Airlines threaten to ground flyers on Aug 18

Congress Govt called the Oil Sector Employees' Strike a Deshdrohi's Act. We wonder what they will call this now when the organisations themselves are calling for strike? Will they jail Mallya and Goyal etc?

Or will it now be confirmed now what we long suspected that Business class have long purchased the Bureaucrats and Ministers?

Media has been always supporting Privatisation, arguing the Public Sector should be made History and everything should be privatised. They said this about the Oil Sector Strike when employees fought for legitimate demands. These employees were called DESHDROHIS by uninformed Media people who suck. And then the same people said Air India should be closed down because it is making losses. I am now waiting to see them say the same thing about these Private Airlines Bosses. Will media say 'Close these Airlines down because they are NOW holding India to Ransom and that they are making losses"? Or has the media people been purchased by Business houses in India?

Really you media people do suck!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Business/India-Business/Airlines-threaten-to-ground-flyers-on-Aug-18-/articleshow/4843809.cms

MUMBAI: Taking a leaf out of employees' labour union books, private airlines on Friday threatened to suspend domestic operations on August 18 if the

government did not give in to their demand for a bailout package in the form of lower sales tax on fuel and airport taxes. Never before has an entire industry threatened to pull out from the market to arm-twist the government into buying its line. ( Watch ) "The airline industry realizes its role in the life of the nation. But in view of the indifference shown by the government, it may not be able to continue its operations... and so we have decided not to operate nationwide services on August 18," Anil Baijal, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Airlines, the lobby group of airlines in India, announced at the Jet Airways office in Mumbai. "The idea is to highlight the urgency for the government to intervene urgently. If, however, an adequate response is not received, member airlines will be compelled to suspend their services for an indefinite period." Baijal did not spell out the nature of the response or the level of commitment the airlines are expecting from the government in the next 18 days. For now, the government has little sympathy. "We understand the problems being faced by the aviation sector, but do not support any move that will inconvenience the people. My advice to the airlines is to engage in a dialogue with the government," said civil aviation minister Praful Patel. Although the relationship between governments and airline operators worldwide has never been an easy one, the threat by Indian private airlines is a first in the century-old history of the global airline industry. If it is indeed carried out, it will mean cancellation of about 12,000 domestic flights by airlines such as Kingfisher, Kingfisher Red, Jet Airways, Jetlite, IndiGo, Go Air and Spice Jet on August 18. The only option for the domestic air traveller will be the 300 scheduled flights operated by Air India and the additional ones it may mount to meet the demand. The no-fly decision was taken following an afternoon meeting attended by Jet Airways' Naresh Goyal, Kingfisher Airlines' Vijay Mallya and other members of FIA except those from Air India and Paramount Airways. Following the meeting, Baijal read out a statement to the media which began with the financial difficulties faced by the industry. The total losses incurred by the Indian airline industry in 2008-09 are estimated to be Rs 10,000 crore, he said, listing ATF sales tax, airport charges, depreciation in the value of India rupee, the economic meltdown and terrorists attacks as contributory factors. Patel stressed on Friday that tax on ATF was a state issue, and the aviation ministry had been requesting the states for the last few years to see reason. The minister declared that Air India
would not participate in the decision of "select private airlines" and would, instead, mount additional services on August 18 to reduce inconvenience to the public. The airline bosses refused to put a figure on the losses they would suffer if the threat was put to force. When asked whether suspending operations entirely did not amount to violating the provisions of the Scheduled Operators Permit that allows airlines to operate flight services, Mallya said that passengers who had booked on that day would be given a complete refund. Sudhakara Reddy, president, Air Passengers Association of India, a consumer rights organization, was scathing. "The losses are of their own making," he said. "The two big airlines, Jet and Kingfisher, bought loss-making airlines like Air Deccan and Air Sahara. The government, on the other hand, gave airlines benefits like a credit period for payment to oil companies and airports. Then again, IndiGo and Spice Jet made a profit in the last quarter, which means there is a turnaround in the industry. When they make a profit, do they share it with the government or public?"

Vulgarity

In a country like India which allows voting for people being tried for murders and scams on one end of the spectrum and people who appear to be polished but are actually the most cunning of them all and parties who bank on Dynastic Rule or caste based or religion based voting system and a world which is run by moneyed people it was inevitable that the definition of Vulgarity would soon change its meaning. That is why a group of salaried people who were denied a just raise in their salaries were termed anti indian and their method was portrayed as Vulgar by the media channels- the same media channels which showed the auction of Human Beings who were purchased by our buisness people and film stars on whom the whole country swoons! There was no vulgarity in the very thought of such auctions being shown on TV when more than 25 % lives below poverty level. [Even the BPL which is Rs 300/- per mth is a highly reduced figure as what person can survive on a mere Rs 10 per day? Our earlier post on this is here.]

Here is a very good article by Mr Santosh Desai, columnist in TOI on 16-02-2009. Hope he does not mind us hosting it here.

