Why Money Life has lost its follower in me

OPINION/OBSERVATION

Recently, Money life posted a news report titled Aam Admi Party look at trade unionism to increase its support base?

To begin with, I notice the question mark hanging at the end of the headline. Adding a question mark is often used as a savior in the field of journalism when enough information about a case is not available. And while the journalist/publication can get away by using a question mark by still reporting about a group or individual, nevertheless, such reporting also has the potential to frame the group or individual written about in a negative way - especially when the group or individual written about is not quoted in the report or does not present his or her side of the story in the news report. I wonder why was Money Life, a magazine which I until now respected for its journalism, was so hurried to publish this story if it had any ‘questions’? And if it did seek clarification on the 'questions' it had.

The news report does not mention if a response was sought, and if it did receive any response from spokesperson of AAP or Arvind Kejriwal or Rahul Bajaj or spokesperson or individuals from the Labor Union and whether there was "acceptance", "denial", "no comments", "unavailability" etc about Kejriwal-Bajaj meeting. But these are just some of the journalistic inaccuracies in the news report - the analytic framework of this report is riddled with naivety.

Few Indian journalists have time to analyse politics and the lack of this clearly shows in this news report.

True, parties like BSP, Shiv-Sena originated from Labor Unions. But this report missed the point that these parties originated by serving the interests of a particular ‘group’. BSP, which was started by Kanshi Ram in 1978, was formed to serve the interests of All India Backward and Minority Community Employees Federation (SC/ST& OBC). Shiv-Sena, on the other hand originated to serve the interests of Maharashtrians, and to stop the growing influence of Gujratis and South Indians in Maharashtra. To add, Sena's protest, on many occasions, was violent in nature. Both BSP and Shiv-Sena (which are used as an example in this article) developed into full-fledged political parties as they gained influence and power over the groups they represented or protested for and eventually they evolved to set agenda for a particular caste, religion, faith. If these political parties represent anything at all today - it's divisive politics.

On the other hand AAP has originated from a collective peaceful and non-violent mass protest of the Jan Lokpal movement - faith, caste, religion or being a member of a particular group was not a variable for this protest. Nor did Jan Lokpal Protest, which is the birth of AAP, served interest of an exclusive group, caste, religion or faith. The Money Life comparison of AAP to Shiv-Sena and BSP itself is a fallacy and reflects poorly on the journalist's capacity to research and analyse political events in India. The 'Unionism' framing is not only faulty, but ridiculous.

Considering the above argument, what I failed to understand is why Money Life considers it as something "news worthy", and if it is why is it presented in a largely negative framing - as if factory workers or trade unions being extended support by AAP is something alarming. Aren't these workers common man? And why shouldn't AAP support them? Some of these trade unions have already participated in the Janlokpal protest individually or collectively. Certainly, Money Life can choose to see a 'strategy' in AAP associating with Labor Unions, but it misses taking a holistic perspective and furthermore uses irrelevant examples to make a point.

AAP will go anywhere where interests of a common man  are suppressed/affected.  And anywhere where a common man will feel suppressed or affected will associate with and approach AAP. This has been proved time and again - take the serious case of sexual abuse of Gudiya when the immediate family members of the victim approached AAP after Delhi police failed them. There are many cases which are perhaps not even reported in the mainstream media.

Lastly, this Money Life report is unclear but suggest some connection that AAP first (?) supported the Labor Union at Bajaj, and then Arvind Kejriwal met Rahul Bajaj seeking his 'support' for a TV Channel. This information, the article mentions is something which it has 'learned'. What is the source? While I would not ask the journalist to mention the name, but why should it be considered reliable? Isn't that something which must be mentioned? Also, what do you mean by 'support'? I expect some elaboration on this - or is this some news snippet of speculative bollywood actor-actress affair where the reader is encouraged for guess work? Please mention 'dates' (when did Kejriwal meet Bajaj?) to help understand the order of events. Regardless, I consider this is a highly speculative theory which Money Life presents - unless it cares to support it with facts. At least include quotes of Arvind Kejriwal or Rahul Bajaj or Labor Unions in question or conduct your own investigation? The reporting in this story reflects poorly on Money Life's journalistic ethical standards in my view.

