How does a losing side fights it’s last fight? It throws the rulebook in the trashcan. That’s what has been happening in Delhi. If you don’t know Indian politics you may wonder what’s the real capital that goes in this business of politics. It’s not the voter base, it’s not the manifesto and it’s not the policies. The real capital is,
Delhi’s case is interesting in 2013 elections – something new is happening in Delhi. A group whose influence has been downplayed at every step may actually change the game of politics forever. BJP & Congress’s official line is still to call AAP a fad and a disrupter. Yet, in their secret labs they have employed every dirty trick to slow this revolution down.
In last one year, Aam Aadmi Party has been conspired against on so many occasions that you can fill several pages. It began with using the infamous police force of Delhi. Several of the volunteers were beaten across Delhi. In one case, 4-5 people were brutally beaten just because they wanted the police to write a rape complaint. Santosh Koli, a fiery young leader from Seemapuri, was murdered because her strong presence in her constituency was making the local MLA uncomfortable. As expected, police never gave a proper investigation to this case.
Then came Vijay Goel who had been sleeping in the opposition for over a decade now. What was hilarious that he copied everything that AAP was doing – including the Bijli-Paani Rally. He couldn’t control his “tears” seeing the plight of Delhiites. But everybody saw through this act, even his party. Despite massive campaign expenses, he was unceremoniously dropped as the CM candidate. Well, not that unceremoniously, he was promised a Rajya Sabha seat. Please make note, for such transactions the upper house of parliament exists.
From the beginning Arvind Kejriwal, an RTI activist himself, has tried hard to keep AAP as open as possible to the outside public. This policy though is path breaking itself – yet brings certain evils with it. It makes AAP prone to attacks. I mean, how much do we really know about inner workings of BJP and Congress. But AAP has kept their doors open, so every tom-dick-and-harry tries to rubberneck their way in. AAP supporters and volunteers will have to learn to live with this – it’s a minor inconvenience.
Anyway, BJP had realized that aam aadmi has started stepping on their toes. And something needs to be done before it’s too late. So they took the services of certain hard-liner jokers who call themselves Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena and the crook from the south, Swamy. Since so much information about AAP was freely available due to their open door policy, these elements tried every way to keep generating rumors and butting into AAP’s inner working.
Subramanian SwamyI’ll tell you one incident when BSKS chief Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga filed an RTI with AAP, that why is AAP not pushing enough for the police to investigate Santosh Koli’s death. Everybody who had followed the news a little bit could tell that AAP’s effort won’t bear any fruits because Congress-controlled police was already anti-AAP and the suspect of the murder was a Congress MLA. AAP had to swallow the tears for Santosh and continue to work towards the hard task of Delhi elections. They decided to postpone the justice for Santosh till the time they beat the power center of Delhi.
BJP and Congress had realized that Arvind and team has only one capital – their impeccable clean reputation. And this became their target. By utilizing social media, they kept trying to propel the propaganda that,
– Arvind Kejriwal cheated Anna ( this appears to be the entire manifesto of BJP )
– AAP is funded by CIA ( hilariously outlandish )
– AAP is the second hand of Congress ( funnily, Congress too blames AAP of secretly working for BJP )
– AAP is somehow working for Pakistan ( because he wore an Urdu cap once )
Though, BJP and Congress never really acknowledged AAP as a worthy opponent – yet they spent big money on anti-AAP campaign. Delhiites received recorded calls from Sheila Dixit’s office – plainly stating that “Arvind ne Anna ko dhokha diya, aapko bhi dega. Vote for Sheila”. A chief minister whose arrogance never came below the seventh heaven – even when the city was most desperate – was now making personal calls to ask people to not vote for AAP.
BJP went as far as changing their entire approach to elections – and copying every step of AAP. They began this by changing their CM candidate from Goel to Harshvardhan. They assumed merely switching to relatively clean candidate may change their luck. The other theory states that Congress approved of Harshvardhan. Harshvardhan in the past has been very appreciative of Sheila Dixit government in Delhi. After his nomination, he went on to declare that if he wins he won’t witch-hunt the culprits of CWG scam. In other words, if Congress supports BJP today, they’re ready to let bygones be bygones and together can feast on public funds in the next term.
