Archive for the ‘Political’ Category
Modi and Trump: Why they don’t care about Media?
Modi and Trump have a lot in common. Both portray themselves as outsiders. Both vows to fight against the accepted norms.
One thing that both fight against is the Media. And they have been highly successful at that. Voters have supported them whenever they have lasted out against News giants. From Modi’s news-traders barb to Trump’s open fight against Fox News, they have gained public support. This begs the question how/why?
Well a lot can be owed to the rise in competition in News Sphere and to the downfall of journalism in the traditional sense. News gave way to News-Entertainment to earn more advertisement revenues. Nowadays, if you ask any common man about the biggest problem that ails our society, most common reply is “Sensationalist Media”. Zillions of channels in search of breaking news destroying the very pillar that stood for.
Moreover everyone knows how fat pay packages are earned by media professional these days. People no longer see them as poor guys fighting against big corporations and politicians. The ‘behind the scenes funding’ of media houses have become public thanks to social media. This has further damaged credibility of the news that we read/listen. Media itself has become THE INSIDER. Since Modi and Trump portray themselves as outsiders, they out-win the media.
Thus Trump breaks no sweat when withdrawing from Fox News debate, which would seem like a political suicide for any other politician. Similarly Modi has no problems in not taking media along on foreign tours as part of his entourage. They both fight against the insiders.
This is the hope they instill in public. To do what no one else dares to do.
Modiji, please shed the coterie
I see a lot of fighting these days in social media. Pro-Modi, Pro-AAP people berating the leaders. Personal offensive remarks of Bhakt, AAptard and what not. Seriously fed up with this, I have started unfollowing certain mischief accounts. I know triggers are created by paid profiles, but why to blindly forward them and spam your friend’s timeline. So much negativity!
Back to the point. Personally I am okay with Modi’s performance, in his personal capacity. He has made world take notice of India, lifted the country from a sense of gloom, made Swachh Bharat the cool thing among a lot others.
We all know how he went overboard during elections and promised the people of this country, the stars. We all know it’s not possible to deliver in a short span of time. People have a right to criticize as they were not told, “You will get stars after 5-10 years”. They were promised instant relief which can’t happen in reality. No point bashing the electorate. If they are fools now in criticizing Modi, how were they not fools when they voted for him?
Modi, I feel, is falling short of few selfless men like him in his Government. The biggest crook of them all is our FM. He is edging away a lot of Modi’s charisma. Piyush Goyal is working superbly at grass root. Smriti Irani is competent.
Railway ministry is working only for facebook and twitter crowd but nothing for poor who travel via General Class (90%). We need a revolution in railways. Loyal vote bank of BJP, the middle class has been neglected and left to fend for itself, which is not nice. More importantly the attitude of his Ministers and spokespersons is not right. They seem just like Congress. Equally arrogant.
Given the history of Modi and BJP, it is there responsibility to win over 69% who didn’t vote for them. But our great FM calls it manufactured dissent. Why name calling. When you in power, it does not look nice if you start berating people. Modi knows that but he is being misguided by coterie around. FM was the one who aggravated the situation by badmouthing people returning awards. Political mastery of Vajpayee was missing. All it needed was to call them all for a talk. Soothe their ego if need be. They would have gone silent.
Same goes with communal politics of BJP. It’s great when in opposition but boomerangs when in power. I hoped BJP would have learned this by now.
I have my hopes and faith in Modi. But not so much in his coterie. I am sure Modi will find a way!
Plea to Chief Justice of Supreme Court: Clean the rotten eggs of Judiciary
I know the first defense for judicial custody of Palak (Kiku Sharda) in Baba Ram Rahim case would be, will such comedians dare play Prophet? How would they piss their pants thinking of backlash from minority fringe! Agreed. But why to fall to their standards. We are better than that.
I know moving courts is a civilized reaction when compared to Malda riots, and I appreciate Baba’s followers didn’t go the Malda route. I have nothing against Baba’s hardcore supporters going court. It’s their democratic right. But I have issue with the Magistrate who remanded Palak to judicial custody.
The only pillar of Democracy with some ethics left, is too withering away with such decisions. Such frivolous cases need to be thrown out of the window at the onset. I hope top Judges are watching this, pull up the people below and devise guidelines for lower rungs to adhere to.
But when the ‘stands exposed’ Finance Minister himself is clogging up judicial system to fight his politics, how can we expect anything else.
Kejriwal: Just another Neta?
Communal riots in Malda has been in news for around a week now. Mamta Banerjee and her ilk, has reacted as expected. Deafening silence in the name of appeasement. BJP has been high on vocals and justifiably so, after long they are on the right. Among this there are two politicians I want to concentrate. Modi and Kejriwal on Dadri and Malda.
