Prices and People

Chindu comes out strongly on the burning issue of inflation. The first article has a Congress leader complaining about inflation. The second one captures peoples' reactions to rising prices. Genuine concerns indeed.

When Manmohan asked political parties (read CPM) to avoid scaremongering, Chindu presented the CPM point of view and reported the Opposition's support to CPM. Later, when Congress edited BJP's advertisement on rising prices, the news item has not even been reported by Chindu. The Congress is acting in its autocratic ways to gag BJP but there is not outrage by Chindu and no sermons on freedom of speech.

Selective coverage and news distortion are all a part of Chindu's political agenda.

The Hindu : Front Page : Price rise hits Andamans household budgets

Sanjay Chaudhary, general secretary of the Congress party in the Andamans. “We are used to higher prices and our threshold of tolerance is pretty high, but now we are being pushed beyond limits,”

The Hindu : Front Page : PRICES & PEOPLE


Maria Selvam

Maria Selvam, housewife, Bamboo Flat: “All our earnings go
towards paying for food and provisions. Where is the question of paying
for our children’s education? Cauliflowers, when available, cost Rs.
60-Rs.80 a piece. Tomatoes and carrots cost more than Rs. 60 a kg. Even
fish, which was cheapest, is now selling at much higher prices.”

Change the TV campaign, EC asks BJP

The ad features leader Sushma Swaraj speaking in Kannada, blaming the Congress and the Central Government for rising prices.

The party says the EC has beeped out all references to the Congress and the centre in the ad. The ad has been released with the beeps on local Kannada channels.

Khare declares himself as the "natural" sycophant

The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : Sonia Gandhi’s decade as Congress mascot

The very Nehruvian secular state she had undertaken to rescue from the communalists was back in their grip. The bogus deshbhakts were back with a bang, and the Congressmen were staring at a long, bleak political winter.

The qualifying adjectives are mind-numbing. A secular state is Nehruvian and a Nehruvian state is secular. Anyone opposing the Nehruvian state is a communalist. Only the Congressmen are patriotic nationalists (patriots is reserved for americans). The rest of us mortals are anti-nationalists.

The Congress is constantly distracted from its obligations as the natural party of governance.

Sycophancy cannot get any better than this. Why all the elections and all this talk of democracy. Only the Congress Nehru dynasty has the right to rule this country. And this country belongs to Congressmen. All others are anti-nationalists.

After 10 years at the helm, Ms Gandhi remains a prisoner of her own image as a benevolent patriarch, always willing to accommodate and reward the bogus sycophant and family loyalists.

Khare is clearly thinking he is the "natural sycophant" and the rest all are bogus.

Ms Gandhi needs to summon from within the sagacity and foresight to put slowly in place an exit strategy.

As the "natural sycophant", he wants Ms Gandhi to be thrown out. So "natural", isn't it.

Avidya begins her 2009 campaign

Avidya, who, with her incredible mathematical skills, has predicted a landslide victory for Congress in Gujarat elections, is back with new agenda - 2009 elections. She starts off her analysis by deciding the winner. Now she will go out to find evidence to support her. I am sure she will find a lot of evidence and we will hear a lot about it in her "Election Analysis". Let us all prepare ourselves to be overfed with "Analysis".

The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : Election 2009: Congress tortoise and BJP hare

The BJP is not as well placed to face the general election as it claims.

Naxal Ram calling for JD(S) to part ways

Whereas at the center, Naxal Ram asked Congress to fall in line with Left's demands, here he is asking JD(S) to part ways with BJP. How is N.Ram different from the opportunistic politicans?

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : An unavoidable divorce

After serving his half term as Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy evidently sees no incentive to continue this unhappy marriage.

Hail the new master

This article is a clear demonstration of Chindu's boot-licking capabilities. First it sings paeans on Rahul Gandhi and then it talks about how Congress has been working overtime to serve the people. All objectivity and ethics have been dumped for a few paisa.

The Hindu : Front Page : Extend rural job guarantee scheme: Rahul

Barely a day after assuming office, the newly appointed Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was part of a delegation of office bearers that met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday and urged him to extend the National Rural Employment Employment Guarantee Scheme to all the 600 districts of the country.

This is not the first time that the Congress has taken up issues of
popular interest with the government. In the past party president Sonia
Gandhi has raised the issue of oil price rise, rise in the prices of
essential commodities, free trade agreements, dilution of the Right to
Information and recently, the controversial affidavit filed in the
Supreme Court on the Ramar Sethu project.

