And the sheep (employees) said baa baa

After the sweeping management changes at cHindu, the next day saw surprising news. The employees celebrated the management changes:

Members of the Union gathered at The Hindu’s main office, burst crackers and shouted slogans in support of the changes at the helm of the institution. They welcomed N. Ram and N. Murali, who took charge as Chairman and Co-Chairman of Kasturi and Sons Ltd., the Editor-in-Chief N. Ravi, Editor Malini Parthasarathy and Director Nirmala Lakshman.

Their rationale being

The ‘corporate governance’ that the institution was subject to recently brought out differences at various levels among the employees, and over time, would have brought disunity and disharmony.

Corporate governance bringing about disunity? And what is the alternative for a large media corporation - no governance. Let us return back to medieval ages.

In return for taking away governance the employees were offered sops. At least something is better than nothing.

The employees will get a goodwill incentive payment of Rs. 41,600 in addition to a bonus of 20 per cent of wages this year.

 

 

 

Bon voyage Sidd V we hardly knew ye

The followers of this blog might recollect that we went into hibernation around the time Lt Hon Sidd Varadarajan was named Editor in Chief of cHindu couple of years back.

Now with the announcement of his removal (or should we say firing?) the Hon LiC has done the newspaper some good. The replacements are no new faces by any stretch. The new editors N.Ravi and Malini Parthasarathy were formerly the editors between 1991 and 2003. So they question is how and why did this happen? The how is quite simple - there are 12 directors with equal stake the scions of the Narasimhan, Parthasarathy, Rangarajan and Kasturi ( who were past owners/publishers of the paper). In the past the scions of Narasimhand and Parthasarathy (old guard) were split against the scions of Rangarajan and Kasturi (new guard). The tie breaker in most scenarios came down in the past to veterans like S.Rangarajan, but with his passing last year the balance started to tilt.

After a serious of horrendous missteps and biased targeting of a certain CM without facts, the directors decided for change. The two groups made a blatant power grab. Out with the Frankenstein monsters and in with new faces. The new guard probably wanted K.Venugopal as Editor in Chief and K. Balaji restored as Managing Director. This was checkmated by LiC who cast his vote with his siblings. The particularly telling statement was that Sidd V had to go. Both groups probably agreed on that.

The decision to make deep-going changes was made chiefly on the ground that there were recurrent violations and defiance of the framework of the institution’s longstanding values on the business side, and recurrent violations and defiance of ‘Living Our Values’, the mandatory Code of Editorial Values applicable to The Hindu.

The interesting part was follow the tweets of Tunku V (Sidd's elder brother) who blatantly blamed family politics for his brother's removal. Never once did it cross him that people with inefficient performance can be fired.
The disagreement was who would get the plum chairs in this game of family musical chairs. It appears that this game is far from over.

Wishing HF the best

The blog cHindu was spearheaded by blogger 'Hindu Fundamentalist' who has been one of the earliest vigilant bloggers asking for accountability in Indian MSM. We wish HF the best on the future.

A broken habit

It has been a while since I posted on this blog for the simple reason that I stopped reading chindu. I have changed my reading habits and chindu did not make it to my new reading list, the reasons for which I have documented to the best of my ability on this blog over the past few years. I am not going to bid any farewells here because I have not stopped what I have been doing, only I have chosen a different role. It is never a bad time to say a big thank you to all those readers who have been constantly encouraging us.

No permanent friends or enemies? Caption requested.

Thanks to a vigilant reader for pointing this out. Our 'beloved' LiC and Amma in a photo together.
What do you think should be a good caption?

cHindu slams Gilani's history lesson

cHindu's repudiation of Pakistan PM Gilani's rant on the history of bin Laden of the facts presented was shocking for any reader of the newspaper.

But as a reply to why bin Laden was discovered living in relative comfort in the heart of Pakistan, not by the country’s own military or intelligence agencies but by the U.S., Prime Minister Gilani’s account falls far short of an adequate explanation. His characterisation of this failure as that of “all the intelligence agencies in the world” comes across more as an attempt to deflect blame than as a response born out of honest introspection by the Pakistan state. Even as a history lesson, Mr. Gilani’s statement was incomplete. No one pushed Pakistan into the first Afghan war; Pakistan’s military under General Zia ul Haq made a calculated choice to participate in it. Aside from the U.S. support, Saudi Arabia generously poured money into Pakistan to create a culture of jihad. After the war, the same military and its intelligence agencies decided to deploy some of those jihadists to establish a pro-Pakistan regime in Afghanistan, while others were despatched for the task of ‘liberating’ Kashmir from India. No Pakistan army chief has ever made an attempt to institutionally repudiate the Zia legacy.

cHindu goes on to beat up the Pakistani military for keeping silent on how OBL was found in the suburbs of Islamabad.

The agreement is said to have been renewed in 2008, when the present Army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, was in charge. While the full truth about how OBL managed to hide in Abbottabad may never come out, it is time for the Pakistan military to face up to some truths about itself — and about its role in bringing the country to its present state.

This is quite different from the cHindu we've read in recent times. One which would've put the blame on India and US for why Pakistan was in such poverty. So to balance this editorial cHindu publishes another "editorial" which details sabre rattling by Indian Army and diplomats against "peace-loving" Pakistan.

Kasim Sait bashes Geelani on OBL death prayers

We had earlier condemned the rabid nature of the Kashmiri stone pelters in matters of supporting the "martyrdom" of OBL (specifically Geelani). This was not limited to Kashmir as various mosques across India from Delhi to Chennai to Calcutta held prayers for OBL.
cHindu fave Kasim Sait has somehow become cHindu's voice of reason:

The funeral prayer for Osama at the Makka Masjid in Chennai is highly deplorable. How can a person who is responsible for besmirching the reputation of Muslims globally be given even a semblance of respectful homage? This is notwithstanding the acts of aggression committed by the Americans. Would not conducting prayers for such characters send a wrong message? I hope that responsible sections of the community would roundly condemn this failing on the part of the mosque authorities concerned.

Kasim Sait,

For once KS has given a valid comment. Lets see how quickly this will revert.

Geelani prays for Osama exposes true Kashmiriyat

In what is an out pouring of love of dead terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, Kashmiri separatists like Syed Geelani showed their true colours in celebrating martyrdom.
Never once condemning terrorism or the actions against the innocent by violent Muslims like Osama Bin Laden, Geelani made up rubblish like:

He alleged that a conspiracy was on against Pakistan and that the powers had an eye on nuclear bombs in that country. He prayed for the safety of Pakistan. People shouted pro-azadi and pro-Osama slogans.

Of course the Muslim mob was no different:

Protests erupted in the Batmaloo area soon after the funeral prayers. Masked youth clashed with police and CRPF personnel soon after Mr. Geelani addressed the gathering. The crowd called Osama a “martyr,” who sacrificed his life for the cause of Islam.

Guess this was true Kashmiriyat is about. Support of hardline Islamic terrorism. The whole talk about terrorism not having any religion is rubbish. It has a name.
Where is cHindu in not condemning this behaviour? If there were Hindus celebrating the death anniversary of say Godse, it would speak on its high horse about how they supported violence. But this exposes the hypocrisy of the media in not exposing the agenda of the Kashmiri terrorists posing as separatists.