Final views on news 07 march 2015 single pages smallest

SCOOP POWER

MARCH 7, 2015 `100VIEWS ON NEWSTHE CRITICAL EYE

www.viewsonnewsonline.com

NDTV SHAKE-UP

AIB ROAST NEW MEDIA

Barkha out, Dilip Bobb in 7

He who laughs may not last 25

Zap your world with app power 18

The Shazia Ilmi, Shekhar Gupta spat proves the supersonic speed of social media 12

NSBBD

MODI RESHUFFLES OFFICERS 44

RADIO’S NEW ADMIN PROWESS 40

KEJRI TRIUMPH: DID OBAMA SWING IT? 47

Governance Section

NOW THAT THE World Cup—and we don’t refer to this

championship trophy in the subcontinent as anything other

than Cricket (with a capital “c”)—is upon us, we’re deluged

by the C-word everywhere we look. It stares at us from wall

posters, signboards, hoardings, but most of all, from

newspapers and TV.

Even as the fate of this season of the bat’s chock against

the whizzing ball is being scripted on some special Olympus

from where the gods look upon as spectators and manipu-

lators, we mere cricketing mortals are bombarded by the wis-

dom of sports writers who sprout like wild mushrooms after

a summer shower and lecture to us from pulpits involving

not just TV and print but now, also the social media.

And many of us groan as our brains bloat with this over-

feeding. Isn’t there anything else to talk about? Does anybody

give a damn during cricket season whether China has taken

another bite out of our territory in the North-east or how many

more inches the Gangotri glacier has receded or whether the

speed of light had remained constant over the last decade?

Frankly, my dears, to paraphrase Clark Gable, we Indians

don’t give a damn even if the scientists actually discovered

another Black Hole over the Thar Desert. During cricket sea-

son, that news would merit a half column on whichever page

a junior sub-editor chose to dump it. See, guys, what really

counts is the speed, line and length of the cricket

juggernaut. Not a very good time for India and

Pakistan to start firing at each other across the

border. They’d probably both hit Jupiter instead.

Strange, indeed, that this obsession should

remain unabated despite the IPL financial scan-

dals, the betting revelations, involvement of

organized crime, the Supreme Court investiga-

tion and exit of evergreen superheroes. The

common explanation is that the media promotes

the hype and the public laps it up. There’s big

advertising bucks, good prime time rates, lots

of new limelight for media matinee idols to bask

in. Ok. Maybe once. Maybe five years in a row.

But for endless decades? And without a let

down? Tell me if you know a single person who

missed the last Indo-Pak one-dayer even though

he was heard screaming a day before that these

matches are fixed and not worth watching.

The C-juggernaut is our creation. The media, unlike other

hyped-up subjects and issues and personalities, is, in this

case, reflecting our passion rather than its own biases. It’s

not as if Indians are any more or less sports-crazy than other

nationalities. It’s just that they’re C-crazed and the spell cast

by the Raj through pavilions and pitches and mats and gloves

and pads and bats cannot be exorcised.

Cricket, is probably as important to the Indian as democ-

racy and Bollywood. There are probably tons of Indians who

care more about cricket than they do about some “democ-

ratically” elected neta. Cricket spells rags to riches for tal-

ented tribals who would otherwise never be able to leave their

jungles. Cricket spells excellence, camaraderie, glamor, equal

opportunity, a level playing field and also provides the whole

nation—after a hard-fought victory—a glimpse of the pos-

sibilities, heights, valor, grit, hard work, unity, sacrifice, sec-

ularism and determination which is the true but often hidden

face of a resplendent India.

At a technical level, thanks to TV, cricket has been in-

creasingly riveted into the minds and hearts of the ordinary

Indian after the stupendous victory of India in the World Cup

in 1983 in the West Indies. And we have really never looked

back ever since. India conquered all forms of the game: 50

overs, T-20 and Tests.

Nobody believed that the 20 over version would arrive

and change the landscape of cricket forever. It did. Its suc-

cess in terms of money and popularity is unprecedented.

Today, we have a World Cup dedicated to this format. In fact,

it has given rise to a new audience who understands slam-

bang cricket and the need not be clued into its intricacies.

The way the game is televised has undergone a sea

change. Celebrities, like already-ban-gaya-crorepati-Amitabh

B sit cheek-by-jowl with cricket pundits commenting on

the game.

In this topsy-turvy C-world, it is not the media that creates

a buzz about cricket, it is the other way round. Cricket com-

mands attention. Period.

Like Britannia once ruled the waves, cricket rules India—

not as Emperor but as Leveler.

EMPEROR C-WORD ED

ITO

R’S

NO

TE

3VIEWS ON NEWS March 7, 2015

C O N Editor-in-Chief Rajshri Rai

Managing EditorRamesh Menon

Deputy Managing EditorShobha JohnSenior EditorVishwas Kumar

Associate EditorMeha Mathur

Deputy EditorsPrabir Biswas

Niti SinghAssistant Editor

Somi DasArt Director

Anthony LawrenceSenior Visualizer

Amitava SenGraphic Designer

Lalit KhitoliyaPhotographer

Anil ShakyaNews Coordinator/Photo Researcher

Kh Manglembi DeviProduction

Pawan Kumar

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LEDE

Social desi 12Mainstream media is facing stiff competition as headline mo-

ments and nasty brawls move to Facebook, Twitter and

YouTube, writes SHANTANU GUHA RAY

EDITORS’ PICK

Lessons from Delhi Elections 20AAP’s success has many fathers. And Modi and his men have

more convincing to do now, writes MIHIR SHARMA

NEW MEDIA

The Ap(p)t Choice 18The popularity of news apps is on the rise, writes

AISHWARYA RAMESH

4 VIEWS ON NEWS March 7 , 2015

T E N T S

BUREAUCRACY

REVIEW

All for a laugh TVF’s interview with Arvind

Kejriwal provided wholesome

entertainment, writes SOMI DAS

29

A game of chess 44

RADIO

David slays Goliath on radio 40

R E G U L A R SEdit................................................03Media-go-round............................06Quotes..........................................08As the world turns.........................10Vox Populi.....................................19Breaking news..............................32Grapevine.....................................50

After the Delhi experience, radio is

set to play a vital role in every

local, municipal and state election,

writes AKASH BANERJEE

Modi is making sure he has all

his right men in the right place,

writes VISHWAS KUMAR

The BJP and Modi paid heavily for

their arrogance, and for not

keeping promises, writes

ASHIM CHOUDHURY

Blame it onObama!

POLITICS

47

PROTESTS

Love in the timeof Hindutva 36In recent times, there have been

protests over attempts by hard-line,

right-wing elements to curb fundamen-

tal rights. What they forget is that this is

a democracy, writes SHREYA S

Governance

Cover design: Anthony Lawrence

TOPIC

Smut and sensibilities 25The furore over the AIB Roast shows

that India is still not ready for this

genre of comedy, reports

PALLAVI DEWAN


THIS BUDGET SESSION, the government hasplans to live-stream both the Union Budget andthe Railway Budget on YouTube and is alsoplanning to invite questions from peoplethrough social media platforms, like Twitter. The Indian Express reported that the Informa-

tion & Broadcasting ministry is likely to hold“talkathons” on Twitter, Facebook and YouTubesimultaneously. The first talkathon was organ-ized by the I&B ministry on February 16, inwhich Power Minister Piyush Goyal answered questions for 30 minutes.

Budget to be streamed live on social media

A DAY AFTER the Delhi Police detained fivepeople for leaking classified documentsfrom the petroleum ministry, former journal-ist Shantanu Saikia and energy consultantPrayas Jain were arrested on February 20.Saikia, who runs an energy portal, was ar-rested after overnight questioning. He runsan energy portal. There are other journalistsalso who were being questioned on the leakof information to energy industries, sourcestold News X.Jain is an energy consultantwith Medit Business Solutions Pvt Ltd, anAustralian Energy firm.

A senior police officer said: “We havearrested Prayas Jain and Shantanu Saikia inthis connection. Both of them are energyconsultants who received stolendocuments.” According to sources, top of-ficials of four oil firms are under the scan-ner and more arrests are expected.

As informed by police sources, theEssar general manager has gone missingafter the police raided its offices.

Sources told NewsX that one staff of atop industrial group is among the five whowere arrested on February 19.

Ex-scribe Saikia held for petrol ministry leak

EDIA-GO-ROUNDM


Nihalani’sabuse list

CENSOR BOARD CHIEF PahlajNihalani, has issued a notice banningcertain cuss words and the use ofBombay in films. The list consists of30 English and Hindi, “offensive”words. The notice says: “All ROs(regional officers) are directed not toallow such words in any category ofthe certificate. This is also applicableto regional language films.” It alsospecifies that all double meaningwords should be deleted from films.

Diptosh Majumdar passes away

DECCAN CHRONICLE OWNER T Venkat-tram Reddy was qizzed and arrested by aCentral Bureau of Investigation (CBI) teamfrom Bengaluru on February 14, in relationto a Canara Bank fraud case. According toThe News Minute, sources in the CBI al-leged that the agency had found evidencethat the newspaper’s promoters had “delib-erately hatched a conspiracy to cheat andcause a loss to the tune of Rs 1,230 crore

to the bank over a period of four years,from 2008 to 2012”.

“As this is a public sector bank, the DC

has swindled public money,” a CBI officialsaid. Last year, the CBI had filed a case ofcheating, fraud and criminal conspiracyagainst Reddy, DC vice-chairman and man-aging director, T Vinayak Ravi Reddy, vice-chairman PK Iyer as well as the company’sauditors, CB Mouli & Associates.

SENIOR JOURNALIST DIPTOSH Majumdar passed away onJanuary 8, at a private hospital in Delhi. He was 55. Majumdar,who was national affairs editor at NewsX, was suffering fromAcute Myelocytic Leukemia (AML), a type of blood cancer. Hewas admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Sarita Vihar in the lastweek of January after being diagnosed with blood cancer just15 days ago, The Times of India reported.

Deccan Chronicle owner arrested

Shantanu Saikia

N a recent development, two top

media personalities have switched

over, taking many colleagues by sur-

prise. While Barkha Dutt quit as

NDTV Group Editor, Dilip Bobb

resigned from The Indian Expess to move to

NDTV Convergence.

Barkha had been off NDTV’s payroll and work-

ing on a contract basis for the past couple of

months, it is learnt. NDTV founders Prannoy and

Radhika Roy emphasized, in an internal letter (see

box) that Barkha would, “be available, as always, for

analysis and inputs on big news events and stories”.

However, it is understood that she would be

completely out of the planning mechanism of news

and programming.

Officially, she would be the consulting editor.

Her role remains confined to hosting her

primetime show The Buck Stops Here and her

weekend show, We The People. She would also be

in-charge of the 9 pm news as against only conduct-

ing news debates on the prime time slot. The move

is being seen as a reaction to Headlines Today surg-

ing ahead in the TRP race because of the combined

Barkha out, Bobb inefforts of Rajdeep Sardesai and Karan Thapar.

While Thapar grills the newsmakers and the opin-

ion makers of the day, Sardesai has been successful

in cutting out noise and bringing back news on the

prime time.

The consulting role suits Barkha’s interest as she

would be heading her own company and wants to

foray into capturing the digital market before the

advent of 4G. It is understood that the US media

mogul, Oprah Winfrey, whom she interviewed in

2012 at the Jaipur Literature Festival, inspired her

to go solo and become an entrepreneur.

Barkha has been talking with financers for her

new company. It is believed that she had been in

constant touch for an arrangement with Mukesh

Ambani’s channel CNN-IBN. However,

things didn’t work out there. The de-

tails of her new company are

under wraps as of now.

