To,
Dear Karan Thapar: What is the ‘hidden agenda’?
Ask me, I used to watch Devil’s Advocate ‘religiously’ till not so distant past. I remember watching PM (of course just another name sake, Pranab Mukherjee) frothing at corners of his mouth in the same program and so did enjoy watching Natwar Lal Singh squirm in the hot seat. BUT that were ‘ages’ ago. Alas!
As the CNN-IBN restricted self to the role of an ‘extended organ’ of Congress’ Media management Cell, so did ‘Devil’s Advocate’ kept pace with the changing times, I lost interest in both. (Karan if you care, then you’re ‘Sunday Sentiments’ too are a damp squib these days. Unpublished Editors Mail accumulated at ‘friendly’ Newspapers is surely indicative enough).
I happened to watch the first part of the ‘marathon’, interview with my ‘Revered Lord’ Shri Shri Amar Singh Ji Maharaj and courtesy my good friend barabarindians, watched this too. Disappointment is an understatement. Though, I stopped ‘admiring’ you some time back, the latest one is surely repulsive, if not outrageously ‘outrageous’. Coxing the King maker and extracting apologies! That too at the face of ‘ignoring’ all realities, unless you have a hidden agenda too! Expected better from you, Karan. Once you took pride in doing your home work before hand – I remember you writing this in Sunday sentiments, give me a breather shall recollect and point that to you.
May you become less ‘secular’ and more objective for your fast dwindeling admirers – this humble PI included- sake? Amen! I promise shall be back watching you and start rereading you. As on now I skip both you and Vir and prefer Inderjit Hazara, he is much more ‘readable’ than you two.
Regards,
Prudent Indian
Taking the devil by the horns?
Courtesy: VivekJyoti.
Devil’s way of pleasing 10 Janpath!
Devil’s Advocate, Karan Thapar, & his blatant contradictions with the sole intention of pleasing 10 Janpath
….it is amply clear that even with the support of the SP and the tacit support of the then President Late Shri K.R. Narayanan, it was highly unlikely that the Congress could have formed the government at the Centre in 1999. Since you are considered as one of the top notch journalists in the Indian media today, please get all your facts right and if possible consult your other peers like Shri Vir Sanghvi so that such blatant contradictions with the sole intention of pleasing 10 Janpath do not emerge.
– R. Ananthanarayanan
* * *
From: R. Ananthanarayanan
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 1:37 PM
Subject: Devil’s Advocate (Interview with Shri Amar Singh)
Dear Shri Karan Thapar,
I refer to your interview in the latest edition of Devil’s Advocate with Shri Amar Singh, General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party telecast in CNN-IBN on 6th July 08.
Shri Amar Singh openly confessed in the interview in response to your question that it was a mistake on their part not to have backed Smt Sonia Gandhi for the post of Prime Minister in April 1999 after the fall of then Govt. led by Shri A.B. Vajpayee. Further He was goaded by you to apologise to the nation as this act had resulted in the NDA led by the BJP to rule the country for five more years.
However there appears to a basic dichotomy and twisting of facts, I do not know if you have watched the interview with Smt Sonia Gandhi in 2007 telecast in NDTV in the program “One on One” conducted by your good friend and editor of Hindustan Times Shri Vir Sanghvi.
To a question by Shri Vir Sanghvi, Smt. Sonia Gandhi informed that She had decided immediately on the fall of the Shri Vajpayee’s Govt. in 1999 that She would not become the Prime Minister and it would be Shri Manmohan Singh incase Congress forms the government in the Centre. It is another matter that her mother personally flew down from Italy immediately after fall of the Vajpayee government to witness the swearing-in-ceremony and Shri Sharad Pawar, Shri P.A. Sangma and Shri Tariq Anwar were expelled from the Congress a week thereafter only because they had requested Smt Sonia Gandhi in the CWC to publicly announce that She would not contest for the post of Prime Minister.
Even assuming that Smt Sonia Gandhi was speaking the truth to Shri Vir Sanghvi, your purpose of getting an apology from Shri Amar Singh and SP for not supporting her to become Prime Minister is ludicrous with the sole intention to mislead the viewers of the program.