Vulgarity by Santosh Desai

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Humanities santosh desai oil sector

Padma Bhushan Award Stinks

Sekhar Gupta
Tarun Madhira tarun.madhira@gmail.com
Date: Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 4:51 PM
Subject: Congrats for Padma award & Poor content research & quality in your recent express columns - Addendum to my mail
To: sg@expressindia.com

Dear Shekhar jee

Congrats for your Padma award announced on Republic Day, from an Express loyalist for several years, though I subscribe for other dailies incl business ones BS & ET. Though I admire you as an incisive reporter & like many of the Walk the talk interviews, I was shell shocked to know how little you know about Govt. Undertakings or even about Armed Forces & their issues.

It speaks so low about you if you pen such things yourself rather than delegate it to someone else coz., this is undeserving from your Pen for the quality of its content except for the theme which is acceptable.

Though the strike by businessmen 'truckers' and working class of PSU can't be painted in the same brush, the strike per se are not justified by anyone. Infact many of the officers & thier leaders were shown live conceeding the same line and conveyed to the media that there were four such strike notices issued and withdrawn based on solid assurances from none other than Minster himself were not acted upon.

I buy the employees contention that being full time professionals in organised in public utility related areas, Strike is the last thing and rarely it occured in the industry because it is thier profession. I know the tricks played by several industrial houses with vested interests when it comes to PSUs coz., it is No ones baby so they dont hesitate to use it for all means including poaching of the talent. Expecting top class Techno talent and Scientists and MBAs for Rs. 30-40 thousand can happen only in Indian PSUs. As I know many of them excepting for some semi qualified people from ranks most of the educated donot need the job security in Oil Industry coz jobs are always available in India & Abroad for manufacturing unlike Services like Financial ot IT based which you seem to refer. Being related to this Industry I have seen even retired low level people from ranks being paid not less than 1-1.5 lakhs per month. In IT this is much above the figure. In many cases jobs were lost but . Several jobs are immediately available with 30-40% lesser salary & this is limited only during the low time. Come On you cant be that ignorant about professional job market in differnt industries Shekhar , for the experienced and qualified hands.

Nowhere you tried to touch the circumstances which led to such situations in Oilmen case as well as the outcome of the meetings of the Armed Forces Chiefs with the PM rather than with the concerned BABUS. WE EXPECT YOU TO DO THE HOMEWORK PROPERLY BEFORE OFFERING VIEWS TO THE PUBLIC, SHEKHAR. PLEASE DONOT JOIN THE LEAGUE OF SOME HINDI TV CHANNELS intersted only in Sensationalism, which I have personally seen, since my business is indirectly linked to the oilmen and I was also affected to some extent at that time and I was feeling bored with free time though I rarely watch Hindi news channels. Common People can say anything since they are the affected and they are not expected to know about all the problems of PSUs & Armed forces, but not the Media which has some responsibility. By the way there was no discontent in the entire rank & file of the Armed forces to precipitate a strike, but limited to a few affected small groups which were not properly benchmarked compared to their peers in Govt and other services. So this is also a different case.

The irresponsible media esp Hindi TV channels were virtually instigating a war like situation with their reporting. And no wonder Pakistani media was also crying hoarse about it without even any credible investigation or proven evidence. Nevermind even I agree with people's views and perceptions which may be perfectly correct. But can we substantiate it conclusively in the first 3-4 itself. News Channels were just forcing views and injecting venom in peoples minds virtually to wage a war and pressurise thinking in the government and people, who are already traumatised by the 26/11 incidents and the next 3-4 days events.

In case of Oil men Stike I have seen full page Ads given by the ministry reeling similar figures and Clippings which arreared in leading national dailies Economic Times, Business standard & Hindu/Frontline which are portraying the true picture by exact analysis of the history and chronology of events preceeding, based on documentary evidence which contradicts the Govt. line, which negates your 'empty rhetoric & emotional spills from your pen look.

Readers including myself respect you a lot for some of your qualities. So please take care to write only on the issues about which you have full information to keep your image intact. If it is an interview things would not have been so much in poor light, since it is a dialogue in first place and secondly rarely does one appears to be that incisive in interiews so they carry lesser impact to that extent than the print, of course except for some Karan Thapar, who is an outstandingly incisive interviewer and reporter on political and business issues because he does a lot of home work since he works for the content viewed by the most educated and influential in India.

Yours etc
Tarun Madhira

Frontline Magazine Reports on Oil Sector Strike Correctly

Frontline Magazine Reports the Facts about the Oil Sector Strike.

Frontline news

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Indian PSUs- A Report: The Sekhar Guptas of this country should read this

Senior media people cannot be really unaware of the Real Strengths of the PSUs and they are surely not blind to the fact that these PSUs did not become strong by itself and that everything had to do with us- the PSU employees. They are not fools are they? No! Look at how they win National Awards by being slaves of their Masters! Are we seeing a single Channel publicly apologising yet for their False Reporting? No!