Barkha’s exit coincides with

the hiring of senior journalist

Dilip Bobb. He joined NDTV

after quitting as Group Editor of

The Indian Express (Features). He

would be heading NDTV Conver-

gence and would be responsible for syner-

gizing content from different platforms. NDTV’s

editorial team, apart from stars like Barkha and

Srinivasan Jain, has always remained lightweight.

Bobb is supposed to infuse intellectual weight

to the channel and its online content. He would be

responsible for creating original content for the

channel and its website. While Sonia Singh and

Nidhi Razdan would continue in their existing

roles, Maya Mirchandani would take over the

foreign affairs beat, which till now was completely

under Barkha.

I

VON reports on the inside story behind the two switchovers

NDTV’S INTERNAL MAIL

Dear All,Barkha Dutt was only 23 whenshe joined NDTV as a young reporter-cum-producer. NDTVwas the first place she everworked in, and for two decadeswe have seen her evolve intoone of our most prolificreporters. She has been a keymember of the NDTV family anda big part of our memorablejourney from a productionhouse that created a nightlynews bulletin for Doordarshan

to what we are today. Shehas worn many hats

for NDTV: journal-ist, anchor, edi-

tor; NDTV hasbeen both herlearningground and her

second home.Now, twenty

years later, we wishher all the very best as

she embarks on yet another rolewith us...While her TVrelationship with NDTV remains unchanged, in her new role, shewill be setting up her ownmulti-media content companyand policy group.

....I know you will join us in wishing Barkha the very very best.

— Radhika and Prannoy

EDIA-GO-ROUNDM


U O T E SQSubramanian Swamy,BJP member 250 temples vandalized in Delhi duringlast one year but not a squeak from liberals. One theft in a church howlsfrom Obama downwards on VHP

Ajay Maken, CongressleaderBy banning the media from Secretariat, AAP committing samemistake as BJP in the Union. Fight corruption—be more transparent first.

Nilanjana Roy, authorSo I guess "comedian" is the new"criminal". (Because, old-type CriminalElements either absconding or in public office.)

Suhel Seth, ad-manI hope the blokes who are bidding forTHE SUIT know that they need to havea 56" chest. Where will they get thatfrom?(On the auction of NarendraModi’s pinstripe suit)

Seema Goswami, columnistGreat story by @IndianExpress on 'terror boat'. Good to see solid news reporting in the morning afterwatching pointless TV debates at night

Shekhar Gupta, seniorjournalist & entrepreneur Terrible panic decision under medianoise to let chemists sell Tamiflu. Willsurely be misused, India will end upmaking H1N1 drug-resistant

This World Cuprecord is good and

we are proud of it.But a time willcome when wewill lose to them.This record won'tstay for the rest of

our lives.— Mahendra Singh

Dhoni,on winning againstPakistan, in IBNLive

Your (women journalists)role could be far better utilized, (in printjournalism) without goingout in the field. Not thatyou should not go out,in the sense of safetyand security, the work-ing hours, conditions,and different roles at-tached as a mother, sis-ter, or a wife.— Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, at a

press interaction with women

journalists

Why didn't Chekov say, ‘Write what-ever comes to you from your heart.That is art’. Because he was not a bore.Encoded in great artistes is the acci-dental humility that pushes them toreach out and win the attention ofthe audience instead of assumingthat the world has to be intelli-gent enough to come find them.

— Manu Joseph, in HindustanTimes


Mr Modi is a different man with a dif-ferent mind and a different thinkingfrom the previous prime minister. Ithink he will probably engage withPakistan, but he would like to do thatin his own way.

— Former Pakistan NSA, Mahmud Durrani, in The Hindu

All who called mewith foulest possible names, Iam relieved myparents were notalive to see this.

— Kiran Bedi on her electoral debacle in Delhi,

in a blog post

Class X boards were better? I’ve the same feedback.A CABE sub-committee has studied this. Not justparents, CMs—even those from Congress-ruledstates—say: Reinstitute it. I’ve met students fromKVs, private schools, Navodaya Vidyalayas, teach-ers. Students want boards back. Parents, teachers,students say CCE (continuous comprehensive evaluation) bred a cut-copy-paste generation.— Smriti Irani on bringing back board exams at the secondary level,

in The Times of India

If I had to be offended by a live show I would rather be offended by Arnab who invites people on his show and thendoesn’t let them speak. I saw an episode where he is askingthe education minister a question and then screaming overher answers. Now that’s just bad manners, at least in theAIB Roast they called guests over, let them say their bit, people laughed and went home.

— Twinkle Khanna, in indiatimes.com

Indian Society is a judgmental society. Thebiggest block for innovation and researchin India is fear of failure.We as a society findfaults easily. Hence scientists today areafraid to do new thingsand hence bank upon improving the old thingsbecause they go wrong indoing new things, andthen people are ready topull them down for their failure.

— Bharat Ratna scientist CNRRao, in The Indian Express


NBC ANNOUNCED ONFebruary 10 that it wassuspending BrianWilliams as Nightly

News anchor and man-aging editor for sixmonths without pay formisleading the publicabout his experiencescovering the Iraq war,Reuters reported. NBC

chief executive Steve Burke said Williams’ actions wereinexcusable. Williams apologized earlier for saying hewas in a helicopter that was hit by a grenade whilecovering the Iraq war in 2003. Williams is a star an-chor and one of America’s most popular journalists.

DANISH PHOTOGRAPHER MADSNissen’s picture on gay love hasbeen adjudged as the winner forthe World Press Photo contest,2014. An international jury ofleading professionals in the field ofphotojournalism worldwide beganjudging the entries at the WorldPress Photo office in Amsterdamon February1, headed by MicheleMcNally, director of photographyand assistant managing editor ofThe New York Times. The pictureshows a Russian gay couple, Jon,21, and Alex, 25, in an intimate

moment. The jury considered thefact the picture celebrates homosex-ual love at a time when life for theLGBT community is becomingincreasingly difficult in Russia.Sexual minorities face legal andsocial discrimination, harassment,and violent hate-crime attacks fromconservative religious and national-istic groups. The 58th edition of thecontest got entries from over 5,000photographers of differentnationalities. The winners wereselected from a pool of close to10,000 pictures.

THE RIGHT LEANING CanadianChannel, Sun News Network, fromthe Sun Newspaper stable shutdown on February 13, 2015 after afailed bid of finding a suitable buyer.The channel has been on air for 46months. An estimated 200 employ-ees lost their jobs. The Vice Presi-

dent of the Network, Kory Teneckye wrote a somber mail to itsemployees informing them aboutthe shut down, seconds after thechannel was taken off air. He writesin his mail, “While I regret the out-come, I do not regret the fight forgreater diversity in the Canadianmedia” According to Business

Canada, “The channel promised tobalance the "lefty bias" of traditionalCanadian media, but its operationswere plagued by tight productionbudgets which often left it with lim-ited on-the-ground reporting and alarge portion of its airtime dedicatedto commentary and heavily editori-alized news coverage.”

S THE WORLD TURNSA


Gay rights pic wins World Press photo contest

COMEDIAN JON STEWART, famedfor his biting satire of politiciansand the media, will leave his job ashost of Comedy Central’s parodynewscast The Daily Show later thisyear, he told his studio audience.Stewart, 55, has starred on theshow since 1999. “Through hisunique voice and vision, The Daily

Show has become a culturaltouchstone for millions of fans anda platform for political comedy thatwill endure for years to come,”Comedy Central said in a statement. Although, Stewart’s exitis not being seen as an end to theshow itself, there is anxiety overwho could fill his shoes.

Comedian Jon Stewartleaves show

Sun News Network shutsdown

NBC suspendsBrian Williams for 6 months

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FEBRUARY 22, 2015 `100VIEWS ON NEWSTHE CRITICAL EYEwww.viewsonnewsonline.com

Why DIDI and DADA

fell apart Media tycoon Aveek Sarkar’s warm ties with

Mamata Banerjee turn into a cold war 13

SHOULD GOVT

CONTROL TERROR

REPORTING? 44

CENSOR BOARD CHIEF

PAHLAJ NIHALANI ON HIS

‘ACTION HERO’ MODI 38

JE SUIS LAXMAN

The uncommon

life of

RK Laxman 21WHAT AN IDEA, SIR JI!

Gopinath Menon writes on

the trend of clubbing ads

with social messages 24

HOW A TOUGH MODI

BUREAUCRAT WAS

COLD- SHOULDERED 32

Introducing new section on Governance

LedeNetworking sites

VEN before the dust had settled in the elec-

tions to the 70-seat Delhi assembly in Febru-

ary 2015, a curious development in a television

studio trolled for many hours, triggering de-

bates on the might of the bare-all, hit-all social

media.

It happened at NDTV studio, where anchor

Prannoy Roy had to intervene to check what could have been an

ugly slugfest. The spat was between Shazia Ilmi, a former AAP

leader, who switched sides to join the BJP months before the polls,

and veteran journalist and author, Shekhar Gupta, currently a

senior advisor to Living Media Group that publishes, among

other newspapers and magazines, India Today.

The vicious exchange was a surprise. Ilmi, irritated by Gupta’s

Indians are taking to e-platforms like “locuststo a ripe field of wheat”.

And mainstream media isfacing stiff competition as

headline moments andnasty brawls move toFacebook, Twitter and

YouTubeBY SHANTANU GUHA RAY

E

SOCIAL DESI


jibe that she was nothing but a defector and should

be called an “Aya Ilmi, Gaya Ilmi”, rebutted

strongly, calling the seasoned newshound “Aya Am-

bani, Gaya Ambani” and a “wheeler-dealer”. Ilmi

was hinting at Gupta’s proximity to Mukesh Am-

bani, chairman of the billion-dollar Reliance con-

glomerate.

Roy intervened and the two were separated. It

is not known whether either one has consulted a

lawyer to seek damages.

A clip of the slugfest was instantly found on

YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Phones buzzed

across the Capital, and journalists, authors and

lobbyists debated the issue and wondered how bad

things could turn if social media is plugged in

seconds after an incident.

Two things became clear. A politician could

be ripped apart for flaws, and a journalist

also could be ripped apart for being close to a

corporate captain.

MAKING BIG STRIDES“The writing is clear on the wall. Indians have to be

very careful about what they say, what they do. The

wall has broken and everything is on social net-

working sites,” r emarks Prabir Sen, Singapore’s top

data analyst, adding Indians are taking to social

media like “locusts to a ripe field of wheat”. Sen

should know.

A few years ago, Shashi Tharoor, then the

deputy foreign minister, lost his seat in the cabinet

after tweets were exchanged between him and

GARNERING INTEREST(Facing page) ShekharGupta; Shazia Ilmi;(below) Tsunamilashing Ao Nang inThailand in 2004


over 2,30,000 people in 14 countries

in December.

ZEALOUS CAMPAIGNBloggers from across the world

started The TsunamiBlog and many of

them like Sunil Nair, Dina Mehta,

Peter Griffin, Bala Pitchandi, Angelo

Embuldeniya and others pushed their

stories to define global headlines in

top media organizations like The

Guardian, CNN, The New York Times,

BBC and Ashai Shimbun.

“They disseminated informa-

tion—there was no Twitter or Face-

book in 2004—faster than the

mainstream media and garnered

hundreds of volunteers. What the

bloggers did in 2004 is now routine

across the world, as well as in India,”

adds Upadhyay.

Upadhyay recalls the 2010 Radia tapes that were

leaked to two news magazines. The mainstream

media tried hard to ignore—it even pretended there

were no tapes—but social media did not let it pass

and kept up the pressure.

This, says Sen, is a “natural corollary” to the

media explosion in one of the world’s fastest grow-

ing democracies. India has around 500 big newspa-

pers, over 300 news channels and over 400 radio

stations and a little over 600 news portals. “Social

media has pushed competition to an altogether

different level in India. Everyone, especially the

print and television media, are feeling the heat.

