Thursday, January 31, 2019

N.Ram in The NewYork Times

The New York Times carries an article by N.Ram captioned "A Murky Arms Deal Haunts Modi". The gist as provided in the newspaper is "India's prime minister faces charges of bypassing procedures, causing loss in public funds, compromising national security and using the arms deal to offer a lucrative contract to an ally."

The article is a brief summary of the 'exclusive' report that had earlier appeared in The Hindu. The biased and non-exclusive nature of that report is now common knowledge.

Unsurprisingly, the NYTimes article makes no reference to the findings of the Supreme Court in the Rafale case. Either Ram does not read the Supreme Court judgements or he has scant regard for Supreme Court. Either of these ill behoves a journalist.

Times of India stated as follows on December 14, 2018:

" The Court gave the clean chit on  three aspects:

1)Decision-making process to purchase 36 Rafale jets instead of 126 by UPA

2)Pricing of Rafale jets



3)Selection of Indian offset partners including Anil Ambani- owned Reliance Defence by Dassault."

The Supreme Court has pronounced its judgment on three out of four factors highlighted in the gist given above. What remains is compromise of national security. Manmohan Singh could not take a decision even after seven years of negotiations with Rafale. Narendra Modi took only a year to come to a conclusion. Manmohan Singh could not place orders even for a single aircraft because his Defence Minister admitted, "We have no money." Narendra Modi placed orders for 36 planes by prioritising funds for defence of the country. Yet Ram claims that national security has been compromised. 

The New York Times introduces Ram in its byline as "the author of 'Why scams are here to stay: understanding political corruption in India.' " If a biography of Ram were ever to be written, it would fittingly be titled, "Why biased journalists are here to stay: Understanding media malaise in India."

It is said (it is not my 'exclusive' finding) that a lie if repeated over and over again is accepted as the truth. Ram is aiming at that truth.

Let us await Ram's next 'exclusive'.






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