Where is our country going?

I was under the wrong impression that I was being outrageous while describing our MSM (Main Stream Media), The Government, The Political Leadership as Dumb Fucks (DFs). I realize that I have been, in fact, understating the facts. What else can explain the following?

Recently, when MF Hussein was conferred Qatar citizenship, the "whole nation" rose in support of the nonagenarian.

Exhibiting their DF-ness are: The Center, Artists from India, Sharmila Khan Pataudi, The Center once again, The inimitable N. Ram, and none other than Mr. Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of RSS!

All these asses cite "Freedom of Expression" as their argument. Well, OK, MFH needs to be allowed to publish nude pics of Hindu deities due to this clause.

Now, watch the contrast. Another "artist", by name Macha Laxmaiah alias Krantikar, also a civil rights activist, wants to warn his fellow countrymen, nay, fellow human beings in the world, of a stinker of an ideology in his book titled "Crescent over the world - is a boon or the silent Holocaust?". It results in a protest, claiming that it contained quotes from "banned" books "The Satanic Verses", and "Lajja" by authors Mr. Salman Rushdie, and Ms Taslima Nasreen. The result(?) is the "arrest" of the author and his two "helpers". I wonder, if "The Hindu" even reported this. What are MFH's "protectors", The Center, Sharmila, Artists, N. Ram, Mohan Bhagwat and so on doing?

Are Salman Rushdie, and Ms Taslima Nasreen any less artistic than MFH? Why should MFH have the "freedom of expression" but not SR or TN, or anyone else including Mr. Macha Laxmaiah?

Mark my words, I am not being outrageous when I call this whole group starting from The Center to Mr Mohan Bhagwat, a bunch of DFs. I am understating the facts.

And, I am not being outrageous even when I say that: I wish this ninety year old stinking shit-pack of a painter goes to say hello to another departed shit-pack, pain in the backside, Mr. Jyotirmoy Basu.

Where is our country going? O my people, come and save this country.

Budget 2010: Is Pranav a Mukherji or a Murkhaji (Foolish)

It doesn't require a genius to observe that Mr. Finance Minister is a DF(Dumb-Fuck). Well, at least as far as the individual income tax is concerned. Our bright man from Bengal has bettered another DF from his state, the Railway Minister Ms Mamata Banerji. One wonders if the members of this government are ministers or sinister(s).

While Mamata presented the Rail Budget of West Bengal, not of the Indian Union, Pranav presented the budgetary insight of a damn fool. Coming to brass tacks, leaving the zero tax limit for an individual to the previous limit of Rs. 1.6 lac is moronic. Mr FM possibly wants to better sadistic performance of his bong senior Monsieur Jyotirmoy Basu, who fortunately logged off after tormenting his motherland for about nine decades.

An "ideal balanced family" of six - grandfather, grandmother, husband, wife, and two children (a son and a daughter) - requires, at the very least, about Rs. 30,000 every month for a decent living. This makes it, Rs. 3.6 lac per annum. A small allowance, for occasional luxury should make it about Rs. 4 lac an annum. Now, circa 2010, this should be the zero tax limit. And if, as usual, other sinister members of Mr. PM's cabinet conspire to perpetrate the present inflationary trends, by circa 2011 this limit has to be pushed to Rs. 5 lac per annum.

Now, instead of this, the DF moron has "relaxed" the tax-regime, by upping the other slab limits, making some of the tax slabs wider.

We must understand a few things very clearly. The taxes are way too high, even now anyway; so widening of the slabs, albeit necessary and hence welcome, is not enough. Meaning therefore, that this government is merely reducing its sins, and is still far from being virtuous by even sufficiently low standards. And finally, the absence of any relaxation in the zero tax limit, even this penitence effect is grossly undermined.

This clearly shows that this government intends to bloody rob the "hardest working" Aam Aadami population and subsidize and sponsor the luxurious life styles of its over-sized "twittering" ministries along with the cartel of goons who will be the "real" recipients of all the affirmative action programs which this government proposes to undertake using the tax-collections.

Mr PM, FM and the accompanying DF's, where is your promise to be the government of the "Aam Aadami"?

Idiocy of the Election Commission

In a news item, the EC of India has said that "Burqa is not integral to Islam". This has come up with regards to the issuing of voter-identity cards to Muslim women. A simple question is, "Does it matter?". For, the more important question is, what would EC do if it indeed is integral to Islam?

