Cringing!

My political sympathies are fairly well established, but events of the past month or so make you cringe. If the BJP or NDA has any plans of staying in power for a sustained period of time they desperately need to get over the politics of fear that they have successfully managed to exploit using the loony right. The same clowns who try to lecture us on moral policing - about holding hands. Get a job, please - this government will vote itself out - don't shoot yourself in the foot.
But I've also been fascinated by the recent 'raids on raves' by the Rajasthan and Mumbai Police. Strange that when the rich get arrested, talk of human rights comes to the fore. The police obviously don't know what human rights are - invasive procedure like blood tests cannot be done sans a warrant. But what amuses me most is that the parents of these kids say they don't do drugs. The next thing you know, they'll say that their kids don't have sex either. Listen, Delhi and Bombay are hopped up on drugs - they found 850 drops of LSD at that party. Which, even accounting for police over-estimation is a hell of a lot.
But, I won't go there because I don't have to. I'm just waiting for the 'rave' sting operation or one of the Hindi channels asking one of their reporters to experiment with LSD (Maybe if an anchor took LSD before going on air - would the cameras look like monsters). maybe, they should do a 'rave sting' operation and do a lot of eccies - see the love people, see the love! What if you gave acid to the anchor of India's most pompous talk show - that would be something worth watching. But I'll wait for the illiterate to start writing crap and these are the same guys who claim they like Pink Floyd. Oh well!
Remember kids, drugs are bad for you - very, very bad, that's why... well to each their own. But before popping something in your mouth or up your nostril, know what you are doing.

More than meets the eye.

A former Times Ahmedabad man told me that the 'crisis' in Ahmedabad will just blow over. Times' RE in Ahmedabad Bharat Desai, who has also been mentioned in the FIR's is pretty close to Modi. But then again, Police commissioners are also political appointments. Gujarat, like many other states, has a history of fairly dodgy cops - some are murderers others cheat on exams and everyone knows that there might well have been complicity during the riots.
But, hachet jobs on people, especially when they are the lead stories require a couple of things. First, the knowledge of very senior editorial people as well as a very good political source. Just like the Lalit Modi story as HT's lead might well have been an excellent plant by Modi's rivals in the BCCI, and believe me, Modi has his fair share of rivals straddling the political spectrum. Journalists don't just 'come upon' stories unfortunately, there is always an agenda behind them. Covert slaying Sharad Pawar? Well, MJ and Suresh Kalmadi go back a long way. Every story like this, where an individual is a target has a fairly well-established agenda behind it.
So, I'm not so sure what is going on? Is the Times' caught inside Gujarat BJP hi-jinx? The BJP is not immune to intra-party fueding, though in Modi-Land it has been kept to a minimum thanks to Modi, but I am pretty sure that petty difference exist. I wonder...

Starting a debate.

