India Uncut
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Monday, December 12, 2005
On the import of Pingbacks, Blogrolls and Splogs
I'm standing as I type this sentence, and sadly I can't clap while I type, because the chaps at Cobrapost deserve a standing ovation. One of them is Shivam Vij, who blogs at Mall Road and was part of the team that conducted the outstanding sting operation I'd written about earlier in the day. Cobrapost, for those of you who may not have heard of it, is the online journal begun by Aniruddha Bahal, who had earlier distinguished himself at Outlook and Tehelka.
So what did Cobrapost do? Well, to recap, they conducted a sting operation in which they used hidden cameras to record members of parliament taking bribes to ask questions in parliament. One of the questions that a BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh called Chandra Pratap Singh was paid to ask was:
So what did Cobrapost do? Well, to recap, they conducted a sting operation in which they used hidden cameras to record members of parliament taking bribes to ask questions in parliament. One of the questions that a BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh called Chandra Pratap Singh was paid to ask was:
Is it true that while NRI firms such as India Uncut of USA, Sepia Mutiny of Britain and AnarCapLib of Netherlands have been allowed to invest in Indian SSIs, the reputed German investment firm Desipundit has been denied permission? If so, the reasons thereof? Is the Union Government of India planning to make automatic the long procedure of permission for SSIs to import new technologies such as Trackbacks, Pingbacks, Blogrolls, Splogs and Hitcounters? [Hyperlinks inserted by me, obviously!]Heh. Read Bahal's full account of the expose here. And I can't resist quoting an excerpt from another question, one that Anna Saheb MK Patil, a BJP MP from Maharashtra, asked:
Whether the Railway Ministry has placed any order for purchase of the Yossarian Electro Diesel engine from Germany? Is the ministry aware that the Tom Wolfe committee report in Germany has halted its induction into the Euro Rail system?Such fun. Bloggers keep writing about how the Indian media has sold out to glamour and commerce, and I'm delighted to note that sections of it are still doing stories in the public interest. Well done, Aniruddha, Suhasini Raj, Shivam and all the other journalists involved in this.
