Monday, March 13, 2006

The Hindu - Weekly dose of BS

This week's dose of BS comes in the form of an opinion piece by Ruchir Joshi in The Hindu Sunday magazine.

Even as the Republicans go around tweaking the boundaries of the Congressional districts to their electoral advantage, even as the Patriot Act is expanded to strangle all sorts of freedoms, even as the torture-disco rocks on at Guantanamo Bay, the "largest democracy in the world" and all its leaders from Mohandas to Manmohan are and will be deployed as PR troops for Bush Two and possibly even for Bush (Jeb) Three.

Why does Bush need Indians as PR troops for what he does within America?


The fact is, India is far from stable and the nasty upheavals that await us are ones we are going to have to handle all by ourselves.

You can almost see Ruchir Joshi hoping that India reamins unstable so people like him have something to write about.


To some sections of the urban middle-class the country may feel calmer than it did a couple of years ago, but all that has happened is the fuse running to the packed dynamite has been re-extended a bit.

Would you have preferred that the fuse had blown by now Mr. Joshi?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

when i read this article in the hindu yesterday, i guessed i can see a post from you..


ha ha ha

Chenthil said...

Anon, I am predictable :-)

Anonymous said...

The BS factory has an assured supply of fresh graduates, with insitutes like the Asian College of Journalism which was founded by a member of The Hindu family. The high level of incest in the journalistic/high-brow society/chattering classes makes you want to throw up. Don't get me started ... ;-)

Rams

Anonymous said...

what is BS ?

Bull Shit ?

am not joking

am serious..

Chenthil said...

That's the right answer Anon, 10 marks for that.

tris said...

adhu - seri - how come you did not say anything about Ms.Roy's opposition to the Bush visit?

Anonymous said...

chenthil-

you are spot on with your comments about the hindu. it is just wasted newsprint. most folks today just buy it for the employment or property pages.

i broke a decades old tradition in many families by convincing them to switch over to DC. not one of them is regretting the move. the reasons were however different.

in general english newspapers suck (all of them) when it comes to coverage of tn. you *must* get a tamil paper or remain uninformed.

take my word, hindu is finito - even the traditional die hard supporters of the paper are quitting en masse. just wait till HT comes to chennai, that will be the final blow.

my bet is eventually this paper will be brought over by the marans (of DMK), i mean already the paper looks like an album of dayanidhi marans photos.

Chenthil said...

Tilo, that Arundhati Roy piece was too funny even to get angry about.

Vivek, I actually didn't see through that plan of Marans. But thinking back, it does sound plausible, Hindu will become the English Dinakaran.

Anonymous said...

I just read in the latest issue of India Today that Prannoy Roy's wife Radhika and Brinda Karat are sisters. That completes the circle of incest.

Rams

The Talkative Man said...

Chenthil,
so which do you think is the best newspaper as of now?

Good writing tells a lot about the subject and reveals little about the author's preferences/prejudices. It's depressing to find your last few posts descend to this.

Nilu said...

Chen,
People want to know what they should be reading. Help 'em.

Chenthil said...

TTM, I can't help it. I write this blog for myself first. If you like what you read here, good for you. If you don't good for you. I have been reading The Hindu for the last twenty years, and still am not thinking of changing. The editorial pretense is what irritates me, in an otherwise decent paper.

As for what I think you need to read, refer Nilu's comment.

The Talkative Man said...

Thanks for elaborating.

My dad started with IE + Illustrated Weekly in 1973. A week after Khushwant took over IW in 1981, roped in the Hindu + Sportstar. Havent changed the combination since then.

Ram was the president of SFI's MCC wing in 1966 and given his background, the editorial won't satisfy everyone. Given the choice between a sex education and commie dogma, I'd prefer the latter.

Chenthil said...

There in lies the difference, TTM :-). Peace

Anonymous said...

vow...what a interesting blog