Here is a Report of what PSUs really are! While the seniors in the Media are only licking the boots of their masters, the Juniors are nothing but Dumb. This report is a glaring proof of what WE are.

A report on Indian PSUs -2009

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Oil PSUs deny govt claim on execs' pay

Oil PSUs deny govt claim on execs' pay

Kalpana Pathak / Mumbai January 28, 2009, 0:19 IST

Contrary to the government’s claim that entry-level officers of the state-owned oil companies earn as much as Rs 1 lakh a month on the basis of the revised pay package, details provided by the oil-marketing companies to Business Standard show that the entry-level salaries are much lower.
At present, the annual cost-to-company (CTC) of an entry-level officer in an oil-marketing company stands at Rs 6.3 lakh per annum, including the annual performance bonus and various allowances, perks and retirement benefit that these officers are entitled to.

read more...........

Business Standard_Oil PSUs Deny Govt Claim on Execs

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Media's Chosen Victims - Coomi Kapoor: 19-01-09 Indianexpress

Media choses its Victims. This is what even media people say about their own people. Read on- this material from Express India Blog site.

TV personality Karan Thapar, known for his hard-hitting interviews, did a role-reversal at the end of the year. He asked one of the guests on his show, Arun Jaitley, to interview him. Jaitley was polite, but his questions were pointed. One of the queries, I thought, really hit home. Why was Thapar so harsh with Indian politicians and so deferential towards Pakistani personalities?

It is a charge which can be leveled not just against Thapar but all of us in the media. And I include myself among the guilty. We journalists select carefully whom to make a punching bag and whom to handle with kid gloves.

Take for instance the way journalists generally appear overwhelmed when granted an audience with a member of the Gandhi family. They adopt a reverential—almost fawning—tone. I recall when Rahul Gandhi made his debut in Indian politics, hardened veterans on the political beat returned from the Amethi constituency star-struck by the cute, clever, committed, computer-savvy Gandhi scion. Naturally no embarrassing questions about the family firm were raised.

Some journalists who want to establish their secular credentials believe that the best way to do so is to cross question politicians from the BJP or VHP in a manner which is not just rude, but almost offensive. Strangely, the same lot of scribes can be as protective as a mother hen towards politicians claiming to represent deprived sections of society or minorities. At press conferences, they can even pounce on newspersons who pose provocative questions. Sometimes they interrupt and answer on behalf of their favourite politicians.

Double standards in the media are visible on many fronts. If Deve Gowda as Prime Minister snoozed at a meeting, then all the cameras focused on him. When other, more sophisticated, Prime Ministers dozed off, it was made out that they were in deep contemplation. Shivraj Patil is the butt of many media jokes, but most would hesitate to be less than complimentary about P Chidambaram. Mamata Banerjee and Uma Bharati are fair game, but few want to ruffle Prakash Karat.

Last year on her birthday, Mayawati flew down to Delhi and held a press conference at the ballroom of a five-star hotel. The Capital's scribes waited for more than half an hour before the UP chief minister walked in imperiously followed by a long train of her relatives, the kith and kin of her close aide S C Mishra and a string of officials from Lucknow. The Delhi media watched patiently for another 15 minutes as Mayawati, dripping diamonds, was garlanded by various persons from her retinue, whose names were duly announced. No one objected to this circus. Later at the press conference no one put any hard hitting questions to UP's czarina, who simply delivered a lecture on her schemes for the state.

In contrast, I can recall many a press conference where journalists haughtily threatened to walk out if they were kept waiting for more than ten minutes. The late arriving politician had to literally beg and plead for forgiveness. Many a time politicians passing around press handouts about development work have been told bluntly by the media that the handouts will be thrown in the dustbin, they want only hard news.

The tendency to treat people differently is due partly to our personal predilections. But there is also a human weakness to pick on the weak and avoid taking on a bully. A personality who has the clout to retaliate or can cut you off from news sources and blacklist you from future interviews is not someone whose feathers you like to ruffle. It is a truth universally acknowledged in the media that it is hara-kiri to bite the hand that feeds you stories. Correspondents covering the Ministry of External Affairs avoid antagonizing the mandarins of South Block, defence correspondents are wary of upsetting the chiefs of the Armed Forces and crime reporters don't question the fishy detective work of those supplying them with scoops on their so-called investigations.

http://blogs.expressindia.com/showblogdetails.php?contentid=412637

Business of reporting the truth had been slowly subverted by the mass production of ignorance: Big B's Blog

Check out Big B's blog on Big Adda
Here is what he writes about a journalist :
Quote:
It is a book authored by an award -winning journalist who decided to break Fleet Street’s (the Wall Street of the print media) unwritten rule by investigating his own colleagues and found that the business of reporting the truth had been slowly subverted by the mass production of ignorance.

