Tehelka expose on Gujarat Riots – Offstumped Reaction

Original post?recovered below but not the comments (apologies to Nitin, Nikhil, Jujung and Balaji amongst others). Also read Rohit for his take.?

Tarun Tejpal and his pack of “sting meisters” are at it again. This time in a brazen attempt at queering the pitch ahead of the Gujarat Polls. It is clear that the stakes in Gujarat are very high and there is a vast left wing conspiracy to do to Narendra Modi in 2007 what they failed to do back in 2002.

Beyond the headlines and the media hype Offstumped digs into the details of the Tehelka expose to expose it for what it is.

First a look at the actors in the so called expose that the Tehelka is claiming was captured from a spy camera.

Babu Bajrangi – in the entire script of the sting, this guy doesnt implicate anyone but himself in the riots. This guy is considered the most important witness in the sting. With FIRs already filed and Bajrangi identified as a key accused what is the surprise here ?

Rajendra Vyas – goes into great details of what he did in Godhra, again not a word directly implicating anyone but himself.

Ramesh Dave – chimes in on incidents on Godhra, implicates Rajendra Vyas and himself, not a word, despite being egged on by the Tehelka reporter, on directly attributing anything to Narendra Modi

Madan Chawal – first says he saw VHP leaders, then says he did not VHP leaders by name and then claims that later on he remembered that he probably saw Atul Vaid, Bharat Teli. Implicates himself in Gulbarg incidents nothing to say about anybody else.

Prahlad Raju – implicates himself in Gulbarg incidents. Is egged on by tehelka to implicate VHP and RSS. All he says that ‘Atul Vaid told me to move together”. Nothing more to say on anyone else.

Mangilal Jain – implicates himself in Gulbarg incidents. Is egged on by tehelka to implicate Atul Vaid and Bharat Teli, he merely mentions after consistent egging by the interviewer that an Inspector Erda told him he had 2 to 3 hours.

Prakash Rathod, Suresh Richard – Implicate themselves in Naroda Patiya. Not a word implicating anyone else, making passing references to Narendra Modi visiting the site of incidents

Dhimant Bhatt – The headlines says idea came from Modi, the detailed transcript says it was a meeting of local leaders but gives no names. This guy neither has a direct reference nor a direct statement to say on Modi or anybody else. Implicates himself.

Deepak Shah – Implicates himself and Dhimant, has nothing substantial to say except reeling out names of lawyers on the legal team.

Anil Patel – This guy does even better than the rest of them. Not only does he implicate himself but also implicates Congress workers. His 5 page sting transcript implicates people who are already accused and are out on bail. Has some hearsay conversations to report with Pravin Togadia nothing to suggest a conspiracy to riot, only suggestions on bailing out accused.

?All of them are accused and all of them implicated themselves and no one else directly. So that is tehelka for you !

Now for some more incredible claims – bombs and rocket launchers that were never used.

Haresh Bhatt – Godhra MLA and riot accused makes incredible claims of ordering guns and other weapons for other states. Hard to believe stuff given how many days it takes for any truck to arrive from distant Punjab or Uttar Pradesh. He just goes an adding states to his list – Bihar, MP.

Dhawal Jayanthi Patel – shows of a dynamite factory, makes tall claims, has nothing to say about even one specific incident where bombs were used.

Anil Patel – This is the most laughable of the transcripts, the interviewer puts words into his mouth with a single question and all he replies is to confirm yes there are dynamite factories which supply explosives to Ahmedabad.

Lot of sensational drivel about but none confirming a single incident where bombs were actually used. More bravado than anything else, what can one expect in “tehelka” !

The sensationalism of this expose can be best appreciated by examining how Babu Bajrangi’s remarks on Modi have been hyped and played up beyond what Tehelka’s own transcripts say.

They claim Modi congratulated Bajrangi at Naroda Patiya, the transcript has no direct accusation on Mod directly saying anything to Bajrangi. Then there are references to Mount Abu again the transcripts carry no such references.

The other big claim is that of the Government Counsel Arvind Pandya claiming to be complicit with the accused. The transcript however is far more mild in stark contrast to the headlines on live TV with the counsel merely says he will solve problems. The interviewer again eggs him with the same question. The last two paragraphs of the transcript are odd in that we are not told what was the question or the motivation to the reply that Tehelka has so dutifully reproduced to give the impression that he is in cahoots with the BJP and VHP. The counsel does more damage to himself implicating his role more than providing anything substantial on what anyone else had done.

The rest of the website is sensational drivel, regurgitating bits and pieces extracted from these transcripts with psychedlic fonts and images.

Watching the manner in which Headlines Today is running this story on live televisionwith clips from the movie Parzania ?to play up the horror, it just goes to highlight how out of control and irresponsible the sensationalism of ratings starved news channels has become.

With this coming together sensational media which is constantly on the look out to manufacture headlines and left wing radicals out to push a fictitious version of the truth the need for a Right of Center Media in India has once again been highlighted.

Offstumped Bottomline: Great fiction, good entertainment, politically not of much significance in a state like Gujarat which has shown in recent times that it would like to move on from 2002 and not reminded again of it. The Congress must be really worried about its prospects ……

POSTSCRIPT REJOINDER TO ROHIT’S POST:

Rohit has challenged what he calls indulgence of the Modi brand of politics and said that despite pursuing an agenda based on economic reforms and governance he can never be the mascot of Right of Center politics. There are two principal questions here. The first is legal and the second is moral and political. The legal question is easily answered. To date there is no hard evidence of criminal wrong doing to implicate Mr. Modi. The legal process is underway in the courts at various levels. If any evidence were to emerge and hold up in a court of law Offstumped will be the first to demand Mr. Modi to be punished. The second moral or political question can be answered in one of two ways. Mr. Modi out of his conscience expresses regrets for what happened, which he did as Offstumped pointed out in 2005 in an interview. The people of Gujarat either elect him or show him the door based on his record and actions ever since the riots. The people elected him once, but that is apparently not enough. Well we have another opportunity for the people to judge him on his record. If he is voted back we have to take it that he has been acquitted in the court of public opinion. If he is shown the door we will have to take it that Mr. Modi has failed to convince the people of Gujarat and he needs to reflect on his conscience and decide how he addresses the moral question. As regards to whether Mr. Modi can or cannot be the mascot. When a person no less than the high priestess of Left of Center Journalism, Sagarika Ghosh, goes on record in the Hindustan Times to say that only mass leaders like Narendra Modi can ensure economic reforms in a country like India one must sit up and reflect on it. Offstumped holds no brief for Mr. Modi and he will have to make his case to the people himself. However the following facts cannot be ignored. He has been hounded by by an extremely hostile media for the last 5 year. He has kept the focus of his campaign on governance and economic reforms. He has not resorted to emotive or populist issues. Every far right group in Gujarat has either turned hostile to him or has chosen to be neutral in the coming election. If all of this is not evidence of a right of center political agenda that keeps socio-cultural ideology outside of the realm of governance, then what is ?

Filed under: Uncategorized