Everyone has a smartphone in India and has the

platform to trigger a Marxist-type revolution in the

media space.”

POLITICAL WARSThe Congress-led United Progressive Alliance

(UPA), which lost power to the BJP-led National

Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2014, had faltered

badly on social media but bounced back with its

Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit

Modi, over a stake of Tharoor’s wife, Sunanda

Pushkar, in Kochi Tuskers, an IPL franchisee team

now disbanded.

“Social media is now defining India’s headline

moments. We better get used to it,” remarks veteran

journalist and former editor, Ajay Upadhyay. And

the use of this medium during elections has seen

some parties getting a windfall.

The BJP blitz on social media during the general

elections is well-documented. Upadhyay said he

would rather look at the enormous impact social

media played during the 2004 tsunami, that killed

A band of liberals is happily fighting theirrivals in a Twitter war between the rulingcoalition and then opposition parties. It is

called Operation Akraman by Congresssympathizers who have multiple handles.

FACING THE HEAT HRD Minister

Smriti Iraniridiculed for hergaffes on Twitter



PIB

“This is India’s new policy of engagement,” says

Rahul Mehra, a seasoned lawyer and a spokesper-

son for AAP, which recently swept Delhi polls.

“Even journalists who felt they were above

everything have decided to stay on in the game and

accept the rules.”

ENLARGED MEDIA CIRCLE Facebook and Twitter have effectively killed

blogging that once produced great writing and the

mainstream media has realized that it needs social

media more than the other way round, almost like

a sounding board for work, contacts and ideas.

“Once trolling was hated, now it is loved,”

says Mehra.

In short, the media universe has been de-

mocratized. “Conversations are now

discussed in metros, 3-tier cities,

even villages. That is the kind

of impact social media is hav-

ing,” says Franz Gastler, a US

football coach who trains

impoverished girls in

Jharkhand.

In June 2014, as a billion plus

India slept, Gastler’s girls won the

third spot in a tournament in faraway

Spain. One Facebook post triggered over

a million hits and triggered nation-

wide discussions on news tel-

evisions. The post did not

go unnoticed, especially

in India where 90 per

cent of its 93 million

Facebook users

shadow cabinet Twitter handles that continue to

irritate the ruling NDA. The idea for the ongoing

Twitter wars, claim Congress party insiders, came

to them when Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister

Shivraj Singh Chouhan was rebuffed by Prime Min-

ister Narendra Modi. The Congress, firm in its

belief that silent sparks were flying within the new

government, launched shadow Twitter handles to

question “fake achievements” of the

NDA government.

Party workers were told to mark individual

members of the new cabinet. Many joined; their

names were kept secret. The system is in vogue in

23 nations across the globe. The shadow ministry

for HRD ridiculed Smriti Irani for her gaffes.

Now, a band of liberals is happily fighting their

rivals in a Twitter war between the ruling coalition

and the opposition parties. It is called Operation

Akraman (on Twitter and Facebook) by Congress

sympathizers who have multiple, strange Twitter

handles like Dhakkar Tao @Bawli Booch, a Haryanvi

alternative for Mad Max. #DholDebate ridicules the

NDA whenever it announces a mega project,

@KanchanAunty digs into tweets from Kanchan

Gupta, a former journalist who worked in the PMO

during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s tenure and the handle

@Poonam_ Yadav carries tweets from a lawyer who

had alerted Delhi when Modi shut down AIIMS

during a health check-up.

Actually, it started when Modi, then BJP’s PM-

aspirant, visited the Sri Ram College of Commerce

in Delhi University for a students’ interaction. The

Congress pushed the idea to make Modi look like

Darth Vader, a fictional Star Wars character listed

as the third most popular villain in the world, be-

hind Hannibal and Norman Bates. And it is all

working well in a country that is the world’s second

biggest cellular handset market.

Experts claim social network has pushed the

mainstream media’s monopoly over “national de-

bates, national conversations”. Is there any value of

an editorial when many have already offered their

opinion on the subject? The answer is a big “No”.

“The writing is clear on the wall, Indianshave to be very careful about what they say,what they do. The wall has broken andeverything is on the social networking sites.” — Prabir Sen, Singapore data analyst

UNDER A CLOUD Shashi Tharoorhad resigned asminister followinghis tweets


are of voting age. What’s more, 11 percent of the

country’s voting population is using Facebook. “The

girls were seen on Facebook where a journalist wrote

a post. Rest is all history. Many newspapers even

copy-pasted the story and called it their own,”

says Gastler.

There are close to 52,000 pages for politicians

and political parties in India, according to data

provided by Facebook, and 60 of these are

“verified” pages.

Last year, Facebook launched India Election

Tracker that tracks movement of Indian politicians.

Consider the case of Mumbai resident and jour-

nalist Dhaval Valia, who took on Vodafone over its

3G services. Once Valia established that Vodafone

had enabled 3G services in only half the cell tower

sites in Mumbai, he wrote it on Facebook.

Vodafone sent a legal notice. Valia sent them one

in return. And then, the news became front-

page material all over India. Eventually,

Vodafone backtracked.

Similarly, in Bangalore when a guard at Leela

Hotel turned away a customer because he was rid-

ing a bicycle, the issue traveled to Facebook. Later,

many drove their bikes right in front of the hotel,

embarrassing the management. Within a month,

Leela had a bicycle stand in its parking lot.

The word is no longer in the newspaper. It has

spread across the country. Join, or perish. The

choice is yours.

GOLDEN MOMENTFootball coach Frank

Gastler’s team of girlsin Jharkhand became

famous after an FBpost spoke of their

win in Spain



NDIA EGAL L STORIES THAT COUNT

January 31, 2015

`100www.indialegalonline.com

IALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY

special report on what women want

speepe iiiaciaciacial rl rl repoppeppp ttttt ononon hahahahawhah wwwwwwt w mememeomeomeomen wnnn

pespeciaci l repop trt on hawha wt womeomen wn

CAMPUS RUMPUS

www.inFIVE IMPORTANT EVENTS

of 2014 that will

change our lives

12

1060

SECTION 66A

License to smother

free speech?

NJAC Still on a

bumpy ride

After turmeric, basmati and

neem, the West eyes khadi. Can

India ward off the threat?

A senior officer, denied

promotion, knocks at

judiciary’s doorsALS0

PATENT PREDATORS COAST GUARD

34

28

18

NDIA EGAL LSTORIES THAT COUNT

February 15, 2015

`100

www.indialegalonline.com

IFINALLY, THE FUSION

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

HL DATTU’S LETTERCJI’s concern over

frivolous complaints

30

10

BCCISC judgment on N Srinivasan provides

him enough room to wriggle out

INDO-US NUCLEAR DEAL

ALS0

The arduous work on liability laws

has seemingly yielded a positive

result. But is it the end of troubles for the N-deal?Faced with radical Islam’s threat, will

it bury its open door policy? And, is

Islam really unforgiving? Lessons on messy rules from Nokia India’s hasty exit

EUROPE UNDER SIEGE MAKE IN INDIA56

16

20

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EEEEEEEUEU

NDIA EGAL L STORIES THAT COUNT

February 28, 2015 `100

www.indialegalonline.com

IWho scripted

Modi’s Delhi Disaster ?

INVESTIGATION How CBI under former boss Ranjit Sinha became a new employment exchange

ALS0

Will Modi address the impatient electorate and bring his growth agenda on the right track?

BUDGET 2015

26

Hurdles in the civil aviation sector

MAKE IN INDIA

36

24

EVERY FORTNIGHT INDIA LEGAL WILL BRING YOU NEWS, ANALYSES ANDOPINION FROM THE SHARPEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND MOST

INCISIVE LEGAL MINDS IN THE NATION ON MATTERS THAT MATTER TO YOU

ENC

ONLY THE STORIESTHAT COUNT

OR many who are used to the help-

ful applications (apps) on their

smartphones, it’s difficult to imag-

ine life without them. Periodic

beeps, buzzes, pings and notifica-

tions help users remain connected

to their personal interests, social world as well as news.

This trend has given rise to the “commodification” of

news, or simply making news typically suited to the

reader’s interest. However, many times news apps may just

be providing users the illusion of keeping

them updated, as they are looked at

mostly for headlines. Many readers

browse newspapers only when they want

an in-depth analysis about a certain issue.

“I like news apps because I get timely

updates, wherever I am,” says Vidya

Gowri Venkatesh Tarwady, a journalism

student in Chennai. She adds: “Apps give

short and to the point news.”

At times, in the hurry to be the first to

break the news, the quality of news re-

porting may be compromised.

“Sometimes for the sake of breaking

news, they (news apps) report without

Digital apps reach out to a large audience and provide a synopsis of

newspaper articles, thereby assistingmainstream media

BY AISHWARYA RAMESH

New MediaNews apps

cross-checking. For example, many news apps first

claimed that Jayalalitha had been granted bail. It was con-

firmed later that the news was false. Such instances have

the potential to create a major flutter,” says Mythreyee Iyer,

a journalism student of MOP Vaishnav College for

Women, Chennai.

“Sometimes the news is put forth in such easy terms

that the gravity of the matter is lost,” says Aakanksha Srini-

vasan, Head Technical Writer, Lakshmi Subramanian

& Associates, Chennai. “It’s a paradox. In an attempt to

make it simple, the details get lost,” she points out.

Digital journalism has two sides to it. There is a brand

of long form reporting and commentary that lives on

through digital journalism, taking advantage of the appar-

ent lack of censorship of content in the online medium.

Some of these websites include Caravan, scroll.in, Firstpost

and so on. There are a number of publications that have

had to design news websites or come up with mobile apps

as their digital counterparts.

Twitter is now rapidly emerging as a news-gathering

tool that helps add depth and perspective. Think about

writing a report of a cricket match. You might be able to

access the cricketer’s quotes directly after a match,

on Twitter.

Mainstream newspaper reporting and commentary

still holds sway, but even that is made more appealing by

a nice introduction (of the same story) that shows up on

the news app. So if you’re a reader who’s interested in a cer-

tain story, you’ll have access to the brief through the app

on your smartphone. If the story generates enough inter-

est, then the reader will automatically find the main story

on the website as well.

FDigital

journalism hastwo sides to it.While it can be

short and precise like inthe news apps,

commentaryalso thrives

on the onlineplatform.

THE AP(P)TCHOICE


OX POPULI NEWS APPS

Phone apps makeslife for us muchmore sorted. Wecan get everythingclubbed in oneplace. My favoriteapps are WhatsApp, Facbook,Twitter,Insragram, Islamicapps, and IAS related informa-tion apps. As fornews apps, NDTVis the best. I also

use the IBNlive app andCricbuzz for updates oncricket.

— Mubashir Bukhari, media professional

V

I don't like web browsing on the phone at all. So I totally rely onapps. Twitter is my favourite. More than half of the apps on myphone are news apps such as Guardian, Newslaundry, Huffpost,TOI. But there's a new news app, News in Shorts. It provides allthe current affairs in just 60 words. You just need to swipe left.

— Kartik Nijhawan, mass communications student

Any day, I prefer getting my news on the appson my phone. The convenience that news appsoffer is amazing. I get news by the instant, and I feelbetter-informed. News apps also take lesser time tobrowse than newspapers. Moreover, in these days ofe-books and e-papers, apps helps to save paperand hence are also environmentally better.I have NDTV and the TOI news app on my phone.

— Aditya Bhandari, student, DPS, Noida

In a tight schedule,where one hardly has

much time to gothrough news columns

or TV, apps are a must.I follow apps like TOI,Reuters and National

Geographic. I have hadthe best experience

with Reuters.

