The PM takes the wind out of Advani's sail

A few days ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered a knockout punch to Mr. Advani's position. Strength or weakness of a person should not be judged by words, he said. A person might use strong words but might be weak in action. The PM hinted that such a person must be considered a weak person.

Consider Mr. Advani's record. A terrorist attack on parliament. An abject surrender to militants in the plane hijack case. Finally, no containment of Maoist menace and no concrete action against conversion menace or Bangladheshi influx.. That, in short, is the sum and substance of Mr. Advani's achievements as a home minister. Such a person cannot be branded as a strong person by any measure.

Look at how Mr. Advani faces media. When he talks to Padmashree Barkha Dutt, he goes soft and starts talking in terms of emotional words and hurt. A total sell out to a channel that I feel is aggresively anti-hindu. Do all BJP supporters like it? Do RSS people like it? Do they like to see one of their top leaders surrender emotionally to Padmashree Barkha Dutt? Well, well. Nobody (Rajeev - the head of the BJP censor team - has not complained) has complained yet so we assume they approve of all this.

But the PM has won this round hands down. Will the BJP think of having a different leader? A young one? One who has studied Bhagvad geeta , one who could make a clear demarcation between those who are on the side of the good, and those who are not (Kauravas), and one who will deal firmly, not emotionally with those who are against common people of India?

What they hide

Media houses should be known more by what they hide than what they publish. They get paid on the basis of time and eyeballs. They try to get more eyeballs. They keep the item on display till eyeballs thin out. Some augment their income to a varying degree by charging for providing publicity to those who are seeking it (politicians, aspiring artists and so on). Most rarely tell you whether a program is paid for by any party. Some also make a good amount of money by NOT PUBLISHING things some parties don't want people to know. Some individuals associated with media take this idea further. They get money by locating information that a party might not like to be published, and then charge the party for not publishing it! That has to be a very lucrative business.

Now, scan the Indian media sites for G20 news. How many are discussing the secret tax havens? Is anyone making money by keeping the item folded?

Just in case this gets you thinking that mediamen are bad and that Indian mediamen are worst, let me add that they are party-neutral in this matter. Just as Congress would not like some things publicised, BJP must also be working towards hiding some facts from the public eye. It is easy to guess what each party tries to hide if you stop to think about it. For example, the owner of the blog with a Hindu Nationalist perspective censors most comments that really try to expose the fact that BJP merely talks about Hindus, it rarely does anything for Hindus . TOOTBHAWNP is an expert in editing. It is a good example how power corrupts, and how Indian followers rarely question someone who has power. So, don't blame the mediamen. The buck stops at us. Till we don't force fair and just editing, and transparent media accounting, we will never have a fair and just society.