B Raman Calls for a Boycott of the Chindu

Shri N.Ram, the toast of China’s communist clique

Shri N.Ram, the well-known Editor-in-Chief of “The Hindu” of Chennai, has been the toast of China for an article purported to have beenwritten by him refuting the allegations levelled by the Dalai Lama and his supporters regarding the events of March in Lhasa . The Chineseauthorities have been gratified by what they see as his vigorous articulation of the version of the events as put out by them.

2. A report on Shri Ram’s article disseminated by the State-owned Hsinhua news agency of China is annexed. It is learnt that this has beentranslated into the Tibetan and Uighur languages and copies distributed in all the monasteries and educational institutions in theTibetan-inhabited areas of China. It has also been made required reading in the patriotic re-education classess for Tibetans being organisedby the Chinese authorities.In the meanwhile, the Chinese authorities have reduced the duration of the stay of the Olympic Torch in Tibetfrom three to one day. The torch will be in Lhasa on June 21 instead of June 19.

3. The dissemination of Shri Ram’s article is unlikely to have any impact on the Tibetans and Uighurs. Nor will it have much of an impact oninternational opinion on the recent events in Tibet because Shri Ram’s policy of “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil” with regard toChina is well known right across the world.His popularity in China is confined to the Chinese ruling circles.

4.After writing this article, I showed this to a number of Indian friends. While a majority agreed that this deserved to be written anddisseminated, some asked why do this since it could reflect on the credibility of a great institution of Chennai.

5. After carefully considering their advice, I concluded that this needed to be written in the interest of the Indian people and the lovablepeople of Tibet. It will be moral cowardice to remain silent when the Editor of a highly respected paper of Chennai uses his access to itscolumns to demonise the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans just as Beijing is in the habit of doing.

6. As you move around Chennai, you see thousands of advertisements inviting you to buy “The Hindu”. When you see those advertisements,think of Shri Ram and his writings in support of the Chinese and in demonisation of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans and ask yourself thequestion:” Does such a newspaper deserve my continued support?”. The choice is yours.[link]

China’s New Found “Openness”

China’s New Found “Openness”

Besides Tibet, two other important stories to watch while gauging Beijing’s newly discovered bent for openness and transparency are closely tied to the disaster in Sichuan. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has launched a probe into the disproportionately large number of schoolchildren who were killed when their schools collapsed on them while other nearby buildings withstood the shock of the quake. If shoddy construction was involved, officials have vowed to punish those responsible.

Angry, grieving parents who have lost children are screaming for justice, but an honest and full investigation could lead to high places in Communist Party officialdom in the province. Its seems likely that so-called “tofu” construction was commonplace in the building of schools and that private contractors colluded with government officials to skimp on essential materials such as steel and concrete and pocket the savings. If these corrupt officials are truly brought to book for their malfeasance, that would be a major breakthrough in the country’s battle against graft. But beware the scapegoat: this investigation could turn out like a lot of others – punishing a few for the widespread practice of many.

The same is true of the central government’s pledge that all local and foreign donations to quake victims, which have surpassed 40 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion), will be strictly accounted for. This promise comes after numerous reports on the Internet of donated goods intended for quake victims winding up on sale in shops or in the possession of people not affected by the quake. Venal officials are allegedly selling items such as tents and rice by the truckload. If this is true, how many of these culprits, the latest symbols of China’s endemic corruption, will pay for their crimes?

Finally, of course, there are the Olympic Games and the 30,000 foreign reporters who will descend on the country to cover not just the athletes but also anything else of interest they can find. They will want to interview ordinary citizens and ask Chinese leaders tough questions about corruption and democratic reform. They have been promised great freedom. Let’s see if Beijing can deliver on that promise.

In the end, however, it will not be until the grand Olympic stage is packed away and the eyes of the world have turned elsewhere that any clear sense of China’s future as a budding civil society will become clear. [link]

Vir Sanghvi Blasts the Communists

He actually called the CPI(M) as ‘thugs and murderers’ for the massacre of innocents in Nandigram and infact he goes on to draw parallels with Mao and Stalin and the finest traditions of ‘global communism’.

One wonders how long  it is before Vir Sanghvi is denounced as a “counter-revolutionary” and a “closet communalist” by his leftist media colleagues and “intellectuals”.

The Bengal Paradox

It is now over a decade since I moved out of Calcutta. But watching the news last week, I felt I was back. As I saw those terrible shots of policemen beating up women in Nandigram, as I read about the massacre of innocent villagers, and as I noted the cold, commissar-like response of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to the killings, I remembered what it was like to live in West Bengal.

Like the rest of us, the people of West Bengal get the politicians they deserve. They get the thugs and murderers of the CPM and they get the hysterical, self-destructive opposition of Mamata Banerjee. Small wonder then that while Bengalis prosper all over the world (and in the rest of India), Bengal remains a backwater, always at least a decade behind the rest of the country.

UN Watch Blasts the UNHRC

And see the intolerance of the UNHRC to any criticism of its conduct and the threat to ban the UN Watch representative’s speech. This has become a stalinist organisation through and through dominated by the same third world dictatorial thugs from many parts of Asia, Africa, the Arab world and latin America who are supposed to be held accountable by this body.

Also Watch the Speeches Not Banned at the UNHRC by UN Watch.

Nandigram Massacre

Communist thugs massacre poor, innocent, defenseless villagers in Nandigram, West Bengal because they dared to stand up to their tyranny and prevent the commies from stealing their land and livelihoods.