— Rahul Bali, junior engineer, ASP Ship

Management

Apps are very helpful for aweb journalist like me asthey help ease my workand connect with people.My favorite android appsare Facebook messenger,WhatsApp, gaming appsand news apps. The bestnews app according to meis The Times Of India. It’salso the fastest.

— Avinash Sharma, reporter, Niti Central

Phone apps let users have every-thing they want to on their finger-tips, they make functioning onphone very simple. My favoriteapp is Instagram. I also likeNDTV’s news app. It's quick. Idon't have time to go throughnews bulletins. So I rely on thisapp to keep me updated on what’s

happening on the news front.

— Anubhuti Sharma, production assistant, Small Screen

I use the Snapdealapp very frequently.Most of the time Iam not able to goout and spend hourschecking out stuff formyself. It helps me inshopping. I findWhatsApp the best as it helps me stay in touchwith my family and friends. Also, it is quite useful for my professional life. I also love theApp Lock application that protects my phone’s privacy.

— Shashi Bala, freelance media professional


Editors’ PickMihir Sharma

LESSONS FROMDELHIELECTIONS

VON brings in each issue,the best written commentary on any subject. The following column from Business Standard has been pickedin this category by ourteam of editors andreproduced for our readersas the best in the fortnight.


Most of the punditry is wrong. There is no one lesson fromthe Delhi election, only what the three parties choose to

believe - but what will they choose?

AST amounts of nonsense is al-

ready being written and said

about the Aam Aadmi Party’s

epic come-from-behind sweep

of Delhi’s assembly elections.

Some writing panders to-

wards the Voter Decides School, in which genius

pundits somehow manage to analyse a complicated

electorate as if it were actually one rather stupid and

predictable person. Another set of writing veers to-

wards the I Told You So School, in which even a

seven-eighths majority or whatever the AAP just

won in Delhi can’t change anyone’s mind, and it just

reinforces the point that they had been making for

ages – that the government needs to reform more,

or reform less; or Rahul needs to step up, or Rahul

needs to quit; or that voters want Growth, or that

they want Governance, or that they want Freebies.

The truth is that the AAP’s victory, like all

successes, had many, many fathers. Let’s take them

one by one.

First, the Congress. The math is stark: the Con-

gress’ vote-share collapsed, and the AAP mopped up

every single precious percentage point. Good can-

didates lost, people respected in their neighbour-

hoods, people with name recognition and track

records.

They lost because the Gandhi Congress is now a

massive liability. Party posters on the street had al-

ready made that clear: they had the tricolour, the

candidate’s face – but you really had to squint to see

Rahul and Sonia Gandhi up in a corner.

What does the Gandhi Congress do for any

politician? It doesn’t give them enough money to

fight an election. It doesn’t bring them ideological

coherence. It doesn’t assure them of committed vol-

unteers. If the leadership are toxic vote-losers as well,

why would anyone stay in the party?

Doubly so when all that the Gandhi Congress

has to offer its leaders is lonely humiliation, the op-

portunity to be martyrs for the greater glory of the

Gandhi name. The sight of Ajay Maken standing up

on stage taking responsibility for mistakes that

V

KEJRIHAULArvind Kejriwal andManish Sisodia waveat supporters aftertheir stunning victory

weren’t his will unquestionably have convinced

dozens of Congressmen to jump ship at the first

available opportunity.

No organisation survives without accountability

for decision-makers. No political party should take

such a string of defeats without the people at the top

making public recompense.

But in the Gandhi Congress is no public stock-

taking, no contrition. On the day of the elections, as

polls were closing, when Amit Shah was with his

workers, and Kejriwal was with his workers, Rahul

Gandhi was, very visibly, out with friends in a Vasant

Kunj mall.

Anger at the Gandhi Congress will not vanish

until its leadership – Rahul, this means you – are vis-

ibly seen as chastened. Anger will not vanish – the

Gandhi Congress will vanish instead. In Delhi, its

credibility as a political force has been destroyed in

a few months, leading old Congress voters to hold

their noses and vote instead for those they think are

anarchists. To destroy a party more than a century

old will be a truly magnificent achievement. Does

Rahul Gandhi really want that on his conscience?

Second, the BJP. The hilarious sycophancy of its

spokespeople, parading themselves arrogantly

around television channels in an effort to insulate


their High Command from one of the most disas-

trous electoral defeats in Indian political history, is a

salutary reminder that in most of the ways that

count, the BJP is the new Congress.

The scale of the 2014 Lok Sabha victory seems to

have done two things: it had convinced the BJP that

BAD CHOICEKiran Bedi with Amit Shah

and Arun Jaitley

FLOP SHOWRahul Gandhi with SoniaGandhi—both remained

silent after the Delhi debacle

nothing other than Narendra Modi

was necessary to win an election;

and it led them to assume that the

end of the Congress was necessarily

good news for them. The prime

minister has promised a “Congress-

free India” – my apologies, a Con-

gress-mukt Bharat, I forgot that we

live in the era of Hindi supremacy.

In Delhi, the BJP sees for the first

time what a Congress-free India

might really look like; and it is not

good news for the BJP. Its votaries

mocked those who pointed out, in

May 2014, that the party had won a

majority with only 31 per cent of the

vote. But those who live by arith-

metic will die by arithmetic; and the

numbers that were favourable to a

BJP sweep when the Congress was a

diminished force suddenly turn

massively unfavourable to the BJP

when the Congress is a negligible-

force. The biggest backer of the

Gandhi Congress’ future should

now be the inhabitant of 7, Race

Course Road.

The tragedy for the BJP is that it,

in Delhi, was unable to pick up the

vote that left the Gandhi Congress.

This cannot be blamed on Kiran

Bedi, or dissension in the local party.

The fact that it all went to the AAP

suggest that the BJP simply wasn’t

able to convince Delhi voters that it

was the best representative of the

values that the median voter in

Delhi desired of its government. If May 2014 is to

be repeated or expanded upon, it will need the BJP

to change that impression.

And don’t tell me that Delhi is not India – that’s

a trite and pointless statement. Delhi is far more

India’s future than any other town; it is a place



where the old set-in-stone politics of kinship has al-

ready almost entirely given way to a new agenda-

based politics – if one that is no less communitarian,

no less “populist”. Those who imagined that Modi’s

appeal would not go beyond India’s urban con-

stituencies were wrong. It would be amusing if, in

turn, the BJP made an identical mistake when eval-

uating Kejriwal’s appeal.

The question is: has the BJP reached its electoral

high tide? Is it the case that enough of India despises

the blatant communal polarisation that is the party’s

raison d’etre, and that May 2014 was just because

people had been fooled into believing that the BJP

would defy its DNA?

Frankly, I think that’s unrealistic. India’s centre of

gravity has indeed shifted right. The reason Modi

swept UP was that his message – the message that

social inclusion, or “appeasement”, would come at

the cost of prosperity, or “governance” – resonated

with enough Indians to win, and more than ever

before. And this is fundamentally a right-wing

message, and the AAP’s success does not take away

from that.

What the AAP’s success does suggest, however,

is that this is not yet completely Modi’s country. He,

and his party, have more convincing to do.

But we shouldn’t assume that the lesson the BJP

will draw from this is that they must retreat from the

Hindutva that has not appealed to half of Delhi’s vot-

ers. The lesson they could draw is that they need to

preach more. They are a party of preachers, of

pracharaks. They may well imagine they need to

convert more people, become more active Hindutva

evangelists, underline the link they see between

strong, religious nationhood and effective gover-

nance and prosperity. Recognise, please that such a

response is far more in their DNA than is a retreat

from the values that drew them all to politics.

Either way, the BJP will have to come to terms

with a monumental defeat. Modi has squandered his

honeymoon on atmospherics, on photo-ops and

foreign trips and fancy clothes. He had no opposi-

tion; the scale of May 2014 gave him unparalleled

POLITICAL LIABILITY? Sakshi Maharaj’s controversial remarksqueered BJP’s pitch

authority. That is now challenged. He is constrained.

Can he summon the strength to make bold eco-

nomic reform of the sort he has avoided so far? Or

will he instead draw the lesson from Kejriwal’s suc-

cess that a little light populism can go a long way?

The Budget suddenly becomes an even more politi-

cally salient document than it was so far.

And finally, the AAP. A party that, without any

institutional bench strength, without a long history,

nevertheless picks itself up from a devastating loss,

from being mocked across India, and comes back in

this manner deserves respect.

Arvind Kejriwal did that rare thing for an Indian

politician: he publicly apologised. More: he said, per-

suasively, that he had learned from his mistake. That,

more than anything else, convinced Delhi.

Kejriwal spent days and nights meeting people,

going from seat to seat, even when his party was

down and out. (Just read that and compare it to

Rahul Gandhi, sitting in splendid isolation,

apparently unable to change his mind or political

approach.)

The AAP has a template for success now. It can


take over the Congress-plus space. It can move into

areas where the BJP currently dominates, but

the Gandhi Congress is not an easy or palatable

alternative.

Further, the Delhi success is bad news in places

like West Bengal for the BJP, which has positioned

itself there and in Telangana and in Tamil Nadu as

the honest new outsider—the local AAP slot, in

other words.

Note that, quietly, Kejriwal has dropped his op-

position to bringing in local-level political leaders

for power did not deserve it. He has been granted

power again. All of Delhi’s vast hinterland – Punjab

and Haryana, but also, crucially, Bihar and eternally

up-for-grabs Eastern UP – will look to see how he

uses it.

Only Kejriwal can screw this up for himself

now. If he is actually patient, if he tries genuinely to

fix Delhi’s problems, then he can be India’s Jokowi.

Indonesia’s new president parlayed a stint cleaning

up the country’s capital into national power. This

will mean compromise with power companies,

compromise with the Centre, and an appearance of

being a problem-solver. This is the last and most

important way in which Kejriwal and his party have

to transform themselves.

It is pointless to try and work out what the Delhi

Voter “wanted”. One can only note the facts: many

voters, plural, stopped voting for the Congress, and

voted instead for the AAP. The important question

really is: what lessons will the parties in question

draw from this?The Congress, I expect, will learn

nothing. It will continue its smug decline, an arro-

gantly silent leadership still mystifyingly convinced

that it is India’s default party. Clearly, it no longer is.

The BJP: you can’t be sure. It may become more

truly itself, a party of social conservatism. It may

become more inclusive, thinking Sakshi Maharaj

and company are political liabilities. It may become

more populist; it may take more risks. It is not easy

to work out which, because too much depends on

the thinking of one man, and that too a man who

has never before tasted defeat, let alone a defeat of

this humiliating magnitude.

Finally, the attitude of AAP must be the most

interesting. Have they learned? Can they keep the

15 good years of Dikshit’s Delhi going – and per-

haps extend the acchhe din to the slums that kept

their faith with the AAP in the darkest days of

2014? If so, then we may have to redraw the elec-

toral map of 2019.

To read the article online go to: http://www.business-

standard.com/article/opinion/one-election-three-

parties-one-result-three-lessons

COMMUNAL POLARIZATION

Security personnelkeeping vigil in

communally chargedTrilokpuri

with dodgy pasts. He has dropped his contempt for

politics-as-usual. That will help his party expand

through cannibalising the Gandhi Congress’ increas-

ingly disaffected local units – exactly what the Bahu-

jan Samaj Party, for example, did in UP and the

Trinamool in West Bengal.

In UP last year, before the elections, I did see how

Kejriwal had remarkable name recognition. But his

name, then, was met with contempt. He had run

from the battlefield, I was told; a man with no respect



The furore over the show and the subsequent FIRs showthat India is still not ready for a genre of iconoclasticsatire that is de rigeur abroadBY PALLAVI DEWAN

OMEDY is no joking matter.

