Last week tonight in the News Hour!

Anyone will be intrigued reading at this title of the  post that i'm writing now. The most powerful weapon present in the Human mind called curiosity will be banging your heads asking and wanting to know what this really means " Last week tonight in the News hour" .. What could it mean ? People who follow the American Media would definitely know the Fox news , CNN etc. they are the oldies of the American news shows but for sometime now they are not watched as much as this show called " Last week Tonight with John Oliver" , this is hosted by the very famous John Oliver. The most watched American news show EVER! Ok, so where is this News Hour coming from ? This is known by most of us, the most watched and the most hated news show in India, The News Hour with Mr Arnab Goswami.. Yes, this is definitely the comparison of the Indian Media with the American Media. I'm not going to pin point ( as my dad asked me not to ) about anyone but would like to show what and how we are lacking from the media, as today media plays a very important role in our daily lives.

So, The popularity and fame of this news show called Last week Tonight is neither because of constant debates nor allowing two opposition party spokesperson to take a dig on their rival party. The formula is simple, One man takes out the most important news of that week , talks about it , sarcasm is the special ingredient and also tries to beat some sense in the viewers. When America faced the Net Neutrality problem like us, this show had caught the attention of all the people in america making them support  for the Net neutrality, which eventually got done. Not only this, many other problems faced had been spoken about and made people think! Most importantly they use media as a tool to give people the correct and the accurate piece of Information. So, the Times now viewers might think isn't this the same thing that the News Hour is giving us? No, absolutely not! Times Now as a whole has gained the popularity for the wrong reasons and indirectly achieving this amazing viewership and that should not be the case! I agree that the topics they bring in and debate about are worth talking or debating about but is that called a debate? In my dictionary that is called shouting and screaming , to all my school teachers who kept saying that the class is like fish market, Ma'am you must watch this show cause this is the ACTUAL fish market!Maximum 8 people are called to talk for an hour!! So, mathematically speaking 8 people can talk for 60 mins so a person gets to talk roughly for 8 minutes but that is mathematically speaking! Practically they get less than 4 minutes so who is gobbling the time? Yes, it is the presenter ! I can't blame him! Cause if you have been in a fish market you would know how tough it is for them to sell, the people are continuously talking not allowing the rest to buy or bargain! Even though it is a bit tough he being the Mr News should be able to handle and give time or at least allow them to talk about it and make a point or opinion. So, in this way the information that should be given to the people is not given and all that anyone can hear would be screams! Mind you, this show does not lack humor! Does not mean that Mr Goswami has the sense of humor but the way the show goes and how people are taking a dig on each other makes it funny(at least i laugh a lot) Let's leave Times Now, CNN is another news channel and i feel they are not there to give the news about things that happen in India and in the world but are there to give us the movies reviews and the celebrity parties and the award shows, the book functions and all the unwanted gala and media extravaganza ! Common, CNN IBN, you can give some news also sometimes! CNN is also the reason why people watch Times now , common at least there is some news being shown! Then there is NDTV, trust me this the best among the lot! There is more news, less gala and parties also no shouting! Now, why isn't this the most watched? Cause they lack something called presentation skills! Now revisit your school/college days, there is always this teacher who knows a lot of technical stuff and are the best at it but he/she who will never be able to catch the students attention cause they do not connect with the students.. this is exactly the NDTV! They have the stuff but they cannot connect with the people of India! We need some drama, some action ,some fun , some romance .. ok no romance i forgot we live in a country where there is RSS ( i can take a dig too, its fun! ) There are so many news channels and shows in India but i have spoken only about these three cause they are the most watched "English" News channels in India.. I'm not taking a dig. I'm not blaming them .. I'm just trying to show you that if these three unite their skills then there is Action from Times Now, fun and drama from CNN and the actual real news from NDTV.. suprising fact is that, Mr Rajdeep( ex- CNN), Mr Arnab(Times Now) and Mrs. Dutt (NDTV) were all working for Mr Prannoy Roy(NDTV) .. So, Now back to the topic , you can ask where is the comparison with the American media and that was just two lines? I cannot go gaga over it cause you should watch it to know how Mr John Oliver give the news! He talks sense, he has got the best sense of humor, he has got the news and definitely got the viewership, not only in USA but world-wide. I'm not here to say that American media is better than ours, I'm just saying that the people who cannot do anything by themselves, I mean, they need us for everything in their life and if they can do something good with one of the most powerful tool called media then we can do wonders! Common Indian Media, let's make the world look at us as the next big thing, let's make the world envy about how good we are and not like how the Slumdog Millionaire showed us to the world to get a freaking Oscar!

