Tracing The Smear Trail !
By Shazia Ilmi
29 April, 2011
Countercurrents.org
Is the dust that seems to settle on the Bhushan storm prompted by Sonia’s benedictory reply or by Pranab Mukherjee’s reassurance?
Dignifying Digvijay Singh’s attacks backfired on the Congress party when Santosh Hedge offered to resign. Singh’s assessment of Hegde as the best Lokayukta who could not weed out corruption in the state of Karnataka reinforces the need for a strong Jan Lok Pal Bill. Which is why Digvijay Singh should press for a Jan Lokpal that will impart effectiveness to the proposed Lokayukta’s office..
But the moot question in the recent tsunami of allegations against the Civil society members of Draft Committee of the Lokpal bill is whether it is mere ineptness, intellectual lethargy or selective amnesia that has prevented many journalists from raising certain questions? Questions about the timing, probity and motives of those who initiated this vilification against the Bhushans .
While most of media sat for at least ten months on the notorious Nira Radia Tapes before they became public , the CD was telecast and its trascript published within 24 hours of its leak.
There are certain other factors which point to a studied campaign to malign Civil Society members involved in the movement. For despite knowing them, their political stakes and financial interests, sections of the media either feigned ignorance or deliberately refused to work out the machinations of those interested in scuttling the process leading up to the formation of the LokPal Bill.
For instance, the findings of The State-run Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) report as whispered to some select publication claimed that the notorious CD damning the Bhushans was not doctored.
This report which has not been made public catapulted the media frenzy into a viler slugfest mounting in turn, pressure on the Bhushans’ to quit. It is pertinent to point out that in the Jessica Lal murder case, it was the same CFSL findings about the two–cartridges theory, greatly obfuscating the shooting that contributed towards Manu Sharma’s acquittal in the lower court.
Interestingly, a well regarded Editor of a National Daily carried out a swift and perhaps speediest forensic investigation in the country's history. Overnight he confirmed that the anonymously sent CD was indeed verified by a government lab as genuine and un-doctored. What he, however conveniently declined was to mention was the name of the particular laboratory to which he had ready access and the methods adopted for the analysis.
For reason known alone to him he was protecting his source - the laboratory which examined the questionable CD. He also omitted to mention that more recently he had been appointed a member of the National Minority Commission, a grace and favour position allotted mostly to Party loyalists.
As for the question of allotment of farmland in Noida to Bhushan, a petition was filed by former Additional Solicitor General Vikas Singh in the Allahabad High Court , on the very day of the CD leak, caused an uproar in the media and consequently the public, nobody reported that it had already been dismissed on the 16th April by the Allahabad Court. Ironically Singh is one of the recipient of a similar plot of land adjacent to the Bhushan’s plots, which he had applied for 20 months after the Bhushan’s.
When did Mr Vikas Singh learn of the market value of the farm house plot being four times higher than the one mentioned in the original brochure/advertisement. Why did he not challenge the scheme through a PIL on account of loss to the state exchequer? Did his petition question the inappropriateness of the entire procedure or was it filed to seek a better plot? Why did he file his petition four months after being intimated of the plot allotment? These and many more questions require credible answers , if any .
Prashant Bhushan on the other hand has mastered the art of rubbing UP too many powerful people the wrong way. The two well timed events of the CD leak and the questionabe Noida property acquisition matter were fodder enough for many who saw a great opportunity to get even by ignoring th emessage and shooting the messengers. While Amar Singh called him a ‘PIL sniffer’, few wrote of the visceral stench of rotten corruption that Prashant Bhushan has been sniffing for years .
He has fought numerous cases against corruption in high places. He fought back repeated attempts to bury the Bofors Howistzer scam fought the Enron Case, the Non performing assets of Banks matter in which Bhushan had filed an affidavit against Digvijay Singh’s attempts to force tthe Life Insurance Corporation to give another hundred crores to the S Kumar’s for the Maheshwar Dam project ,Madhya Pradesh after they had been declared willful defaulters by the Reserve Bank of India for having siphoned off funds taken from various other Banks for the project to other organs of their business empire..
Bhushan Jr even got the Supreme Court to order a court monitored CBI investigation into the encounter of Azad Cherukuri Rajkumar, fought for an independent investigation into the Batla house encounter, fought against irregularities and corruption in NREGA managing to persuade the Supreme Court to order a CBI investigation into the matter
Besides the Gujarat Riots case, where he was the amicus curiae when the SC ordered the SIT investigation into the role of Chief Minister Narender Modi , senior political leaders and police officers in the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom . Bhushan has also represented the Cycle Rickshaw pullers and the Slum dwellers in different PILs as well a s the Narmanda Dam Oustees and the Bhopal gas victims in the Supreme Court.
However it was the Spectrum case (where he got Supreme Court to monitor the 2G probe) and the Radia tapes matter (where he has been fighting for all the 5800 monitered conversations to be put out in the public) which got his detractors baying for his blood as this would doubtlessly include a long list of TOP corporate honchos, media PEOPLE, politicians and bureaucrats. Alongside Prashant Bhushan has been fighting A Raja in 2008-10.
The 2G case has raised question marks on the moral uprightness of certain media persons, politicians and leading corporate houses. It was obviously pure personal vendetta at work when some of the publications and news channels gleefully seized D the opportunity to fix the Bhushans by misrepresenting facts. The ancient art of settling scores is an innovative one, the nuance of which is constantly evolving and it was all too obvious with the choice of language and the type of expert commentators invited to air their opinions on television..
This leads us to an important question. Don’t We The People have the right to know the political leanings, vested interests and financial stakes of the expert giving his or her take on the matter? Shouldn’t there be disclosures by these experts regarding the personal interest and conflict of interest of these personalities ? For instance is it not important for a politician/lawyer/media advisor questioning the moral authority of a given individual to reveal whether they are beneficiaries of the ruling or any other political party or have vested interests or conflict of interest in the matter under discussion ?. The heated debate indeed would be better informed and meaningful for viewers .
While many columnists have been crying foul at the inclusion o fthe Bhushan Father - son duo as members of the Lok Pal Billl Drafting Committee why havent they considerd Subramanian Swamy’s concerns about having Kapil Sibal as the Telecom Minister despite he and his two lawyer sons representing various telecom companies. Swamy demanded his recusal from the Ministry But few have even bothered to take notice of Swamy's concerns leave alone demand Sibal's departure from the Ministry..
In this vilification campaign Anna Hazare too was not spared. Many senior journalists have argued that his campaign scoffs at parliamentary democracy and belittles the constitutional authority of elected representatives. Yet nobody questions the fact that many senior members of the Council of Ministers and party office bearers have not in fact ever been elected to the Lok Sabha and the backdoor entrants via the Rajya Sabha including the Prime Minister Singh
But a large section of the media has contributed to the Hazare -led Peoples' movement. But its time to move beyond the smug bite and see through the politically crafted stratagems of the disinformation campaign against the long overdue Jan Lok Pal. It is a moment carved both in idealism and pragmatism. While the merits and demerits of certain provisions can be argued, it is vital that we do not allow this juggernaut of an opportunity to sink into the quagmire of narrow politics and self serving interests.
Shazia Ilmi is a media person and is presently a volunteer with India Against Corruption
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