State Congress leader in discussion for one-way love affair

(By Japan K Pathak) Way back in late 1990s when I entered print journalism as a junior reporter, there was a phone call at office. A person on the other side said he had important information to pass on on a Congress leader. As political reporter was not present I told the person to give me a message. The person told me that Congress leader had married again though he had one wife already. The person also told me that Congress leader who remarried was going to America. I passed on the message to senior political reporter Mr. Umat same evening. In 2007, just before the assembly elections an alleged sex CD of same leader surfaced. I have still kept that video CD in my collection. Now for last week or so, the same leader is in discussion but without his name mentioned in news report. Print media has largely covered the issue. It is alleged that this leader is in affair with a married young beautiful party worker of Ellis bridge assembly seat area. The leader managed to give job to woman’s husband and also gave party post to the woman. The things went out of the limit when the leader proposed that woman for marriage. Print journos are making various stories related to this buzz while TV reporters who tried to ask question about this incident are not answered. A TV journo when asked State party president Bharatsinh Solanki about this, Bharatsinh put his hand on the mic and left the place without giving reply. Interesting thing is that a section of media in Amdavad which is largely seen as pro-Congress is carrying this story prominently.

Media protest outside Gandhi Ashram

Some friend journos of Media Club organization in Ahmedabad were in the morning on WhatsApp circulating the message of protest programme at 3.00 pm at Gandhi Ashram over Karnataka based left activist-journalist or say journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh’s murder. When we watched live videos and photographs of the protest programme on Facebook(3-4 of them and bunch of photos) we didn’t find those journalists present there. While some journalists attended the protest programme, most others avoided attending it. Those attended it were wearing black masks over face when they were being captured in video or photos. Some avoided their presence in camera focus completely and stood up behind the cameras. Handful of journos, say four-five mainstream journos were visible in the videos and photos. Though journos were called for protest, most of those in the crowd were left NGOs members. That late Mukul Sinha fame Jan Sangharsh Manch NGO’s top rank was present here. In Gujarat, there is a small group of vocal leftists. That group was visible in videos and photos. Was that a protest programme of media persons or left NGOs?! Or was it organized jointly by both? Then we watched a TV byte of Mukul Sinha’s wife. She termed right wing ideology responsible for murder of Gauri Lankesh, while police investigation was still on! Karnataka Police and Home ministry have on official note said that the murder could be due to land dispute or also due to ultra naxals who were upset with Gauri Lankesh’s reformist activities in left fold. Then the angle that Lankesh was doing story for her own weekly tabloid against Karnataka Congress government and powerful Congress leader DK Shivkumar was also aired by several news channels throughout the day. We can’t understand why media protest programme was merged with dubious left NGOs? Why media persons never protest when other journalists such as Mr. Ranjan in Bihar are killed? ny murder is condemnable. Culprits must be caught and punished, but when over 20 journos are killed since 2013, media fraternity must not consider one or two murders suitable for protest selectively in alignment with particular ideology, or in alignment of overall media traction. By the way, here’s an interesting incident. In August last year, a journalist in Junagadh was killed. Like many other journalists he too was writing against the establishment aka BJP. As soon as victim journalist’s brother gave byte to local news channels that one of person against whom his brother penned article was BJP leader’s brother, a group of journalists in Ahmedabad in hurry decided to give protest programme outside Gandhi Ashram against ‘atrocity on media’, ‘danger against freedom of expression’ etc. What surfaced prima faciely was that the journalist was killed not due to his journalism but due to his extra curriculum activities. And that only finally emerged as the reason behind murder. Though extra curriculum activity angle had already surfaced, a group of journos continued with their protest programme in connection with that August 2016 murder incident.

From now to October second week

After President Ram Nath Kovind and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s visits, the next is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe’s joint visit on 13-14th in Gujarat. Before that President of ruling BJP Amit Shah will visit Gujarat on September 10th. He will address a townhall programme of video conferencing. Over one lakh youths gathered at 200 locations across Gujarat will interact with Shah through video conference. The event has been organized by BJYM Gujarat and it is titled as Adikham Gujarat. On 11th Arun Jaitley who has been made incharge of Gujarat election will be in Gujarat. He will be addressing media workshop of state BJP at party headquarters. Rahul Gandhi is again expected to visit Gujarat between 22-25 September. He will be heading four-day yatra covering Saurashtra and North Gujarat regions. The yatra will start from Dwarka, as Congress is trying to attempt soft-Hindutva image to do better in Gujarat polls. On 17th the Prime Minister will again visit Gujarat. On his birthday he will be inaugurating Narmada dam. He may go to mother’s place in Gandhinagar to get blessings. He will also address a grand rally at Dabhoi in Central Gujarat. Mayavati will be in Gujarat on September 23. Rahul Gandhi may arrive again in Gujarat to head four-day yatra covering Central and South Gujarat. State BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya today said the party will hold two yatras in first half of October. By then, the election dates are expected to be announced and model code of conduct will be in implementation. Meanwhile Rupani today kicked of Narmada Yatras. Various trucks will explore the villages that are benefited with Narmada water. Each truck has murti of Goddess Narmada who seats on lotus over crocodile. Lotus is also BJP election symbol. Opposite the murti is pot full of Narmada water in every open truck. The entire Narmada rath programme is executed by State government, but at village level, the BJP cadre will actively involve and spread the message of completion of Narmada dam under Narendra Modi government and due to Narendra Modi who managed to clear a long pending permission to install and close the gates over Narmada dam – the lifeline of Gujarat.

Advertising campaign by Jan Vikalp

In previous articles of this series, we had mentioned that Jan – Vikalp will be Shankersinh Vaghela’s front which shall play a role in upcoming Gujarat assembly polls too. Jan Vikap is now doing aggressive advertising campaign. There are big banners at several places and tall advertisements in local dailies too. Shankersin Bapu’s aide Jayprakash Thakar has been projected as frontal face of Jan Vikalp. I have met Thakar on couple of occasions in the past. He is originally from RSS background. Another frontal face of Jan Vikalp is Yagnesh Dave who heads Brahmin organization. His father Jagdish Dave was close aide of Shankersinh Bapu.

Congress alleges corruption; govt would not give rebuttal

Congress has alleged that Lenovo and Acer tabs that State government is distributing among the first year college going students are actually worth Rs 5500, but the government has purchased them at higher value of Rs 8,000. This allegation was made by Leader of opposition Mohansinh Rathwa in his press release yesterday. When Modi was Chief Minister, rebuttal were issued against most allegations of corruption by opposition party. Nowadays no rebuttals are given. It appears that the government doesn’t take opposition seriously enough. Some time ago, Congress spokesperson had alleged that Dy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had committed scam in Sanathal land near Ahmedabad. No rebuttal was given by Patel the next day. The government at present opines that media would not take much notice of Congress allegations until the government take them seriously enough to give rebuttal. Then why to give rebuttal?