Bunty Chor Spits on BIG BOSS – He is Right.

The Reality Show BIG BOSS started with a bang this Sunday on COLORS channel with the Hot Hero of Indian Celluloid, Salman Khan, as the host sharing the latka-jhatkas with a Rakhi Sawant doing ‘Munni Badnaam hui..darling tere liye.’

This is a show which has a large viewer-ship because it lets the audience peep into the personal lives of the celebrities, lets them see their real attitude, their romantic inclinations, their preferences and priorities in life and lets them know and judge the character of these individuals. The 24×7 exposure, before specially installed cameras, for so much of time is definitely capable of bringing out the real he or she behind the persons participating in the Show.

It can be really difficult to pretend to be good, bad, cool, tough or whatever for so long and the real ‘celebrity’ does emerge with the passage of time. That basically is the idea of BIG BOSS. This is a program where you realize after one’s ouster that ‘he’ was not so bad, you thought him to be or ‘she’ was not so nice, as she looked to be.

We have watched three series of this Program and this is the fourth season of BIG BOSS. It started with 14 personalities which included Shweta Tiwari(The TV Actress), Abbas Azmi(who remained the defence counsel for KASAB), Sameer Soni(Actor), Hrishant Goswami(Gladrags Model), Sara Khan(TV Actress), Ashmit Patel(Brother of Amisha Patel), Rahul Bhatt(son of Mukesh Bhatt who happened to know David Hadley), Sakshi Pradhan(MTV Babe), Aanchal Kumar(rumoured ex-girlfriend of Cricketer Yuvraj Singh), Manoj Tiwari(Bhojpuri Actor), Veena Malik(ex-flame of Pak Cricketer Mohammed Asif) and Begum Nawazish Ali(the Gender not known-TV Anchor) from Pakistan. The show had two other ‘personalities’. One was a thief Bunty, popularly known as Bunty Chor and the other is Seema Parihar, who was a dacoit in Chambal. The first ‘personality’ Bunty Chor had as many as 500 cases of theft etc. etc. against him while Seema Parihar, the dacoit, who admits, even on the show, having been a dacoit and killed several people, is still facing three criminal cases. She is in the show with the permission of the High Court. Both had served long terms in jails.

On the very first day of BIG BOSS after the entry of all the contestants into the HOUSE Bunty Chor started to show his true colours. He was actually upset for being introduced as a thief i.e. Chor. He should have realized that he bore no qualification for being inducted into such a program.  His only ‘qualification’ was that he had more than 500 theft cases to his ‘credit’. He behaved too arrogantly, was at his abusive best and didn’t listen to anybody on the show. He even disobeyed the BIG BOSS and showered choicest abuses on the boss himself. He was asked to come to the Confession Room which he refused. Ultimately, the BIG BOSS was left with no option but to make sure that Bunty exits the show then and there. After coming out of the Gate of the house of the Big Boss he spit on the BIG BOSS, before he left for his home.

We are not with Bunty Chor for what he did during the show but we appreciate his gesture of spitting on the BIG BOSS. This is what the BIG BOSS deserved. Agreed, that you make the shows for TV Channels for earning maximum bucks but that doesn’t absolve you of your social responsibilities.  This show has tried to turn two notorious characters to two personalities or should we say celebrities. Yes, TRP is the name of the game and the shows go to any extent to attract the viewers. Even in this show, the participants will be given situations so that they create scenes, quarrel, get romantic and intimate before the cameras on duty. The Producers will be interested that the ladies in the house may expose as much as they can and to facilitate the ladies a swimming pool has been provided.

But bringing a thief and a dacoit to the show, just to attract attention for the show, just to make it newsy, just to get the headlines, just to fetch more and more viewers and just to get higher TRP can’t be justified.  It was a blunder on the part of the casting team, the Channel and the BIG BOSS. The act was not only unwise, immoral and unethical. This is what we call lust, this is what is called greed. The BIG Question before the BIG BOSS is should these kind of characters be brought in such shows.  Should they live, be seen, rated and judged at par with the celebrities. Such characters should not be allowed to become celebrities. If we let them, we will be setting a wrong example.

Letting this happen in the house of BIG BOSS, we think, is going too far on the part of the BIG BOSS and the Channel but see, Bunty Chor also went too far. He, in fact if not actually, but literally, spat on the face of the BIG BOSS. What a well deserved spat it was. Did you get it BIG BOSS ?

