Baba Ramdev's Praise Of Mamata Bannerjee In Anticipation Of Land Gift?

From TSV Hari

Southern Features & News Service Exclusive

Chennai, December 4 [SFNS]: Is Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev equating West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a land gift in West Bengal?

Has Ramdev fallen out with Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi and is gallivanting with the opposition to find ‘an alternative’?

The Baba has been quoted as saying thus on October 29 2016 Excerpts:

Whenever there is a political crisis, I should do what I feel is best for the country. I will not brook any political partnerships. My resolution is to provide the country with a strong political alternative.

“Ramdev’s businesses are scheduled to bag a huge parcel of land from Mamata Bannerjee in West Bengal. That is why he is praising her sky-high,” a top source in Kolkata officialdom said.

“The Baba had himself given an indication of this in October this year, during a media interaction under the auspices of The Indian Express,” the source added.

The exact quote:

Maharashtra gave 400 acres, Akhileshji (UP CM) is giving more than 400 acres to us in NOIDA. Tomorrow, Mamataji will give us some land.

The Baba’s generous praise for West Bengal CM is in the form of edited quotes. Appended questions in a different font and colour are courtesy a source that wishes anonymity as it is linked to business rivalry:

Quote

“If son of a chaiwala could become Prime Minister, Mamataji could also become Prime Minister.”

Queries:

Are tea-vendors some kind of low-life?

Does Ramdev imply that Mamata too is some kind of low-life and that her status in higher in the low-life hierarchy?

Quote:

“Mamataji is the symbol of honesty and simplicity. I love her simplicity. She wears chappals and ordinary saris. I believe she does not have black money.”

Queries: 

Is the Baba’s belief based on the footwear worn by Didi or her simple saris?

If those are adequate qualifications for Baba to pronounce judgement, what would he say about a man called Vaikundarajan of Tamil Nadu accused of being the kingpin of a Rs.1 lakh crore rupee scandal who sports shirts and dhotis of ordinary make and does not wear footwear?

Quote:

“When Left Front was in power, I had said Mamataji should come to power. It happened.”

Queries:

Does Ramdev claim that his blessings caused the victory of Trinamool Congress and not the long drawn political wars fought by Didi?

If Ramdev tries to wriggle out by saying that he only predicted the win, would he care to explain whether he teaches Yoga or is a soothsayer? If he is both, did he do the prediction due to his ‘Yogic powers’? If he has such powers, would he care to mention how many other predictions he had made?

Quote:

“I think she is not opposed to the demonetisation move per se. I feel she is not happy the way it was implemented.”

Queries:

Did Ramdev read Mamata Bannerjee’s tweets?

“Withdraw this ‘black’ political decision which is anti-commoner. Markets across India ruined, purchasing power crashing, people pained. This has turned out to be a big black scandal [causing] hardship for the common citizens and full advantage to the money launderers.”

On the basis of the above tweets, would Ramdev care to explain how did he discern that Mamata was not against demonetisation per se?

In 2014, Ramdev had created a furore by terming Rahul Gandhi’s visits to Dalit homes as ‘honeymooning’ and ‘picnics.’

He clarified his stand soon.

The so-called ‘apology’ – courtesy – India Today:

“My statement has been misrepresented. The term – ‘honeymoon is over’ – is common in political language. I tried to use it in that sense. I had no intention to insult honourable Rahul Gandhi or Dalit community. But this is also true that Rahul Gandhi goes to houses of poor and uses that opportunity as publicity stunt, picnic or tourism. I express regret if the use of that term has hurt the feelings of any community, especially Dalit community.”

A senior Congress leader from Kerala who lives in Delhi had remarked, “Anyone wishing to believe the above statement as an apology is welcome to continue living in fools’ blunder-land!”

Excerpts from a statement made by the Baba October 29 2016:

I have no problem with anyone’s shirt, jeans, sari, Burkha, beard or cap

Black money is not traceable

I don’t own a single share in Patanjali Ayurved. I’m an unpaid brand ambassador.

I will not target any Indian company. If competition occurs between the brands by itself, that’s all right, but we won’t actively pursue them.

The above quotes contradict what was published in Economic Times, citing Ramdev in January this year.

“Patanjali atta noodles will soon oust Maggi as the top noodles brand in the country. Currently from about a 100 tonnes, our production of atta noodles will be increased to 300-500 tonnes.”

“Barring HUL, we will overtake all other multinational companies. These companies are taking money out of the country.”

Operative excerpts from the Wikipedia dossier on Ramdev:

Patanjali Yogpeeth is an institute founded for the promotion and practice of yoga and Ayurveda. It has two Indian campuses—Patanjali Yogpeeth I and Patanjali Yogpeeth II, with locations in the UK US, Nepal, Canada and Mauritius. Ramdev established the Patanjali Yog Peeth (UK) Trust in 2006, with the aim of promoting yoga in UK. The Scottish island of Little Cumbrae worth £2.5 million [Rs.250 crores] was gifted to him by NRI couple Sarwan and Sunita Potdar. For the past decade, Ram Dev and Acharya Balkrishna jointly own Patanjali Ayurved – a sprawling campus in Haridwar, in Uttarakhand, a northern state in India said to be worth Rs.5000 crores. As on March 2016, the firm’s annual turnover had crossed Rs.45 billion [US$670 million].Aggressive business methods of Patanjali have hit listed companies such as Colgate, Dabur, ITC, Godrej and Nestle, according to India Infoline, a portal specializing in business info.

