The Fourth Estate – Sold??

Yes, people I think that the Fourth estate is for sale or most likely has already been bought off by the people who have the money.

When there are so many other issues like Naxal problem, J& K problem, the rising inflation, food grains rotting in godowns, the perennial corruption, and so forth. The news item that really has caught the imagination of most of the new channels is that of the Spot-fixing done by some Pakistani players.

Over the last few weeks the Indian News Media at least the so called News Channels have been covering the Spot-Fixing scandal like it is the most important news item that everyone should know about. They have run expose video & audio taken by News of the World reporters again & again so much so that I am sure many people who have by-hearted it by now.

The fact that these News people are missing is that, a common Indian doesn’t really care it. Sure, the people would have cared if it had been done by an Indian but we are least interested if it was, is being done by a non-Indian player.

 Somehow, the fact that many Indian athletes who were to participate or were probable for the Common Wealth Games have failed the doping test is not big news. In fact, this is supposed to be the all-time record for the number of athletes caught doping for a host country.

Just imagine, how it would be, if in most of the events the host countries athletes are banned from participating because of drugs use? And, here we are worried about Pakistani players involved in spot-fixing.

Here’s a quick statistics:

I went to the Times Now website and did search for “doping + CWG”, I got 9 hits.  Do a search for “spot-fixing” and I got 10 hits. I did a search for “sopt-fixing” and guess what? I got a total of 66 hits, most of them relevant to the on-going row.

Okay, one may argue that since corruption scandal hit the CWG and given the fact that India was never anyways gonna be a contender to win the most medals in the games, people were least interested in the doping scandal.

What about the Rotting Food Grains in the godowns of the FCI? That is an important issue given the price rise, right? I did a search for “food grains” and “rotting food grains”. Yes I did get many hits, but almost 95% of the hits had nothing to do with this issue. In fact, most of the hits for the “food grains” were about the cooking shows that are broadcast on the channel.

And the biggest of all is that most of the News Channels and the print media have kept silent about the Paid News scandal. In fact, if any other group had anything like this these news channels and print media would have been hounding away about the scandal for 24 hours for at least 4 months.

But when they themselves were caught, with their hands in the cookie jar, these institutions have decided to act as if the whole thing never even happened.

I did a search for “paid news” on the times now website, I did not get even one relevant hit. That just about sums it all up for you.

Here, I have to note that The Hindu has been publishing many articles about the paid news phenomenon and so has Outlook magazine on its blog. However, these two institutions have not gone public with the report, though outlook has provided a link on its blog.

Imagine, being able to control what news you want to see published or broadcast. The power of propaganda is so powerful that any news can be twisted to suit your needs.

Here are some links for you to look at:

Paid News You Can't Read About

 A blog on the paid news scandal with extracts from the report.

http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10&pid=2290&eid=5

Who Voted How?

Details of who on the PCI council voted for the report to be made public and who did not.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266559

'Paid News': The Buried Report

The full report of the PCI subcommittee, which has been buried by the publishers.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266542

Final Report on Paid News

The final report created by PCI that does not have the sub-committee’s report.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35436980/Final-Report-on-Paid-News

The above links clearly show that the Fourth Estate - at least a major share of it is up for grabs.now, who grabs that up is something we can never be sure of.

What needs to be done is that the News Publications involved in the paid news should be investigated and all thsoe involved should be banned for life from participating in any other media institution. Legal action taken should also be initiated against the institutions. 

The PCI's functioning must change, eminent members of the public should be invited on board. The PCI given more powers to act against erring members.

The Fourth Estate should act as the soul of a nation, if it is corrupted then the nation itself will become corrupted. This will lead to a rot from the inside and we can forget about India being a Superpower by 2050 let alone 2020. 

India's Foreign Policy - My Views

I have always been interested in how a country comes up with its foreign policy. More so with how India’s foreign policy is formulated because I am citizen of this country.

But the current trends of  India’s foreign policy, I must say does not look as if it was being formulated by people in touch with the present day reality.