Oh my GOD, he has blamed the former Chief Justices !

       I turned the newspaper upside down. The front page news was unbelievable. Some-one as important as a former law minister of India had said something so important, so revealing, so daring, so challenging and so embarrassing, if it is.  

       The figure in itself was very cute. 8 out of 16.  What he had said was not that eight out of sixteen clerks of a particular department were corrupt. He was not indicating that 50 percent of some Officers in a state were corrupt. He was very confident about what he said, was very definite about what he told and was very specific in his allegations. 

And moreover, he had not just said it. He had given it in writing, more so in a sworn affidavit and that too before the Supreme Judicial Temple in India i.e. Supreme Court of India. He had solemnly declared that whatever he had stated was true to his knowledge and belief. Everybody knows that he knows the consequences of a false affidavit, more than majority of us. But he dares and tells the Nation which naturally and definitely includes the Judiciary that eight out of sixteen former Chief Justices of India were definitely corrupt, six were definitely honest and about two he was not sure.

       What a statement ! What an allegation ! Oh my God. This could have been an eight column spread on the front page of most of the newspapers but then we have a Kashmir, we have the naxals, we have Commonwealth Games waiting in the wings, we have bursting clouds, bulging rivers and dams giving beeps that anything can happen anytime.

       So, the greatest revelation, I again say, if it is, of the Independent India, just passed like any other front page news. The former law minister named 16 Chief Justices but interestingly and mercifully didn’t spill all the beans then and there. He has created suspense.  As the Honorable Judges sometimes reserve their decisions he keeps the ‘climax’ reserved, though he claims and we have no reason to disbelieve him, that a sealed envelope he has handed over to the Supreme Court Bench contains the ‘bomb’. 

       Till the envelope is opened and the names are read out, if at all it is going to happen, the 16 former Chief Justices are in a limbo. For your information he has named and the media has reported the names of Justice Ranganath Mishra, Justice KN Singh, Justice MH Kania, Justice LM Sharma, Justice MN Venkatachalliah, Justice AM Ahmadi, Justice JS Verma, Justice M Punchhi, Justice AS Anand, Justice SP Bharucha, Justice BN Kirpal, Justice GB Pathak, Justice Rajendra Babu, Justice RC Lahoti, Justice VN Khare and Justice YK Sabharwal. As far as my knowledge goes none of the above has reacted, at least publicly. 

       Now this is a very serious allegation on none less than at least the eight of former Chief Justices of India. Mr. Shanti Bhushan has minced no words. He is more than sure about what he is saying. He knows what he has said, what it means, what its consequences can be and seems to be ready to face anything that comes his way. He is on record having said that if proved wrong he would consider it a great honour to spend time in jail for making an effort to get for the people of India an honest and clean judiciary. These are not allegations by a common man, the allegations have been made by a former Law Minister, so the Nation will be waiting for the outcome of this high-profile case.  Whatever be the outcome it sure will be startling.   

       A former Law Minister wants to make an effort to get India an honest and clean judiciary. Do we have any objection, folks ? I think none of us has any. We would rather, appreciate the effort. If he could prove it, it will be good for India and if he fails to prove, may I say, it could be better.

       Mr. Shanti Bhushan and his son, who happens to be a Senior Lawyer, I have read, have been after corruption in the judiciary. Prashant Bhushan is facing contempt proceedings for saying that Chief Justice SH Kapadia committed a judicial impropriety, while he was a senior judge in the apex court, by being on the forest bench that heard the case of Sterlite Industries, a subisidiary of Vedanta. He made this statement during an interview with Tehelka.       

But a simple question that pops out of my mind’s pop-up window is that why did Mr.Shanti Bhushan take so long to break this ‘Breaking News’ of eight former chief justices being corrupt.  News papers quoted him as having said “While they were in office, two former CJs had personally told me that their immediate predecessors and immediate successors were corrupt”.

A former law minister, who had knowledge of the corruption, if there was any, at the highest level in Indian Judiciary and who was told by two former CJs that their predecessors and successors were corrupt chose to remain mum for years together but dares the judiciary  when a case of contempt is slapped on his son. Not eight, even if one of the Chief Justices was corrupt, it meant that he (the CJ) was not imparting justice because a corrupt Judge cannot make decisions on merit. So, if it was so, why did the former law minister wait for an ‘opportune opportunity’ to break open the big- story.