Our policy makers, starting from the DF Jawahar, have always been sidestepping on crucial issues. What EC must have said is that, "A photograph of the full face is a MUST" period. Islam or No Islam ain't matter. Instead they have made bleating noises regarding burqa not being integral to Islam. What happens if the Darul Uloom Deoband or Bareilley issues a fatwa stating that "burqa is integral to Islam"? EC will tie itself into knots!!

Nitin Gadakari's DF-ness

Nitin Gadakari, the new chief of the BJP, has appealed to the muslims to support the making of Ram temple in Ayodhya. Worst of all, he says that he is NOT opposed to the construction of a mosque beside the temple. As if there are not already more than enough numbers of mosques in this country. Isn't NG `such a lovely' DF?

I wonder what makes our leaders lick the toes of these muslims? Are muslim toes very tasty? And remember that NG has been hoisted by the RSS! I pity the intelligence of Shri Mohan Bhagwat.

If our so called "hard-liners" are such wishy-washy blobs of cotton, imagine what our "peace-loving, tolerant, secular" Hindu Indians will be?

I surmise that If NG is made the Prime-Minister of this country, he will appeal to Pakistan (as our DF PM's have been doing over the years) to make India a terror-attack free nation. And this DF will do it with an ardent hope!

SIkhs Beheaded by Muslims

The newspaper "The Hindu" reported that two sikhs were beheaded by Pakistani Taliban. The whole report, from the above link, is copied below:

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Two Sikhs beheaded

Peshawar/Islamabad: Two Sikhs who were kidnapped over a month back have been beheaded by the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s restive tribal belt in a brutal act by the militants.

Some more members of the minority community are still in the custody of the rebels.

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"What's news in this?" you may ask. Watch carefully, the report calls the killers "militants". Had these killers been Pramod Mutalik's men or Shiv Sainiks, they would have been termed "Hindu Fundamentalists".

So every time you read/watch news, observe how the media is conning your subconscious against "Hinduism", while softening you towards "Islam" and other such faiths.

This also should be a message to the Sikh community (truly speaking all non-muslims), that Islam or muslims can never be, and will never be friends or well-wishers of non-muslims.

DF-ery Continued

When two big fools fight, it is difficult to imagine who'll be worse off than the other. Messrs. Bal Thakerey, and Raj Thakerey are displaying just that. In his recent remarks Mr. Raj tacitly supports SRK. Raj should oppose Big B, if he is upset with him, and oppose SRK too.

SRK is busy displaying his "integrity" here. SRK has proved himself to be a sinister guy when he proclaimed post 26/11 Mumbai attacks that Islam was being portrayed in bad light and that he would work towards salvaging its image. Can you imagine? "Islam being portrayed in bad light"? Phew. What has Islam been doing for past 1400 years? Running charity shows?

For the unsuspecting and gullible readers, let me inform you that the real story on which "Chak De India" was based had a Hindu coach. The movie had the name altered to a muslim name at the insistence of SRK. The buzz doing the rounds is that SRK insists on having a muslim name for himself in his movies. Even if it is statistically true, it shows the man that he is, rather the Shylock that he is.

Avoid buying such bull**its.

Paid News - A New Corruption in Journalism

A new form of corruption, News selling, is emerging in Journalism. It is also being referred to as Paid Content. The Times of India group has set up a division for this purpose called Medianet (http://medianet.indiatimes.com/), complete with a rate card for the sale of news. Many other news papers, TV channels and other news agencies are actively engaged in this unethical practice.

Sale of news is different and distinct from paid advertisements, advertorials or special supplements, all of which are clearly identified as sponsored features while paid news is not. Such spurious news has become attractive for flop movies, fashion and lifestyle products and the promotion of hotels and restaurants that enter into a payment arrangement with the organization.

Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan officially spent a little over Rs11,000 on paid advertising but got coverage worth much more in newspapers such as the Maharashtra Times and Lokmat. More than 89 full page news items were published in the newspapers, mostly in colors, on the Chief Minister appearing during the State poll campaign. The glaring mismatch between Mr. Chavan’s claims and the news coverage was analyzed. Three Marathi newspapers carried identical news reports praising Mr. Chavan. Only the headlines were different. Prima facie, EC felt that it was an advertisement masquerading as news.

