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Shanti,

Just a point to ponder. I saw your outburst against Varsha Bhosle (referring to her outbursts:)) and I agree with you on that. But don’t you think she atleast raises honest issues than Praful Bidwai (who is supposedly a Jawaharlal Nehru peace prize winner and a noted columnist) ??

I liked Varsha Bhosle a lot, Ender! I really like the feistiness of the woman. I admire her ability to call on people regardless of their stature and politics. That is precisely the reason why, it felt really silly that she should lash out at her critics.

She is a journalist, and one used to raising issues that most janta are uncomfortable talking about. She is letting the criticism distract her and the outbursts just take away from the very legitimate points she makes. Thanks for the good points :)

I think Donald Sensing or Sgt. Stryker pointed out that “booty” is regarded as a legitimate spoil of war. That is, troops can engage in minor looting from, for example, Saddam’s palaces. So Saddam and Uday’s DVD collections are certainly wandering around the troops right now and the china and dinnerware from Saddam’s palaces will probably grace the 3rd ID’s tables back home.

True, Chris - but this man seemed to imply that the American soldiers were involved in looting artifacts from the museums, which is a ludicrous claim.

Well, the gift shop might have ended up lighter by a few faux-cuniform Zippos

LOL - and all those towels and soaps from Saddam’s bath collection?

Well, think about it though, would you really want something from Saddam’s bathrooms.. ugh..:-)

Well,

The Indian left seems to think that they shock the rest into toeing their line by

1. spreading such lies,
2. calling people names,
3. misquoting history

I am sick and tired of this guy (Praful) in particular. You have to see how the Pukistani media gleefully syndicates him on every occasion.

Suman, I agree with you.

Ender, I am still waiting to hear from Rediff, especially since both the links Mr. Bidwai seemed to have provided in his column don’t seem to work :)

The e-mail address is ajitb@rediff.co.in of Ajit Balakrishnan, the CEO of Rediff. I have sent him a mail with this blog entry as a link. Let’s see if he responds.

Thanks, JK - Let us wait and see now what that will bring.

I sincerly hope that you guys get a response from Rediff’s CEO. But honestly, those lefties (pinkies, pseudo-commies, pseudo-secular, pseudo-everything) are omnipresent in the Indian media and the government. How else one could explain Bidwai being touted as a “reputed columnist” when every one of them tries push the same agenda.

L.

I totally agree, L. I know that now Mr.CEO says he is telling his editorial staff to look at this, but isn’t it their duty to do it before hand? They are supposed to be the journalists and are being paid for it - not us.

Bidwai has written so much crap about various issues so far, I would be surprised of Rediff staff didn’t agree with most of it, when they let it be published without a question.

Shanti - Let me try to explain. A portal like Rediff has to have stuff liked (and hated) by all sorts of people. While you have someone like Varsha Bhosle as their columnist, they also have someone like Bidwai!! As far as verifying these articles, forget about it … In one article Bidwai wrote about Indian IT industry with a variety of statistics. His conclusion: IT is NOT good for India, and India should go back encouraging it’s “core” areas such as agriculture! (which I would say receives the maximum attention and benefits from the government) …

I think Mr. Bidwai would think it would be just fine and dandy if we all just went back to living in huts and tilling land to feed ourselves.

That’s exactly what he wants, so that he and his friends (read MJ Akhbar, Gujral, Bardhan, HSS, etc.) can all do coffee-table politics!

I think with the “blogs” pounding Bidwai, the days of him writing articles are numbered …

L.

I hope so, L - Many journalists have been able to get away with a lot of elitist articles with zero sensibility in them, since they have not been made accountable before. Now, they better change or get obsolete.

Nice list L :-) I would add Arundirty Roy to the list. She also feels with Indians becoming rich they too are getting imperialistic ambitions (like getting better standard of living and becoming a regional ‘bully’) :-))

True, Ender! I mean, how dare the stupid third-worlders want to improve their lot and actually get some material comforts to make their life easier?

A friend of mine told me that most of these politico’s kids are:

- either off to study amd make a living either in the US/Europe
- become an Indian politician.

I have no means of verifying the first claim, though it sounds highly likely. It would be nice if someone can actually provide the information. We’ve have many in the second case (Nehru-Gandhi, Chautala, Karunakaran, Karunanidhi, …). Everything comes so easy for them …

L.

I know that now Mr.CEO says he is telling his editorial staff to look at this, but isn’t it their duty to do it before hand?

Aren’t we all getting a little ahead of ourselves? All Mr. Balakrishnan meant was that he’d ask his editor to reply to your comments. That’s because it’s the CEO’s business to run the company and not to make editorial judgements (and hence it was not proper form to mail the CEO in this regard). However, you seem to have assumed that Balakrishnan has already endorsed your views and directed his staff accordingly!

Not really, Mahesh - I meant that why check on something after complaints? Why not check out sources and articles well enough before publishing them? That point-of-view doesn’t assume anything except that they are going to be checking out the facts of Bidwai’s article a little more thoroughly - who is assuming things here?

It is not a bad assumption that a CEO owns some amount of “responsibility” to the stuff that get’s published in his portal. So, in that sense, writing to him is not an issue! Who he assigns for overseeing is his problem. Moreover, “running a company” in Rediff’s case is all about taking care of stuff that get’s published.

L.