Shri Ravishankar Prasad's contempt for the bureaucracy

Last night on "The Buck stops here" on NDTV, yes I do watch the show even after the Radia tapes, on a debate if the UPA was on the backfoot with not giving in to the Opposition's demand for a JPC into the 2G spectrum sale issue Shri Ravishankar Prasad made a number of points about Polayil Joseph Thomas (current CVC PJ Thomas) but the one that stood out was that Mr Thomas didn't work as a Director or Secretary in New Delhi and hence on that account wasn't competent enough to hold the high office of CVC headquartered in New Delhi. 

This observation brought about a rather unsavoury side of our politicians (and I suppose bureaucrats too) who seem to think as New Delhi to be the center of the Indian populace around which our lives revolve. How is working in New Delhi a medal of honour on a bureaucrats uniform? How does it become a measure of excellence and merit? Dr Babu Paul asked these very questions back to Shri Ravishankar Prasad who seemed to have taken it personally and exhibited disgust at having to answer a question raised by a bureaucrat. I've read about instances where IAS / IPS officers are treated with contempt by some illiterate politicians but Shri Prasad, an eminent lawyer in the Supreme Court, an ex Minister in the Union of India !!!

A savvy modern politician exhibiting such contempt was unbecoming of a person with such experience in the public domain with such an illustrious political life. Shri Ravishankar Prasad in a fleeting moment of rage showed his real colour, probably a belief deep inside that the bureaucrats were essentially servants of the political class. In those vulnerable moments he probably also forgot that only the cream of our educated graduates manage to clear the Civil Services exams in the first place. Salutations to Dr Babu Paul for the dignified and measured response, people like him bring dignity and respect to the profession. 

Note: This author holds no brief for the current CVC Shri PJ Thomas, this author doesn't have any proof to believe he's guilty or innocent, this author doesn't have an opinion on that front either. Eventually the outcome of PIL in the Supreme Court will make it clear if Shri Thomas was tainted or caught in the middle of a raging political battle. Dr Babu Paul writing about his first step into the IAS be a nice article to read if you'd be interested to know more about him. 

Mediagate, phone taps, leaks, corporate wars in India and Arnab Goswami

The Niira Radia tapes bring to light the extent of lobbying, molly coddling, news planting, opinion inseminating and persuasion corporate house indulge in in India. In the US all this is supposedly legal however in India it's still a new trend. Everyone knows it's there but no one talks about it. Govt policy is influenced by powerful PR personnel who can call almost anyone in the journalistic who's who or bureaucracy in the country. This post isn't going to start sermonizing about the ramifications this can have on our country or if the allocation of a natural resource can be decided by the judge of a High Court. This post isn't also going to be about how all this could be part of a grand corporate war between two brothers. We aren't going to delve about Barkha Dutt or #BarkhaGate as it has come to be known on Twitter nor the episode where Editors posted questions which went gloriously unanswered on NDTV. 

This is about "The Newshour" on Times NOW and Arnab Goswami. Arnab Goswami was an excellent news anchor in NDTV a long time ago, he still is a reasonably good moderator of television debates. I used to watch a 10 PM news show on NDTV half a decade ago (almost) and that was hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami and it was a brilliant format. Tonight on "The Newshour" on Times NOW, which hehad editorial control over,  Armab rightly proclaimed that there are no tapes that involve him and I applaud him for his incorruptibility. But on the same note I hope he's heard the tape where Navika Kumar sounded like a pet poodle when a call came to her phone from the head honcho of a PR agency. This conversation clearly indicates the rapport the two characters shared and if what Arnab has written in the internal memo to his staff is true then Navika Kumar better find another job.