Regarding your other question on SP being responsible for the continuation of BJP in power for the next five years till 2004, you may recollect that the govt. of Shri Vajpayee lost the confidence motion in 1999 by one vote (269-270). Those who voted against the confidence motion included Shri Saifuddin Soz of National Conference and Shri Giridhar Gamang of Congress. Shri Saifuddin Soz defied the party whip to vote against the confidence motion and was expelled from the party immediately thereafter. So it would not have been possible for him to vote again in favour of the Congress, regarding Shri Giridhar Gamang, there were strong objections before the confidence vote since He was also holding the post of M.L.A. in the Orissa Assembly apart from being a M.P. and hence He should not be allowed to vote. It would have been highly unlikely that He could have again cast his vote in favour of the Congress as his first vote in the confidence motion would have been challenged in the Court. Apart from the above, the Speaker Late Shri Balayogi belonged to the Telegu Desam, an ally of the BJP at that time and incase of a tie in the next confidence motion would have in all probability voted against the Congress.
Hence it is amply clear that even with the support of the SP and the tacit support of the then President Late Shri K.R. Narayanan, it was highly unlikely that the Congress could have formed the government at the Centre in 1999. Since you are considered as one of the top notch journalists in the Indian media today, please get all your facts right and if possible consult your other peers like Shri Vir Sanghvi so that such blatant contradictions with the sole intention of pleasing 10 Janpath do not emerge.
– R. Ananthanarayan
* * *
Yes, You are right!
From: karanthapar@itvindia.net
To: R. Ananthanarayanan
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: Devil’s Advocate (Interview with Shri Amar Singh)
Dear Mr. Anathanarayanan,
Many thanks for your email which I have read with interest.
Karan Thapar.
ok, may be he is too busy… As such I am a fan of him. But I don’t get to watch the Devil’s advocate. I read Sunday Sentiments regularly and find KP better than VSanghvi on most accounts. But you are right, SSentiments is an off-time or call is past time rambling more than some really serious stuff.
Can’t comment more because I am a fan of his. I remember his interview of Arjun Singh at the height of Quota crisis was a Chalisa. But as you say, it was ages before…
You know PI, your writing skills have improved so much
Karan thapar, Rajdeep sardesai, his wife Sagarika are all anti- hindu crap. Most of IBN is pro congress and anti Hindu. All hindus should wake up and realize that
I would like to comment that, most of the Indian Media is politically biased and immature, especially when it comes to BJP rules states they are surprisingly misleading the readers and viewers in this country. Infact, in my true knowledge BJP ruled states are doing well in many aspects if not all compare to other states.We know that there is not a single news paper or visual media which is not run by a family in this country.If you consider CNN-IBN it is the most visibly biased visual media channel ever India have seen, so obsessed with Gandhi dynasty,Rajdeep and his Wife Sagarika is totally after Narendra Modi and BJP. If Modi sneezes it is a headline story in CNN-IBN!.if you consider NDTV PRANNOY ROY is trying his best to be a pseudo-secularist. But if we closely watch each of their programs it is increasingly getting biased and a person with common sense can understand what is going on behind the scene.Prannoy Roy and Barkha Dutta believes they are the only intellectuals left in this country!.If you look at the news papers, we know the history of Indian express. What role Goenka played in Indian politics utilizing his family run news paper business.Vir Sanghvi of Hindustantimes ( Late KK Birla is a staunch congressman) is all the way praising Sonia as if his career itself is pledged for that cause. A fair exemption can be made for Times of India ,I don’t know If I am correct.Otherwise there is a serious conspiracy going on this country by these new founded intellectual Pseudo Secularists.We must be able to differentiate what is right and what is wrong as these channels are targeting young urban population mixing news with bit of masalas and Tabloid especially the Hip-hop culture. They are not aware that their credibility and neutrality is being lost infront of the masses.In India Media ethics is a neglected truth.It is the era of family run businesses for personal and political gains.In the name of freedom of speech they are misleading the people to make thier own profit and gains.Who care where this will lead the country to?????
I may be dubbed as a fundamentalist because of my comments,that is the new trend prevail in India.But reality bites and people should analyze the news particles coming to them before believing in it.Because for many ,it affects thier intellectual behaviour. There should be some accountability of the Media institutions in this country and we the Citizens are responsible for that.Please Beware.