After the recent Charlie Hebdo

killings that triggered a world-

wide debate on humor, satire,

freedom of expression and its

boundaries, in a different vein

but touching upon similar is-

sues is AIB Roast, which has hogged headlines in

the last few weeks.

All India Bakchod (AIB) is a small group of

artistes that started uploading podcasts on social

media sites from February 2012 onwards. It was

started by comedians Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran

Khamba; later, journalists Rohan Joshi and Ashish

Shakya joined the group.

Though bakchod means “meaningless banter”, in

the past, AIB has sent powerful social messages.

Among their socially relevant videos that scratched

the surface of humor and satire, were: “When India

Spoke to Pakistan”; “The Times of Boobs” and “Rape:

It’s Your Fault”.

INSULT COMEDYThe AIB Roast by Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh

with roadmaster Karan Johar took place in Mumbai

on January 20 and some 4,000 people attended it. It

was the first time that the roast-format came to

India. This is a form of insult comedy, started in

C

COMIC QUARTET(From left)Rohan Joshi,Asish Shakya,Tanmay Bhatand GursimranKhamba of AIB

TopicAIB Roast

SMUT &SENSIBILITIES


1949, where consenting individuals are sub-

jected to jokes and insults.

So what is a roast? It is to humorously mock

or humiliate someone on his appearance, actions

or personality. Internationally, roast shows have

been on for quite a while and some of the popu-

lar ones include those of Hollywood actor Char-

lie Sheen and TV personality Donald Trump.

But India is not yet ready for it as is evident from

the fact that on February 12, the police registered

an FIR against 14 people over the Roast, includ-

ing Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar, actors

Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Arjun

Kapoor and those who organized or participated

in the show.

While there were no murmurs then—and

interestingly, the participants merrily made fun

of each other as well—as soon as the group re-

leased an edited version on YouTube, an outcry

followed that forced the group to take down the

three-part video four days later.

The Maharashtra government and several

other groups called it “an attack on Indian cul-

ture”. Several Catholic organizations also took

offence. Opinion has been divided on the issue.

Charul Prabhakar, a 22-year-old student

from Pune, who attended AIB Roast, says: “It

was heartening to see that people who are actu-

ally considered ‘big’ in our country do have a

sense of humor. But I somehow saw the uproar

coming. What else do you expect from a country

that has a problem with the word ‘Bombay’

being used in a song?”

Angel Bedi, creator of online art venture,

TheFilmyOwl, says: “A roast is nothing without

the people who get offended by it.”

FREEDOM AND ITS LIMITSFor some, the incident raises questions about the

largest democracy in the world and Article 19(1)

Among AIB’s socially relevant videos,that scratched the surface of humor and

satire, are : “When India Spoke to Pak-istan”; “The Times of Boobs”; and “Rape:

It’s Your Fault”.

FACING CHARGES(From left) Karan

Johar, ArjunKapoor, Deepika

Padukone andRanveer Singh

TopicAIB Roast


(A) of the constitution that guarantees citizens of

India the freedom of speech and expression.

Explaining the restrictions to Article 19, Man-

harjit Singh, a Delhi High Court lawyer, says: “Ar-

ticle 19 (2) of the Indian constitution restricts the

exercise of freedom of speech and expression on

the grounds of public order, decency and morality.

These restrictions must be reasonable and the ju-

diciary has the power to test any such questions

of decency and morality.” At the same time, he

said that what may be offensive to one person may

be a source of amusement to another. “What is

important to understand is whether the people

who went to see the show, were aware of what it

was all about. Karan Johar, in fact, gave a warning

before it started. I personally

feel that the AIB performed

under the ambit of law.”

Decency and morality, inci-

dentally, come under the

purview of Section 294 of the

IPC, often referred to as the

“obscenity law”. The law states

that whoever performs ob-

scene acts in public is liable for

punishment; it includes “any

obscene song, ballad or words

in or near any public place”.

In the case of Miss Joyce vs

The State of Maharashtra, in

1973, Justice Devidatta

Mangesh Rege observed that

when an adult consensually

pays to attend such shows, he

runs the risk of being annoyed by the obscene

content or be entertained by the very obscenities.

Vikas Pathak, political journalist, Hindustan

Times, thinks differently. “Freedom of speech is

practiced when there is a substantive point being

made. What social, political or economic question

was raised at this event?”

Bangalore-based comedian Praveen Kumar

says: “I loved the show. I am shocked to see the

kind of hate messages it has triggered. I think

everything was fine till someone started putting

negative comments on Twitter; and then all the

closet critics sprang up. For every step we take to-

wards being a broad-minded nation, we are forced

to take two steps backwards. I am scared now to

say what I feel. Where is our democracy?”

On being asked about the future of comedy,

comedian and former law student Naveen Richard

says: “The Roast was a sudden jump …in India’s

coming out of its shell of insecurities. Someone

would have done it sooner or later. AIB took the

test for us in terms of how far we can push the bar-

rier, on YouTube at least! Looks like we have found

our threshold.” It might be that offence was taken

because celebrities were involved, and digs were

made at people in high positions. It is interesting

to note that while the event lasted two hours, what

was put up on YouTube was only of 50 minutes.

Critic and novelist CS Lewis once said: “Some

people take offence like it’s a limited period offer!”

Once the dust settles down and the slugfest ends,

we might be able to understand better how we

want to laugh.

THE JOKE IS ON USAn eclecticaudience of4,000 enjoyedthe AIB Roast


FEBRUARY 22, 2015 `100VIEWS ON NEWSTHE CRITICAL EYE

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JE SUIS LAXMANThe uncommon

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WHAT AN IDEA, SIR JI!Gopinath Menon writes on the trend of clubbing ads with social messages 24

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ReviewTVF

ITHIN a week of the All India

Backchod (AIB) Roast, another

comedy collective, The Viral

Fever (TVF) released what

would go a long way in setting

a new trend in Indian comedy. Just a day before the

Delhi election results, TVF came out with an endear-

ing and sharply hilarious interview of Arvind Kejri-

wal.This is the first time an Indian politician exposed

himself to a satirical attack willingly. With Arnub, TV

host Arnab Goswami’s lovable caricature, firing the

salvos, the show Barely Speaking was no less insulting

than the Roast of actors Ranveer Singh and

Arjun Kapoor.

The show started by Arnub asking Kejriwal for

some “tea, coffee or cough syrup”. Kejriwal’s bad

dressing sense was funnily probed. “You represent the

aam aadmi. Are you saying when you go out dressed

like this, the aam aadmi has a bad dressing sense?”

The issue of women’s empowerment was also brought

up. “You say you are for women’s empowerment, but

your actions speak otherwise. In the last election, you

contested against Sheila Dixit, and you defeated her

so badly that she went to Kerala. Now you are com-

peting against Kiran Bedi. The only time you dared

to fight against a man was in Benaras. And we all

know how that turned out.”

The funniest and the nastiest bit was when Arnub

brought up the issue of cleaning garbage—the basic

task of a broom, AAP’s party symbol. Arnub

W

ON THE HOT SEATArvind Kejriwal inconversation withBiswapati “Arnub”Sarkar

ALL FOR A LAUGHIt’s the season of laughter. While AIB Roast triggered debates, TVF’s interview with Arvind Kejriwal (before theelections) provided wholesome entertainment BY SOMI DAS


stand, whether Sarkar’s popularity is proof of

Goswami’s own popularity as a fearless news an-

chor or the degree of ridicule his style of anchor-

ing attracts among viewers.

Having perfected the art of playing Arnab,

Sarkar has now has got more ambitious. He end-

edthe Kejriwal interview by daring the Newshour

anchor: “Tonight, I take this platform to challenge

the man who imitates me on national television

every night. If you have a sense of humor, come

to my show and face me one-on-one.”

POLITICS ON THEIR RADARApart from mimicking news debates, TVF directs

its satire at Indian politics and the film fraternity.

Arnub’s last Barely Speaking with Shahrukh Khan

was widely watched. A number of spoofs have

been done on Kejriwal by TVF. Popular spoofs

also include those of “Another Chopra” and

“Meenakshi Lekhika”, (on the Congress and BJP

spokespersons respectively).

The spoofs target television debates, the film

industry and political parties. The organizers sub-

THE REEL AND THE REAL

Arvind Kejriwalwith his spoof

Jitendra Kumar

ReviewTVF

ARUNABH KUMAR Was it easy convincing Kejriwal?

After interviewing Shah Rukh Khan on Barely Speak-ing with Arnub, we were aiming to get people

from different backgrounds. We had been chas-ing him since November last year, but thingsmaterialized towards the end of January. Thisvideo is special—the first time in the history of

India a politician has come on a satirical show.The only time this has ever happened anywhere

else is when Barrack Obama came on the show, Between two ferns.

Do you think you will now be able to rope in other

politicians? I think politicians should be open to these kinds of sketches, as this al-lows them to show a different side of themselves. Kejriwal has beenvery sporty in allowing us to take a dig at him.

What is the revenue model of TVF? The TVF YouTube Channel is a part of TVF Media Labs, which also hasarms in the fields of branded content, TV production, live events andcontent dissemination. A majority of our revenue comes from brandcollaborations, where we feature a brand in our content and design awhole property around it. Even for Barely Speaking, the first twoepisodes were part of movie promotion campaigns, the video featur-ing Kejriwal was made in collaboration with The Times of India fortheir Litterbug Campaign.

The Viral Fever is a Comedy Collective and a YouTube channel that goes with the tagline “Sab Qutiyapa hai (All is funnily cute)”. FounderArunabh Kumar, from IIT Kharagpur, was the assistant director for Om Shanti Om. Kumar forayed into the online platform, along withlike-minded friends after MTV rejected one of his concepts. The channel’s first hit video was Rowdies, a spoof of the popular realityshow Roadies. Since then there has been no looking back; now the channel has come up with India’s only web series: Roommates. VONcatches up with Arunabh Kumar and his colleague, Biswapati ‘Arnub’Sarkar, also from IIT, Khargapur. Excerpts from the interview:

asksed Kejriwal: “If you are against garbage, why is

Somnath Bharti still in your party?”

ARNUB VS ARNAB?Arnub, played by TVF’s Biswapati Sarkar, is the per-

fect foil to the high decibel, TRP grosser Arnab

Goswami. Sarkar is by far the most popular in the

23-member team of TVF. It is difficult to under-

The gen-next funny men


tly point out the parallels between the Indian film

industry and political parties in India vis-a-vis the

predominance of dynasty, copy-paste scripts, stale

party manifestoes and the prevalence of the VIP

culture. Their video, Bollywood Aam Aadmi Party-

Arnub’s Qtiyapa, released in 2014, is one of their

most popular political sketches that has got over 4

lakh views till date.

LIKE OBAMA, LIKE KEJRIWALThe Kejriwal Barely Speaking episode did well not

just because of Arnub’s histrionics, but also because

Kejriwal, in true spirit of comedy, played along

sportingly. When Arnub pressurized him to try

bribing a ticket checker, Kejriwal retorted: “Which

train are you talking about Arnub, the train in

Appu Ghar?”

He took the barbs sportingly and even chided

Arnub for being childish. He talked about his fam-

ily candidly. His daughter is from IIT, Delhi. He had

a love marriage, he said. He also talked about how

he proposed his wife.

“I am not a Kejriwal fan but I am really im-

pressed to see a politician daring to come on a show

like this and for also being so sporty. So obviously,

he has set the benchmark for other politicians,” a

browser commented on YouTube. Interestingly,

around the same time, Barack Obama also did a

skit, Things Everyone Does But Doesn't Talk About

for BuzzFeed.

The video shows him posing in front of the mir-

ror with aviator sunglasses, playing around with a

selfie stick and struggling to pronounce “February”.

