Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The 'Tape'

I spoke to some senior people at 18-Land, where there are questions being asked, "Why did we do this in the first place?" According to a very senior editor at 18-Land, it was not Rajdeep who chickened out of airing the tape, but supposedly it was Raghav Behl who took the final call. Why? The ostensible reason being given is that the channel didn't want to take sides, however some people have pointed out that the if despite the video if the UPA won, all of TV18's various arms would have faced the full force of a vindictive Finance Ministry.
So how incriminating is the tape, according to one person who has seen it, it is very incriminating and the storming of the well is just the tip of the iceberg. It remains to be seen what the Speaker does with the tape.
I don't know why the world has taken off on Rahul Gandhi. RG's was a well-written speech, but it wasn't very well delivered. In fact other than his father, Rajiv Gandhi, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty hasn't had great orators. Nehru wrote great speeches as did Indira Gandhi, but not the best orators - Rajiv Gandhi spoke well in English. His brother believed in actions rather than words, so well...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rubbish, Rahul baba's "speech" was poorly written--even more pooly delivered.

It boggle the mind that even though the congress media managers were well aware of the amount of attention that was focused on this event, they still did not make any attempt to write some well-argued speeches that would have gone down well with the junta?

This would have been a wonderful opportunity to project Rahul baba as the "messiah of the masses"--and put him up as the public face of the Congress.We are just months away from general election.

Bah, these people need to learn from Tony Blair on how to "spin".

Anonymous said...

I'm keen to see the tape as well. Very keen.

I wonder why Advani had to resort to this drama? he could have gone to the cops or the speaker. On the floor of the house? Elections are round the corner I guess...

So sad... The old man is so eager to be the PM.

Anonymous said...

I don't think anybody at TV18 chickened out. CNN-IBN is such an adorable, cuddly, furry puppy of the UPA government -- why would its masters ruthlessly poison it just because it bit a bit too hard instead of biting playfully?

Rajdeep Loudmouth-Desai has a track record of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. He wanted the credit of a sensational sting for his channel -- the crusader against political corruption, you see -- while at the same time making sure his political bosses aren't hurt much.

Anonymous said...

I have a feeling that the cuddly puppy is going to lose it's 'exclusive' privileges...

Anonymous said...

When we did Westend, the BJP rubbished the tapes.. now why are they relying on a tape this time?

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with you at all... While Rahul Gandhi's speech might be poor on content, the fact is that the guy is seriously concerned about issues. I really liked my the honesty and sincerity with which he delivered his speech and also stood through all the chaos and comments. I think we shudn't criticize people all the time....

Anonymous said...

To the commenter on Rahul Gandhi: I agree with you. The author of the blo suffers from twin diseases of being a journo (read die-hard cynic) and a right wing sympathiser.

If Rahul Gandhi were to start turning water into crude oil, K would find some reason to crib about it, because ADvani couldn't do it first.

Anonymous said...

Have our holiest of holy brethren in the media also been bought out by Shri AS, if not, WHERE are the tapes? Shouldn't they be in the public domain by now? The media owes an answer to to its viewers. AND has no right to blame politicians if it too gives in to pressure tactics/tempations/blackmail.The channel should `go to the police' if it is threatened or lured....

Anonymous said...

The truth is the moment Rahul said he spoke as an Indian and not as a rep of any political party he stole the thunder from right under the nose of so-called nationalists sitting on the opposition benches. This was the reason why they were the first to disrupt his speech.

As for Rahul's speech it was definitely one of the best in the whole debate.

Anonymous said...

Anil Ambani group owns a part of CNN-IBN:

http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=81292

Anonymous said...

To the commenter: "As for Rahul's speech it was definitely one of the best in the whole debate."

That's being naive... best speech? I mean come on... It was a well meaning speech, a bit naive perhaps. but not the best.

The best is perhaps Omar abdullah or even Lalu Yadav for sheer entertainment.

Sidhu? what is a murderer doing in the Parliament? unfuckingbelievable and I wonder why BJP has this Holier han thou attitude.

To the author of the blog: regarding the ram setu. It didn't exist. Ramayan is called a Mythological serial. from the word "myth"? jeezus and you call yourself a journalist.

regarding signing away sovereign rights: are you blind or intentionally playing dumb or can only understand propaganda from BJP? We can explode as many bombs we want, only then we don't get the Uranium and technology from Australia and the 40 odd countries who do have it to power those plants. No way on Planet Earth, are you going to get Uranium without agreeing to stop blowing up bombs.

Too bad our pebblebed reactor tech is going nowhere fast. If it did, we could have made do with Thorium...

It is ironic that it was the BJP which started the process and now is its most vehement detractor.

PS: great blog. keep up the good work.