I wish to stand and bow before him when he claims that he would go to any length to get justice for people of India. Nevertheless, he has done a great job and the country needs to know what he has said is right or wrong. I still believe in Judiciary and as such expect a fair trial in this biggest ever case in Indian Judicial History. Do the people of India have a right to know the names of the eight, the six and the two, who are under the scanner. India is eager to know.

Rahul Gandhi is still Rahul Baba

I am in fact a fan of Rahul Gandhi. As compared to the common face of an Indian Politician he is young, fresh, classy, stylish, contemporary, different and charismatic. If you like somebody, you watch him or her closely.

       That’s exactly why I decided to miss an important assignment on 16^th of September, 2010 as a channel conveyed that at 9 am It will be Rahul ‘Live” addressing a Press Conference in Kolkata. After spending nearly 50 minutes, watching him bat a volley of questions, I felt like a disappointed man. My instant reaction was, Rahul you are not Rahul Gandhi, at least for now, you are still Rahul Baba.

       You will be asking a very valid question if you ask me about the cause of my reaction. So, before any one asks me, I wish to tell that the country is waiting for Rahul Gandhi to take over as Prime Minister of India and not a Rahul Baba to write the destiny of India.

       Why he is not Rahul Gandhi, as on today and why call him Rahul Baba ? Now, that’s also a good question. Man, if you can lay your hands on and if you can watch that nearly 50 minutes footage, go watch the footage of his Press Conference. He was at his evasive best when confronted with questions regarding Kashmir. He told the journos a number of times that his priority at the moment was to bring the youth of India into Politics, strengthen the Youth Congress and democratize it by holding its organizational elections. When questions on the grim situation in Kashmir, that unfortunately is, cropped up at regular intervals and one after the other, he told the Nation that Kashmir is a ‘full time problem’ and that he doesn’t want to be involved in or comment on a subject which he does not fully understand. I appreciate that. That’s like Rahul Gandhi.

       But minutes later, he made the ‘statement of the day’. He said that Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir was doing a tough job and that he should be given more time to tackle Kashmir. He took pride in telling people that he does not know much about Kashmir, that there were more sane people who are there to see and fix Kashmir but moments later comes to know that Omar has a tough job at hand and he was doing good and should be given more time. Why, Why on the earth would a man not knowing much about Kashmir minutes earlier would ask the people of India to give some more time to a Chief Minister. That’s not my Rahul Gandhi. That’s Rahul Baba.

       A Rahul Gandhi would know that Kashmir is the priority of the Nation today. A Rahul Gandhi would know that Kashmir needs to be the priority of the Nation today. A Rahul Gandhi would know that Kashmir needs to be the priority of the Government today, a Government which is run by a coalition led by a party called Congress, of which he is a General Secretary. A Rahul Gandhi would know that his identity in the public mind is that of a General Secretary of Congress and that while addressing the Press he was acting as a spokesperson of the party telling people what Congress thinks about Kashmir. A Rahul Gandhi would know that Congress should surely know that Kashmir is the priority today.      I told you, he is still Rahul Baba.  

       A leader projected for the coveted post of PM by several senior leaders of his party, virtually the PM in waiting, should definitely be concerned about Kashmir. The whole country is concerned. Every Kashmiri, every Indian is concerned, aren’t we.  Then can we expect someone called Rahul Gandhi, to say that ‘Kashmir is a full time problem’ but he has not gone into its depth and he would talk about Kashmir when he will have understood the problem. Can we expect a PM in waiting to say that his priority is Youth Congress and not Kashmir ? Someone, please tell him that Kashmir is burning, that we have a war like situation there and that the valley stood shut for last more than three months, that number of people killed in street fight is about to touch a hundred. Someone please tell him that this is much, much bigger issue than strengthening Youth Congress. 

       No, Rahul Baba, you don’t decide which of the problems is bigger. The Nation, its situations and the time decides which of the problems is bigger and more serious. Leaders just have to choose their priorities. Evading Kashmir can be easy for an MLA or an MP but feigning ignorance about the situation and ground realities of Kashmir and evading Kashmir can not be an easy task for a Rahul Gandhi who coincidentally happens to be the PM in waiting. 