As an AAM AADMI who likes transparency, I am more than happy to know the truth. But journalism based on hasty and speculative information, and one which does not follow all the basic rules (like including quotes - denial or acceptance) or one that does not show the intent of presenting facts, is something which I have always questioned. All in all, I will be skeptical of reading information provided in Money Life henceforth.

Dear Money Life, I was keen to to buy your subscription but I now have second thoughts.

Of holy cow and atheists

On Twitter one comes across many gems. I came across one such gem by some anti-AAP chest beater who tweeted - "Vivekananda only belongs to us right wings, and not AAP which is full of communist and atheists."

Far-right Hindu politicians have been using the name of Vivekananda without really understanding his message or the scientific and practical approach he took towards life. The common man in India too does not know in much detail who Vivekananda is or what his philosophies were or why he took the approach he took - over all, the knowledge about Vivekananda is rudimentary and of popular level - for instance - "greatest Hindu Scholar", "representative of Hinduism in the West" etc etc. But forget the common man, even politicians are ill-informed and use his name in giving silly analogies - take for instance - Nitin Gadkari who said that Dawoods IQ and Vivekananda IQ is the same but while Vivekanada used it for nation building, Dawood used it to excel in the crime world. Clearly, Gadkari does not know the definition of IQ - he was just being a sophist here.

I responded back to this tweet arguing that Bhagat Singh was an atheist and Vivekananda ate beef and with links to references, and I got a reply back - "not impressed AAP folks" "Read some trashy tweet about Vivekananda". Why Bhagat Singh, our constitution was made by an atheist Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar - are these idiots going to give-up the constitution now? So while these far right Hindutva proponents will paste posters of Bhagat Singh, and while Mayawati will paste posters of Ambedkar they will not know what their beliefs were and how these great personalities approached life. The Dalit's will be made to believe that Buddhism is a religion - completely killing its essence.

Today's politicians get away with their tripe because they know that people are less informed, rarely scrutinize history or their beliefs and can be easily manipulated. Manipulation is also what the Britishers did and which the Indians owing to their beliefs fell for. British officer Lansdowne used "Cow slaughter" as an object to keep the Hindus and Muslims divided so that they could not collectively fight against the British regime. If the Hindus and Muslims had united, Britishers would not have lasted for 150 years in India. Langsedown used a strategy of cutting a cow and putting it in front of temples, and then cutting a pig and putting it in front of a Mosque. He then propagated that this was done by the Other group (watch this video). The present politicians and anti-social elements are no less than Britishers - either they are themselves deluded by the various myths or indulge in this politics of caste and religion knowingly. Either way they are keeping us Indians divided so that they can rule by misidentifying and misusing our beliefs. The cows and pigs have been replaced by bomb blasts today.

I would simply ask the common man to cut down his dose of bollywood and cricket and start reading history and challenge old beliefs. This is a tough thing to do because as soon as old beliefs are challenged it causes dissonance and there arises a need to identify with some group or the other. But do not worry, consider this as a research and work on it independently and you'll see an interesting perspective emerge. You cannot trust or depend on the news media or any other popular media for this - they are all victims themselves. You'll soon notice how politicians never offer scientific arguments and use rhetoric's and our beliefs to make a point - unless you don't challenge yourselves in this direction, you'll be enslaved.

As an Aam Aadmi or common man we must identify the common man in others. We have to see and identify with the 9 to 5 working man who pays his taxes, loves his family, and earns an honest bread and not the religion or faith the common man holds. I don't believe there would be a 9 to 5 working Muslim, who pays his taxes and earns an honest bread who would be a threat to any Hindu, and I don't believe that a 9 to 5 working Hindu who pays his taxes and earns an honest bread is a threat to Muslims - same applies to any other religion or group. These are perceived and created threats - we must realize this and ignore it and work towards a collective goal of developing our country for all groups. I think we will do our self and this country a great favor if we can have this outlook and speak up now. The lives of politicians and their goals are different. They are selfish and with little regard and respect for the common man. Their work and decisions has nothing to do with the benefit of common man - they have sycophants and jobless misguided and ill-informed goons who assist them with their ill-objectives and work for their vote bank politics. Why should a common man suffer for that? Don't let these politicians do what the Britishers did to India - the common man in us has to come together now.