BJP leaders were prominently carried by an English news channel. The party would also start legal action against the TV channel for broadcasting allegations by a person who had “spent two years in jail and has a personal score to settle”.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley told newspersons here on Friday evening, “Merely because someone else is making these allegation does not dilute the channel’s responsibility… It treated as gospel truth the allegations against prominent BJP leaders (which were) made by someone who not only spent two years in jail but is close to a senior Congress member and has a personal score to settle.”
http://www.dailypioneer.com/306196/BJP-to-sue-Radia's-ex-TV-channel-for-slander.html
You may like to refer TVR Shenoy’s left handed compliment to NDTV for its ‘revealing’ story on Sadhik Batcha.
http://www.rediff.com/news/column/column-why-did-indian-government-investigators-take-long-to-unearth-2g-scam/20101217.htm
At the same time, kudos to The Pioneer team, for doggedly pursuing this story for almost 2 years now.
He he …. now it looks like ruling Cong-DMK alliance is dropping Raja. Otherwise our investigative magazine “Tehelka” would not have published an investigative report on Raja:
http://tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne010111Coverstory.asp
Same goes for NDTV. The royal family in Delhi and Jaigirdar family in Chennai decided to drop the hot potato and unleashed the dogs. Dogs would not stop until it finds the bones (in which case they will lick it) or owner’s feet (in which case they will stop barking).
@Ravinar,
Zia Haq is from Assam and in one of his pieces in HT he has openly favored giving Indian citizenship to illegal Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants in Assam. I think we all understand why Zia Haq would come up with such a proposal. Incidentally thanks to Congress backed IMDT act and the subsequent Foriegner’s act amendment when SC declared IMDT to be illegal and unconstitutional, most of these illegals are already legal. It is a reflection on Indian media that Islamists and evangalists are given a free hand but anyone with even a little sympathy for Hindu causes are hounded out.
This perfidious self-proclaimed left-lib-secular brigade’s preponderance in current Indian media, “intelligentsia” and politics is a result of decades of Nehruvian socialism and Marxist manipulated education both of which systematically downplayed native Indian culture & demonination, concocted a defeatist & negated history and propounded a screwed-up secularism which has now become synonymous with crass appeasement & support of non-native denominations on one hand and outright bashing of native denomination on the other. It has actually become politically correct, fashionable and even compulsory in many professions (such as journalism) to follow this rubric in order to advance one’s career.
The true face of digvijay singh is revealed to public by his own doing, a sheep can not become a tiger by forced portrayl. I have felt this man is a anti national, and a crupto christian. However i could not gather what happened to Sadhvi Pragya Singh, may god help her in getting justice.
There is this site http://indianrealist.wordpress.com which single-handedly exposed former chi Mr. K G Balakrishnan. It is really mind-boggling.