Here’s what I think that India should do about its foreign policy.


Russia:
Consider the relationship between India and Russia. We have a bilateral trade of just $8 billion and that too with a country that has stood with us in thick and thin of our history. The rules on travel and trade between the countries read more like restrictions than guidelines.

How many people know that the BrahMos missile system that we Indians feel so proudly about is actually based on an existing Russian missile system called the Oniks? (The propulsion system is based on the Oniks.)

Though agreed that we have had disagreements on the price for the Aircraft Carrier, considering the past history, this should be treated as a one off event.

Russia has and is building some many civil nuclear plants in India for India and yet the GOI doesn’t take more steps to have closer ties Russia. Also, take into fact that Central Asia and Siberia have huge energy deposits and given India’s growing energy needs one would think India would make all the efforts to get closer to Russia.


China:
China is the fastest growing economy in the world. It will soon become a world power, if it already isn’t so. Given that China has never commented about other countries and that it has recently started to do so shows China’s growing self confidence.

China has also started modernizing its army, something that India can learn from.

Yet, the view is of India and China as enemies. In ancient times, these were two cultures that were mpost friendly to each other, why it cannot be so today is something that we must think about.

Sure, there are outlaying issues like the border issues, but the Russia-China have solved their border dispute and a much longer border at that shows that, is political will is applied the border issue can be amicably solved mutually.

Imagine if China and India were to work together in every field as they beautifully did in Copenhagen, the developing world will greatly benefit and institutions like IMF and World Bank can be easily reformed so that it benefits the poorer countries.

Though we are a part of the BRIC, the forum does not have much influence on the global scale. Also, we need China’s help to get into ASEAN which is more powerful than the SAARC.

China has substantial presence in Africa, India being a growing country needs to explore new channels for investment and what other continent than Africa has the highest potential for growth. China could defiantly help India in securing investments in Africa.


Iran:
I take the example of Iran to show how not to conduct a foreign policy.

India and Iran were in negotiations for building a pipeline that would deliver natural gas from Iran to India. The deal was nearing completion and any other country would not have taken an antagonistic step towards the other, especially the one providing the natural gas.

Not so, in India’s case. India voted against Iran in a crucial IAEA meeting; not that India’s vote tipped the case against Iran but still why did India vote against Iran especially at such a crucial juncture? No one knows the answer. And Iran simply like any sensible country simply stepped away from the deal.

So, we lost a crucial source of energy supply that to at a time when our energy needs is growing by leaps and bounds.


Turkey:
Turkey is one of the most modern countries in the middle-east. It is a country that has a blend of both Arabic and European cultures. It’s also a country that has a large degree of influence in the middle-east.

Did you know that the Turkish Army is the guardian of secularism and democracy in that country? That it was the army that secured the country against fundamentalism that was rampant in the country in the 1970’s.

India must develop better relationships with Turkey; for one thing we can learn how to seamlessly blend seemingly opposing views. Also, India was ill-afford to lose friendship with what could be a major power from the middle-east.


Africa:
The one continent that has the potential for the most rapid growth in all sectors in the globe is Africa. And yet, as pointed out in a recent editorial in Hindu, India does not have any kind of foreign policy document on Africa.

Sure, the continent is facing various kinds of problems that range from natural to man-made, but the potential is there. Just consider the geographic of the continent; it has rich store of energy- a large number of river systems, source of metals, the large market potential for every products.  

Any country that can make investments in Africa now is bound to make huge dividends later. That is precisely what China is doing.

India, which has pretentions of being a super-power, should invest money, material in Africa. The short-term returns maybe negligible but the long-term returns are bound to be huge.


Myanmar:
Now, here is an example of a country that is ruled by a military junta that has kept one of the most fearless voices of democracy jailed for more than 15 years now.

For a country that boasts about being the world’s largest democracy, how can one explain India’s policy towards Myanmar?

India has not once issued a statement that criticizes the conduct of the military junta, nor has it taken any steps in helping get Aung San Suu Kyi released.