I will not start about the crass way certain Hindi-news channels have covered Arushi talwar's case. One channel showed a decapitated head, another one showed a blurred video of a girl in her school uniform taking off her top. Now, as a very close friend of mine mentioned, while many of us can pretend that we know it is a dramatisation, many viewers of Hindi news channels (especially India TV, I'm afraid) will not. So, while you should take that idiotic IGP for maligning the girls reputation after she is dead (like me sying rajiv gandhi was corrupt, no wait...) the media frenzy which followed the murder, particularly after the botched police investigation is pretty bad. There is no doubt the police have been incompetent, but after watching some Hindi channels, I am beginning to think the idea of a regulator for news channels is not a bad idea. Crass is a serious understatement.
OK, recently I made a now redacted post on plagiarism, I should have read the email more carefully and I removed the post when i did. However, that email raised a few points and I have raised those in a previous post. recently, I was told of a photographer whom I have worked with who is changing jobs claiming that pictures clicked by other people are his. That is not just plagiarism, that is technically stealing. But so then is plagiarism. A writer from ET got upset about these accusations, and sent me a mail. The mail is there for you to read, would like to know your thoughts on this, and particularly in a world where you can check everything online. I would really like people to write in here, because there have rarely been meaningful discussions on the topic, remember an editor of HT lost his job because he lifted entire sentences from other columnists.
Thanks
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Will anyone define plagiarism? Those who claim to be waging a "war against plagiary" seem to be unaware of the basics of journalism. 'Any development is worth a follow-up' is one of the basic tenets of journalism. Even if it is minor, you are updating your reader, after all. Despite having spent over six years in the profession, I fail to understand the obsession behind "bylines". Earlier, it was about whenand how one should take a byline.
Now, the obsession has gripped thereaders (or rather warriors) too, who seem to be taking a keen interest in bylines. The "Why of a byline" is the warrior's dimensionto the byline business. It is surprising that in this fast-pacedworld, there are actually those who have the time to monitor who's taking a byline and who's not. To all those who seem to be keeping track of others' work (at the expense of your professional and personal life), I just have one thingto say: Grow up! Stop passing comments on who deserves a byline andwho doesnt because every publication has its own rules to measurewhich copy should go with the reporters' name and which should not.
Plus, newspapers are chasing news, which is developing everyminute, every second and to expect an update to come without thebackgrounder (coz using backgrounder will be plagiarism) is utterly foolish. Are all those writing for DNA and Mint plagiarists? Of course NOT! These newspapers have the policy of giving byline to all reporters whocontribute. A press release or a press conference copy also goes witha byline. Now who is the plagiarist? Will the warriors against plagiarism explain? Come to ET, a newspaper which breaks the maximum number of news, apaper which most of you can't do without and yet the paper which iscriticised the most.
Like all publications, ET may be having its shareof plus and minuses, but nobody has the right to question its policy of giving byline to its reporters. Those heading ET know better thanthe "warriors" that which story should go where and with or without abyline. Increasingly, the paper is encouraging bylines even in routinestories where there is substantial value addition in terms of analysis, comments from stakeholders, insight for the comman man etc. Plus interviews with senior officials always go with a byline even ifthey are talking about everything that's not earth shattering. These stories may appear to be repetitive, but they are not.
A byline story in ET will definitely give you more than other stories onthe same topic will give. And then to accuse the reporter of plagiary shows that the accuser has an agenda. What repeatedly surprises me is the amount of free time people have on hand to keep a check on whatsomeone is doing rather than setting their lives in order. I say setting their lives in order coz anyone with a healthy professional and personal life will not have the time to sit up and monitor eachand every story someone is doing. So Cheer up! Just look outside thewindow. There couble be a lot more you can do than pointing fingers at others. As for ET, join the paper if you have the guts and, of course, the ability. People out there will surely give you a patient hearing.
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Why does formatting go for a toss when you Ctrl-C Ctrl-V from Gmail. And this is not my writing by the way, before I get accused of plagiarism myself. Oh yeah, and people have stolen chunks of text from this blog as well in the recent past.

More notes on Nithari

This blog is not a news source, if you want to know the latest on Nithari – click here – Google News is a fairly decent service. The ‘Lynch Mob K’ thinks that there are a lot of kids dead – these two people have all but admitted to killing them, so we should do the right thing and string these two guys up. But, then the ‘Rational K’ kicks in, now this bit of me doesn’t argue against the death penalty – I won’t pander the ‘Liberal Left K’ somewhere in my inner soul (deep down we all have a bit of Liberal Left in all of us) and take up cudgels against the death penalty.
Now, there are a couple of things that are blindingly obvious – things that you’ll never hear or see in the papers. The UP Police have done a spectacularly botched job – and I’m not talking of not taking complaints from migrant labourers. But we aren’t getting into the callous attitude of the UP Police whose money making ability is second only to the Mumbai Police.
Given that my television alternates between Discovery T&L, AXN and Star World (Yes, I live in South Delhi, but I was sensible enough to get DTH two months ago) I end up seeing a lot of CSI. Now, the truth is that investigations even in the Land of the Free don’t happen ‘Crime Scene Investigation’ style. But carrying out bones and bodies in gunny sacks without basic forensic work? I mean, this happened in Uttar Pradesh, our Land of the Free Criminal, so we have no clue if Moninder and Surendra are being made the scapegoats for what one of Mulayam’s henchmen did? I mean Mulayam’s brother considered Nithari ‘small and regular’.
Now what? We are subjecting the two suspects to a technique that has on the whole been fairly discredited in the west – as being against Human Rights. What ‘Narco Analysis’? It would be far more effective to dope these two with a decent hit of LSD and then see them mentally disintegrate when you show them pictures. Hey, I’ve seen people on LSD admit to affairs and worse – if they go into a bad trip, all sorts of little secrets can come tumbling out. But can the testimony hold up in court? I’ve asked criminal three lawyers this and all three of them say that any ‘confession’ from this sort of method (though good enough for the CIA) may not hold up in court (which is why Telgi’s admission of his ‘accomplices’ has never made it to court and might never will).
All that I’ve seen in Nithari is the dark side of our Police Forces and Investigative methodologies (not even an Edit on this, by the way) and the completely tasteless way in which the media operates in such cases. The media themselves are in no small part responsible for the destruction of forensic materials in their haste to get a better ‘picture’ or story and inept UP Policemen didn’t help.
And I haven’t even gotten to the bit where I believe the police across the country assists in the running of child exploitation rackets.