       I would like to see Rahul Baba graduate to a Rahul Gandhi so that a Congress General Secretary gets elevated to a Prime Minister.  Take it spiritedly man, because what I have said is because I am your fan. Don’t get carried away by the crowds that follow you, youngsters who cheer you, my dear the biggest advantage you have today is that no other party, including BJP has a Rahul Gandhi or should I say a leader with a charisma like you. Charisma pulls crowds, gets votes and you make a Government but to run it and run it to the expectations of people is possible only if you are a leader and not a baba.  So be a Rahul Gandhi and shed that image and essentials of Rahul Baba. The sooner, the better.

Ram Mandir Verdict – Who should be worried ? ?

       24^th September,2010. That’s the D-Day. The day a Bench of Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to give its verdict on the most controversial religious land dispute of Independent India.  The Honorable Court is going to tell whether that specific piece of land belongs to the Ram Mandir or the Babri Masjid. In fact the Court is to decide whether the disputed land belongs to Hindus, the majority in the state of India, or the major minority i.e. the Muslims. The verdict is supposed to specify whether a Ram Mandir is to be constructed on the site or a Babri Masjid, which was brought down by the Kar Sevaks in 1992, is allowed to be rebuild.

       24^th September is Important. Really Important, because this is a day when millions and millions of people glued to their TV sets across the world will eagerly wait for a landmark decision which will definitely go into the annals of History.  Most of the people are waiting for the outcome of the case but a very few are thinking about the aftermath of the decision. One party has to win and the other has to lose. That’s what cases and their decisions are all about.

       Which way will it go ?  Only Rama or the Allah knows and they won’t tell us, beforehand. With a little more than a week to go, I am a worried man but I am not the only one concerned. There are parties, organizations, religious and political leaders and millions and millions of self styled saviors of God. However religious we may be, we are at our non-religious best when confronted by religious disputes. So, anything can happen and when I say anything I mean anything, anytime after 24^th of September. 

       So, I am worried and the list of people worried includes the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Chairperson of UPA and the President of Congress Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. In the list is PC Chidambaram, who is not yet through with the Naxals and Kashmir. BJP is worried. RSS is worried. VHP is worried. Muslim and Hindu Organizations are worried. They have their policies and strategies and emotions of their people to cash and a God each of their own, to save. 

       But who should be worried the most ?  The verdict is important for all but it is a challenge to and is a test of Indian Judicial system and the Govt. of India. On 24^th of September, after the verdict is announced, the world will be watching India on more than one count. One is, whether the people of India and their leaders respect the verdict so pronounced. The other is, whether the Government shows its commitment to implement the decision. Yet another is whether the Indian Judicial System makes it sure that the decision in such a historic and landmark case gets implemented.

       The credibility of Indian Judicial System and the competence of Govt. of India will be on test, and it will be a litmus test for both. Both have a challenge to keep the faith of people of India.  Both have a duty to perform. My concern is not unfounded. I know people, leaders, organizations, religious heads and political leaders here have been watching the case, waiting for the outcome, in fact, waiting for the outcome in their favor.  They are very much clear about it and they even don’t want to pretend. They specifically tell you tell that If they win, they win but if they lose no one should think that they have lost. So, the fabric of democracy is at stake once again and a loudspeaker does not forget its duty to tell you loudly that …………………….. I think by now, you know well, what I want to tell.

Kashmir – Who is more confused ?

Kashmir is red hot.  Should I say boiling or burning.  Things seem to be going out of hand. The media is counting the dead. There seems to be no solution in sight ? 

       Everybody is involved and nobody wants to be left aside. After all Kashmir is a big issue, an international one. The whole World is watching. So, one has to be there, in the playfield, so that the World knows that he is there, on the scene. Congress is worried, Sonia is concerned. Rahul Gandhi is busy in West Bengal but has Kashmir, in mind. Dr. Manmohan Singh and PC Chidambaram have a lot at stake. BJP wants to tell the nation that they are the people who are concerned more, more than anybody else. The Union Minister and the former Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Dr. Farooq Abdullah is a worried man. His son, Omar Abdullah, who as the Chief of National Conference played his innings well, is proving to be a disaster as a Chief Minister. Pakistan, the perpetuator, is watching carefully. This is an opportunity it has been waiting for, for long.  Separatist leaders are treading carefully, because they think that the ‘match’ is in a crucial stage. One right move, may give them the credit they are longing for and one wrong move may ‘undo’ what they have done so far. Governments are confused, so are the leaders. Not only patriots, even traitors seem to be confused. 