Obama has regularly allowed himself to be grilled

by some of the top US comedians like Jon Stewart

of The Daily Show and even danced with Ellen De-

Generes on her show. So in that sense, Kejriwal

seems to be inching closer to Modi’s ‘best friend’

Barack, at least when it comes to sense of humor.

With over five lakh followers on Facebook, over

six lakh followers on Twitter and close to 10 lakh

YouTube subscribers, TVF has built a loyal viewer-

ship for its kind of comedy. The huge success of the

Kejriwal interview shows how channels like these

could be the fresh breeding grounds for political

opinion and discussion.

BISWAPATI SARKAR How do you imitate Arnab so well? I play Arnub with a 'U', who is a silly, exaggerated version of apopular news anchor. It started with imitation but has transformed into emulation of a journalist who is the centre ofattraction in his own debates. The character has evolved into acartoon-watching Casanova, who likes to witch-hunt celebs.

It is no longer a direct parody of anyone. In Arnub’s universe,he is the biggest star. He also believes that somebody imitateshim on TV every night. I watch Newshour whenever I am free.Nothing on TV is half as funny as this. You can never write thestuff that people say in these debates.

One of the publications compared your Kejriwal inter-view with Narendra Modi's Mann-ki-Baat on radio. Doyou see that as a compliment?It would be unfair to compare the Prime Minister’s show Mann-ki-baat with our video with Kejriwal because that is a serious dis-cussion. Our video, on the other hand, was made solely for thepurpose of comedy and tried to capture the Delhi CM in his per-

sonal space. It was fun to see a politician take jokes on himselfand we would be glad to have more politicians on our show. In-cluding Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Did the interview go according to a pre-planned script or were there spontaneousresponses from Kejriwal? A few answers were scripted. A few wereimprovised. Of course, all my questionswere written beforehand. Kejriwal wassporty and was much more humble andpolite than we expected. It was an honorto have him. However, despite whateverthe media said about him, we found outthat Kejriwal was a bad actor.

Will we actually get the opportunity to see aArnub vs Arnab?Arnub was born ready. But does his imposter have a sense ofhumor? The nation wants to know.


NEWSDATE NEWS CHANNEL TIME

11:45AM 11:46AM 11:50AM 11:51AM 11:56AM

1/2/15

1/2/15

2/2/15

2/2/15

2/2/15

3/2/15

3/2/15

Leander Paes-Martina Hingis win Aus-tralian Open Mixed Doubles title. Bothadded 15th Grand Slam title to their re-spective tallies with a win in Melbourne

Narendra Modi to visit China beforeMay 26, efforts on for new route toKailash Manasarovar: Sushma Swaraj

BJP attacks Kejriwal; says he is playingpolitics of caste, trying to consolidateAggarwal community for political gains

Volunteer group claims AAP fundingscam, says four bogus companies havemade donations amounting to Rs 50lakh each to AAP

Kiran Bedi's aide Narendra Tandonwithdraws resignation after meetingAmit Shah

EVMs being tampered with to help BJP inDelhi Cantonment, charges Kejriwal. Hesays whatever button was pressed on themachines, the light against the BJP sym-

Arun Jatiley: AVAM not related to BJP, all alle-gations against AAP from parties formermembers, AAP must answer from where itgot donations, should keep courts away from

11:34AM 11:35AM

4/2/15 Threat of bomb attack on my KrishnaNagar office: BJP CM candidate Kiran Bedi

1:57PM 2:10PM 1:57PM

1:04PM

1:34PM1:24PM

2:51PM 2:56PM 2:56PM 3:00PM 3:06PM

9:59AM 10:04AM

10:47AM 10:48AM 10:48AM10:46AM

10:08AM 10:19AM

1:04PM1:04PM

11:37AM 11:38AM

1:04PM 1:04PM

1:39PM 1:40PM 1:49PM


2:13PM

Here are some of the major news items aired on television channels, recorded by our unique 24x7 dedicated media monitoring unit that scrutinizes more than 130 TV channels in different Indian languages and looks at who breaks the news first.

DATE NEWS CHANNEL TIME

4/2/15

5/2/15

5/2/15

6/2/15

6/2/15

7/2/15

7/2/15

NEWS

ISIS video shows captured Jordanianpilot being burnt alive

LC Goyal replaces Anil Goswami ashome secretary

Christian groups protest against attackson churches, demand security for placesof worship

Jitan Ram Manjhi calls meetingwith legislative party; meeting tobe held on Feb 20

AAP raises question on BJP’sad-campaign, says they have theirads placed in all newspapers

Historic day for Delhi, must vote for devel-opment, voters must come out inlarge numbers and exercise their right:Kiran Bedi

Vice-President Hamid Ansari casts his vote

10:14AM

10:25AM

10:00AM

10:03AM 10:04AM 10:09AM

8:29AM

8:36AM 8:36AM 8:36AM

8:29AM 8:29AM

10:10AM 10:14AM 10:16AM

10:28AM 10:30AM

10:31AM

4/2/15Plane crash in Taiwan, many peoplefeared to be stuck, so far 10 people havebeen rescued; plane was carrying58 passengers 10:16AM 10:19AM 10:20AM

10:27AM 10:28AM 10:30AM


NEWSDATE NEWS CHANNEL TIME

10:11AM 10:13AM 10:13AM 10:14AM10:11AM

7/2/15

8/2/15

8/2/15

9/2/15

9/2/15

11/2/15

11/2/15

11/2/15

Kejriwal casts his vote, Kiran Waliaand Arvinder Singh Lovely along withRahul Gandhi reach Aurangzeb Laneto cast vote

Sushil Modi meets leaders close toJitan Ram Manjhi

Sharad Yadav asks for Manjhi’s resigna-tion from JDU, says Manjhi is no morea legislator

Nearly 60 accounts being probed, talks onwith Swiss government on black money,action in 7-8 months: Arun Jaitley

Nitish Kumar: Will parade my MLAs infront of the President, legislative partyhas chosen me as their leader

Big setback for Nitish Kumar; PatnaHigh Court declares JD-U meet electing Nitish as leader illegal

Kejriwal to meet PM Modi to invitehim for his swearing-in ceremony

AAP gets income tax notice; reply demanded by 16 February

10:00AM

2:06PM2:06PM 2:07PM 2:07PM

9:58AM 10:01AM

2:52PM 2:52PM 2:52PM 2:52PM 2:52PM

2:09PM2:02PM 2:02PM 2:02PM 2:02PM

2:39AM10:30AM

10:15AM 10:16AM 10:16AM 10:46AM 10:22AM

2:39AM 2:39AM

10:55AM 10:56AM 10:58AM 11:00AM 11:34AM


DATE NEWS CHANNEL TIME

9:58AM 9:58AM 10:02AM 10:31AM

12/2/15

12/2/15

13/2/15

13/2/15

14/2/15

14/2/15

16/2/15

16/2/15

NEWS

Kejriwal and Sisodia meet PM Modi at 7,RCR; invite him for swearing-in ceremony; issues like full statehood forDelhi and illegal colonies discussed

Gujarat HC dismisses Teesta Setalvad’s bailplea; SC stays her arrest till tomorrow

Jitan Ram Manjhi: Nitish is doing a bigmistake, he tried to make me a puppetin his hand, I have expanded the votebank of JD(U)

Cricket keeps SAARC nations united: Modi;he calls Nawaz Sharif, wishing Pakistanteam best for cricket World Cup

Arvind Kejriwal, will take direct charge ofkey portfolios such as finance, power andhome; Manish Sisodia to get urbandevelopment

Kejriwal reaches Ramlila Ground, he willtake oath as the CM Of Delhi

Yuvaraj becomes the costliest player inIPL 8, sold for Rs 16 crore

Ireland beats West Indies, Ireland had tochase a target of 305

11:33AM

10:16AM

11:19AM

11:49AM

10:00AM

11:23AM11:22AM11:20AM 11:20AM

11:49AM 11:49AM11:49AM

10:05AM 10:10AM 10:17AM

11:19AM 11:20AM 11:20AM 11:25AM

10:17AM 10:17AM

11:58PM 12:24PM11:51AM

10:11AM 10:11AM 10:11AM 10:11AM10:11AM


ProtestsValentine’s Day

overnanceG

LOVE IN THE TIME OFHINDUTVA

In recent times, there have been protests over attempts byhard-line, right-wing elements to curb fundamental rights.

What they forget is that this is a democracy, and people havethe right to assemble peacefully

BY SHREYA S


N recent times, one has come

across novel ways of protest.

For every display of moral

policing that has taken place

in parts of India, activists

have found inventive ways to

protest and voice opinions.

In 2009, Sri Ram Sena leader Pramod Mutha-

lik threatened to take action against couples cele-

brating Valentine’s Day and his organization

attacked young men and women in a Mangalore

pub claiming they were violating traditional

Indian values.

That’s when journalist Nisha Susan came up

with the Pink Chaddi campaign, leading thou-

sands of people to courier pink panties to Ram

Sena’s office.

Last year, a couple in Kochi initiated the Kiss

of Love campaign in response to moral policing in

Kerala. The simple act of public display of

affection became a political statement and

polarized activists, with some arguing that this

mode of dissent would alienate even potential

allies. Nonetheless, the campaign spread like wild-

fire to cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Cali-

cut, Hyderabad and New Delhi.

LOVE REIGNS (From left) Kiss ofLove protestors inDelhi; Public display of affectionis part of theprotest strategy I


Photos: Anil Shakya

LOVE AND LET LOVEAnd this Valentine’s Day, Delhi saw an-

other act of protest against moral policing

by the Akhil Hindu Mahasabha, which

threatened to marry off any couple they

found expressing their affection on V-Day.

That was enough to spur activists and

more than 200 college students gathered to

protest outside its office. They went in a

mock wedding procession and sought to

present themselves as people in love, be it

same-sex, inter-caste or inter-religious.

The tone of the protest was playful,

even celebratory, but cannot for a second

be mistaken as apolitical or devoid of

anger. “Fall in Love, Not in Line”, read many of

their banners. The protestors challenged the claim

of the Mahasabha that there is only one “moral”

way to exist.

The protestors were not defending Valentine’s

Day, which, in recent times, has been criticized for

its commercialism and triteness. What they were

protesting was the cultural nationalism espoused

by fanatical groups. The protestors made it clear

that they were here for something deeper than

Valentine’s Day—it was their freedom to be di-

verse, and to be left alone to exist in peace.

And this is the attitude of most progressive

people in India and is reflected in social media.

The absurdity of the Mahasabha’s threats was

mocked and challenged. One tweeter wondered:

“If I wish eleven ladies Happy Valentine’s Day on

Twitter, how will the Hindu Mahasabha decide

who to marry me off to?” Many expressed love for

their favorite celebrity, publicly requesting that

they be wed to that person.

MISPLACED ZEALOthers urged the Mahasabha to focus on more

pressing issues: “Woman raped, brutalized and

murdered in Rohtak. Hindu Mahasabha, fight

against crimes on women instead of Valentine's

Day.” Still others wanted to firmly disassociate

their own culture from the Mahasabha’s: “Seri-

ously guys, do us a favor and drop the word

‘Hindu’ from your name. Don’t embarrass us all.”

Strangely, even the police rounded up these

protestors on a day when Arvind Kejriwal was

being sworn in as chief minister of Delhi. Though

the Mahasabha’s leader, Swami Omji, has notori-

ously threatened to assassinate Kejriwal, the po-

lice, keeping law and order in mind, decided to

crack down on these peaceful protestors. Dhrubo

Jyoti, one of the protestors, narrates the events: “As

young people, dressed in wedding attire and oth-

erwise, started gathering outside the Mahasabha’s

office, the police rounded them up and shoved

them into a bus. This happened for over an hour,

filling up multiple buses.”