Based on data compiled by media monitoring agency AdEx (a unit of TAM Media Research Private Ltd), Mint reported on 2 December that in the recent assembly elections in Maharashtra, advertising volume (in column cm) in Marathi newspapers declined by around one-fifth from 2004, suggesting the possibility of the increased incidence of advertisements disguised as news.

Yellow journalism and blackmailing were known forms of corruption in journalism but today, a subtle and implicit form of corruption is creating greater mischief. The paid news syndrome is aimed at promoting certain interests and suppression of news and concerns of other interests have become a usual feature in media. Media turning into a commercial enterprise and the newspaper into a commodity-the media was being driven by market forces. Such media is indulging in trivialization, sensationalisation and tainted corporate communication, trial by media, incorrect reporting of court cases and devaluation of the office of editor.

Sections of media indulging in paid coverage especially during elections were undermining the democracy. MP or an MLA paying money to a newspaper or a television channel to elicit favorable news coverage is becoming common.

Haryana CM has revealed that he approached the leading newspaper of his state with money for positive stories after learning that the newspaper had signed a package deal with his rivals to print negative stories. The selling of editorial space has become both blatant and institutionalized, and that neither the print nor the electronic media are immune to the malaise.

Media barons responsible for turning newspapers into mammon-worshipping behemoths where everything is available for a price, including sacred editorial space. Fact-finding journalism has now become a commercialized activity. Owners have turned newspapers into a business proposition.

A top management executive from Punjab Kesri (readership 1.04 crore) admits that the newspaper made anywhere between Rs 10 crore and Rs 12 crore during the assembly election season. They were forced to sell editorial space because of tremendous pressure from politicians. We were also being pushed by the so-called national English dailies who had their packages and were mopping up revenue. We could not have missed out on the opportunity.

Television news channels are equally guilty of selling editorial space. Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit was approached by a news channel in Delhi with a package to cover Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the East Delhi constituency during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Campaign managers of the Congress spent money for the Delhi assembly elections last year when a TV channel insisted on projecting a lesser tally for the Congress in its opinion polls. The tally improved after the channel was paid off.

In Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the 24-hour TV9 channel in Telugu and Kannada has been accused of promoting politicians for a monetary consideration and is alleged to have run an hour-long interview with a prominent politician who paid for the airtime. Channel director Mahendra Mishra denies this, though. Marathi channel IBN-Lokmat too found itself in the middle of a controversy when it ran a feel good interview with one of its directors, Congress candidate Rajendra Darda, during the Maharashtra assembly elections. Editor Nikhil Wagle, however, says he took extra precaution to ensure that Darda got lesser airtime than other politicians.

Media owners squeezed as much money as possible from political parties and candidates during the Lok Sabha elections. There are recorded cases of open blackmailing of candidates.

With the emergence of Paid content issue, the media is not the fourth estate any more. Journalism is no more a sacred profession. Though the advertisement helps news agency to subsidies the news to the readers, the readers willingly pay for the news and editorial content. They have a right to expect that advertisements and news are distinct and segregated. In the absence of such clarity, the reader ought to be outraged at the attempt to pass off paid news as the real thing. In such a situation, the consumer, far from being king, is totally irrelevant. The selling of news becomes unethical.

Editors Guild of India expressed shock on the publication of Paid News. It issued a statement on Wednesday, 23 December 2009 and sent a letter to each of its member-editors throughout the country asking for pledges that his/her ‘publication/TV channel will not carry any paid news' as the practice ‘violates and undermines the principles of free and fair journalism'. It also formed an ethics committee to look into the matter.

The Indian Election Commission recently asked the Press Council of India "to define what constitutes paid political news," so it can adopt appropriate guidelines. During a December meeting, the elections body also directed the press council to "formulate guidelines to the media houses" to require that the money involved be incorporated in the political party and candidate expenditures. The press council, a quasi judicial body, has decided to investigate, establishing a committee to examine violations of the journalistic code of fair and objective reporting.

