Chinese rubber stamps

What do you need to do in order to win Pakistan if you are not India? Easy. Just antagonize India and Pakistan government will bend over backwards to lick your boot. That is precisely how Pakistan behaves with China.

So when Pakistan toed the Chinese whip of not attending Liu Xiaobo's Nobel ceremony I was not surprised. This whip or bullying also showed the countries who quake at the prospect of differing with China. Below is my take on some of these countries:

Russia: A lot has been said about their own human rights record in west. It is quite natural for them to side with China. Who knows, a dissident from their country may be next Nobel laureate.

Pakistan: If you remember a highly tragic and unfortunate train accident happened in Pakistan few years ago. Three trains were involved and the loss of lives was immense. There were reports that one reason for high death toll was the quality of coaches which were purchased from China. Pakistan didn't even register a protest let alone ask for compensation. The rulers of Pakistan (read military) are so wretched that to keep themselves in power they don't hesitate to risk their own people's lives. What these leeches ensure is that they not only keep Pakistan poor but also hamper India's growth.

Saudi Arabia: Representative of greater evil pervading the pure land of Arabia. The land which disseminated so much knowledge in medieval times has now got bunch of clowns ruling it. The kings and their families, all short on IQ run their writ on unfortunate populace. If there is one thing on which I support Osama Bin Laden, it is his wish to get Saudi rid of its king. All the vices are committed by ruling families but they are the ones who preach morality most. They openly criticize Israel but have never taken a sensible step in resolving the conflict. The Wikileaks have now exposed their ambivalent policy on Iran. The moral science classes always warn about the demerits of wealth acquired without effort. Saudi is a good example of it.

Radiagate, barkhagate, mediamafia ...

The last few days have presented a very sorry state of Indian media. First the leak itself and then the deafening silence by leading media houses. It is debatable whether they have crossed the line or not. N. Ram (editor, The Hindu) thinks they have.

The Hindu was the only major media house which gave coverage to this murky affair. I thought very much on the issue and feel that the journalists in question have crossed the line although have done nothing criminal. I personally believe Barkha Dutt should step down but she has not done anything so wrong as to leave journalism. Just as sports persons can have poor form, error in judgement, complacency and disregard for public sentiments so are journalists prone to these fallibilities. Barkha Dutt has done very well as a journalist and this mistake of hers can be forgiven bearing in mind her contribution to field of journalism. It is quite obvious that she has been maliciously targeted on twitter not because of this case but for her stand on other issues.

It is high time that prominent media persons get together and root out this evil from amongst themselves. This is only tip of the iceberg considering that issue of 'paid news' cropped up not long ago. It will be great if people like Rajdeep Sardesai, Karan Thapar, N. Ram, Siddharth Varadarajan and Shekhar Gupta can come together and get India media out of this mess.

Judiciary and media are the only saving grace of our democracy and I hope media continues to bring justice to Indians as it has done in Manu Sharma case.