The giggling bimbos of CNN & MSNBC should learn something from NDTV

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Pavan Gupta

What a contrast! The year 2008 would go down in the history as a watershed in the annals of visual media the world over. This has been the most eventful year since 2001 when New York City was hit on September 11 by the terrorists. The coverage of the presidential election in the United States would be remembered as the lowest point in American TV Journalism. Nobody is ever surprised by coverage on Fox News, it is after all “fair and balanced”. We are used to the third-rate theatrics of Bill O’Reilly and Shawnnity (Sean Hannity) as both these jokers cater to the uneducated Republicans. What has shocked the moderates in America is the love affair of CNN and MSNBC with the idea of a Black President. The anchors and their contributors were so unprofessional in their coverage that no serious discussion took place during the long and contentious primaries and then the general elections. On the one hand we had to suffer the unqualified love of Chris Matthews, Keith Obermann and David Shuster for their very own Barack Obama, while on the other hand we had to suffer the ‘Giggling Bimbos’ like Nora O’Donnell, Rachel Maddow, Campbell Brown and Gloria Borger. You may also add the disgraceful Jack Cafferty to the list.

Compare this to the highly professional coverage of NDTV in India of the terror attack on Bombay on November 26, 2008. Vishnu Som, Barkha Dutt and many other reporters on the field were simply fantastic. They provided wall-to-wall coverage of the three-day rampage that killed 179 people and wounded hundreds more. This is called ‘news coverage’ not what passes on for news on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. TV channels like NDTV could actually mobilize public opinion and channelize into a citizens’ movement. This is the role of the so-called ‘Fourth Estate”!

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“Saare Jahan Se Achcha Hindustan Hamara…”

Posted on November 30, 2008 by Pavan Gupta

“…Hum Bulbulen Hain Us Ki Vuh Gulistan Hamara”. This couplet was penned by a young Muhammad Iqbal in 1904. He turned a traitor in 1910 and renounced his earlier sentiment. Muhammad Iqbal was one of the founding fathers of Pakistan. Hundred and four years later, young Muslims are turning traitors and are gunning for their ‘Hindustan’! India or Hindustan is the only country in the world where young Muslims have earned world-wide fame for themselves, their families and their country. No other country on the face of this earth has given so much to Muslims as India has. Despite such opportunities Muslims have turned against their own ‘Mother India’.

Certain sections of the Muslim population on the Indian sub-continent have long believed that they would one day out-number Hindus in their own motherland. The simple question is how? The next question is why? Is this religious fanaticism or civilizational hang-over? Whatever the case might be, the fact of the matter is that for every single Hindu killed in the world, there are 100 Muslims killed around the world. The Muslim fanatics should do their math! In the meantime Hindus and moderate Muslims are getting educated, raising their families and improving their standards of living. How come no other country has produced a Muslim Azim Premji and Wipro?

Note my concern voiced on September 15, 2008

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The audacity of terror!

Posted on November 29, 2008 by Pavan Gupta

India has seen terror before but not with this ferocity and brutality. The only time such violence was used against innocent civilians was when Nadir Shah slaughtered thousands of people in Delhi in March 1739. The second time civilians were targeted was during the partition of India, especially in West Bengal in 1947. Terror is being used as an instrument of war against a secular India. I am not persuaded that the State of Pakistan is directly involved in this particular invasion. They have nothing to gain from this audacity of terror and a lot to loose if actually implicated! The general Pakistani society is as soft as its Indian counterpart and is therefore a target of terror itself. It would be prudent for India to join forces with President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan and launch a joint operation against such organized terror. This is the time to seek formal extradition of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim at any cost. My hunch is that he is instrumental in providing the local logistical support in Bombay.

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“Bombay will never be the same again”

Posted on November 28, 2008 by Pavan Gupta

This was the slogan used in the advertising campaign to launch the Taj Intercontinental (now tower) in 1972. The publicity account was handled by Frank Simoes Advertising Pvt Ltd and probably Frank himself wrote the copy for the launch campaign. To the best of my knowledge, Mitter Bedi shot the initial pictures of Taj Tower along with the ‘Old Taj’ and therefore the skyline of Bombay changed forever. The art director for the Ad Campaign was Shravan Gurav and Ajit Kelkar was the general manager of Taj at that time. Those were heady days for some of us. I lived a block away from Taj Hotel, behind Radio Club and took a walk to Gateway of India, every evening. I remember when there was no tower instead there was a hideous looking warehouse. That must have been around mid-sixties and then the warehouse was brought down and a huge ditch was opened up to lay the foundations for the new tower. It took forever to see the actual construction coming up. Once the first floor was completed it moved fast. When the tower was completed we all were skeptical because it took something away from our grand Taj Mahal Hotel.


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Aamcha ‘Coast Guard’ jhopla ka?

Posted on November 27, 2008 by Pavan Gupta

India has always been vulnerable from the sea and I have written about it before in my blog. Sadly no one read it or cared about it! Now we have paid a price for it. Indian Navy can not and must not be charged with protecting our coast line from smuggling and terrorism besides other humanitarian activities. It is the job of the Indian Coast Guard that was constituted as the fourth armed force of the Union of India, on August 19, 1978. The force’s main function is to protect India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), covering an area of 2.02 million sq. km, and operates under the effective control of the Ministry of Defense. Coast Guard vessels and aircraft have been assisting the custom authorities in anti-smuggling operations and have effectively served national interests in high-risk areas. While protection of the high seas is vested with the Indian Navy, the area between 10 and 30 nautical miles from the shore is under the charge of the Coast Guard and from shore to five nautical miles with the coastal police as well as the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has strength of approximately 1000 officers and 5200 other personnel. The force is led by a Director General and a Deputy Director General. Vice Admiral Rustom Faramroze Contractor is the present Director General of the Coast Guard. The Indian Coast Guard’s Central HQ is located in New Delhi. Regional HQs are located at Mumbai, Chennai and Port Blair in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. India has a 7,516 km coastline.

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