Baba RamdevThe other front, that BJP had opened against this infant party was using the old associates. IAC was a loose group which brought many people together to oppose Congress. BJP too wanted the cake of free publicity so their elements infiltrated every level of IAC. People like Kiran Bedi, Baba Ramdev, VK Singh had only one aim – to re-align this movement into BJP campaign. And they tried everything to surround and manipulate the 76-year-old mascot Anna Hazare. Each one of this individual originally maintained their apolitical status – but then turned and shook hands with BJP.
Anna’s office is so heavily compromised that at the moment nobody knows what his real opinion is about AAP. Comments inspiring doubt about the intentions of Arvind and his team keep firing from Anna’s office – about how his name has been used. BJP loves to play the mediator and talk on the behalf of Anna Hazare. It makes you wonder, would they have been so worried about Anna’s well-being had Anna agreed with political course? And they ask who’s really using Anna’s name?
Anna HazareThe initial confusion was there between Anna and Arvind – because the separation was still fresh. Supporters were still supporting both. Anna has been absent from active activism for over a year now. All he talks about now is how his apparent “brand” is being misused. But it can be verified that besides seeking his blessing, not one poster or speech had his mention. None of the messages, emails seeking donation mention his name. Yet, BJP seems very keen on “protecting” Anna from the boogeyman Arvind.
You ask BJP about their implementation of Lokpal – and cat gets their tongue. Their star leader Narendra Modi has ridiculed Lokayukta unlike nobody in his state. Anna has unfortunately become a mere pawn in this game. And he’ll continue to be used against AAP. Like very conveniently his letter was used right before election to ask the old irrelevant questions about funds. Funds which have been offered to him very publicly – which he refuses to accept, yet loves to complain about.
In the series of using IAC against AAP – off and on you’d hear about certain unknown activist who’d lose their composure in some press conference – and ask irrelevant questions which have been answered repeatedly through several channels. At this point it’d be safe to say that whatever was good in IAC has passed on to AAP & what’s left is on sale.
We all know at whose behest this happens. And paid media loves to broadcast this propaganda for two basic reasons –
a) Anything anti-AAP gives huge TRP because detractors are rooting for them to fail. One fail and they’re all like, “I told you so”. Reason for so much opposition is that AAP stands for changes which has made a lot of people uncomfortable. These set-systems have been running for decades in India and now are all insecure about their survival.
b) TRP and Ad-content is not the sole source of revenue for Indian media. The trend of paid media is so active that it won’t be hard to estimate that it’s a big portion of the revenue-pie. Political patrons act as the overlords for these muckrakers – and control a big share of stake in the media.
Till very recently, AAP was not even projected as an option in many of the surveys conducted by the news channels. Congress funded channels showed Congress winning Delhi in 2013 and BJP funded channels projected BJP. AAP’s Yogender Yadav had to conduct their own survey to find out where they stood. The credibility of media is so questionable that news should be considered more of a PR exercise for the highest bidder. You can never be sure about the amount of adulteration in the news content in India.
Surveys are important – not because they show who is leading. But to harness the herd mentality of Indian voter. But paid media’s negative campaign against AAP isn’t limited to influencing survey numbers. It goes way beyond that – right into the territory of ‘shameless’.
Cong BJP distributed 1400 crores to defame AAPWhen fake surveys, one-sided stories, social-media propaganda didn’t work – detractors of AAP tried the dirtiest trick of them all. A doctored-sting tape to “expose” AAP. Every news channel thought they hit jackpot – finally they would be able to justify their salaries to their real masters. They thought AAP movement can be buried now. Certain unknown journalist was hired to conduct a sting to lure AAP candidates into committing to dirty jobs for donation. It did appear that they won in the beginning but none of their earlier tricks had backfired like this one. AAP concert at Jantar Mantar two days later saw more people supporting AAP than Modi or Rahul ever saw in their rallies. And this crowd was not paid to attend this event – they were there because Delhiites can’t wait for the change anymore. They’re desperate for it. No survey, no media report needs to back this – sheer enthusiasm is a proof of this fact.
During the reports of sting, AAP also showed their mettle in dealing with the corruption within, if it ever happens. AAP unlike other parties didn’t wait for long inquiries & justified corruption by quoting the corruption done by other parties. Instead, they accepted the challenge and claimed that inquiry would be finished in 24 hours and if the candidates are found guilty, won’t be allowed to contest the elections.