The following is supposedly the internal memo Arnab wrote to Times NOW's staff:

Colleagues, 

There has been news about two senior journalists from other media groups being involved in collaborating with corporate lobbyists and corporate groups on the 2G scam issue. This is a low point in the news business. It’s downright shameful. I am writing to reiterate some of the core values of the group and the channel. We believe in fierce editorial independence and complete personal honesty. Our standards have to remain impeccably high. In your interactions at any level, remember that you are ambassadors of India’s number one news channel. In an earlier edit meeting, I have said that even a pass into a stadium that’s accepted free amounts to being compromised, and today I am writing to reassert that. No gifts, no favours, no lobbying, no free dining and wining, no cash, no kind, no pass, no trip, no holiday, no promise, no passes, no special treatment, no tall or short claims, no disrespect to the organization that you represent and the group that we are all a part of, no loose talk, no flexibility on values, will be accepted. If I hear of any, we will come down hard, and no exceptions will be made... 

—Arnab’

Make no mistake, Arnab can hold his head high unlike most other journalist seen hobnobbing with someone representing corporate interests, illustrious ones, people one held in high esteem. But still Arnab, will you have to make an exception in the case of Navika? 

The Kerala IPL saga – A technician’s take on the the hoopla

All news channels today are running the Tharoor involvement in Kerala’s IPL story in the ‘breaking news’ mode with everyone giving little substance but more air time over what’s actually nothing. In an attempt to see if Dr Shashi Tharoor or his office would in anyway be connected to the IPL team I discovered some startling facts, all based on information available on the internet. At the outset I’d like to state that this writer couldn’t care less about Sunanda Pushkar and her association with Dr Shashi Tharoor. This writer’s objective is just to present some facts about the new Kerala IPL team related to the real estate they own on the internet and in the process show how Dr Tharoor’s office might be linked to the team much closer than what Dr Tharoor would like everyone to believe.

The way Rendezvous sports won the IPL bid and the fact that there was only one Malayali name was in the owner’s list and he had 1% share in the team was a little hard to believe. It was a little baffling that businessmen with absolutely no connection to the state would like to put up an IPL cricket team spending atrocious amounts of money. The parallels between Dr Tharoor’s political debut and Rendezvous debut in IPL is too obvious. A virtually unknown in Kerala politics, Dr Tharoor was given a ticket to the Lok Sabha seat of Thiruvananthapuram. This despite the fact that he wasn’t from Thiruvananthapuram but from Palakkad in Kerala. He won and subsequently went on to become the Minister of State for External Affairs. The way Rendezvous bid and won the IPL franchisee for Kochi was very similar to Dr Tharoor’s Lok Sabha victory.

Every one has a Twitter account these days, it’s such a huge hit in India. So the Kerala IPL team has it’s own Twitter account too. The screenshot below shows their page and their website (the standard.in) which I take it is their official website. I’m not willing to be fooled by the news displayed on “The Kerala Standard” website, it’s a nice way to keep getting in traffic from search engines. While checking who registered the domain for the Kerala IPL team, where it is hosted I hit upon some information which need to be clarified by our Minister for External Affairs. His office is for sure involved in more than just being good friends for a bunch of people who want stand up for the Malayali pride in fielding an IPL team. Here’s the registrant information of this website, the registrant’s name might be familiar to the one’s on Twitter already. Read it along with the registrant information of Dr Tharoor’s official website.

Domain ID:D3883893-AFIN Domain Name:THESTANDARD.IN Created On:17-Nov-2009 13:23:02 UTC Last Updated On:21-Feb-2010 13:14:07 UTC Expiration Date:17-Nov-2011 13:23:02 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com Inc. (R101-AFIN) Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED Registrant ID:CR29734645 Registrant Name:Jacob Puthenparambil Registrant Organization: Registrant Street1:Puthenparambil Registrant Street2:Pulincunnu PO Registrant Street3: Registrant City:Alleppy Registrant State/Province:Kerala Registrant Postal Code:688504 Registrant Country:IN Registrant Phone:+91.4712703745 Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX: Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email:  jacob@tharoor.in Name Server:NS1.SLICEHOST.NET Name Server:NS2.SLICEHOST.NET Name Server:NS3.SLICEHOST.NET