Interesting read. All said, I think Karan Thapar earned himself a fan in me when he mauled tons of politicians – Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (900 acres of illicit land!), Amar Singh (Kalyan Singh switch-gate), Kapil Sibal (26/11 UPA handling), A B Bardhan (this guy is a joker), J Jayalalitha (vengeance), Narendra Modi (Gujarat riots) and especially Renuka Chowdhury (domestic violence law). I like the way he approaches his interviewees incisively, exposing the animals they are. Only the really smart politicians in India today – Arun Shourie (see the nuclear deal interview), Arun Jaitley (see the Amarnath land row interview), P Chidambaram, and others have made him look inadequate and sometimes unprepared. Otherwise, he has trapped nearly everyone else and exposed them. He has taken a pro-minority stand on some occasions that worries me. A case in point was when he interviewed Naveen Patnaik and the Archbishop of Delhi.
He still has room for improvement. He not only has to continue to do research like he does but engage people on more subjects and most importantly, refrain from interrupting people. This, although he says that politicians most times mislead the opposition by their clever word play.
All said I think we need Karan to improve and we also need more strong news presenters like Karan Thapar who want to get down to the bottom of things and engage the public in serious political programmes. Political awareness among the people is the only solution for India’s political problems.
Karan Thapar does stand out among the crowd of journalists. He does his homework thought I can say he does it right
But there are occasions when he finds himself in soup. For example http://lostparadise.co.in/?p=149
KARAN THAPER IS A DIRTY FILTHY JOKER HE IS FIT WORK AS CLOWN IN CIRCUS I HOPE A DAY WILL COME WHEN THIS DOG IS KICKED IN PUBLIC
Suzanna Arundhati Roy is niece of Prannoy Roy (CEO of NDTV)
Prannoy Roy sits Council on Foreign Relations’ International Advisory Board.Mukesh D. Ambani also sits on CFR’s International Advisory Board.
Mukesh is MD, Reliance Industries Ltd.
Prannoy Roy married to Radhika Roy
Radhika Roy is sister of Brinda Karat (CPI(M))
Brinda Karat married to Prakash Karat (CPI(M) – General Secretary)
Prakash was part of debating club in Madras (Chennai).
N.Ram, P.Chidambaram & Mythili Shivaraman were part of this group.
This group started a magazine “Radical Review”.
CPI(M)’s senior member of Politburo and Parliamentary Group Leader is Sitaram Yechury.
Sitaram Yechury is married to Seema Chisthi.
Seema Chisthi is the Resident Editor of Indian Express
Burkha Dutt works at NDTV
Prabha Dutt was mother of Burkha Dutt.
Prabha Dutt was a chief reporter for Hindustan Times.
Rajdeep Sardesai was Managing Editor at NDTV
Rajdeep Sardesai married to Sagrika Ghose
Sagarika Ghose is daughter of Bhaskar Ghose.
Bhaskar Ghose was Director General of Doordarshan.
Sagarika Ghose’s aunt is Ruma Pal.
Ruma Pal is former justice of Supreme Court.
Sagarika Ghose’s another aunt is Arundhati Ghose.
Arundhati Ghose was India’s permanent representative/ambassador to United Nations.
Rajdeep is now Editor-in-Chief at CNN-IBN
CNN-IBN is a tie up between GBN (Global Business Network) and Turner International.GBN is a Network 18 company.
CNN is one of Turner International’s asset.
Sagarika also works at CNN-IBN as senior editor and as an anchor.
I want to submit a case history of an ex-INA personnel who has been victimised in the hands of the officials of Home Ministry and seek help to grant him pension during his life time. He is now 85 years of age. Please give his e-mail address or any address to which I can sent the details. Nurshing Charan Patnaik, Qrs. No.IVR.333,Unit-6, Bhubaneswar. MOB-9439339683
To all the Karan Thappar haters who dub him “Congress agent” or “Anti Hindu” etc. By voicing such thoughts you are perhaps leaving a doubt that you are sponsored (paid or unpaid) by the BJP and their allies.
If you really believe IBN is a Congress channel you may like to advise BJP to start their own channel. That may have more effect on Indians than such stray comments.
Foul language and abuse is only an indication of the mind it comes from. and does not make good the deficiency in your arguments.
Clean & fair thoughts will make India Clean and Fair to all.
Vande Mataram
Jai Karan Thapar
Keep Going IBN . .