‘Finally’, says the author, ‘I was forced to admit that I work in a corrupted profession.’

His Prologue in the book was even more revealing.
‘Dog doesn’t eat dog’, he says. ’That’s always been the rule in Fleet Street. We dig into the world of politics and finance and sport and policing and entertainment. We dig wherever we like - but not in our own back garden. In the last fifteen years we have started running media pages, but the truth is they are primarily to attract advertisements; they don’t really put the spade in too deep.’

He then goes on to describe, how when working with a prominent paper, a fellow colleague was caught out badly when he filed a speculative description of a prominent and sensational execution, six hours before it actually happened. All would have been well with this imaginary story and its details would probably have gone unnoticed, had it not been for the unfortunate leaking of a video of the hanging. The journalist, with some courage, however, confessed all this on his blog. His openness, much to his dismay, did not go down well with his bosses. His entry in the blog was rapidly deleted and a message was sent out to all staff warning them to ‘think carefully before blogging about journalistic tricks of the trade’ !

So.. there !! ‘Imaginary material is nothing worse than a “trick of the trade”; and we’ll have no real reporting about reporting’ says the author.

He goes on to say that -

‘Over the years which I then spent running around with a note-book in my pocket, of course I came to see that frequently we fail to tell the truth. The unavoidable reality of journalism is that all of our work is tethered by a deadline and we can never be free to roam as far we want in search of the evidence we need. On the best of days, everything we write is compromised by error. And, of course, I knew, too, that from time to time there was some seriously dodgy behavior going on behind the headlines.’
And more -

‘…I had no idea of just how weakened we had become, just how prone we now are to fail to tell the truth. I’m not talking about journalists making mistakes. Mistakes can be honest. (And it is a very safe bet that there are mistakes in this book). I’m talking about the individual dishonest, hack scumbags who bring our whole profession into disrepute. There are still good, brave, honest people working in this industry. I’m talking about the fact that almost all journalists across the whole developed world now work within a kind of professional cage which distorts their work and crushes their spirit. I’m talking about the fact that finally I was forced to admit that I work in a corrupted profession.’

In conclusion he says -

‘I should add that a great many working journalists helped me on this project. They did so willingly, because like me they can see no good reason why journalism should be exempt from the kind of scrutiny which we bring to bear on the rest of the world. For reasons of professional survival, most of them did so on the understanding that I would not name them. But they are there and, to the extent that this book may attract the hostility of some in Fleet Street, I am proud of the fact that numerous colleagues are better than that.’
‘So. Let dog eat dog.’

Endquote

Wonderful! Anybody read this book? Who is this Journalist who authored the book? We must all thank him for the truth about the profession and maybe can tell him what the Indian Media did.

Assam Tribune EDITORIAL: The Oil PSU strike: other side of the story

The Oil PSU strike: other side of the story— A. Krishnatreya (All of you please write a thanks letter to him at edit.tribune@gmail.com. Remember to thank those who tell the facts of both sides and blast those who hide one side of the story.)

During the recent strike by the Oil PSU employees, which badly hit the country’s economy and brought life to a grinding halt in many cities, it was natural for the people to censure the striking employees in the toughest words. This is because of the general perception that oil sector PSUs like ONGC, IOC, GAIL etc are already very highly paid and any further demand for better pay is unjustified. The media left no stone unturned in proving that the striking employees are getting much more than their due and the only way to address their grievances is to suspend them or take strict measures. Yes, it is true that a strike which can cripple the Indian economy is not justified, but why did such a strike have to take place at all? Has anyone presented the other side of the story?

The concept of the Public Sector Unit was visualised by some of our great leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, to make the country self sufficient in certain key sectors like oil, coal and steel. The initial days were tough, when these new units, still in their infancy had to take on the global giants like Shell and Chevron. But as time passed and people gained experience, the experiment proved to be a success and many of the PSUs started making their presence felt not only in the country but also in global business. One among them is ONGC, which started off as a branch under the geological survey of India and in 50 years established itself as India’s most valuable company with assets in 16 countries. Did this happen out of the blue? Certainly not. It happened because of the consistent efforts by a group of highly qualified and dedicated engineers, geologists and executives. But after the collapse of the permit raj and the opening up of the Indian economy, private players came into the picture and the easiest way for them to hire quality manpower was to poach from the State run PSU s which already had a pool of well qualified and dedicated workforce. And this was quite an easy task, because the salary they offered was at least 5-6 times what a PSU employee was paid.