Domain ID:D3443246-AFIN Domain Name:THAROOR.IN Created On:26-Mar-2009 07:13:16 UTC Last Updated On:04-Mar-2010 17:44:22 UTC Expiration Date:26-Mar-2011 07:13:16 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com Inc. (R101-AFIN) Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED Registrant ID:CR7566948 Registrant Name:Shashi Tharoor Registrant Organization:Office of Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP Registrant Street1:TC 24/2074 3, Panavila Jn., Thycaud PO Registrant Street2: Registrant Street3: Registrant City:Thiruvananthapuram Registrant State/Province:Kerala Registrant Postal Code:695 014 Registrant Country:IN Registrant Phone:+91.4712324555 Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX:+91.4712324666 Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email:praveen@tharoor.in Name Server:NS1.SLICEHOST.NET Name Server:NS2.SLICEHOST.NET Name Server:NS3.SLICEHOST.NET

Looking at the WHOIS information for thestandard.in and tharoor.in one can safely conclude that Dr Tharoor’s office or one of his staff members has registered the website for the Kerala IPL team. The email ID listed is jacob@tharoor.in which is probably the official email address of Dr Shashi Tharoor’s OSD, Shri Jacob Joseph. This information is available on the contact page on Dr Tharoor’s website. Did the Minister’s office register the domain for the Kerala IPL team? If Yes then why unless they have a stake in it? If No then why is the official email ID of the Minister’s OSD listen on the domain’s contact information?

Jacob Joseph
Officer on Special Duty
Telephone: 23014118
Email: jacob@tharoor.in

Source: http://tharoor.in/contact/

Additionally I also have considerable proof to believe that both these websites are hosted out of the same datacenter in the US, I did a trace of the IP address and see them pointing to the same location owned by RACKSPACE. The underlined lines below shows that both websites though they resolve to different IP addresses are hosted out of the same datacenter and the IP space is owned by RACKSPACE, one person manages the hosting space rented here in all probability. Do the Minister’s office or personal staff host the Kerala IPL team’s website? If Yes then why is the minister denying close association with the IPL team? If No then how come the Minister’s official website and the Kerala IPL website are hosted out of the same facility? Coincidence? A might one I’d say !

tharoor.in (174.143.27.168)

13   355 ms   416 ms   294 ms  RACKSPACE-M.edge2.Dallas3.Level3.net [4.59.36.50]

14   287 ms   285 ms   283 ms  vlan907.core7.dfw1.rackspace.net [98.129.84.181]

15   284 ms   286 ms   289 ms  aggr511a-1-core7.dfw1.rackspace.net [98.129.84.149]

16   285 ms   282 ms   291 ms  174-143-27-168.static.cloud-ips.com [174.143.27.168]

thestandard.in (204.232.202.72)

15   268 ms   267 ms   271 ms  main1.above.net [209.133.126.42]

16   268 ms   277 ms   275 ms  vlan907.core7.dfw1.rackspace.net [98.129.84.181]

17   302 ms   289 ms   281 ms  98.129.84.217

18   272 ms   273 ms   294 ms  204-232-202-72.static.cloud-ips.com [204.232.202.72]

Shri Jacob Joseph who also is associated with mobmag.in and tenders4u.com is an active twitter user and Dr Tharoor even once attributed him to the reason for getting onto Twitter. Why should the Minister deny his close association with the Kerala IPL team and attribute it to just mentoring when his personal staff seem to be closely involved in their presence on the internet? Surely the interests aren’t philanthropic.

The URL posted today by Dr Tharoor’s OSD is in bad taste. Why rake up Mr Lalit Modi’s past when that’s already been part of a court dispute in the BCCI election case? When you knew he was indicted why did you even seek his favour for an IPL team? This particular gentleman has always gone on overdrive on Twitter when Dr Tharoor landed into a controversy, should a Union Minister of India’s personal staff start giving out sound bites? Are the personal staff of the Minister exempt from helping hold the integrity and respect of the high office the Minister holds and get into a slander match with a sporting honcho who thinks he can turn any sport into a money spinner?