As was expected, Media Sarkar’s owner Anuranjan Jha was less than keen in producing the raw tapes for verification. On the other end, every media channel was broadcasting how AAP has been caught red-handed. One day later, when Election Commission ordered Jha to produce the tape – everything was out. EC gave clean chit to all AAP candidates in the sting. AAP even decided to put the complete tape on the Internet to see what was doctored. Surprisingly, few channels ran this news. This is probably the most clear proof of the existence of paid media in India.
Media is a huge political capital – and is openly being abused for promoting paid propaganda.
It seems Congress and BJP’s strategy for Delhi has been to kill AAP’s reputation through a thousand cuts. That’s why you can see a blitzkrieg of false news right before the elections. Luckily, masses can see through this smoke and every single attempt to malign AAP’s image has backfired. Best example of it was when Sushil Shinde questioned the sources of AAP’s funding, insinuating that there’s some foreign hand behind AAP. It backfired – AAP donation register couldn’t stop ringing. As a result, AAP achieved it’s target of 20 Crore for Delhi Elections way before it was expected.
Then something unprecedented happened, Arvind Kejriwal decided that AAP will not accept more donation for some time as their target for Delhi has been met. This is unmatched. Not only AAP has set standards in openness in political donations by publishing live feed of it’s donors – but also AAP is probably the first political party in the history to refuse donation.
Meanwhile, it was found that BJP had been flouting the laws of foreign funding by accepting donations from PIO (people of Indian origin) – where the Indian law clearly states that only NRI (non-resident Indian) shall donate political parties.
- how many business houses back you
- how many news channels are on your payroll
- how many goons work for your “youth wing”
- how many police departments you control
- how good is your relationship with your competition
Delhi’s case is interesting in 2013 elections – something new is happening in Delhi. A group whose influence has been downplayed at every step may actually change the game of politics forever. BJP & Congress’s official line is still to call AAP a fad and a disrupter. Yet, in their secret labs they have employed every dirty trick to slow this revolution down.
Just 3 weeks before Delhi elections:
- Nov 11: A baseless allegation that AAP receives Foreign Funding. Home Minister ordered a probe and infuriated supporters donated an all time high donation of around 5 million rupees in 3 days.
- Nov 18: BJP sends his man (senior journalist) to Anna Hazare. He writes a letter to Arvind and BJP plans to disclose it 2 days before the elections. This was back-fired when Kejriwal himself comes out to media with the letter and his response.
- Nov 19: Media picked up an old video of Anna Hazare talking about IAC movement and its funds. Anna and his flip flopping history have helped in rebutting the video and its timing.
- Nov 21: Sting operation on AAP candidates and media sarkar – a web portal releases the edited video and their version. Media that belongs to a Congressman picked it up and aired 24X7. Shocked with this unexpected storm, AAP promised for an action in 24 hrs and asked for a Raw Video to take a final decision. Journalist (?) denied to provide the video and then Election Commission ordered him to submit it to them. AAP accesses this raw video from EC and performs a close examination. That video turned out to be a doctored video.
- Nov 24: Congress/BJP – distributed money on the name of AAP – Manish Sisodia in his constituency.
- If we take a close look at the incidences, all of them were aimed to convince people that “AAP was no different from them”.
In last one year, Aam Aadmi Party has been conspired against on so many occasions that you can fill several pages. It began with using the infamous police force of Delhi. Several of the volunteers were beaten across Delhi. In one case, 4-5 people were brutally beaten just because they wanted the police to write a rape complaint. Santosh Koli, a fiery young leader from Seemapuri, was murdered because her strong presence in her constituency was making the local MLA uncomfortable. As expected, police never gave a proper investigation to this case.
Then came Vijay Goel who had been sleeping in the opposition for over a decade now. What was hilarious that he copied everything that AAP was doing – including the Bijli-Paani Rally. He couldn’t control his “tears” seeing the plight of Delhiites. But everybody saw through this act, even his party. Despite massive campaign expenses, he was unceremoniously dropped as the CM candidate. Well, not that unceremoniously, he was promised a Rajya Sabha seat. Please make note, for such transactions the upper house of parliament exists.