[Contributed by mksri]

Linguistic minorities and Marathis

More than four thousand taxi permits are given to the taxi drivers each year in Mumbai, Maharashtra and other neighboring cities. The Motor Vehicle Rules framed in 1989, which say cab drivers should know any local language like Marathi, Hindi or Gujarati and should be domiciled in the state of Maharashtra for 15 years. According to Maharashtra Congress party, the cabinet has not changed the rules. As such, a person seeking a permit must know Marathi and any one of the local languages.

Thousands of migrants come to Mumbai each year from various places such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bangladesh and other cities. All of them are not learning Marathi and many of them are taking up the driving jobs. To understand the problem more comprehensively, the following facts in Mumbai are useful.

1. People living in Maharashtra for more than 15 years and cannot communicate in Marathi. Many of these people maintain that it is not necessary to learn the local language. Some of them show contempt towards the local language in one way or the other.

2. Marathi schools are being closed down by the government due to decreased number of students. Any attempt to make the local language compulsory is met with resistance by non locals. [Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has closed down 37 Marathi schools in the city. The city also saw a drop of over 70,000 students in the last five years with more children being inclined towards English medium schools for better career prospects. In the year, 2004-05 there were 450 Marathi medium schools with 1,77,538 students while in the year 2009-10, there are 413 schools with 1,07,413 students.]

3. Unemployment is increasing: Employed non locals, in many instances, create groups among the workplace and are more active in helping their friends and relatives. Some of them maintain that the locals are not hardworking, not talented or not skilled as reasons for unemployment among the locals.

Recently, the Maharashtra cabinet decided to grant 24,000 taxi permits, which have not been renewed since 2002, to companies which would operate fleet taxi services. In the meeting, a senior Congress minister and NCB ministers had specifically demanded that the new permits should be given only to Marathi-speaking persons. From one point of view, this was intended to ensure strict implementation of existing provisions.

City Congress chief Kripashankar Singh, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, and other north Indian leaders of the Congress had put pressure on Chavan to reverse the decision. With the civic elections around the corner, the Congress did not want to alienate non-Marathi voters who are in a majority in the metropolis. A senior Congress leader confirmed that following the strong protests lodged by the chief ministers of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and former railway minister Lalu Prasad, the Congress high command sought an explanation from Chavan and asked him to maintain status quo instead of taking hasty decisions.

Shiv Sena and the MNS have always championed the cause of the Marathi people. Their stance is more consistent among all the political parties in Maharashtra with respect to local interests. In the past, they have symbolically taken up protests like blackening of English signboards across the city. Now they have displayed hoardings in the city asking the North Indian drivers to learn the language in 40 days. After the reversal of the decision, spokesperson for the Sena Neelam Gorhe said the CM had succumbed to pressure from the Hindi lobby.

While all Indian languages are struggling to face the onslaught of the English, linguistic minorities are taking easy options and thereby complicating the situation. Parties and organizations are reacting with partial understanding of the problem, addressing specific aspects of the issue.

Baba Ramdev thinks that local people should get preference in jobs in their respective states, but not at the cost of peace. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said there were no takers for the slogan Mumbai for Marathis even in Maharashtra itself. Mohan Bhagwat, RSS chief, highlighted unity of India saying that all Indians were children of Bharat Mata, and every inch of India belonged to all patriotic Indians, irrespective of region, religion and language. Swamy congratulated RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on showing true statesmanship and Hindutva for his statement. Nitin Gadkari, BJP president, questioned Shiv Sena's commitment towards its demand to repeal article 370 in Kashmir.

While Sangh Parivar has tactfully brought Kashmir issue and unity of India into the discussion, it did not admit the problem created by linguistic minorities or the problem faced by Marathi people. It may be easy to target political parties like Sena and MNS and blame them for the problem. But two steps are to be supported by all who would like to retain Indian culture.

1. A set of guidelines for linguistic minorities

2. Government policies to strengthen the Indian languages (local languages) against the onslaught of English.

Guideline should advice non locals to respect local language. Practically it means, interest and willingness to learn local language at least to a minimum extent. Linguistic minorities should learn to avoid creating resentment among linguistic majority by mingling harmoniously.

Government should adopt firm, consistent policies to promote and strengthen Indian languages. English usage need not be discontinued or discouraged. But, We should always remember that a part of Indian identity is embedded in our native languages and in Sanskrit.

After following these two steps, remnants of the regional intolerance, if any, could be suppressed effectively by legal means.

[Contributed by mksri and SS]