One-sided reporting

You very often hear on CBCNN the Congress criticizing BJP but rarely do you hear BJP's opinions. A classic case of yellow journalism.



The Hindu : National : Congress criticises BJP's tactics

Congress bans FTV

But there is no moral outrage among the 'liberals' of The Chindu.



The Hindu : National : FTV banned

Opposition more important than Modi's development schemes

Rather than focussing on Modi's schemes and the benefits, The Chindu prefers to repeat the "allegations" of Opposition.



The Hindu : National : Rs. 13,000-crore package in Gujarat

The Opposition, however, organised a "parallel mock session" outside the Assembly premises to "expose" the Speaker's alleged partisan role.

When the BJP raised the same objection against Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, The Chindu said it was undermining the Speaker's office.

Chindu upset with Congress' loss in Raigad

The Congress got a drubbing from PWP and Shiv Sena in Zilla Parishad Polls in Maharashtra. But The Chindu is delighted that Congress won one seat more than it did last time. Thankfully, the headline does not say, "Congress gets 20% more seats in Raigad". Pro-People policies paid dividends to PWP, Sena. But The Chindu does not want to acknowledge that.



The Hindu : Front Page : Opposition to SEZ pays dividends for PWP, Sena in Raigad

Congress wins 6 seats compared to 5 last time

Khare's wizardry

Khare is back with his histrionics. I have never seen him ask tough questions, especially of Congress, which he grudgingly acknowledges is beyond its expiry date. Here he comes out with the Khareish brilliance to suggest that India won the world up in 1983 because of Indira Gandi.



The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : Beyond the humiliation at the World Cup

in 1996, the hawala scandal had eaten into whatever little was left of Narasimha Rao's prime ministerial efficacy; in 1999, we had a caretaker government in New Delhi, trying to cover up its Kargil failures; and, in 2003, the national mood had been fractured by the L.K. Advani camp's cold war on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Khare is creating data to suit his theory. I don't know which nation he is referring to when he is talking of national mood.

...our mass-hysteria discourse has come to believe that the terrorist challenge will be decisively defeated only if we hang Afzal Guru.

Here, he is clearly putting words into someone's mouth, once again to suit the theory he wishes to propose. No person with a sane mind would use "only" here. Khare knows this too. But he deliberately is falsifying the opposition.

Kiss the Dy-nasty

This sounds more like "Hail Dynasty" propaganda.



The Hindu : Front Page : Sonia distributes aid to differently-abled

Why Sonia Gandhi's photo?

Government asked to drop satellite town plan

AICC general secretary and Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha V. Narayanasamy has called upon the Rangasamy-led Government here to jettison immediately the plans to set up a satellite town and a deep sea port at Thengaithittu near here.

V.Narayanasamy is asking Rangasamy to follow AICC directives and Sonia Gandhi did not get personally involved in this issue. So why is CBCNN publishing her photo and trying to project the image that Sonia Gandhi is taking up cudgels to fight for the farmers. CBCNN is probably trying to prove its credentials as an ace boot-licker.

If it is Congress' mistake, share it equally with BJP

Power and politics in Maharashtra

When you have no electricity and water, you don't stop to consider that the Opposition shares the blame. You tend to lay it all at the feet of those in power. This is what the ruling Congress-NCP coalition has to confront.

Wonderful, isn't it. Blame the BJP for Congress' mistakes.

Two things to look at here.
1. How long was Congress in power in Maharashtra.
2. How long since the power shortage is a concern.

1. From wiki:

After India's independence, most of Maharashtra's political history was dominated by the Congress party. Maharashtra became a bastion of the Congress party producing stalwarts such as Y.B. Chavan, one of its most prominent Chief Ministers. The party enjoyed near unchallenged dominance of the political landscape until 1995 when the right wing Shiv Sena and BJP secured an overwhelming majority in the state to form a coalition. After a split in the Congress party, former chief minister Sharad Pawar formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), but formed a coalition with the Congress to keep out the BJP-SS combine. The 2004 elections saw the NCP gaining the largest number of seats to become the state's largest party, eroding much of the Shiv Sena's base.

So, it is clear that the Congress has in power for most of the time.

2. Kalpana tells us in this article itself that, Over the last two years, Maharashtra's growing, and what now appears chronic, shortage of electric power has become a reason for considerable concern.