 Together , YES, we can! ;)
-
Vibhu 

The Curious Case of Indian Judicial System!

(Ahhh, Feels good to start writing again!! Its been a month since i wrote something new .)
 I wanted to write about two things we have witnessed in the recent past and am sure you all will be wondering why is the post about the Indian Judicial System! I liked the Judiciary system though it has not been that great with many of the decisions i always thought there was a reason behind those judgments they had passed,  but past one month i'm not able to get the actual reason of why or what is the Judicial system looking into when they have a critical cases in hand.... They have one of the best motto : " Let a thousand guilty men walk free but no innocent man must be jailed" this is really good motto but  this is not sufficing , the thousand guilty men should face the penalty or judgement. Walking free is no more a question! I have literally lost the interest of reading the paper because all i can see is murder, robbery , rape , suicides etc. I'm not saying the  accused in these things are allowed to walk free but i'm saying everyone should be equal to the law at least the law should not be corrupt! I'm talking about the Salman Khan- hit and run case and Ms. Jayalalitha's Disproportionate Assets case. Let's see a small detailing in these two cases.

1. Mr Salman Khan - Hit and Run Case :-

I'm a huge fan of Salman Khan just like many others in the country. This case was started in 2002 , 13 years back... 13 YEARS ! The case is as follows, Apparently in 2002 Mr Khan had received a few death threats from a few people and had asked the Mumbai Police for Protection as he is a Public figure, the Mumbai police had spaced out one man whose name is Ravindra Patil, a police constable who was his bodyguard , he demised in the year 2007 due to some "health issues", The case was lingering till his death and once he passed away the Mumbai sessions court had taken his statement into consideration and his statement is as follows "On September 28 , 2002  I was attached to the protection branch and was deputed as Salman Khan's bodyguard and was to remain with him" Patil said they went to J W Marriott , where he was maid to wait outside "They (Salman and Kamaal) came out at 2.15am. When the accused sat behind the wheel, I asked him whether he would be driving the car. He ignored me. The accused was driving the car at a speed of 90-100km/hour. Before reaching the Hill Road junction, I told the accused to slow down as a right turn was coming up. He ignored me again. The accused lost control of the car while taking a turn and drove right on to the footpath." Patil had told the court that the car crashed into American Express bakery and broke its shutter. “There was a lot of shouting and people had gathered around us. I showed my identity card and told the crowd I was a policeman, which pacified them. The accused and Kamaal ran away from the spot. I went to the car to check and saw that one person was seriously injured. There were four others who were stuck under the car.” He, Mr Patil, was the prime witness in the case but there are more witnesses in the case who did give the statement in the court like Mr Moloy Baug who was that night's bartender at Rain Bar who said that Mr Salman and his group of friends had ordered liquor, Mr Rizwan Rakhanngi said that he saw Salman holding a glass full of colorless liquid like water, Mr Ramashray Pandey owner of the dairy near the spot of the accident saw the actor get out of car's front side, Balashankar the chemical analyst who claimed Khan's blood tested positive for alcohol.Also, there are witness who spoke in favor of Mr Salman but i'm not talking about them as it was his childhood friends and brother, according to his brother Mr Alok , he had hugged him at 9.30 am and did not smell alcohol, i know people who drink and i know they can take out the smell in an hour. Is that even a justification ?? More to this if Mr Kamaal and Salman are not guilty then where is Kamaal ? He has been on the run since 2007, Why am i blaming the judicial system ? Cause this case took 13 bloody years to get a verdict of 5 year jail sentence but the suspension of Mr Khan's jail sentence in the case was fast and quick - 2 days! 13 years to get a verdict and 2 days to suspend the sentence??? Is it fair?? The social media went haywire listening to the verdict , his deluded fans were supporting his stand even his colleagues from bollywood were deluded , a few comments were disturbing. This suspension of the sentence will keep reverberating in the minds of the Common man that in our country the rich and the powerful can pull one or two strings and evade law in all methods possible, In this case the Judicial system failed as the guilty is dancing on the road with pretty actresses and getting paid for it and the innocent are dead and a few still recovering from the aftermath of the accident! We Indians have been discriminating in one way or other but that is why we had the law to take its course of action against the men/women who are guilty but the guilty are fleeing by paying extra bucks to the law and creating a huge hole in the Judicial system of the country!