From the beginning Arvind Kejriwal, an RTI activist himself, has tried hard to keep AAP as open as possible to the outside public. This policy though is path breaking itself – yet brings certain evils with it. It makes AAP prone to attacks. I mean, how much do we really know about inner workings of BJP and Congress. But AAP has kept their doors open, so every tom-dick-and-harry tries to rubberneck their way in. AAP supporters and volunteers will have to learn to live with this – it’s a minor inconvenience.
Anyway, BJP had realized that aam aadmi has started stepping on their toes. And something needs to be done before it’s too late. So they took the services of certain hard-liner jokers who call themselves Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena and the crook from the south, Swamy. Since so much information about AAP was freely available due to their open door policy, these elements tried every way to keep generating rumors and butting into AAP’s inner working.
Subramanian SwamyI’ll tell you one incident when BSKS chief Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga filed an RTI with AAP, that why is AAP not pushing enough for the police to investigate Santosh Koli’s death. Everybody who had followed the news a little bit could tell that AAP’s effort won’t bear any fruits because Congress-controlled police was already anti-AAP and the suspect of the murder was a Congress MLA. AAP had to swallow the tears for Santosh and continue to work towards the hard task of Delhi elections. They decided to postpone the justice for Santosh till the time they beat the power center of Delhi.
BJP and Congress had realized that Arvind and team has only one capital – their impeccable clean reputation. And this became their target. By utilizing social media, they kept trying to propel the propaganda that,
– Arvind Kejriwal cheated Anna ( this appears to be the entire manifesto of BJP )
– AAP is funded by CIA ( hilariously outlandish )
– AAP is the second hand of Congress ( funnily, Congress too blames AAP of secretly working for BJP )
– AAP is somehow working for Pakistan ( because he wore an Urdu cap once )
Though, BJP and Congress never really acknowledged AAP as a worthy opponent – yet they spent big money on anti-AAP campaign. Delhiites received recorded calls from Sheila Dixit’s office – plainly stating that “Arvind ne Anna ko dhokha diya, aapko bhi dega. Vote for Sheila”. A chief minister whose arrogance never came below the seventh heaven – even when the city was most desperate – was now making personal calls to ask people to not vote for AAP.
BJP went as far as changing their entire approach to elections – and copying every step of AAP. They began this by changing their CM candidate from Goel to Harshvardhan. They assumed merely switching to relatively clean candidate may change their luck. The other theory states that Congress approved of Harshvardhan. Harshvardhan in the past has been very appreciative of Sheila Dixit government in Delhi. After his nomination, he went on to declare that if he wins he won’t witch-hunt the culprits of CWG scam. In other words, if Congress supports BJP today, they’re ready to let bygones be bygones and together can feast on public funds in the next term.
Baba RamdevThe other front, that BJP had opened against this infant party was using the old associates. IAC was a loose group which brought many people together to oppose Congress. BJP too wanted the cake of free publicity so their elements infiltrated every level of IAC. People like Kiran Bedi, Baba Ramdev, VK Singh had only one aim – to re-align this movement into BJP campaign. And they tried everything to surround and manipulate the 76-year-old mascot Anna Hazare. Each one of this individual originally maintained their apolitical status – but then turned and shook hands with BJP.
Anna’s office is so heavily compromised that at the moment nobody knows what his real opinion is about AAP. Comments inspiring doubt about the intentions of Arvind and his team keep firing from Anna’s office – about how his name has been used. BJP loves to play the mediator and talk on the behalf of Anna Hazare. It makes you wonder, would they have been so worried about Anna’s well-being had Anna agreed with political course? And they ask who’s really using Anna’s name?
Anna HazareThe initial confusion was there between Anna and Arvind – because the separation was still fresh. Supporters were still supporting both. Anna has been absent from active activism for over a year now. All he talks about now is how his apparent “brand” is being misused. But it can be verified that besides seeking his blessing, not one poster or speech had his mention. None of the messages, emails seeking donation mention his name. Yet, BJP seems very keen on “protecting” Anna from the boogeyman Arvind.
You ask BJP about their implementation of Lokpal – and cat gets their tongue. Their star leader Narendra Modi has ridiculed Lokayukta unlike nobody in his state. Anna has unfortunately become a mere pawn in this game. And he’ll continue to be used against AAP. Like very conveniently his letter was used right before election to ask the old irrelevant questions about funds. Funds which have been offered to him very publicly – which he refuses to accept, yet loves to complain about.