The 225 protestors, who called themselves

ProtestsValentine’s Day

overnanceG

It’s only when a protest is likely todisturb “public tranquility”, that

Section 144 can be invoked. But thiswas invoked against the Valentine’s Day

protestors, who were peaceful.

FIGHTING FOR LOVEThe Pink Chaddi poster;

(below) Protestors in Delhi


“baraatis”, however, did not let

the detainment and even the

rough handling by police officers

deter them. While their friends

and supporters furiously shared

updates on social media, they

kept the wedding party going

with raucous singing, dancing,

and chanting. They were re-

leased in the evening.

Another characteristic about

these protests is that they often

transcend traditional protest

spaces. One protestor said: “The

police asked us to protest at Jan-

tar Mantar and wanted to know

who had asked us to protest at

the Mahasabha’s office.” This

shows that the state wants to

contain protests to certain desig-

nated spaces, thus making them lose their subver-

sive potential. In fact, in 2014, a Delhi police ad

even exhorted people to protest at Jantar Mantar.

And subversion does remain one of the ways to

protest.” As Dhrubo Jyoti says: “The protestors

were trying to make a larger point about the in-

stitution of marriage. Rescuing the ideals of love

from hardliners—religious or free-marketeers—

requires subversion.”

His argument seems convincing when one

considers state control over peaceful protestors as

against a group that has repeatedly and publicly

threatened violence. In a functioning democracy,

people have the right to assemble peacefully, but

unfortunately, this is being repeatedly violated in

India at the expense of civil liberties.

STICK TO CONSTITUTIONUnder Article 19 (1) of the constitution, citizens

have “the right to assemble peaceably without

arms”. Section 144 of the IPC allows the state to

intervene in specific circumstances, but lawyers

and activists warn that the grayness of this provi-

sion is being severely misused by the police. It is

only when a protest is likely to disturb “public

tranquility” or cause a riot, that Section 144 can

be invoked. But this section was invoked against

the Valentine’s Day protestors, who were entirely

peaceful and consisted largely of young students

and were merely invoking their Fundamental

Right. And action was taken not against the ha-

tred-spewing group that provoked the protest.

Police reforms activist Rikky Minocha argues:

“Does the Valentine protest affect public tranquil-

ity? If so, are we saying that a political group

threatening to marry off couples is doing a ‘tran-

quil’ thing?”

Minocha says that many high courts have

noted the unlawful extensions being given to Sec-

tion 144, and have barred the police from doing

so. He says this deserves greater media attention.

Meanwhile, the “baraatis” are back home. And

members of the Hindu Mahasabha have publicly

threatened their safety. It waits to be seen what

Delhi’s new CM, a veteran of many dharnas, does

about such protests in future.

CENTER OF DISSENTAkhil HinduMahasabha’sSwami Omjiin Delhi


overnanceGRadio

Airwave rule

Davidslays

Goliathon radio

F and when the Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP) gets down to doing an

honest electoral postmortem of

the Delhi drubbing, it will realize

that its radio campaign was disas-

trously off-track; especially when

the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) used the same

medium to slay the Goliath that had been on a pan-

India political conquest.

While there may be many reasons for the 67-3

upset, in the communication-with-the-masses depart-

ment, radio was a critical factor that swung the verdict

in AAP’s favor. Much before the election on February

I

FM Radio went a long way indelivering the stunning

victory to AAP in the Delhipolls. The medium is

set to play a vital role inevery local and municipal

election now BY AKASH BANERJEE


HIS MASTER’S VOICE(Above) The man whosteered the AAPwindfall, Arvind Kejriwal;(Facing page) Radio’swide reach connectsthe masses

7, it was clear that the AAP had a winning campaign

on its hands.

While the Lok Sabha elections are fought with a

national message, through national delivery mecha-

nisms; assembly elections require a local, personal

and an emotional touch. The crushing defeat of the

BJP has ensured that in future, regional elections will

never be able to ignore the powerful connect of radio.

The BJP spent nearly Rs 60 crore on advertising

during the assembly elections; this is roughly four

times APP’s electoral expenditure. Arvind Kejriwal

and his men didn’t have the resources to wage a tele-

vision/print war with the BJP. For a city spread out

like Delhi, outdoors’ campaigning too is expensive

and a logistical nightmare. Radio, therefore, becomes

the perfect medium to engage the masses. Like in the

previous assembly election, AAP realized this well in

time and stated its campaign months in advance.

AAP bet a significantly large part of its budget to

a blistering and sustained radio campaign. The smart

deployment of Rs 6 crore to 8 crore on the personal-

ized medium yielded rich dividends for AAP.

PERSONAL TOUCHRadio gives solid salience and recall if used for a long

period of time. AAP’s radio campaign stretched


well over six months and the party kept chipping in

its message regularly. That included its apology for

stepping down from power and its vision for the na-

tional capital. By the time other parties came to the

radio fray, AAP had already carved out a top-of-the-

mind space with listeners.

AAP’s experience in the previous assembly elec-

tions had taught it the central axiom of radio: you

don’t address the masses, you talk to people person-

ally. Through most of the AAP campaign, Kejriwal

came on air and chatted with people, building a one-

on-one rapport with them. Even in the final stage of

the campaign, the personal touch was never lost. A

college girl talking about how she’s harassed on the

streets, a housewife talking about the rising cost of liv-

ing in the city and a rickshaw-puller narrating how he

gets hit by corruption and bribery on a daily basis—

all helped to create a strong connect.

The pinnacle of this personalized campaign was

a young “reporter” visiting various parts of the city

and asking people who they were going to vote and

why; the answer invariably being AAP because of the

party’s transparency, honesty and vision. So powerful

was the commercial that it appeared that a genuine

radio jockey was asking the questions. The Election

Commission had to intervene and AAP had to in-

sert a disclaimer, stating that it was a political adver-

tisement. But by then, the message had gone down

well and the damage to the BJP was done.

In the Lok Sabha, it was widely believed that the

Congress’s handing over its campaign to Dentsu

Inc., an MNC communications agency, was a critical

error. Ironically, the BJP seems to have made the

same mistake by entrusting Soho Square and Madi-

son with its advertising; the companies had no un-

derstanding of the ground situation in Delhi.

AAP didn’t employ the services of any advertis-

ing agency. “All our communication ideas were

crowd-funded,” says party leader and strategist

Raghav Chadha. “We took slogans that people made

in the rallies, recorded voices on mobile phones and

the scripts were drafted by volunteers. All we had

was a clear, positive message. Only sometimes we

thought it fit to reply to the BJP’s negativity.”

When the BJP launched a radio commercial de-

picting an old women ruing over the fact that she

had wasted her time and vote for a man who had

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LACK-LUSTRE CAMPAIGNPrime Minister

Narendra Modi’s appealgot severely dented in

the Delhi elections

RadioAirwave rule


run away from his duties, AAP was quick to hit back.

In no time, it aired a counter-commercial where Ke-

jriwal confronted the old woman and assured her

that he hadn’t run away and that AAP would be back

in a few days with full majority to serve her.

The BJP’s negative campaign, in fact, helped AAP.

OLD FATIGUEWhile the AAP’s focus was personal, the BJP stuck

to the larger-than-life campaign that worked so well

in the Lok Sabha. “Challo challe Modi ke sath (Let’s

walk with Modi),” was an extension of the message

that people had heard in May 2014. However, in the

intervening months, there hadn’t been much delivery

on the Acche Din promise and Modi’s impersonal

“look down” approach and large rallies didn’t quite

match up to the personalized offensive of Kejriwal.

Even the BJP’s radio spots were poor reproductions

of Modi’s campaign speeches—nothing more.

While Team BJP couldn’t come up with an effec-

tive campaign slogan, AAP’s “Paanch saal Kejriwal

(Five years for Kejriwal)” anthem was woven into a

song by party supporter and renowned musician

Vishal Dadlani. Played on endless loops on radio and

GRASSROOTS ‘ SUPPORTAAP men left no stoneunturned in reachingthe masses

set to dance steps in roadshows, the BJP simply had

no answer to AAP’s slick campaigning.

Smart thinking by AAP managers ensured that all

radio stations doing business with them played their

commercials first, thereby segregating the party’s

campaign message from the noise of regular com-

mercials. This was an expensive move, but AAP

reaped rich benefits. Also, while other parties kept re-

peating the same old creatives, leading to fatigue;

AAP was coming up with new ideas on a weekly

basis. From a radio perspective, AAP was faster,

slicker and more innovative than the experienced, in-

fluential and cash-rich BJP.

In the end, the personal touch worked wonders

over theatrical performances. FM Radio as a mode of

political campaign was virtually non-existent 18

months ago, yet now, it’s set to play a vital role in local,

municipal and state elections in the years to come.

The advent of Phase 3 will see more than 500 radio

stations open all over India, making it an even more

potent tool. About time other parties learnt some

tricks form AAP’s radio campaign.

Akash Banerjee is an author and works with

Radio Mirchi.

“All our communica-tion ideas werecrowd-funded. Wetook slogans thatpeople made atrallies, recordedvoices on mobilephones. Scriptswere drafted byvolunteers.”—Raghav Chadha, AAP

leader and strategist


Modi knows better than anyone that it is bureaucrats, notministers, who get work done. And he is making sure he

has all his right men in the right placeBY VISHWAS KUMAR

Bureaucracy

T’S been eight months since Prime Minister

Narendra Modi has been in power at the center.

Slowly but steadily, he is shaping up the bureaucracy

to his liking. In February this year, within a week of

each other, he sacked two top-level bureaucrats, both

appointed during the tenure of the previous UPA

government. First was foreign secretary Sujatha

Singh, followed by home secretary Anil Goswami. They were

immediately replaced by handpicked officials, S Jaishankar and LC

Goyal, respectively.

After this reshuffle, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Modi will

take the final call regarding secretary-level appointments. Government

insiders say that Modi wants to send out a clear message to bureaucrats

that their performances are under constant scrutiny. Since these bureau-

Reshuffle

I

A GAME OF C EH S S

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As bureaucrats have been given a “freehand” by Modi to innovate and implementgovernment programs unlike previousregimes where ministers called the shot,the PM also wants them to be accountable.

crats have been given a “free hand” to innovate

and quickly implement government programs

and policies unlike previous regimes where min-

isters called the shots, the prime minister also

wants them to be accountable.

TRUSTING OFFICERSPolitical leaders who have watched Modi’s work-

ing style in Gujarat are not surprised by these

developments. They know he places a lot of trust

on the bureaucracy, often more than ministers.

But he also has strong likes and dislikes, so fa-

vorite bureaucrats get a free hand, plum postings

and job extensions and post-retirement jobs.

Those he doesn’t like are often shunted out, pun-

ished and victimized if suspected of working

against his interests.

But the next round of appointments to con-

stitutional posts will be much more challenging

for the government. The post of Central Vigi-

lance Commissioner (CVC), Chief Information

Commissioner (CIC) and head of the newly cre-

ated anti-corruption unit, Lokpal, have to be

filled up. Appointments to these crucial posts,

which fight corruption and transparency in gov-

ernment organizations, have remained vacant

for several months because of procedural delays

and court cases. CVC Pradeep Kumar and the

Vigilance Commissioner JM Garg completed

their terms on September 28 and September 7

respectively. Similarly, CIC

TAKING CHARGEPrime Minister Narendra Modi greetsnewly-appointedforeign secretaryS Jaishankar


Photos: PIB

Rajiv Mathur completed his

tenure on August 22.