From this it is clear that if this is a chronic problem, Congress should get most of the blame because it has been in power for the longest amount of time. If the problem has become acute over the past 2 years, the Congress must be solely blamed. In either case I cant see how BJP should share the blame. But this is just what you can expect in CBCNN - pure hatred towards BJP and the hindus.

Another issue I have is, why is Kalpana overly concerned that the bad power situation will adversly affect the Congress election results in 2009. She reiterates this again in the end.

If only political survival pushes governments to act, then it is time the Maharashtra government had a hard look at the power crisis facing the State.

I would have been much happier if she related the power shortage to farmer suicides in Vidarbha rather than Congress' re-election chances.

Congress crushed; N.Ram squeaks

Moderate setbacks to Congress

N.Ram calls the Congress performance in polls as "moderate setback" while Indian express calls it
crushing defeat.

Anti-incumbency verdicts seem to be the rule in Indian elections

N.Ram starts off with an excuse for Congress' defeat. Its never Congress' fault if they lose. For some reason, this logic doesn't work with BJP.

BJP ... has however failed to capitalise fully on the negative factor and score a convincing victory

Yes, BJP's victory is no victory. Lets celebrate for Congress' increase in vote share.

...chauvinistic politics of the SAD and the BJP

Here goes the b.stard with baseless allegations. Why is SAD/BJP politics chauvinistic? Any reasons? Is it because it is not an ally of CPI(M)?
What the heck, let me go ahead and call N.Ram a bloody terrorist.

This can be attributed to a combination of factors: `anti-incumbency' (which is not much of an explanation and only begs the question), the inescapable in-feuding, and, most importantly, a lethal rise in the prices of essential commodities.

N.Ram does a full u-turn and says anti-incumbency is not a sufficient justification and goes ahead to list the real reasons. By now, he must have realised his communist priorities of supporting only the left.

RSS is Stalinist: Khare

It is neither high nor commanding

the RSS being assigned the institutional role of the old-fashioned Stalinist political commissars.

The Nehruvian-Stalinist Congress is not the one associated with Stalin but it is RSS. That is Khare for you.

Also notice this: if Congress is bad, BJP is just as bad, emphasizes Khare. You cant miss Khare's tone deriding BJP, while conviniently ignoring the nepotism epitomised by Congress.

Allegations highlighted as facts

Congress: not just Mulayam protocol

Congress leader makes an allegation against the BJP. CBCNN presents this allegation with bullent-point highlighting at the top. Clearly, CBCNN is distorting facts and views to suit its agenda. That responsible media N.Ram talks about all the time.

Gearing up for Gujarat elections

Gujarat Congress leaders call on Sonia

Congress is expecting early elections in Gujarat. So CBCNN will whip up its hate campaign against the Modi government.

For Government's tardiness, CBCNN blames BJP

Afzal issue: walkout in Lok Sabha

Here is another politically motivated reporting. Have a look at the 3 salient points:
1. "BJP provoking kin of those killed" - An allegation against the BJP by Congress
2. Process of deciding on mercy pleas complex: Patil - Justification of its (in)action by Congress
3. Advani failed to protect Parliament: Dasmunsi - Another allegation against the BJP by Congress

The article follows exactly the same pattern. In the heated exchange, BJP too would have made allegations against the congress and BJP too would have justified itself. These go unreported in CBCNN.

CBCNN must be the sickest and most prejudiced media entity in the country.

A milder question: why is MPs visit front page news?

Perceptions and proportions

a commission that evoked readers' criticism was a Page 1, three-column story, "Rahul Gandhi to visit Amethi." (This was only in the early editions, and removed later.) Readers pointed out that Rahul Gandhi was one of 500 MPs; and MPs are supposed to visit their constituencies. What was so special about this one that it needed a front page announcement? That was the milder of the questions readers posed!

Because N.Ram is another invertebrate seeking the blessings of the dynasty. Ethics, says who?

I am getting very curious now. If CBCNN has no answers to the milder questions, how difficult would the harder questions have been.

Guys, why dont you send me your opinions on CBCNN so that I can post them here. You know very well that CBCNN only prints what is favourable to itself. So you cant get heard on CBCNN even if they have that nominal reader's editor. Actually, the reader's editor must be editing out unfavourable views of its readers.

CBCNN joins the sycophancy parade

Sonia Gandhi turns 60

CBCNN uses its characteristic reporting style, without the unnecessary use of any derogatory adjectives, to report the celebrations of Sonia Gandhi's 60th birthday. This reporting style is reserved only for those parties which it favours.