India in fact has cordial relations with the country in which democracy is blatantly violated. India has voted against UN bills condemning the violence unleashed by the military junta.


South & Central America:
These are another two continents which are growing at a fast pace and are bound to grow faster in the next few decades. The market potential, the amount of available natural resources all point to an investment destination that is bound to make huge profits for the people investing in these regions.

Take the case of Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico – though all these countries face problems of rampant crime, the potential for growth far outweighs any of the risks of investments in these countries.


Israel:
India does not have good relationship with Israel; I think that India should develop much better relationsip with Israel. The point being that I am not condoning Israel’s sometime over the board actions. But, India can learn a lot about counter-terrorism from Israel.

Israel’s security forces including its police are after all doing a hell of a job keeping Israel safe. Our security forces could do well from closer interactions that are not just limited to the defense industry as at present.


 Of course, I have more views on India's foreign relations but at present i shall limit myself to the above. You may or may not agree with what I have to say but don't deny that what I say does not make sense.

Mercenary Vs Employee

Being jobless is boring, taxing, drives one crazy (don’t ask how can a crazy person become crazy, tats beside the point.) but it also means that you have a lot of time to think about stuff that you wouldn’t think about otherwise (in my case,  at least I wouldn’t have spent so much time thinking about it.)

Okay, so now back to the topic being discussed: Mercenaries and employees. Do you think that there is a difference between them? Well most people me myself (at one point of time) included would say Yes they are different.

Mercenary seems to have a negative connotation to it.  Think of mercenary, freeze that image in your mind. Now think of employee, and freeze that image in your mind.

The Oxford dictionary gives the following meaning for Mercenary: As one primarily concerned with money. Know what’s the definition of employee? It’s given as: As one working for wages.

So, primarily there is no difference between the definitions of a mercenary and an employee.

Let’s explore employees. After all the global meltdown happened due to some employees; the Bhopal accident happened due to some employees; the BP oil spill happened due to some employees and the list is endless.

In comparison what an mercenaries do may result in direct loss of life, they may steal something valuable but it doesn’t have such a wide global impact as what an employee does.

And yet who gets the bad name? It’s the mercenaries.

Well, I am dedicating this article to all the mercenaries out there in the universe….

Note: The above article is written by me without any coercion on anyone’s part. Nor is it intended to hurt anybody’s feelings.

Hollywood and the Ancient Egyptians

I saw the movie Transformers 2 movie recently. It was the last straw; I have had it with Hollywood. It’s not so much as the concept of the movie – which is crap – that I can’t agree with but, implicitly implying that the Pyramids and some other monuments in the Egypt- Jordan region were all built by aliens or at least with alien collaboration.

Take any sci-fi films that involves aliens and you are bound to have a sub-plot that says the pyramids were built by aliens. Sometimes the plot extends to saying all the ancient monuments in the world were all built by aliens – they are a portal to another dimension or they were built to protect some power source.

Imhotep – considered a great physician and the guy who designed and built the Step Pyramid (the first pyramid ever built) for his King - is shown as an evil, corrupt man who wants to take over the world.

Qin Shi Huang - China’s first emperor, the man who united China; is also portrayed as an power hungry evil monarch. The list goes on....Genghis Khan is another famous villain of Hollywood’s imagination.

Now imagine, if one was to portray say Charlemagne (the first Holy Roman Emperor) or Arthur (the mythical king of England) is the same vein would the film be allowed to release? Would the film be made at all is the million dollar question.

Interestingly there are no comparable ancient monuments in Europe or America - that is monuments that date from the period during which the pyramids of Egypt were built. Sure, there are the old monuments from this period but nothing as big or as spectacular. Only Stonehenge compares in this regard, but I was not able to find many films that have Stonehenge as an alien subplot.

Of course, one may argue that the monuments built by the Mayas, Aztecs, Incas are also portrayed as alien-built. One need not mention about the Easter Island statues. As again I am sure, you will notice a certain link between an monuments portrayal as alien and the civilization that built it. The link being that, the particular civilization would not be from Europe. The monuments would be spectacular having no equal in Europe.