 “Renaming Ramdev as ‘Ravana-Dev’ and appending the words ‘black-sheep’ to the term Baba would be a welcome action in the light of what the Yoga-instructor seems to be doing. One should not be surprised if someone finds out details that can be compared to the antics of Congress Rasputin who was Indira Gandhi’s sidekick – Dhirendra Bramhachari. Ramdev seems to claim similar proximity with PM Narendra Modi,” commented a Chennai wag.

PS/TMK/TSV

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Ad-Spend Slide Hurts Media-Biz

By Pyotr Mundolsky and Phyllis D’Souza in Mumbai

Southern News & Feature Service Exclusive

SNFS provides an insight into the sufferings of advertising industry, due to the demonetisation by the National Democratic Alliance regime

The demonetisation has dealt a body-blow to India’s audio-visual entertainment to the tune of Rs.1400 crores [US$ 20 million], top industry sources told SNFS.

The monthly ad-spend is roughly Rs.4500 crores, as per industry indices.

In early 2016, media agency GroupM had predicted an annual growth of 15.5% to Rs. Rs.57,486 crores from last year’s corresponding spread of Rs.49,758 crores.

Part of WPP PLC, the media agency had predicted that digital advertising would annual swell by a face pace – by 47.5%.

The earlier fiscal had seen an ad-spend annual growth of 14.2% overtaking the group’s prophecy of 12.4%.

“Audiences have thinned in cinemas affecting box office collections of movies that were expected to be hits. Advertising agencies that are already known to delay payments up to 120 days have asked production houses to hold the cheques citing demonetisation blues. And this has adversely affected top programmes with high television rating points [TRPs] as advertising contracts are being heavily withdrawn and/or deferred”, top satellite channel sources told SNFS.

India’s top advertiser Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has cut its TV ad-spends December onwards, sources said.

Release Orders are being handed over on week-on-week basis instead of the usual monthly practice. As a result, HUL alone has cut its budget till January 1 by Rs.150 crores, a highly placed source in a general entertainment channel [GEC] outlet told SNFS.

HUL, however, denied the averment.

“Our investments in popular brands are planned dynamically to ensure optimum exploitation of consumer interest driven by market forces and ground realities,” a source aware of the development commented.

Nevertheless, an internal HUL communication, it is said, had predicted adverse short term impacts on sales dampened by the ongoing demonetisation scheme.

“Cash strapped retail buyers are bound to spend less,” says one of the operative lines in the presentation, an insider said.

The strain has been outlined in a circular of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF).

“It has been observed that several advertisers/agencies have started sending cancellations to members on existing deals, which include both short term and long term contracts citing the demonetisation initiative of the Government of India,” it says.

Production companies are facing the crunch as units supplying equipment and food during shooting and post production schedules are not able to withdraw cash. Stars too are paid a sizeable portion of their remuneration in cash. Endorsements of products involve a huge cash component – and these have acquired new question marks. Finally, those who succeed in withdrawing money are landed with two numbers of Rs.2000 currency notes. Nothing at all can be achieved with this sum. Further, even for this paltry sum, change is extremely difficult to obtain, insiders told SFNS.

Media sales firms chose to downplay the development.

“Cancellations are underway. However, we see this as a temporary hiccup. While old-school sections are feeling the heat, newer companies specialising in e-wallets like PayTM, M-Pesa and a few others are experiencing a windfall. The losses, when finally computed could be around Rs. 500 crore, at present estimates, in the known sectors. The hit is also bound to hurt those surviving on TV advertising. Nevertheless, the newer businesses’ inflow could stem the ebb to a decent extent,” a channel’s marketing head said, insisting on anonymity.

The worst effects were experienced in the FMCG, textile Banking-Financial Services-Insurance [BFSI], Non-Banking-Finance-Corporations [NBFCs], real estate and jewellery sectors whose sizeable component depend on initial cash inputs. Rumours about income tax raids only worsened the fears driving business further southward.

Demonetisation has also forced a rethink on the advertising plans to be finalised before March 2017.

“Everything depends on how the market shapes up in the coming weeks. The biggest dampeners are coming from tidings about a 50% tax outgo adversely affecting sentiment. Firms that have a little stashed cache of cash meant for the oncoming year will have to consult auditors to do some serious tax-planning, to reduce the burden of fines. It would, however, imply a windfall for income tax department. While none grudges the taxes, fears of what taxmen would do later, is a source of serious worry,” a top source said on phone from Kolkata.

Well-known media personality S Gurumurthy told an elite gathering in Chennai that a decade-long decadent and unrealistic growth fuelled by false currency, black wealth and black money had triggered the urgent need to force the demonetisation move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The course correction was long overdue. The discredited former United Progressive Alliance [UPA] regime allowed the inorganic, sudden and unrealistic growth that drove prices northward that suited the designs of some 5% of the super rich in this nation. What seemed like a runaway growth potential was also financed by counterfeit currency and even terrorist funding,” he said in the Nani Palkhivala Memorial Lecture.

“Surprisingly, most newspaper and television channels opted not to expose the obvious malaise,” he added.

-additional reporting by Radhika Padmanabhan in Chennai

PM/HA/TSV

SFNS is a news service with a difference. News is narrated succinctly and in detail - for the reader to understand - every event it its complete perspective.

For further info, contact: tsvhari@tsvhari.com