It is a common misconception that OIL PSU employees are overpaid for the job they do almost everyone seems to support this idea. But what they forget is that the OIL PSU officers are drawn from the cream of the engineering and science graduates. The entry criteria are very strict and the national level written tests needed to qualify can be compared to the civil services examinations. Moreover, officers employed through campus placements are also drawn from only the very best institutes. And where do these officers work? Well, the oil sector is a cruel world where there are hardly any white collared jobs, except perhaps at the top management level. So most of them work in fields located at remote areas or hundreds of Miles in the sea. Life is tough and every drop of oil is produced through the sweat of the engineers, quite literally. And at the end of the day how much are they paid? If we compare the gross annual emoluments of the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of ONGC and that of L&T the results are startling! The ONGC CMD gets around Rs. 13 lakh an annum whereas the top boss of L&T gets a staggering Rs. 5.85 crores. If this is the discrepancy at the top level, we can well guess what the situation is like at the lower or middle management level. On an average a private sector oil employee gets at least 5-6 times more than his PSU counterpart. And that too when many a time he is lesser qualified and poorly trained. No wonder that the attrition levels of the Oil PSU s are at a record high.

Another myth among the people is that PSU employees are casual about their work and unlike their private counterparts have little or no responsibility. It is very wrong to equate an Oil PSU employee with a government employee. A PSU employee may have a secure job, but he is certainly accountable for it and many of his variable remunerations are performance based. Targets are set and achieved in record time. Is this possible without hard work? The professional competence of PSU officers have been amply demonstrated in many instances. A glaring example is MRPL, the refinery set up by the AV Birla group as a joint venture in the mid nineties. The refinery was so badly managed that it seldom came into full production of 7MMTPA besides going into huge losses. Finally, unable to manage it, The AV Birla group sold off its stake to ONGC and in six months the debt of the refinery was reduced from Rs. 5500 crores to Rs. 188 crores and in less than 2 years the company started giving profits. At present, MRPL is not only producing at full capacity and earning huge profits but there are plans to increase its producing capacity. Does this not speak of the competence of Public sector Oil companies?

It is often said that privatising is the only sane option left for the Oil PSUs. But what people fail to see is that many of these PSUs are doing much better than their private counterparts. ONGC, for example, is India’s biggest Integrated Oil and Gas Company. Till recently it had the largest market capitalisation (recently overtaken by Reliance) and is India’s most valuable corporate. For the financial year 2007-08, it had a net profit of Rs. 19872 crores and paid a dividend of Rs. 6844 crores to the Indian government (the highest by any corporate). Not just that, it also shared a subsidy burden of Rs. 38500 crores of the downstream oil companies like IOC and BPCL so that the common man can keep buying petrol and diesel at highly subsidised rates. Private players like Reliance stopped selling petrol from their outlets simply because they were not prepared to bear the subsidy burden and so kept their prices high. The contentious issue of the pay commission report tabled by the Justice M.J.Rao committee has to be carefully looked into. It has to be borne in mind that unlike government employees who get central DA, the Oil PSU employees get a variable industrial DA which is substantially. Lower. Moreover, a government employee gets a pension which amounts to 50% of the last salary drawn, whereas a - PSU employee doesn’t have any such scheme. Besides, most of the engineers working in the fields have to work on shifts of 12 hours and in environments which are termed as hazardous whereas all government employees have a maximum 8 hour work per day in safe and secure work environments. So where does the parity between government and Oil PSUs come from? Finally, it needs to be remembered that the burden of paying the revised salary to the employees is to be borne by the PSUs, without any contribution from the government’s side. So why does it not have the independence to fix the pay of its own employees and have to be governed by the government pay commissions? It has been necessary to put all this on record because of the consistent manner in which oil PSUs have been maligned both by the government and the media over a strike which was necessitated by factors created solely by the government itself.

Holy Modern Indian Cow !(Media)

Holy Modern Indian Cow ! is on air!

Vapours comes out from her holy shit !

''Breaking News!''

Isn't it farting GAS?



Those 'calves' look too cute !

With the mike and Cam on street interviews

Holy mother cow gives them the milk.

SHIT and milk are holier then holy!

They can mortgage their self esteem!!


OIL MAN ! Your oil is not honey

See the mockery of democracy!!

Indian car runs on farting gas

And not your Oil & Gas unholy!!



This baby cows get matured soon

And are sold to the political bulls !

Reason why,Baby cow screamed in pain

''desdrohi'' !!''desdhrohi'' !! at ZEE news



We knew they were not screaming at us

pleasing ones who were raping them!

Sure we were not there ,as the STAR CHANNEL said!

We would not have allowed them to rape.



Cow comes and cow goes

BULLSHIT remains for ever!

Lets Move on ! India stops breathing without us

We know that we cant be ''desdrohi''



Oil flowed and nation growed

We make tomorrow brighter for those!

For them who cheat the nation

With cheap fuel for looting votesToday is made darker for those who spoke for us.


We have not sold this nation to Ambanis!

we are not the fund collectors of ruling party

We are not posted in secretariat in 'Hera feri''

We are selected on our merit



The nation is mislead by these holy cows

bulls and the basterds!!

Father of the nation ! dont do Gandhigiri

Please don't ask them the name of their father

They will malign you saying you were their real father!