I’m sure every information on the WHOIS pages of these domain will be changed overnight, but the fact that they were on them till today is a testimony to the the shallow thought that went into owning these online resources. It’s not a crime to own a stake in a cricket team in a format that’s exciting and gets good ad revenues for broadcasters. Someone should take a long hard look and say “let’s stop insulting the intelligence of our audience and come clean out of this.” It’s not a big deal, but would mean a lot to folks such as this writer who have loved Dr Shashi Tharoor’s books and have seen every interview he has given about a dozen times on the internet and looked up to him as a man who made his country proud all through his career.

Toyota’s goof up in the US

I’m not sure if we can brand Toyota’s protracted inaction and denying the existence of the problem with so many cars in the US as arrogance, they were caught completely unawares and the recent departure of a top executive from the west coast added to the organization’s woes. A chance to regain customer loyalty appears to have gone down the drain for Toyota now.

TATA Motors wasn’t a manufacturer with a spotless reputation for manufacturing passenger cars. When I selected the TATA Indigo amongst many other choices that were available in 2005 I heard tons of criticism from various quarters. TATA were reeling in negative publicity given all the problems with the Indica which customers were so pissed off at. For the money that one had to pay for the Indigo one was getting a far spacious and decent car than what was on offer from other manufacturers for the same price.

The ownership experience wasn’t without problems. The first was a problem with the fuel injection mechanism which was detected in the first year of owning the car. What was promised to be a 3 day work went for over a month, because the defective parts were replaced under warranty and took it’s own time to be dispatched from the factory. I was frustrated, I vented out to the head of works in Coimbatore and there after to the regional head of customer service in Bangalore.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was given an alternative car to use while mine was being repaired. To top it off the costs for the repairs were close to Rs.40,000/- and I didn’t spend a penny out of my pocket, warranty covered them all. I wasn’t charged labour charges for all the delays caused for this repair. I was happy at the service levels provided by the authorized service center, however I still would like them to attend to many small things that need attention when a car goes for service.

The second was an accident after midnight on a highway in April 2008 caused severe damage to left side all the way from the front fender to the rear boot. One look at the car would send shivers down one’s spine, the damage looked menacing. However nothing happened to the three people who were travelling in the car, not even a scratch. That was a sterling testimony to the way the car’s structure was built. To imagine what’d have been the case if this was one of the Maruti’s was shuddering.

If you are evaluating a new car don’t miss checking out the TATA Indigo Manza.

India is on Twitter?

We are living in a chaotic period in the modern India. Telangana, Naxals, Inflation, Kashmir, Terrorism, Liberalization … buzzwords that are heard everyday on TV, in the papers, on the internet and at bus stops in our country. Last year particularly was the coming of age of Twitter in our country. We saw a whole gamut of famous people get onto to Twitter and started using it mostly to promote their own personal agendas.

Shashi Tharoor, by far the most followed and eloquent amongst the newest twitterers from India keeps hitting media headlines for a casual remark he makes to his friend or commenting about aspects of foreign policy. The media which erstwhile played the role in bringing the message from the establishment, film starts and other avenues was finding it hard to cope with the fact that all these people now were directly talking to their target audience. Given this new channel established the media then had to report what was going on in Twitter which most often was a tad stale for the one’s that follow all these celebs on Twitter in the first place.

You have prominent personalities from the electronic media like Rajdeep Sardesai, Vikram Chandra, Sagarika Ghosh, Prabhu Chawla, Barkha Dutt …. on Twitter. You have reporters from these channels on Twitter. You have Vir Sanghvi, N Ram, Pritish Nandy and a whole gamut of professionals from the print media on Twitter. The film industry is there on twitter. All these folks promote their own articles, shows, movies on the medium. The folks from the media sometimes encourage debate, my favorite is Vir Sanghvi who never seems to have a problem calling a spade what it is. Go on, tweet to your hearts content and if you get a reply from one of these celebs do make a big deal about it.