So like I said, waiting for movies in which the Stonehenge is built by aliens, Charlemagne or Arthur shown as blood-thirsty, evil monarchs who want to rule all of human kind...you guys know the plot.

Happy & Sad – the contrasting tales of two artists.

Feb 24th, 2010 will be both a Happy and a Sad day for India.

First the Happy Part:

There was a time before.....a time before the economic growth of India, a time before India was recognized as a important player on the world arena...a time before IT industry exploded all over India.

It was the time when Indian goods did not rank highly in the global market...when the Indian middle class was non-existent...when there was almost nothing to cheer about....well almost.

There were two words the World knew and trembled before, two words that raised the hopes of an entire nations, two words on whose shoulders India rested like the globe on Atlas’s shoulders, two words that were a cry for joy, hope, freedom....a freedom from the shackles that held the common man, the middle class man

Those two words are Sachin Tendulkar!!!!!!!!!

The words Sachin speaks when he introduces himself: “My name is Sachin Tendulkar and I play for India” is one that a billion plus people love to hear cherish and forever remember.

It was on Feb 24th, that the God decided that he would break the 200 mark in ODI cricket and he did it. Sachin is GOD.

If Cricket is religion then Sachin is God.

I am not trying to compare Sachin with Sir Don Bradman nor can anybody – it is impossible to compare two players who played in different ears, different conditions and more importantly in different periods of mindsets that people had.

Sir Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar are great players – the greatest ever in the game of cricket.

Here is a cricketer, a sportsperson, an artist who has entertained Indian and indeed all the world with his artistry. I need not go into the statistics, or what happens when Sachin is in full flow, the number of accolades he has won, the appreciations he has got from teammates, opponents, current former players...

His popularity is so much that even Pakistanis would pay to watch Sachin play, what more can I say? Look at the praise heaped upon him and invariable you will find some of the greatest Pakistani cricketers are among Sachins most ardent and vociferous supporters.

As in the old days, when people were honoured by giving them the “Key to the City”, Sachin should be given the “Key to India”.

Now the Sad part:

It was also on the Feb 24th that another great artist of our times M F Husain was offered a Qatar citizenship. This is not a bad thing in itself, but for the following two facts:

• Under Indian laws, a person cannot have dual citizenship.

• The reason why MF Hussain has agreed to accept the Qatar citizenship, thus will give up Indian citizenship.

Here is an man considered as one of the greatest contemporary artist of current times, but one who is forced into exile for following the freedom of expression that is a given to all the people of the country or is it?

People who are accused of instigating genocides and mass killings walk free in India, but its greatest artist fears coming to India, because of the harassment that he will face. Sadly, the government seems not to notice this.

The only comment that came from the government regarding the issue was that MF Hussain would be given protection if he asked for it.

Only the Supreme Court has come in support of the artist by throwing out many of the cases that were filled against MF Hussain.

Why were so many cases foisted on him, because of some nude paintings of his. Excuse me, but aren’t most Hindu temples filled with half naked figurines of men and women?

As the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi remarked:

“Periyar’s statue depicts him wearing shirt and dhoti. But some idols inside the temples are nude. What do you do with such idols?”

“For instance, you have the Vallabha Ganapathi idol at Chidambaram temple and the Utchishta Ganapathi idol at Tiruvarur, where even the priests are so embarrassed that they keep the idols covered with pieces of cloth.”

Now, i understand and acknowledge that there maybe artist who create art with no other aim than to create communal disruptions. Such people should be definitely be dealt with in the strictest of rules.

That India lost of one of its greatest artist on the same day that another great artist was rewriting history is an irony; it is events like these that have come to script India’s history.

As I have remarked earlier, the true greatness of any culture is measured not in its financial, political or military wealth but in its arts- how much is art patronized, how much freedom does art & artist have. The moment an art or artist is proscribed then the fall of the civilization begins.

Let us hope that it does not happen so with this country.