This Indian political bullock cart

Cows and baby cows

Invisible Hand ,are

Breaking Jawaharlal's dream



Are out to sell the ' HOLY temples''

The temples of india, We built

TEACH THIS HAND A LESSON

WE OIL MAN HAVE WITH US

A BRASS HAMMER !

Make sure they don't win the NEXT election!



== ''spark''

AN OILMAN WHO IS PUT ON FIRE/

Are we Happy?

A paper cutting of 12th Jan 2009.

Unrest in Oil Sector, North East

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Apology from StarNews

This Apology from StarNEWS is the first to come. They say they were provided by the details by Govt. They also say that they tried to contact the Leaders but they could not locate them. How could they? When Govt was sending police after them?

From: Meenakshi Sharma <meenakshis@starnews.co.in>Date: Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 8:20 PMSubject: RE: At least don't project us as a villain!To: "vipinbhidwaria@gmail.com" <vipinbhidwaria@gmail.com>
Dear viewer,

Thanks for your email. We would like to state that the program telecast by us was purely based on the detail / document provided by the government. The program was telecast in public interest. We would also like to inform you that we had tried to get in touch with the concerned officials repeatedly but they were not available. We regret if the telecast has unintentionally hurt anyones sentiments.

Regards

From: Vipin Bhidwaria [mailto:vipinbhidwaria@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 1:01 PMTo: inews@zeenetwork.com; wecare@intoday.com; Payal KakraSubject: At least don't project us as a villain!

Dear Sir/Madam,
On the name of public-interest our media is publishing & covering only one side of the story named 'Indefinite strike by Oil Sector Officers' Association'.
All the news channels(including DD news) are continuously flashing government views only, like shri Murli Deora,Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas & petroleum secretary shri R.S. Pandey,but it is again a shame on our print & electronic media that other side views, that is of OSOA president & vice-president were never convered in the media.

I shall argue that the government hi-jacked the media again and all news channels showing that the fault is not at the governments' part but it is responsibility of OSOA to maintain normalcy in the system. I STROGLY FEEL THAT STING OPERATIONS AGAINST MEDIA ARE REQUIRED AT THIS JUNCTURE. And such kind of acts will lead to total loss of faith in government and democracy.

Shri R.S pandey made the statement at several occasions on various news channels that a junior most grade officer is getting salary of more than 1 lacs per month. It is also with reference to the information provided by you behalf of Ministry of P&NG, the sources from which the secretary has taken figures are false & mis-leading & they have played with figures and it is not a big thing for any graduate. I shall argue with you for the salary figures that has been shown by you.

Sir,the media/the press is considered to be an vital factor for evolution, development & sustenance of democracy in any country and media has to play a role where pluralistic approaches are appreciated and views from both ends are addressed equally.

Due to biased media coverage, we all OSOA members have been projected as a villain & those all declared themselves as heroes, so may I know that the villain is working day-in and day-out so that a very crucial sector can keep the heart of our economy throbbing.

I appeal you to investigate the authenticity of figures & you are requested to contact our finance department for further details and investigation.Shri R.S. pandey has even added the cost of chair being provided at our work place and hance, figures are mis-leading.But,the truth is that we are having in-hand salary of Rs.19-25 thousand only(Including HRA) at entry level

It is an effort to unravel the hidden impulses of few bureaucrats & may be the government. By reducing our incentives they have de-motivated us to a lower level & demoralized all our association & all our employees. Such a crucial sector of India is ignored in terms of compensation so that TODAY'S IGNORANCE CAN BE TOMMOROW'S PERSEVERENCE FOR CORRUPTION/NEPOTISM & FAVOURTISM.It may be the turning point & sinking of our Oil-TITANIC.

You may contact me at this mail ID for further proofs.
SO, By taking responsibility you should openly clearify the misleading statement made by you.

Thank You
Yours truly,
Vipin

Times Of India Reports Correct Salary and How Govt Hoodwinked the Public

At last some body has told the truth. Let us only buy Times Of India. This is the best Newspaper. .
Also OIL SECTOR and all our Friends in all PSUs PLEASE BOYCOTT DishTV which is owned by Zee Network.



TOI 160109

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Oil slick- A Report by Business Standard Magazine

There are some media groups out there who have correctly analysed the OIL Strike. It is only the TV Media which thrives on Sensationalism and "Masala" to sell their wares.
The article in BS dtd 13/1/09

"Govt's tough action and threats to arrest striking officers finally broke the oil officers' strike Business Standard / New Delhi January 13, 2009, 0:30 IST"

rightly points out a major reason for the sudden Dry Outs ---

"But while the government did the right thing in finally acting tough, it mishandled things in the run-up to the strike. For one, whenever there has been a call for a strike, and it is made weeks in advance (trade unions and officer associations need time to mobilise), petroleum dealers stock up on supplies. They did not do so this time because Petroleum Minister Murli Deora had held out the prospect of a price cut for petroleum prices. No petrol and diesel retailer in his right mind would stock up when prices are set to fall."