Warning – graphic video

With the fall of the Soviet Union died the Communist ideology. Now the surviving communist regimes in China, Cuba and West Bengal state in India have lost their ideological veneer and have become plain thugocracies who maintain their power only through sheer terror, intimidation and cheating. They always arrogate themselves the right to speak for the common people but have no qualms to kill them if they dare challenge them in anyway and ofcourse with the usual accompanying gaudy red rhetoric that it is all for their own good !!

This is similar to what is happening in China, very much admired by Indian communists and their sympathizers in the media and intellectual circles, where the Communist government there is stealing land from its poor farmers for the sake of “development”, which could mean anything from a factory to a shiny hotel and golf course, through intimidation and violence. The Chinese government is also involved in a massive organ trafficking scam stealing organs from poor people to sell it to rich foreigners.

Update- Nandigram Media Archive at  sacredmediacow.com

Illegal Bangladeshi Immigration Into India

A two year old TV documentary, perhaps originally produced by and telecast on Aaj Tak, on the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigration to India and its links to rising terrorist violence in many parts of the country. It is quite well researched and well made with interviews of many experts, on the ground investigations and hard data.

In the words of former CBI director Joginder Singh- India is ‘tolerating’ upto 5 crore(50 million) illegal immigrants on its soil.

p.s- The program is only in Hindi with no English subtitles. But if you have a working knowledge of Hindi it is not very difficult to follow.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Channel 4 of the UK strikes against the Global Warming fundamentalists with a brilliant documentary presenting the views of many reputed climate scientists and experts who are sceptical about the ‘Theory of Man Made Global Warming’.

Also available here

Camlin’s new Permanent Marker Ad

This Ad is a parody on the Rudali custom in India. Hopefully this shameful and humiliating custom has by now joined the ranks of Sati and Child marriage in the dustbin of history where i fervently hope it will soon be joined by the likes of the caste system and female infanticide.

Anyway I thought this Ad was funny. Everyone i showed it to thought it was funny. But the question is why has Camlin not dared to put it on air in India. Perhaps they feel in their bones(that might be broken soon) that there are some people who have appointed themselves as guardians of public morality and humor who might not think it’s funny .

More Assaults On the Freedom Of Speech

And this latest assault comes from two of our own kind in the Indian Blogdom and not from establishment figures like Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose et al who bemoan that the “irresponsible” masses are speaking their mind bypassing their propoganda machinery editorial process. Or I &B Minister Priyaranjan Dasmushi who considers himself the sole “moral” authority in what is to be broadcast or not by the TV channels. Or the Shivsena which routinely takes to the streets seeking ban on this or that.

The said two bloggers both went ballistic in the same week because they came across points of view opposite to their own which they found “offensive”.

One of them even sought a ban on what he considered as a “hate website”.The other questioned the motives of a prominent Indian News portal for giving people whom he considered as “hate mongers” and “fascists” a platform to express their opinion.

They both tried to justify their stand by using the same tired old vacuous argument used by many establishment crusaders all over the world to stifle dissent, that the Freedom of Speech should come with some kind of “responsibility”.

But the paradox is who gets to define what is responsible and what is not? Who gets to define what is hate speech and what is not? Since everyone carries his or her own prejudices, opinions and points of view. Everyone is therefore at sometime or the other going to ‘feel’ offended by something or someone.

Rajdeep Sardesai named Impact Person of the Year

Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN has been named Impact magazine’s Person of the Year 2006. Impact who? Well, no one had supposedly heard of them till they decided to make this guy their Person of the Year. Maybe they hope that by this act some of his “fame” will rub off on them too and help push up their sales. As of now they don’t seem to have even a proper website.And i don’t remember seeing their copies on any newsstand.

So get this strategy right. If you are a struggling magazine desperately wanting to come out of the pits make sure to institute an award to “reward” well recognised people with recognitions.

The list of nominees drawn up by Impact – a weekly magazine that focuses on the media – included some of the biggest names in the media industry, all icons in their own fields.

This way whoever wins you get recognised for sure.

So what are the so called “achievements” of Rajdeep Sardesai that got him this “recognition” from a not so well recognised magazine.

His channel’s coverage of the reservation stir in May 2006 where he desperately tried to give a good spin to the pro-reservation crowd.He conducted a sham survey along with his pal Yogendra Yadav and tried to twist the results in a show debate held in his channel to suit his own point of view.

Subsequently the Acorn also published this letter to Rajdeep Sardesai from Sameer wagle. where he pointed out CNN-IBN’s bias in the coverage.

The anti-reservation stir has been led by idealistic students with no political axe to grind. They are fighting on principles without any resources to back them and facing the might of the government.

The pro-reservation agitation on the other hand is led by jobless professional politicians (Dalit Panthers etc) who are doing so mainly for vote-bank politics. The number of anti-reservation students far exceeds whatever few people the pro-reservation politicians can gather.

Yet you equate the two in a bid to be seen as fair. This is not objective journalism. Every news coverage that you give to the anti-reservation guys you will show some 10-15 pro-reservation guys just to look balanced. You don’t look at the numbers of people, their backgrounds or their motivation levels

He displayed a very pathetic attitude during the 7/11 Mumbai tragedy. He was jumping up and down all the time reminding his viewers that his channel was the first to report the “breaking news” and that his newsfeed is being carried by CNN all over the world.

And a month later he participated in the UPA government’s efforts to play down the incident and by the time of the Havana appeasement he was in the forefront of those wanting the Indian government to hug the dictator and let bygones be bygones.

He later supported the clemency petition for Parliament attack convict Mohammed Afzal for which the terrorist himself thanked him profusely.

Afzal said he was moved by the ‘solidarity’ he has received from people, cutting across ideological divides(An eupheism for the Indian Media which pretends to represent everyone), apart from the support he got from Jammu and Kashmir.

So ladies and gentlemen applause please!

May his tribe go extinct.