Modi has been silent on both and let his Govt. speak. Kejriwal has been vocal on Dadri but ‘finger on your lips’ on Malda. And this saddens me. We expected better.
You take on Jaitley, people support you. You do odd/even, people support you. You go to Dadri, people support you. You set up commission on 1984, people support you. But if you now be selective like Award Waapsi Brigade, how do you expect people to support you?
You took a stand on Dadri. You need to take a stand on Malda. I am not saying you speak on anything and everything but you should have some parity. When reporters ask you on Malda, you rush away. That’s purely disgraceful. People of Delhi might be with you for your good governance. But you are losing a lot of your supporters by such hypocrisy.
It is expected of Mamta, Nitish, Lalu, Gandhi, the whole AwardWaapsi gang, but it’s not expected of you. There is still time. Course correct and don’t become another run of mill the minority appeasing majority leader. Call a spade a spade.
Siddharth Dhar proves why Terrorist Sympathizers in India should be put behind bars
We have seen a lot of people in India who come across as Terrorist sympathizers. They find reasons to justify jihadi terrorism. They come on TV and deny to condemn Terrorists. They are regarded as intellectuals by their like. Siddharth Dhar aka ‘Jihadi John 2’ was one such British citizen.
He is a classic example of terrorism apologists. Many a times he justified terrorism as revenge attacks by the oppressed. He openly wrote and participated in TV debates. Just like our own shameless media, British media too gave him audience. Many admired him as a balanced intellectual.
Look what happened. This Islam convert has become Jihadi John 2. Given an opportunity all these Terrorism apologists will not blink an eye before killing alongside Terrorists.
I urge people to shame such people openly and strip them off their moral high ground. I urge media to have some shame and not provide such people an audience. I urge Govt to put any such people behind bars. Stemming the spread of propaganda is a potent way to nip terrorism in its bud.
बच्चा पहले ही मर गया था
मेरा बचपन आगरा शहर में बीता है। दिल्ली की कड़ाके की सर्दी क्या होती है, मैंने महसूस करी है। रूह कंपा देती है। जल्द से जल्द घर पहुंचकर रजाई में दुपक जाता था। बेघर लोगो बेचारे ऐसी सर्दी में क्या करते होंगे, बचपन में यह ख़याल कभी नहीं आया। बड़ा होकर पाया की उनमें से काफी लोग, सर्दी में दम तोड़ देते हैं।
जो दिल्ली में हुआ, ऐसा नहीं है की यह पहली बार हुआ है हमारे देश में। ऐसी तोड़फोड़ पहले भी होती रही है जगह खाली कराने के लिए। अतिक्रमण हटाना। मुझे कभी इसका मतलब समझ नहीं आया। यहाँ से भागो, कहीं और जाके मारो। मुझे बस इतना ही समझ आता है।
मुझे दुःख इसलिए ज्यादा है, कि मुझे लगा था की मोदीजी सबसे आगे खड़े होंगे, इन गरीबों को बचाने के लिए। भारत सरकार ने बोला, “बच्चा पहले ही मर गया था”, तोड़फोड़ बाद में हुई। मान लो २ मिनट की बच्चा पहले मर गया था। तो इससे ज्यादा भीषण रूप कुछ और नहीं हो सकता, कि जिसके घर में मौत हुई, उसका घर उजाड़ा गया।
मैं शर्मसार हूँ, ऐसे तंत्र का हिस्सा होने पे। जमीन तो भगवान ने बनायी थी, कबसे रेलवे की जागीर हो गयी। कौनसे वो बेचारे शौक से झुग्गी में रहते थे? विकास के नाम पे सबको रौंदते चलो।
Why Elections in India will not be won on Social media, Not Yet
When Modi won elections in 2014, we noticed something new. Modi was miles ahead of his counterparts when it came to social media. We attributed the spread of huge Modi wave to social media. Some even thought that elections henceforth will be decided on social media. Bihar elections demolished it all. Social media was hinting at NDA victory. The results were upside down. What went wrong?
My take is, elections in India will not be won on social media anytime soon. The depth and diversity of internet is still languishing at the bottom. Apathy and social ostracization is still rampant in our country.
Let me explain by relating what happened in my home state UP. When Mayawati won historic 2008 elections, people were stumped the same. All surveys went haywire. Even the pan shop talks betrayed the results. Why? Analysis revealed that Mayawati voters came more from backward castes. Given the non-inclusive growth in India, these people lie at the bottom of social and income levels. At pan shop talks, they hesitate speaking their minds for fear of social ostracization by affluents of the society. Even in surveys, wary by years of apathy, they don’t openly support Mayawati, a Dalit. This ends up in wrong calculations. I call it the ‘Vocal Effect’.
