Jaitley Issue : The Hindu vs. The Chindu

There is an ongoing tussle between the Chindu, and the Hindu. The bloggers at Chindu claim that The-Hindu distorted Jaitley's statements. We will present our views on the matter shortly, but even before that, let us put some facts straight.

1. There happened an exchange between an American (Mr. Robert Blake) and Mr. Jaitley.

2. The American (Mr. Blake) sent a cable about this exchange to another American.

3. A part of this cable has been released by Wiki-Leaks.

4. The Hindu reported the content of the Wiki-Leak, and provided its interpretation.

5. Chindu contests this interpretation and alleges distortion by the Hindu.

Now, let us proceed step-by-step.

No party has denied that an exchange took place. So point number 1 is undisputed.

The Americans have not denied the contents of the cable, so point numbers 2 and 3 are also undisputed.

In the content, the American (Mr. Blake) who sent the cable reported about Jaitley "...he characterized this as an opportunistic issue...". So this means that Mr. Blake reported that Mr. Jaitley characterized Hindutva as an opportunistic issue for the BJP. Mr. Jaitley denies claim.

The crucial fact is that there is no audio recording of the actual conversation that took place. Thus it is one man's word against another's.

Now comes the tricky part. In most wiki-leaks disclosures, certain confidential exchanges between various government, financial, political and such entities have been made public. There has to be a consistent method while analyzing such exposes.

There is another question that remains unanswered, and that is, while Mr. Jaitley denies the claims made by Mr. Blake, Me Jaitley does not reveal what he actually said during the conversation. Mr. Jaitley can easily claim that he does not remember exactly what he said. But then the question is where is some internal report which Mr. Jaitley sent to the BJP wherein Mr. Jaitely briefed his party about his exchange with Mr. Blake? If the BJP does not maintain any such records, then the only thing it can do is to indulge in denial and therefore tying themselves into NOTs. And this precisely is what they have been doing.

Now if the BJP's denial has to be taken as a credible denial, the evil Congress is demanding similar deniability regarding wiki-leaks exposes on them, period!

Coming back to the original thread. The Hindu prepared the headline placing its faith in Mr. Robert Blake, and the Chindu is chest-beating placing its faith in Mr. Jaitley. Given the prevailing world scenario, neither choice is obvious.

Mr. Blake and The Hindu may be distorting or twisting facts, but Mr. Jaitley or The Chindu have no way of establishing this, for they have not presented their version of the exchange!

Mr Jaitley will do well to first reveal his version, which must be in form of some tangible record, before he indulges in denials.

And The Chindu will do well to first understand that without knowing the original the claims that any inconvenient report is a distortion hold no ground, even if it indeed is the case. Thus notwithstanding the unknown facts of the matter, The Hindu can hardly be faulted for point number 4, and The Chindu have hardly any supporting evidence for point number 5!

The Chindu's general view that the Hindu is a highly biased news paper and so on, is surely a reasonably appreciated fact. And we are very much with them in their discrediting such pernicious aspects of journalism which is so rampant these days. However, they (The Chindu) should exercise utmost caution before jumping in as saviors of politicians of the ilk of Mr. Jaitley.

Summary:

There has been no release of any official audio-record of the conversation. The wiki-leaks published a cable sent putatively by Mr. Robert Blake. Mr. Blake, therein, reports that Mr. Jaitley characterized Hindutva as an opportunistic issue for the BJP. Mr. Jaitley denies it. The cable is an official record that Mr. Blake sent way back in 2005. Mr. Jaitley has no similar record. And yet he wants his denials to be taken seriously. By the way, this is what the Congress also wants, that is their own affirmations and denials to be taken seriously!

Notwithstanding what the newspaper The-Hindu or the blog The-Chindu might present; what the HINDUS must do is to spot, encourage, support new leaders, and reject the useless ones.