Barking idiot box

Being a print journalist, I have long avoided to comment on TV news channels. Though I stopped watching them long back, I tested if I could find some interests in them regularly, and have always turned against them more bitter.

This Friday, I reached home a bit earlier and thought of watching Zee TV for the Dance India dance Little Masters but was disappointed as the grand finale was in Saturday. I must add here that the talent of little boys and girls are just unbelievable. So, scrolled down and stayed with Times Now to see what it was saying on Commonwealth Games. What I saw left me with wonder how its anchor, Arnab Goswami, got a Journalism award from the Indian Express. I always had suspicions about such awards, and now I have more.

What did I saw was that Goswami was parroting Times Now expose for everything, that he was asking the man already in dock for a long time, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman, Suresh Kalmadi. The way he was haggled in the so called interview by this TV channel, I found myself sympathising Kalmadi. Any budding journalist shall better watch out Goswami to learn how not to conduct interviews.

Then followed a short talk show, which the anchor must be regretting, after Kirti Azad tore into him. The poor chap did not get any support from the three other panelists as well, while he kept demanding from them that Kalmadi be executed right there. Watching this great barking tamasha, I recalled how Mani Shankar Aiyer had blasted the same anchor when he matched his shrillness by telling him on his face "you are a good prosecutor, but a terrible diplomat". This comment came when this anchor wanted to pass an instant judgement within seconds of the conclusion of the Islamabad Press Conference of Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers. 

Then tired of shrillness, which could even induce blood pressure among the viewers, I scrolled down further and found Nidhi Razdan on NDTV, who was nothing but completely at a loss of ideas in the company of Manish Tiwari, Swapan Dasgupta. Though she looked quite graceful, her show appeared nothing but a filler. 

  

I did not waste any more minutes to switch off the idiot box to take up a book "The Palace of Desire"  to read before I went for sleep. However, I felt a kind of headache, which I took some time to come out of to find myself engrossed in the book. In the meantime, I recalled a comment of a retired diplomat who refused to give a sound byte to an EEnglish News Channel by stating: "I will give you byte the day your channel comes anywhere near the BBC but seeing the current state it will take more than 100 years." 

Games slur: Kalmadi in dock, Sheila yet to be tested

The Commonwealth Games 2010 will leave one legacy for sure, that when it comes to loot of public money no one in the world can match the Indians. The Games are less than two months away but its managers are already muddied. If cash guzzler Indian Premium League for twenty20 uncovered a corruption czar in the form of Lalit Modi, the Commonwealth Games is heading towards getting the fame of mother of all scam, with Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi as its head. However, it's interesting to note that Delhi chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, continues to dock the kind of attack that Kalmadi is getting. This is to do with perception. The media honchos think that it's Kalmadi's Games, little knowing that more than Rs 20,000 crore out of the total budget (actual) of Rs 35,000 crores have been spent by her. Kalmadi needs to learn few lessons from Dikshit how to escape the censure.

As Lalit Modi managed IPL as his private limited firm, so did Kalmadi, with the same modus operandi. The two belong to the same class. They do not reveal anything new, except for confirming that given an opportunity Indians, particularly politicians, have to loot the public exchequer. What lies behind the loot in the spending of more than Rs 20,000 crores by Dikshit led Delhi government presents a new trend in corruption, which is the nexus of the government agencies and private contractors to collude right from the stage of conceptualisation of a project till its execution.

Once the limelight fades away from Kalmadi, the focus will surely shift to Dikshit. The beginning has already been made with the CBI reportedly registering cases in the procurement of low-floor buses at an inflated costs. The CAG in its report, which was tabled last year in the Delhi Assembly, had already rapped Dikshit led Delhi government for procuring low-floor buses at an inflated costs. This particular deal is part of the preparations of the Commonwealth Games also, as Delhi government had been working on a plan of complete phase out of blueline buses before the sporting events. However, even this effort has remained shoddy and the rogue blueline buses ram through the length and breadth of the capital with imputy, given their ownership pattern, which again shows a nexus of politician- police to hijack the transport system.

The CAG in its next report will surely dig out facts of omission and corruption in the execution of road and flyover projects. Their pathetic quality, with little rains leaving big holes on important roads, make even a layman to suspect if Dikshit led government has just gifted away tax payers' money.

It's to be noted here that the biggest spending in the name of Commonwealth Games has been done by Delhi government, followed by DDA and Sports Authority of India. However, it's also a fact that no one will be able to hound Dikshit the way Kalmadi is facing. The reason being that she will easily shift the blame to engineers and department heads and secondly for the reason being that the Congress will not dump its electorally highly successful chief minister due to the allegations of corruption, as that will have a high political cost which the grand old party can never bear. 

The Games will take place and it will be the worst, that too by giving too many pains to the people. All estimates of the organisers are already disappearing in thin air. They could not get worthwhile sponsorships. For the estimated footfall of about two lakh tourists, not more than 10,000 are expected to come to Delhi for the Games. There is no credible revenue model. All the much touted infrastructure legacy will also come to a farce, as the work has been short-sighted and amounts to a colossal waste of public money. The Games will leave just one legacy and that will be unbridled corruption.

