Sreesanth slams Arnab Goswami for completely ignoring the Reliance natural gas price fixing scandal. It is Arnab Goswami’s turn to face the wrath of a clutch of cricketers accused of spotfixing in IPL. Sreesanth, cricket enthusiast Meiyappan, Ankit Chavan and a few others are incensed that the NewsHour anchor, who had covered the IPL spotfixing scandal to the point of viewer asphyxiation, has been glaringly silent, even more than Dr. Manmohan Singh could ever be, on the recent move to ‘fix’ natural gas prices: the government has doubled the well-head price of domestically produced natural gas from $4.2 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) to $8.4 per mBtu. The notification is expected to benefit the Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which produces 66% of the country’s natural gas through its KG D-6 basin. While a few articles in the print media have derided it as another glaring instance of crony capitalism – Ajit Ninan termed it a “business-friendly rather than market friendly reform” while the CII President warned of the cascading effect on downstream industries and ultimately consumers – the electronic media has completely ignored the elephant in the room, much to the chagrin of Sreesanth and co. “I can be accused of fixing a few deliveries in a private tournament,” wailed Sreesanth, “where no public funding is involved and which viewers don’t take seriously anyway but here an entire arterial sector of the economy has been fixed to the benefit of one private player and there is not even a murmur of debate? What gives?” The pacer is now camping outside Goswami’s residence, holding aloft a placard with the message: “The Nation demands an answer, Mr. Goswami! Why silent on this issue, Mr. Goswami?” “Channels like CNN-IBN and NDTV can be condoned for ignoring the issue,” fumed Sreesanth. “After all, NDTV has its hands full with the ‘Major blow to Modi’ stories, CNN-IBN is owned by Mukesh Ambani, and Rahul Kanwal..well, never mind. But what prevented Arnab, given his reputation for looking out for public… I mean middle class interest, from dissecting the issue threadbare?” he hollered, eyes bloodshot with pent up rage. Arnab’s faint defense – that it was the likes of Reliance who paid his salary by sponsoring his staged cockfights between panelists on superficial issues such as Rambo vs Dumbo, remarks such as ‘dented and painted women’, the new opium of the masses – had no takers as Sreesanth continued to sledge him. Later, representatives from Firspost tried in vain to pacify the speedster by showing him an article, which they were the first to post on the net, in which they had gently reprimanded the government for unduly favouring their boss, Mukesh Ambani. Mukesh Ambani himself partially shares Sreesanth’s sense of bewilderment, if not his sense of outrage. “I’m not complaining but even I was left bemused after the government justified the hike on the grounds that it would lead to more investments in the oil and gas exploration sector. I do not see myself funneling my profits into risky exploration activities, especially not when the Missus goes off and buys players like Glenn Maxwell for $1 million, current account deficit and the falling rupee notwithstanding. No sir, I’ve got a household, I mean Antila, to run,” the business tycoon told The UnReal Times
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 15:05:15 +0000
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