Harsha Bhogle was accused of being a ‘pawn’ in the Saurav Ganguly – Greg Chappel fiasco. Harsha replied to the editor in the following way:
The Editor
The Afternoon Despatch and Courier
Mumbai
Oct 01,2005
Sometimes the truth is boring, sometimes fantasy is alluring. Sadly you succumbed to fantasy for the truth in your lead story today is boring; very boring. On the third day of the test match we were to do a normal post match interview with Sourav Ganguly who had scored a century that day. While we were getting ready for it, our reporter Gautam Bhimani was in the press conference, his role being to bring Ganguly to where our camera was. And so, purely by accident, he heard Ganguly being asked at the press conference about whether he had been asked to step down.On hearing Ganguly’s answer, Gautam told the producer and me about it and so when Ganguly came along to our interview I merely asked him a question that had already been asked and which he had already answered. I knew nothing about what had transpired between him and Greg Chappell at the time.Sadly, that is all there is to it. I am sorry to disappoint you and the writer but that is it. There is no plot, no subterfuge. I can see why fantasy was the more interesting option.“Pawn” therefore was an unfortunate word to use for it suggests moral weakness. And the headline, given all this is untrue and a bit rude.So can we all be decent people, learn to differentiate between truth and fantasy, ignore those that cannot and apologise if we have made a mistake? On the very page on which the suggestion was made? Suitably bold so that people can see?
Sd/-Harsha Bhogle
courtesy Prem's Sightscreen What a brilliant way of not only refuting the allegation, but also making a mockery of the allegation! This is how you handle allegations/questions. Prove it to the world.
Now let’s all come back to the burning issue in Indian Blogosphere. Summarized from Amit Varma’s India Uncut:
A few months ago Jam Magazine, edited by Rashmi Bansal, did a story exposing some of the claims made by IIPM, the educational institute run by Arindam Chaudhuri. It was a terrific piece of journalism: professional, thorough, and relying entirely on facts that are verifiable by anyone.
...
Then it got serious. IIPM happens to be a client of IBM, Gaurav's employer, having purchased a huge bunch of laptops from them. (In fact, they are a company with serious money clout, and are one of the biggest advertisers in India.) So what would you expect them to do? Well, Gaurav relates that on his post on the subject. It’s bizarre and worrying stuff – read it.
When someone questions your credentials, what do you do?? Do you file a lawsuit? Do you go around making personal attacks against the people who questioned you? Do you blackmail a vendor? Do you arm twist a vendor? Can’t you do the simple thing of proving the facts?
I did my own analysis, checked out all the links and this what I found,
JAM magazine's research rounds up with the following note “
We have mailed Mr. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Delhi offices to query him about the facts that we unearthed. Despite several phone calls, emails and faxes, we are yet to receive a reply"
So what would be the best thing for IIPM to do? Prove the facts that JAM was questioning and prove it to the world that all these allegations are false. Then, they could have asked Rashmi & Gaurav to apologize for these posts, which I am sure that they would have done.
Instead IIPM chose a different route. A route taken by the Mafias. They chose to silence the critics and how? Instead of refuting the allegation, they went ahead blackmailed their vendor & used arm twisting tactics with the vendor.
Gaurav chose the high ground.
I leave it to each & every reader here to infer what sort of an institute IIPM is & what sort of a person its dean Arindam Chaudhuri is. It is entirely up to you to deduce an opinion from all these facts. Facts that have not been made up in the past 1 week or 1 month…but, facts that have been there for ages.
Desipundit has
all the facts. Please take a moment to read it. Analyze all the data that they have, and make an opinion. After you have made an opinion, please go ahead & spread this out to the entire word. Whatever your opinion, spread it around…
email it, post it, talk about it, chat about it. But please, prove it…Prove it to the world and prove it to yourself that truth cannot be silenced. For if you were to remain silent now, it is possible that its gravest injustice that we will ever do to freedom & free speech.
I have gone through the facts and believe IIPM is a fraud, cheat; I will go around spreading my opinion to my friends. I will email the links to all my friends, bring it up in forums & other places about the scam that this IIPM is and will inform all of them about these facts. Now will you do the same thing as well? Make up your own opinion by reading all the facts. But please voice your opinion &
spread the word around…
A brave deed should not go unnoticed. It would probably need a separate post to compliment Gaurav for his decision. But eulogizing him is not the immediate need. The immediate need is to publicize the IIPM fiasco that the IIPM guys tried so desperately to hush up.
Let us prove this…"
Remember, truth never hurts those who are right."
the last line in bold is quoted from this post in Vantage point