       When we see Kashmir burning and while we hope that the situation does not worsen any more the million dollar question that crops up on the screens of our minds is – Who is more confused ?  Everybody is entitled to his own opinion as I am entitled to mine.    Govt. of India, I think is the most confused.

       Congress seems to be confused and the other constituents of UPA seem to be not concerned, at all. Sonia, PM, PC and Rahul, the people who have to decide seem to be confused. The question before every Indian today is, Is Omar Abdullah so important  ?  When a Union Minister can be asked to resign for a rail accident due to the negligence of a railway staffer in a remote area, why not ask Omar, to put in his papers ?  Sons and daughters of leaders have a right to fight elections, get elected and rule the states or even the Union but they must prove themselves at least when a situation like the ‘present Kashmir’ arises.  Why give so much of time to Omar ? Why give so many days to Omar ?  Why sacrifice so many lives, just because of Omar ?  Why make Kashmir a laboratory of Omar ? Why keep Omar as Chief Minister when he has ‘brilliantly’ failed to manage his own Kashmir, so miserably.

       Let the guy mature. Let him learn his lessons.  Let him master the art of Politics. Kashmir is neither a class room nor a laboratory, Kashmir is a battleground. The time and the situations have proved that Omar has failed to understand the mathematics, algebra and the geometry of Kashmir.  He has failed to define the roles of Army and the Police, in the valley. He has failed to gauge and respond to the emotions of Kashmiris. Let Omar not learn his politics ‘live’ in the battleground of Kashmir. I don’t buy this thought, even for a penny, that replacing or dismissing Omar will serve or strengthen the interests of anti-nationals or Pakistan.  His immaturity or his…….has encouraged and emboldened the anti-nationals.  Let Omar, his father, the nation, the neighbor and the world know that India has leaders who can think single-mindedly about the interest of India.

What Ashok Singhal was doing in Punjab ?

This is what the religious and political pundits in Punjab should have been asking by now but sadly no one is asking.  Though I am neither a religious figure  nor a political entity but still I am a Loudspeaker. So, even if anyone does not take note, I have a duty to speak and speak loudly, rather ask loudly that ‘What Ashok Singhal, the Chief of VHP was doing in Punjab ?’

          He was there in Punjab, meeting important people, selected carefully, for a cause.  His list included ‘Who is who’ of Punjab and more particularly Sikhs.  He met Giani Gurbachan Singh, the Jathedar of Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs.  He met the Patron of the Ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, Parkash Singh Badal, who happens to be the Chief Minister of Punjab and some others. 

          His was a carefully planned visit with a meticulously crafted agenda. He, the media reports tell, was there to garner support for building Ram Janam bhumi Temple, there at Ayodhya, in case the community lost the case in the Supreme Court of India. 

          Now I see it as a clever move on the part of Vishva Hindu Parishad.  Singhal requested the Sikh leaders to extend support to the issue of Temple.  Now, if Sikhs support, which they may not, they will be doing so at the risk of annoying the Muslims and if they don’t, the RSS, VHP, BJP and others in favor of Temple will have a reason to say that the Sikhs didn’t stand by the Community.

          Sikhs have always been maintaining a balance between the Hindus and Muslims. Singhal’s visit I think should not affect the balance of  minds of the Sikh leadership and the balance they have been maintaining.  However, Singhal has offered a reason to Sikhs for not acceding to his demand.  While in Amritsar, Singhal once again said that Sikhs were part of Hindus. The Sikhs have always been objecting to this statement because they think that it challenges the very idea of their separate identity.

          No one knows, what transpired during Singhal’s meetings with various Sikh leaders and how they responded. No one knows whether they asked Singhal, What is his take on Advani’s book ‘My Country My Life’ in which he told the nation that It was BJP which forced Indira Gandhi to go for Operation Blue Star in 1984.  No one knows whether they asked Singhal why RSSs protégé BJP, during NDAs tenure, did not do anything against the perpetuators of anti-sikh riots or the Sikh Genocide, as the Sikhs prefer to call it today.

          If the Sikh leaders have asked these questions to Singhal, that’s good. If they have preferred to stay mum, what can I say.  But now I am asking, these questions to Singhals and the likes of Singhal, loudly, because as a Loudspeaker I am supposed to speak  and speak loudly.