Deflecting Attention

So the English channels have started non-stop coverage of the so called chit fund scam in West Bengal. Some have given it more importance than the alleged intrusion of Chinese soldiers into India; some others have given it more importance than the Coal Gate scam where the English media now wants us to believe that the whole damn thing can be traced back to a dead former Prime Minister P.V Narasimha Rao and another old and helpless former Prime Minister called Atal Bihari Vajpayee. My God, Mamata Banerjee is now the new villain for English media. Times Now is presenting a letter written by a self proclaimed fraud as gospel and is busy saying the nation demands an answer. I also read a report written by a senior journalist named Seema Guha describing her horrible experience with Sudipto Sen, the latest chit fund accused. If she is the same Seema Guha, she writes a column for the Brunch which is a Sunday supplement of The Hindustan Times. In that column, she gives all of us lots of advice on our mannerisms and behavior. She also tells us how people like her are worried about their income tax payments et al. Poor senior journalist. I have more sympathy for the lady who committed suicide in Bengal.

But I suspect there is much more that is going behind the chit fund scam than what the English media is revealing. And there is a pattern to it. Every time there is some really serious allegations against the UPA or the Gandhi family or our sainted Prime Minister, the media suddenly wakes up to some scam where opposition party leaders are involved. I will write in more detail later but let me just give two examples. Last year, there were serious allegations against Robert Vadra, son in law of Sonia Gandhi about shady land deals and about his Rs 50 lakhs allegedly became Rs 500 crores. There were other allegations about Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi buying off The National Herald Newspaper. Suddenly, the whole country started watching stories about how corrupt former BJP President Nitin Gadkari is. He was hounded so badly by the media because of unproven allegations-and selective income tax raids- that he lost his job.

Today, the two big questions facing the Indian media should be the shameful 2G and the coal gate scam.....but then guys attention has been successfully diverted. Let me remind you of one thing: most of us accept that a lot of Indian politicians-irrespective of parties- is corrupt. Then how is it that only potential opposition leaders like Lalu Yadav, Jayalalithaa, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and others face CBI charges of ill gotten wealth? Are all Congress leaders purer than Digvijaya Singh?