Author:
Publication: Mediacrooks.com
Date: June 18, 2011
URL: http://www.mediacrooks.com/2011/06/why-is-indian-mainstream-media-scared.html

Introduction: The tag line to this blog still remains ‘Crooks and liars in the Indian media are the greatest danger to our democracy’!

On June 15 Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today conducted a public debate on the Lokpal bill. It was titled ‘Team Anna Vs Govt’. Not very appropriate since the supposed Govt. side had journalists Tavleen Singh and a noisy Shoma Chaudhary from Tehelka, and they surely don’t represent the government. It was the usual slugfest with the audience also involved in asking questions. Nothing about the program struck me as being new or specific except when a man wearing a green T-shirt, who introduced himself as ‘IIT Kharagpur and MBA’, started shooting questions. It was all fine until he started raising some questions about Swiss banks or KGB money apparently in relation to Sonia Gandhi. Hmmmm! That’s where Kanwal abruptly cut him off. This got me wondering all over again.

It seems that there are two topics that are taboo for our mainstream media – Islamic Terror and Sonia Gandhi. Behind all their claims of being free, fearless, impartial and unbiased our MSM really doesn’t want to talk about these two topics. In a previous post I have attempted to understand why the media is scared of the Religion of Peace. (Why ‘Liberal’ Media Is Scared of The Religion Of Peace!) But surely, the MSMs complete silence on various issues and allegations concerning Sonia Gandhi is even more intriguing. NDTV, CNN-IBN, TimesNow, Headlines Today and their Hindi versions seem reluctant to even report items appearing in various other news sources. Amazing! Sonia Gandhi seems untouchable!

On June 13 when Baba Ramdev broke his fast Subramanian Swamy stated Sonia Gandhi was in Switzerland. Yet, on June 12 when she condemned the murder of journalist J.Dey the media made it appear she was making the statement as usual from Delhi. There wasn’t one mention of where she was making that statement from. That’s not all. Our all-knowing media reported that Jayalalithaa, who was in Delhi on June 14, would not be meeting Sonia Gandhi. Surprising! Given that Sonia Gandhi wasn’t even in Delhi at that time the media reports actually seem to be intended to cover up the fact that Sonia wasn’t even in India.

Journalist Rajinder Puri writes in the The Statesman:

“On Monday, Tamil Nadu chief minister Miss Jayalalithaa visited Delhi. She met her Delhi counterpart Mrs Sheila Dikshit. India’s biggest TV channel blared: “Will Jaya also meet Sonia?” Was the channel unprofessionally ignorant or was it colluding with the exercise to hide the furtive movements of Mrs Sonia Gandhi? Earlier on the same day, there was a statement issued by Mrs Gandhi deploring the murder of a prominent journalist in Mumbai. Was all this being done to create the illusion in the public mind that Mrs Gandhi was in India while she was not? This is not the first time that Mrs Gandhi has silently gone abroad in a manner best described as being furtive. Why the secrecy? What is the purpose of Mrs Gandhi’s undisclosed visits abroad?........ Congress leaders are frothing at the mouth demanding total transparency from members of civil society. Probes have been launched against some of them. Should not the government display equal transparency pertaining to India’s most powerful politician who is the chairperson of the ruling UPA coalition as well as the chairperson of the government’s NAC? They need to answer the following questions:
Did Mrs Gandhi travel abroad on an airline or by a private jet? If the latter, whose jet was it? What was the purpose of the foreign visit made by the Chairperson of the NAC and the UPA? What is the itinerary of the NAC Chairperson? Which countries and cities did she, or will she, visit?....” Puri goes on to also raise the issues of allegations by former KGB members having contributed funds to Sonia and family. These are not new allegations.

The allegations of corruptions and black money against Sonia Gandhi are far more serious than the ones being frequently discussed in the media. Subramanian Swamy has made allegations about her name, her birthplace, her educational qualifications, incorrect affidavit filed before the Election Commission, payments to her family by KGB and also about Rahul Gandhi. All this not only makes sorry reading but would make any politician or even an ordinary person jump. The mass media would jump at such stories. Yet our MSM has consistently maintained an eerie silence. Sonia Gandhi, of course, doesn’t talk to the nation or the media about these allegations or any other issue. S.Gurumurthy has written a detailed article in the Indian Express about Sonia Gandhi titled ‘Zero Tolerance, Secret Billions’.

Subramanian Swamy’s extensive speech on the allegations against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi is also available on Youtube. (Just Google it) Are the Barkha Dutts, the Rajdeeps, the Sagarikas, the Rahul Kanwals, the Pankaj Pachauris and many more simply unaware about all these allegations? Is there something more sinister than appears to the whole story?

During October 2007 when Sonia Gandhi visited the UN an organisation released an ad against her listing all the allegations in a newspaper. A defamation case was filed by some supporters of the Congress. The case was dismissed. It is surprising that third parties file cases for defamation of Sonia Gandhi while she herself is unwilling to defend herself or comment on any of these allegations. (Read Congress Sues Subramanian Swamy For Defamation)

In just my previous post (Living next door to Alice) this is what I wrote in response to a flowery article by Barkha Dutt (and I consider it worth repeating):

“In management there is a principle that is often accepted as a starting point to analyse failure: “The bottleneck is always at the top”. Yes indeed, figuratively and literally. Extraordinary levels of corruption do not come to pass without the participation of top management. Remember Satyam? Remember Enron? Remember Bear Stearns? Remember AIG? Well, it is no different in the government too. That is where the media has been an absolute failure. Failure apart, their silence has been very much like that of a co-conspirator.…….The top management in the UPA has to be undoubtedly Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. There are many allegations against her of having stashed away black money in Switzerland. There are allegations of Quattrochi (of Bofors) being let off. Subramanian Swamy has sought sanction to prosecute Sonia Gandhi. Do you find any of this in our mass media?”

In 1973 under pressure in the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon famously told Editors ‘I am not a crook”! That’s top management for you! Nixon is the only President in US history to have resigned from office. Since then we have also had famous cases like Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos who fled to the US and Alberto Fujimori of Peru who fled to Japan. Seriously, by today’s standards Nixon’s crimes would seem far less significant. Politicians have surpassed him many times over.

There are those in the Congress, the UPA, the media and prominent celebrities in public often put forward the argument that if politicians are corrupt the people get to boot them out every five years. That ‘civil society’ movements of the recent kind destroy democracy. They now cite the DMK party being booted out of power in Tamil Nadu as example. This is the most disgusting and spurious argument one can ever hear on corruption. Being booted out of office is not punishment. Putting them in jails would be the right punishment.