Case 2 : Ms J Jayalalitha's disproportionate assets case :-

Ms Jayalalitha fondly known as AMMA in Tamil Nadu, is the chief of the AIADMK party which is the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, The 4 time Elected Chief Minister created waves at this tenure of hers, doing some back-patting job for the people of Tamil Nadu and deserves complete respect for it the past 4 years of her tenure has been nothing but wonderful but that doesn't mean we forget the dark past of Amma, during her first tenure of 91-96  was accused of misusing the office powers and having properties/assets worth 66.65 crores deposited in her proxy accounts this case took almost 2 decades to come into a verdict after a case filed by Mr Subramaniam Swamy dated ages back,
the case was pushed from Tamil Nadu to Karnataka. because they felt that it might lead to unwanted violence or gundaism Four prominent figures of the AIADMK party including Amma were convicted, others were her "best friend" Sasikala, Ilavarasi and Natrajan. The case took around 18 years to come to a verdict on 27th September 2014 , where all four convicts were put to 4 years of simple imprisonment also Amma had to pay a fine of 100 Crore rupees and her co-convicts were fined 10 crore rupees each this seemed fine as she would not be able to stand for the CM seat for the next 10 years spoiling all her political ambitions, following this she was sent to the prison which would give her a VVIP treatment. Until now I've only seen in movies and American TV show
 ( House of cards ) where people play such good politics and does a miracle to get out of bad situations and bad circumstances but this lady has made me believe in them, Convicted four 4 years, she was in prison for 3 months and then had a plea which got her bail for the next three months and next thing you know she has been let free from the case saying its a math error and she walks out free without paying even ONE Rupee along with her close aides and as i type she is swearing in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu , yet again for the 5th time! Unbelievable !! Though the Karnataka government says we'll look into it and get a  new case on her ,do you think she will come in front of the court for another 20 years ? Maybe even longer? as now she will up her political game! How did this even happen? I'm so curious to know what she  had done, who owed her favors , how many politicians , lawyers, judges , governments are behind this great escape! This gives me the chills when i think what she is capable of next! She is a courageous and a smart woman, no doubt! It's she who brought down the famous DMK , famous for the wrong reasons! This women is the only one capable of building Tamil Nadu or any state in fact! But buying the law and saying a mistake in the Math is such a lame excuse. I'm sure she could have come up with some better stuff like Salman Khan who said he has movies worth 200crores!( this made me fall of my chair) Amma, i did have immense respect to you but once again the powerful and the rich have proved that nothing can stop a person in this country if he/she has any of the two. This makes me , by me i'm speaking for the aam aadmi in the country, wonder is the Judicial system fool-proof ? Also, makes me think that the rich and the powerful feel that they can do anything and escape the law!! The Judicial system has to be up-right! All of us should be taken as one in front of the Judicial system. The discrimination of Rich and poor is very much alive even in here! Where are the Achhe din's that we were promised about ? Will Mr Modi start looking into the most critical matters in the country rather than going abroad every now and then ??

-
Vibhu