'Aaj Tak' aisa nahi hua..

B.P. Singhal, former IPS and ex-Rajya Sabha member, writes this in one of his columns after he was interviewed by Aaj Tak after the recent Narendra Modi expose by Tehelka.

Aaj Tak harped on the same old refrain that ‘Modi did not call the Army until three days had passed’. When the TV channel contacted me on phone to get my response, I told the anchor that the Godhra carnage took place on February 27, 2002, that the Hindu backlash commenced on February 28 and the Army was doing flag march on the forenoon of March 1… He cut me short by saying that ‘This is exactly what we had said, no action was taken by Modi on 29th, 30th and 31st thus giving three clear days to the murderers…’ I had to cut him short by reminding him that the date 28th was 28th of February 2002 and there were no 29th, 30th or 31st in that month. The phone was of course disconnected. Link

Depressing for the Indian media!! Isn't it? Though it certainly suits a news channel like Aaj Tak which makes breaking news out of things like "Abhishek Bachchan didn't say 'Hello Sweetie' to Ash this morning after waking up. Are they taking a divorce?" or even more wackier ones like "Sting on Sonia Gandhi: She has two holes on her left ear but only one on the right."

P.S. This inspires me to write a post on '10 most wackiest breaking news on Indian television'. Coming up soon.

So-Nil (in PR) Gavaskar

The mention of the word 'Sydney', at this point of time, would result in the recollection of all the ensuing fracas in the so called gentleman's game. A lot of ink has been wasted by a lot of people trying to shout at top of their voices on how Bucknor is a secret ISI agent sent to annihilate the Indian cricket team or whether Ponting should enrol for the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's newly launched course titled "The art of playing".

And one voices among the present mob is of Sunil Gavaskar, who claims to be a commentator, very patriotic in nature who breaks down in the studio every time India record an overseas win. Though most of us have conveniently forgotten that he is also the the chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee and thus responsible for keeping the reputation of ICC intact but what we have seen of him in this episode is him lambasting the ICC left, right and center and even hinting at a racism claim against one of the ICC Referees. This is what he says:

Millions of Indians want to know if was a 'white man' taking the 'white man's' word against that of the 'brown man'. Quite simply if there was no audio evidence nor did the officials hear anything then the charge did not stand... This is what has incensed the millions of Indians who are flabbergasted that the word of one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Sachin Tendulkar, was not accepted. In effect, Tendulkar has been branded a liar by the match-referee.

Pretty naive and hasty for a man like Sunil Gavaskar to voice an opinion of such nature. Somebody truly needs to remind him that some part of his monthly wage is also contributed by the ICC.