In the series of using IAC against AAP – off and on you’d hear about certain unknown activist who’d lose their composure in some press conference – and ask irrelevant questions which have been answered repeatedly through several channels. At this point it’d be safe to say that whatever was good in IAC has passed on to AAP & what’s left is on sale.
We all know at whose behest this happens. And paid media loves to broadcast this propaganda for two basic reasons –
a) Anything anti-AAP gives huge TRP because detractors are rooting for them to fail. One fail and they’re all like, “I told you so”. Reason for so much opposition is that AAP stands for changes which has made a lot of people uncomfortable. These set-systems have been running for decades in India and now are all insecure about their survival.
b) TRP and Ad-content is not the sole source of revenue for Indian media. The trend of paid media is so active that it won’t be hard to estimate that it’s a big portion of the revenue-pie. Political patrons act as the overlords for these muckrakers – and control a big share of stake in the media.
Till very recently, AAP was not even projected as an option in many of the surveys conducted by the news channels. Congress funded channels showed Congress winning Delhi in 2013 and BJP funded channels projected BJP. AAP’s Yogender Yadav had to conduct their own survey to find out where they stood. The credibility of media is so questionable that news should be considered more of a PR exercise for the highest bidder. You can never be sure about the amount of adulteration in the news content in India.
Surveys are important – not because they show who is leading. But to harness the herd mentality of Indian voter. But paid media’s negative campaign against AAP isn’t limited to influencing survey numbers. It goes way beyond that – right into the territory of ‘shameless’.
Cong BJP distributed 1400 crores to defame AAPWhen fake surveys, one-sided stories, social-media propaganda didn’t work – detractors of AAP tried the dirtiest trick of them all. A doctored-sting tape to “expose” AAP. Every news channel thought they hit jackpot – finally they would be able to justify their salaries to their real masters. They thought AAP movement can be buried now. Certain unknown journalist was hired to conduct a sting to lure AAP candidates into committing to dirty jobs for donation. It did appear that they won in the beginning but none of their earlier tricks had backfired like this one. AAP concert at Jantar Mantar two days later saw more people supporting AAP than Modi or Rahul ever saw in their rallies. And this crowd was not paid to attend this event – they were there because Delhiites can’t wait for the change anymore. They’re desperate for it. No survey, no media report needs to back this – sheer enthusiasm is a proof of this fact.
During the reports of sting, AAP also showed their mettle in dealing with the corruption within, if it ever happens. AAP unlike other parties didn’t wait for long inquiries & justified corruption by quoting the corruption done by other parties. Instead, they accepted the challenge and claimed that inquiry would be finished in 24 hours and if the candidates are found guilty, won’t be allowed to contest the elections.
As was expected, Media Sarkar’s owner Anuranjan Jha was less than keen in producing the raw tapes for verification. On the other end, every media channel was broadcasting how AAP has been caught red-handed. One day later, when Election Commission ordered Jha to produce the tape – everything was out. EC gave clean chit to all AAP candidates in the sting. AAP even decided to put the complete tape on the Internet to see what was doctored. Surprisingly, few channels ran this news. This is probably the most clear proof of the existence of paid media in India.
Media is a huge political capital – and is openly being abused for promoting paid propaganda.
It seems Congress and BJP’s strategy for Delhi has been to kill AAP’s reputation through a thousand cuts. That’s why you can see a blitzkrieg of false news right before the elections. Luckily, masses can see through this smoke and every single attempt to malign AAP’s image has backfired. Best example of it was when Sushil Shinde questioned the sources of AAP’s funding, insinuating that there’s some foreign hand behind AAP. It backfired – AAP donation register couldn’t stop ringing. As a result, AAP achieved it’s target of 20 Crore for Delhi Elections way before it was expected.
Then something unprecedented happened, Arvind Kejriwal decided that AAP will not accept more donation for some time as their target for Delhi has been met. This is unmatched. Not only AAP has set standards in openness in political donations by publishing live feed of it’s donors – but also AAP is probably the first political party in the history to refuse donation.
Meanwhile, it was found that BJP had been flouting the laws of foreign funding by accepting donations from PIO (people of Indian origin) – where the Indian law clearly states that only NRI (non-resident Indian) shall donate political parties.
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