The article is a very balanced one and one of the few that treats both Private and Public Sector Oil companies equally. While we on this blog, including myself are bringing attention of the online reading public to the unholy nexus that may or may not existing between Private Oil Refiners and the Babus/ Govt it is also to be accepted that we do need everybody and after all it is also better for Private Oil Cos to survive. It helps the general public by way of choice and improves service quality because of competition.

And my dear friends from OIL sector PSUs it then also gives us a chance to leave PSUs and join them if we want to. I personally think the article is a very good one.

The whole article of the business standard magazine is here -- Please click to read the full article directly
A few excerpts below:

"While the immediate cause of the strike was that the salaries and wages notified for the oil sector were lower than those recommended by the Justice MJ Rao committee, the basic demand that wages be revised every five years instead of the current 10 years has been a very old one. A pay revision every five years is not an unreasonable demand to make, especially when private sector salaries rise almost every year, and the argument that government salaries are revised once every decade is no argument. The oil industry’s dynamics are quite different from those of the government. In any case, Ram Naik as petroleum minister in the NDA government, had conceded this demand. So while it is true that the oilmen didn’t wait for the one month that the government asked for while a group of ministers tried to find a solution, they were probably at the end of their tether since years have passed since the ministerial promise"

"The private sector players which exist have preferred to supply exclusively to the export market, or go through the state-owned retailers, because of the distortions in the domestic price and subsidy operation, which put private refiners at a disadvantage. If the government is keen to bring in more competition, as it should be, it must create a level playing field for private and state-owned players. This does not mean largesse for the private firms; all it means is that everyone gets the same treatment. "

But like I said and I will go on hammering till they wake up, it is the TV that has the maximum reach to general public today and it is they who should become more responsible towards the Nation by adopting responsible and factual reporting.

PSU OIL SECTOR STRIKE - TRUTH & SENTIMENTS

During last few days the Indian Media has maligned the good name of Oil Sector employees even comparing us to terrorists (Mumbai 26/11) and black mailers. This has hurt the sentiments of the Oil Sector Employees and their near & dear ones more than being cheated by the Indian Babudom of their well deserved wages. Monetary loss can be made up. Loss of prestige is definitely difficult to tolerate. The Indian media, in a well choreographed crusade, led by His Highness the Petroleum Secretary, has damaged the reputation of the Oil Sector Employees, built by people like Col. Wahi, Sh. Subir Raha and many others.

This is our attempt to undo to some extent the misinformation spread by the Ministry led media. First and foremost we are not "Terrorists". It was "Indian" Oil employees who were there at Kargil, rubbing shoulders with our brave Jawans, ensuring smooth supplies of POL products to the army. Please remember we were on the Indian side. Even today when the Indian media shows photographs of Kargil war, a burning oil tanker is shown. We are there at Siachen and Barmer and Andaman Nicobar and Nagaland taking care of the energy needs (from transport to cooking fuels) of our Forces. Our question is how many Indian Companies, including Public Sectors, work or get an opportunity to work for the security at our borders. In short it is the "Jawans" of the Oil Sector who are "fighting" while most of us sleep comfortably and enjoy our vacations. Please put your hand on your heart and tell us are we really TERRORISTS?

How many of you know that number of Public Sector Oil Companies were incorporated after the multinationals oil companies did not support the Indian Government in fighting the Chinese. The Chinese war was fought in 1962 and IndianOil was incorporated in 1964. HPC was born out of Caltex and BPC out of Burmah Shell.

The media, under the choreography of the Ministry, depicted the Oil Sector Employees as having a party time sitting in AC rooms and enjoying vacations in snow covered mountains. Please note most of our field locations are in shift operations which means that people work round the clock and to attend to their duties at 6 'O'clock, the officers get up at around 4 'O'clock in the morning and brave extreme weather conditions to reach to their field locations. How many of us would like to travel under foggy conditions at 5 'O'clock in the morning? How many of us would like to operate a location at Leh at (–)25 degree centigrade? How many of us would like to work at a Rig for 24 hours wearing dangrees, oil smeared on their face in monsoon winds and when the fisherman has been warned not to enter in the sea? How many of you would like to work 30 days in a month without a break? We are not comparing ourselves with the brave Jawans but if the Jawans are sacrificing their lives for the country then we are also doing a yeomen service to the nation by performing our duty braving such extreme environment and definitely deserve not to be called "Deshdrohis".

We do not deny that we are given good facilities by our Management but for heaven sake we earn them and have every right to enjoy them. It seems people are envious of the same. Have we ever said that other people should not get good facilities in life? Then why target the Oil Sector employees? Is there a hidden agenda behind the choreographed media blitz?