Supporters of lower caste parties/leaders are less vocal. Supporters of forward caste parties/leaders are more vocal. Same behavior has moved to social media. Neither the spread of internet is across castes, nor are all of us vocal. Hence we always find Modi and AAP supporters more vocal on social media. Recently Congress people have also joined in, but are again not that vocal due to fear of being trolled for past scams.
Imagine what will happen if you comment on facebook that you support Lalu Yadav or for that matter Congress. You will face nasty comments, will be lambasted. Now imagine if you were a Dalit and posted status, “I support Mayawati”. We all know what humiliation will be meted out in comments section. So people choose to remain silent. I would have chosen silence too.
Hence I feel it’s still a long way to go when social media discourse could give clear directions. It would require equal penetration of internet. It would happen when backward castes are no longer made to feel backward. It would happen when social ostracization and social media trolling ends. Not anytime soon.
Nationalist from NRI Quota: Ravish Kumar kills it!
Ravish Kumar, NDTV, is a killer man. I have been a fan of him for quite some time now. In fact these days his is the only debate show that I see on Hindi news channels.
His specialty is he says pointy things in a calm manner. It hits you right where it matters. No diatribes, no high pitched voices, simple observations with a smile.
Sorry my NRI friends, with intolerance debate reaching absurd levels, he has hit you guys and hit you bad. This is what he has to say on Aamir Khan and intolerance debate. “All those who have recently become Nationalist from NRI Quota, beware, you might soon be put in the same category of bhagodas (deserters), which you are calling Aamir Khan”. He did not defend Aamir here but made a pun on the absurdity of it all.
Ravish Kumar, Sir, you can easily replace any Talk show host from Jay Leno to Kapil Sharma. You would beat them all hands down. Your smile is your most potent weapon. And you know how to make perfect puns.
Don’t badmouth Aamir Khan
Let’s hold our horses and reflect for a min why Aamir said what he said. I might not have agreed with Aamir in the past but I consider him to be diplomatically sound person. He weighs in his words and speaks only what sounds good to his audience. Why then he said, “Sense of intolerance has grown in last 6-8 months and that his wife is worried to the extent of asking him to leave India altogether”?
I take him at the face value. I discount his grudge with Gujarat Govt during Narmada movement and non-screening of his movies thereof, as a thing of the past. Then why?
The Award Gang has been successful in their propaganda. They have been able to create an atmosphere of fear. Aamir was speaking what he and his wife really feel and not putting on an act. He referred to seeing newspapers headlines and feeling afraid. If you read newspapers these days, you will feel the fear too. Award Gang has been successful in selling their narrative.
Onus is now on Central Govt, which like it or not has been hit badly. That their own people have made obnoxious comments and those people are still holding party posts have not helped. Instead of bad mouthing Shahrukh or Aamir, who just like a lot of other people have fallen prey to the agenda of Award Gang, Govt must act smart.
Find a way to change the narrative. How Vasundhara Raje handled the cow art controversy should be the template. Instead of lambasting Shahrukh/Aamir, Govt must go overboard in nipping each and every act of intolerance in its bud. Do what Vasundhara did, apologize if need be.
Appear concerned. Send public notices to bad mouths of your party. Send notices to State Govt’s where these acts of intolerance are taking place. Scold them publicly at every forum. Award Gang has made its move and is winning this. It’s time for a counter move. Not brutal but smart.
Hypocrisy exposed || Modi hugs Lalu: Silence || Kejriwal hugs Lalu: Hue and Cry
I am disgusted with Kejriwal hugging corruption convict Lalu on stage today. But I am disgusted more with a lot of Modi supporters going overboard in demonizing Kejriwal. Demonize all you want, I am with you. But why this one sided demonizing?
Few months back Modi attended wedding of Lalu’s youngest daughter and showed similar bonhomie. Similar bear hugs and similar smile. Why none of you spoke then?
When intellectuals do one sided AwardWapsi, such people raise hue and cry. But when they themselves do this one sided propaganda, they don’t even blink. If this is not hypocrisy then what is?
I am not defending Kejriwal, nor I am demonizing Modi. I am bringing out the two face of such people who call themselves upright. You spoke against Award Waapsi, I stood with you. But now when you do the same to Kejriwal, you need to be exposed.
You flood social media with obnoxities when Kejriwal hugs Lalu while you stayed silent when Modi hugged Lalu or for that matter Digvijay Singh. You need to be exposed.
I was angry when Modi did it. I am angry when Kejriwal did it. I am angry when anti-award-waapsi people behave like award-waapsi-gang.
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