Last week I was standing in a long line at a railway booking counter. The counters open at 8 AM and if you are one of those hapless one’s hoping to get a Tatkal ticket on a weekend train you better get to the booking counter by 8:15 AM or you don’t stand a chance in hell to get a confirmed reservation. Being the 17th person in the line I was slightly worried. As the crowd moved with only 10 more left an officer in Army uniform turned around:

Officer: Tatkal ticket?

Me: Yes sir, Saturday’s train, just 17 tickets remaining.

Officer: Aagay jao, mera tho utna jaldi nahi hai. (Go ahead, mine isn’t as urgent)

Me: Bahut shukriya sirji. (Thank you sir)

Don’t we need more people like this officer to make this world a better place?

The 2010 Ferrari F1 Challenger - Unveiled

The 2010 Ferrari F1 Challenger is ready to be unveiled. Here are some pics.

    

Santander assumes the role of principal sponsor considering the amount of coverage they’ve been given on the car, hope Alonso lives up to the Spanish bank’s expectations. It’s intriguing however for Santander to try to cash in on Lewis’ popularity in the UK, the new building blocks ad being an example.

Vigilante citizens or pseudo-moral hooligans?

Kerala as a society has always projected itself to be progressive, forward looking and intelligent. There is a high level of literacy across the state and this is simply not just based on if a person can write his/her own name, most people can read the daily newspaper. This state also has amongst the largest circulated newspapers in India. There are also the largest number of news channels in Malayalam, I’m just sharing a perception and not basing this on any fact.

Rajmohan Unnithan, one of the new leaders emerging in the Congress, was hounded, heckled and paraded in front of the media and subsequently taken to the police station in Manjeri and for what? Rajmohan was surrounded in the house he was with a friend/colleague/acquaintance of his by members of the PDP (People’s Democratic Party) and DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India). This group of vigilantes took it upon themselves to then hurl abuses at the duo, brand the woman a prostitute, tease them, harass them, rip their clothes (marginally, heck does that make it any less a crime?) and force the Police to book a case against them.

Paul Zachariah, noted social activity, commentator, columnist and write in Malayalam, wrote in the New Indian Express that Rajmohan took a short break as he was passing through Manjeri in Malappuram district. I’m not going to get into the morals of this episode, what outrages me is the fact that sort of vigilantism has been glorified by the media in Kerala and people alike. Manjeri for one is a well known red bastion, a strong hold of the communists and hence the DYFI showing up on Rajmohan’s doorstep is hardly surprising nor is the presence of their new found friend, the PDP.

Why would a shrewd politician like Rajmohan walk into a trap, if that’s version of this episode is true? This politician is a known Left baiter and has spoken acerbically about many such episodes in the past. He’s also played the villain role in a couple of movies. Once close to K Karunakaran he fell out with him after they split and was one of the harshest critic of Karunakaran’s son Muraleedharan who is currently trying his best to return to the Congress(I) after a failed stint trying to setup a third front in Kerala.

At the end of this apparently Rajmohan insisted that a medical test be conducted and no instance of sexual contact between the two could be proved. The media took it upon itself to telecast this sort of harassment ‘live’ as if it were of such national importance. Paul Z makes an interesting observation, he says the society in Kerala as such is starved for sex and hence this craving for sensationalism. Anyone who has been to “God’s own country” can vouch for the fact that except the big cities Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, life’s not easy at all for the women who have to travel by bus or train to their workplace and back.

What has the law enforcement agencies got to do by arresting and booking cases against two adults just because they were under the same roof? (Immoral trafficking!!!! Bullshit) Who gives these vigilantes the power to go about being the law and justice system all rolled into one? What if these two people were sleeping around? Who should be bothered by it? What happened to the progressiveness that marked the leftist ideals of yore?

Happy New Year 2010

Wow, it's been a while since any of us posted here. Live caught up with us and spoilt quite a few ideas. But here we are again ..

:::::::: HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 ::::::::: Hope this year brings to you all the prosperity, happiness and love that you need.

Hopefully I'll be more regular on here this year than the last couple of years. Strike that. I will be more regular. Ciao.