According to sources, the

process to fill up the posts of CVC and CIC has

started with around 70 retired government offi-

cials applying for it and the Department of Per-

sonnel and Training (DoPT) is in the process of

short-listing candidates. Selection of a Lokpal too

will start soon. The government is under pressure

to move fast after anti-corruption crusader Anna

Hazare recently threatened to again sit on fast.

APPOINTMENTS SOONUnion minister Jitendra Singh, however, denied

charges of delay in the appointments in Lokpal,

CVC and CIC and said they would happen in due

course. Delay in the CVC appointment, Singh

clarified, was because of a litigation going on in

the Supreme Court over it.

Many changes have taken place among the top

bureaucracy. It includes transfers of seven IAS of-

ficers, whereas one retired IAS officer of

the 1977 batch, DK Mittal, was appointed

Mission Director, Direct Benefits Transfer

Scheme for three months. Lov Verma, a

1978 batch officer, was transferred from the post

of health secretary to the Department of Empow-

erment of Persons with Disabilities. Labor secre-

tary, Gauri Kumar, a Gujarat cadre officer, was

shifted as secretary, co-ordination in the Cabinet

Secretariat.This has fuelled speculation that she

could be elevated as cabinet secretary after Ajit K

Seth’s extended term ends in June this year.

Meanwhile, in this round, special secretary of

DoPT, Bhanu Pratap Sharma, was made health

secretary, while urban development secretary,

Shankar Agarwal, was appointed secretary, Min-

istry of Labor and Employment. Commerce min-

istry's special secretary, Madhusudhan Prasad,

was appointed secretary, Urban Development

Ministry. Anita Agnihotri, an Odisha cadre officer

in the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Al-

leviation (HUPA) was appointed secretary, De-

partment of Social Justice and Empowerment,

while Nandita Chatterjee, a West Bengal cadre

bureaucrat, has taken her place.

REJIG DRAMA(From left) Ousted

foreign secretarySujatha Singh;outgoing home

secretaryAnil Goswami; newly

appointed homesecretary LC Goyal

BureaucracyReshuffle

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T was Obama who did the BJP in! Okay, that

was a jumla (a figure of speech meaning it was

a joke). Had the US president not come, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi would not have

changed his clothes five times a day. He would

not have worn the pin-striped suit with his name written all

over. That suit became his undoing. It got talked about ad nau-

seam for all the wrong reasons. He was mocked on social media

for his das-lakh-ka-suit. Many thought it ill-fitted the

I

BLAME IT ON OBAMA!

Arrogance often has a fall.And how! The

drubbing received by theBJP in the Delhi polls

shows that it can ignorethe common man only at

its own perilBY ASHIM CHOUDHURY

CRUCIAL TIESPrime Minister NarendraModi with US PresidentBarack Obama inNew Delhi

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Delhi elections


PIB

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people were having a laughing fest. Some of that

middle-class laughter trickled down to the streets.

Bedi’s utterances didn’t help much. The BJP’s rank-

and-file in Delhi was sniggering at her. They felt be-

trayed, humiliated and demotivated. And she

behaved like she was already CM. Soon, there was

a gag order on Bedi. Putting a finger on your lips,

particularly during election time, is not a

bright idea.

COSTLY SILENCEModi’s own silence on a string of sensitive issues,

whether it was love jihad or ghar wapasi or four chil-

dren for Hindu mothers, was deafening. Suddenly,

in a city like Delhi, churches were burning or being

vandalized. When pressed, cronies like Arun Jaitley

said the prime minister of the country did not need

to comment on every minor issue. True, the events

were minor, but the issue was larger. And, that mes-

sage was brought home by, guess who? Obama!

After all that backslapping and bonhomie—the

namak haram, as a FB post endearingly put it, gave

Modi a parting jab in the rib. “India will succeed so

long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious

faith…,” he said at a town hall meeting in Delhi,

with polls just a few days away. After his return, the

White House issued a clarification that the remark

was being misconstrued. That consolation was soon

snatched away when Obama reiterated at a solemn

National Prayer meeting that had Gandhi been

alive, he would have been “shocked”. The real

shocker was the Delhi poll results. A FB comment

by a Muslim girl summed up the minority mood.

She wrote: “Ghutan kuch kam si mehsoos hui aaj

subah humein (I felt a bit less stifled this morning).”

By the time it was time to vote in Delhi, Modi’s

image had taken a severe beating. He came to be

seen as a charlatan, high on promises and slow on

delivery. The Swachh Bharat campaign he launched

on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday was a masterstroke

that had won over even the cynics. But that goodwill

was frittered away. The streets and by-lanes of Delhi

(like in the rest of the country), where ordinary peo-

PoliticsDelhi elections

prime minister of a country, where hundreds die

each winter for lack of protective clothing, to wear

a suit that cost so much. And the poor, mockingly

voted him out. “But this was a small state election,

not Modi’s test,” BJP men lamely say. But, of course,

it was Modi’s test! From the word go, they put

Modi’s face to the campaign. It was brand Modi on

sale. It was a bad idea to start with, and against the

BJP’s stated policy. Remember how they riled at the

Congress for not having a “PM face” to their cam-

paign?

The people of Delhi were left wondering if the

PM would also double up as the chief minister.

There were murmurs saying whoever became CM

was irrelevant, the remote, anyway, would be with

the PM. It was only towards the end, when the BJP

belatedly realized that there was no buzz around the

PM, that they quickly imported “Crane Bedi”. Peo-

ple soon found out she was a “faking crane”, and

BJP’s trump card turned into a joker. On Facebook,

WINNING STREAKArvind Kejriwal’s

steadfast campaignunsettled Modi in Delhi

Modi’s silence on a string of sensitiveissues, whether it was love jihad or

ghar wapasi or four children for Hindumothers, was deafening.


ple lived, saw little improvement. All he needed to

do was to pull up the municipal officers and work-

ers. After all, Delhi has a huge army of workers,

mostly absent, on its payrolls. So where was the ac-

tion on Swachh Bharat? It became a farce. BJP netas

were jostling, clicking pictures of themselves with

the broom. A great opportunity was lost.

The poll promise of bringing back black money

met the same fate. It was one of their main political

planks. Months later, Amit Shah, the “tainted” BJP

chief, who many saw as the party’s winning mascot,

said sheepishly that putting Rs 15 lakh into

every account was just a jumla. The jhadu (broom),

the poll symbol of the AAP, too became a jumla in

the hands of the people, sweeping away the BJP’s

rising fortunes. It’s unthinkable that just nine

months ago, Modi’s BJP, riding the crest of an ant-

corruption wave, had won all seven parliamentary

seats in Delhi. What is it that so alienated the

people? Arrogance.

COMPLETE IMAGE TURNAROUNDAt that election, with his grand oratory, Modi assid-

uously crafted his image as a humble tea-seller cap-

turing the hearts of ordinary Indians. But in the nine

months, despite improving the economic outlook,

or India’s image as a great investment destination,

Modi consistently gave the perception that he was

corporate India’s man up there, not the humble chai-

wala. They saw him mollycoddling the Adanis and

the Ambanis. They were there at the high table, dur-

ing his grand swearing-in, during the banquet with

Obama. Not inviting Kejriwal, a former chief min-

ister, to the Republic day parade not only showed

him as mean, it also betrayed his aversion for the

aam aadmi. The rest, as they say, is history.

The analogy of the rabbit-tortoise race is not out

of place either. Smug in the victory of the Lok Sabha

polls, the BJP was happily napping when the AAP

had already oiled its poll machinery, geared up by

its young spirited volunteers. Moreover people

wanted an alternative to the usual set of politicians

who they see as rogues. AAP, with its young

idealistic workers, and the Anna movement behind

them, was an alternative at hand. That Kejriwal had

abdicated a year back did not help. There was a ring

of sincerity to his unconditional apology in meeting

after meeting. It worked. People forgave him. But

the BJP, in panic by now, began its one-point agenda

of mudslinging. Bhagoda, bandar, baazaru, man-

hoos, were some of the words they used to describe

him. The final straw was when half of Modi’s cabi-

net, led by the vitriolic Seetharaman attacked AAP

for its Rs 2-crore “hawala” money, when day-after-

day they were running front-page ad campaigns

that cost a bomb. That one boomeranged.

Two days before people actually went to the

polling booths, a smug Arun Jaitley said: “People

have two choices before them, development and an-

archy.” Clearly, they voted for anarchy. And now

they want the anarchy of the policeman and other

extortionists on the streets to end.

Kejriwal has a tough job ahead. He has to fulfill

his promise of free water and cheap electricity, at

least to the poor. And the BJP will do well to coop-

erate with the AAP instead of trying to scuttle him.

Already, people are saying that BJP-ruled Haryana

will not give water, as promised. Such disruptive and

vengeful politics will only erode the credibility of the

BJP with the poor. Let’s not forget, a majority of In-

dians are poor. The vote is the only weapon of mass

destruction they carry, as Delhi has just shown. An-

other lesson, the sensex is not the best indicator to

gauge the mood of the people.

CORPORATE WELL-WISHERSPrime Minister Modi withMukesh and Nita Ambani


Kiran Bedi was to be the BJP’smasterstroke to halt AAP in itstracks. It appears that there was anAmritsari connection, that made Bedithe party’s last-minute choice forDelhi. A high-profile friend of the BJPmasterminded the script, along withBedi. The whispers going around inthe BJP corridors are that followingreports of the rising popularity of

AAP, Union Minister Arun Jaitley, inconsultation with the “friend” of theBJP, zeroed in on Bedi. He thenlanded at Amit Shah’s doorstep, andon a cold evening, the trio reached 7,Race Course Road to get the finalnod. The strategy, as is now well-known, backfired. The daggers arenow drawn within the party, withJaitley being the first target.

Target Jaitley for the debacle

The Shiv Sena headache for the BJP gov-ernment does not seem to end. After theDelhi election debacle, it has just in-creased with the Thackeray brothers notmincing their words. Isn’t it high time thatthe BJP called the Sena’s bluff, and sidedwith the willing NCP. The NCP does have areputation of being a less cumbersomeally. Modi also chose to spend the Valen-tine’s Day with Pawar. Does this signal anew alignment?

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry NirmalaSitharaman is the last person the government can rely onfor good publicity. Sometime back, Air-India misplaced herluggage when she arrived in Australia. Unable to control herire, she instantly tweeted her agony. Recently she was offto the North-East when her flight was delayed for an hour-and-a-half due to dense fog. She lost no time telling theworld through her tweets (yet again!) that she had to coolher heels for more than an hour awaiting take-off. Thisgovernment airline surely needs better publicists.

Bad PR by minister

People in Delhi are waiting with bated breath tosee the newly-crowned Chief Minister ArvindKejriewal deliver his poll promise of giving com-plete Wifi coverage to the Capital. Meanwhile,two ghats at Varanasi, the Dashashwamedhand the Shitala Ghats, have free Wifi now for 30

minutes every 24 hours. Providing free Wifi isnot just Kejriwal’s promise; it is one of the im-portant poll promises of Prime Minister Modias well. So long as the common man gets togain, let the leaders fight it out as to who willprovide better connectivity!

Free Wifi at Varanasi ghats

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is learnt tohave set up a war room to speed up key ongoing infrastructureprojects. Aiding him in the process is the Mumbai-based NGOBombay First and the global consultancy firm, McKinsey. TheCM is himself identifying the reasons for the delays to sort outthe issues. Mumbaikars have reason to be happy now with fi-nally a ray of hope in their horizon, which could make megapet projects like the Navi Mumba Airport, the Trans-harbourlink and the Mumbai Metro see the light of the day.

The BothersomeSainiks

All That MattersGrapevine

Illustrations: UdayShankar

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—Compiled by Roshni

Maharashtra CMis a man in a hurry


.

RNI No. UPBIL/2007/22571 Postal Regd. No. UP/GBD-204/2015-17

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