Those who talk of hosting the Asian Games and Olympics must be raided by the income tax and CBI officials, so that the systemic cancer can be weeded out.

Can Manmohan do a Rao, derail Rahul Gandhi's PM bid by 5 yrs?

Skeleton is finally gaining muscle. The July 5 Bharat Bandh tactically called by NDA and Left in a way that about 17 Opposition parties took part and brought the country to a grinding halt. Price rise often rejected as am election issue just appears to have infused life into dead Opposition, with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh helping them revive through his "economic-bureaucratic" policies directly hitting the middle class where it hurts the most. The UPA has a mandate till 2014. Four more years to go for political churning to take place.

The reign of former Prime Minister Narsimha Rao had taken the Congress out of power for about eight years, with the NDA ruling for about six years. Though it will be a little premature to take a call on the outcome of 2014 elections, the young scion of the Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi, who already turned 40, might have to wait a little longer to occupy the coveted post if the Opposition continues gaining muscles with fodder supplied by Mr Manmohan Singh.

There will be no Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh to repeat the resounding victory of the Congress in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. The Congress has lost Rajshekhara Reddy in AP. Kerala and TN are known for a revolving door mandate. People in Delhi are beating their chest for having voted the Congress. UP results in 2009 are all turning out to be a fluke, with the Dumariyaganj Assembly byelection result where the Congress came fifth though the party had bagged the Lok Sabha seat just a year back has already sent consternation in Rahul Gandhi camp. The emergence of the Peace Party in UP on the support of the Muslim constituency is only helping the BJP to limp back to life. With major states out of the kitty of the Congress, Mr Gandhi might have to just work a little extra for the revival of the party apparatus in Bihar, West Bengal and UP where it is not even among the top two contenders.

Former BJP leader and ex-UP chief minister Kalyan Singh after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections had given a long postmortem of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Basically, he had two contentions. First, price rise is not an elections issue. This is now proving to be wrong, as a large section of population, including those who earn quite handsome salary, are being hit where it hurts the most. Also, the euphoria of the sixth pay commission bonanza has long subsided. His second contention was that it was suicidal on the part of BJP's L. K. Advani to have personally attacked Mr Manmohan Singh, who is revered by the middle class for probity and knowledge. Having spent six years in the office, the people could just now be losing faith in the "knowledge and leadership" of Mr Singh, which has only made the life difficult of many. People in India take a long time to discard their loved ones but when they do it gives a feeling of a bolt from the blue, as was the case with Mr Vajpayee.

Though there are four more years for Mr Singh for course correction, he, however, has unflinching faith in his medicine, that he would go on in the same way if Mrs Sonia Gandhi does not decide to install her son Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister in 2012 after the UP Assembly elections.

Afzal's fate: Criminal subversion of rule of law

Though the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was ordered to be hanged in 2006, he continues to live another day thanks to criminal subversion of the rule of law. He may live another two years or more or even get some reprieve given the kind of spineless political leadership that we are blessed with. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that the law of the land will take its course not only invited scorn but a kind of distrust that the citizens are bound to have such loose talks come out from the highest in the echelon.

The law of the land had awarded death to Afzal. The parliament attack had almost brought India and Pakistan to war, with their respective armies staring at each other on the border, though the Big Brother (the US) played the referee in the hard ball game of politics.

In 2006 Afzal Guru filed mercy petition plea, apparently on the ground that he had an ailing mother and was the sole bread earner for the family. The mercy petition plea file was diverted to the Congress led Delhi government and the chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, did what she was asked to do by her bosses in the party, that to let the file gather dust in her home department. Then after four years, the file moved only to land up at the desk of the Lt. Governor Tejendra Khanna who is now "studying the document closely".

The home ministry had sent the file to examine the merits of the clemency plea, that is whether the claims made by the convict were true or not. However, Mrs Dikshit shocked the media by stating that one of her former chief secretary had noted that there would be law and order problem in Delhi if Afzal was executed. Such a comment by that bureaucrat, who would qualify to be an idiot of the highest degree, has been rewarded by Mrs Dikshit after his retirement by appointing him the special advisor for the Commonwealth Games. His new job is to just write letters to private companies carrying out various construction works in the capital for the Games, which is nothing but a loot of the taxpayers' money.

Why was the Delhi government studying the genuineness of the Supreme Court verdict awarding Afzal the death punishment is baffling. It was not the mandate. It just had to go into the merits of the mercy petition. Now, Mr Khanna is studying the 75-page verdict of the Supreme Court. Is he qualified enough to examine the verdict of the Supreme Court. Does he have the mandate to review the verdict of the highest judiciary in the country?

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Obdulla has been making statements as if the principle of management schools of LIFO (Last In First Out) of FIFI (First in First Out) applies on the 30 convicts who are on death rows and are awaiting disposal of their respective mercy petition pleas. He should rise above from making such stupid statements.

Lastly, the President of India, which is a rubber stamp position for all the practical purposes, can be a little active in disposing off the files at her table or rather should prod the home ministry to clear the files concerning her at the earliest. She being the Constitutional head must ensure that the rule of law is not subverted for petty gains of spineless and brainless politicians.