We have been branded as insensitive towards the needs of the common man. How many of you know that the last pay revision was done in 1997? This issue of wage revision etc. was under discussion with the Management / Ministry for last two and a half years. The wage revision is overdue since January 2007 and whatever is decided now shall be applicable till 2017. One of our demands is to make this wage revision a five yearly process. Why the Navratnas who are empowered to decide the wages of their employees should go to the Ministry with begging bowls? Because if the profit making PSUs start deciding their own wages the Babudom will loose all control. Do you know that the respective Boards have already approved the wage structure which we are asking for?

You would say that if you are not satisfied with your wages then why not leave the company. Yes some of us are waiting for the wage revision and if the same is not satisfactory would leave for greener pastures and soon the PSUs would be sold to private players and then my dear you would either pay very high prices for the fuel or the pumps owned by these private companies would remain closed as they are now since 2007. Would you be happy then?

The salary figures given by the Hon'ble Minister are far from reality. If the Hon'ble Minister desires to give us the kind of salary he says we are getting then I think there should not have been any strike and the Ministry can be faulted for not "properly communicating" these figures to the officers. We assure you if the salaries, as communicated by the Hon'ble Minister / Media are "granted" to us we will all vote for the Hon'ble Minister.

This brings us to the next point that why did we choose this time for calling strike? For one we had lost our patience with the Ministry giving us false promises on earlier occasions. Second we have been talking on this issue since last six-seven years and third with the polls on the horizon we were expecting the Government to be favourable to our demand. Did you know that the strike was initially planned for 2nd December and cancelled because of the terrorist strike at Mumbai? And we are labelled as "insensitive" to the needs of the general public.

Why did not the media tell the general public on 2nd December itself of the same? It would not have done any good to the TRP ratings of the news channel. This very same media declared Manjunath as a martyr and the oil sector employees as officers doing duty under extreme conditions. My dear Sir, Oil sector PSUs have given many Manjunaths to this country some of whom are no longer with us but most of them are still dedicated to the service of this Nation.

The media which has labelled the oil sector PSU employees as terrorists is the same which had shown the 26/11 happening "live", which is now well known had helped the terrorists in their plans. This fact was known to them during the live broadcast. May be labelling Oil Sector PSU employees as terrorists was a part of larger game plan of TRP ratings.

When did you last hear of a major strike by Oil Sector PSU? None in last forty odd years!

Why was the view point of Oil Sector PSU Association/Employee not shown in the media? Why did the media not show the salary slip of 1.25 Lacs which they were claiming was what the Oil Sector entry level officer was getting?

The Government had appointed an expert committee, which had recommended scales for Oil sector PSUs after taking 18 months do so. Why were the scales recommended by the experts again referred to a committee of Secretaries (comprising of IAS officers)? Will a committee comprising of IAS officers allow a higher salary to a PSU Chairman? By the way one of our demands was higher pay scales for our Directors and Chairman. This demand was supported by an entry level officer not because he dreamt of becoming the Chairman of the company one fine day but he wanted his Chairman to stand tall in front of these Babus and be able to rub shoulders with his colleagues in Corporate circle.

Are you aware that out of the total revenue from the sale of petroleum products more than 50% goes to Govt revenue and that addition to the exchequer only allows the government to pay salaries to the other government sectors which includes bureaucrats, regulatory bodies, ministers etc.
Do you have such a short memory as to forget the 2005 accident in the western offshore oil platform where several of ONGC officers lost there lives?

Can you spot on map the insurgency infested jungles of Assam, Tripura and Nagaland where thousands of our "DESHDROHI" officers work day and night on rigs, installations and field parties to provide subsidized petrol for your luxury cars?

Did you know that the Oil Sector turnover was Rs. 5.5 lakh crore which is 15% of India's GDP, contributes 64% of gross revenue of the Government, shared subsidy burden of Rs. 1,40,000 crores thereby saving the common man from the impact of high fuel prices? Last year ONGC paid Rs 22,000 crores for subsidy, Rs 30,000 crores as taxes and Rs 12,000 Crores as dividend.

You can also read the appended copies of letter to Minister dt. 03.01.09 and 05.01.09 and a press release by OSOA dt. 03.01.09. The press release was never bought to public knowledge by the media because it did not contribute to the TRP ratings.

In future there will not be any strikes of oil sector PSUs because there may not be many capable & daring officers left to "protest and economically terrorise" the nation.

We hope we have been able to communicate our feelings to you. Next time you fill-up your petrol tank or eat your food please remember us as one who service this great nation and not as "Deshdrohis".

"rocky star" <rockystar2009@gmail.com>

One Mr Sekhar Gupta- who thrives on Thrillers!

I sent the following mail to Mr Shekhar Gupta (sg@expressindia.com) of Indian Express in response to their editorial in Indian Express dated 10/01/2009. As expected I am yet to receive a reply from them.

The following is the text of the mail:

I happened to read your article in Indian Express dated 10/01/2009. And you are one among the many biased, prejudiced individuals who said what ever they want, just because they have access to the powerful media. Someone said deshdrohi, another called us white collared terrorist and yet another called us blackmailers. Calling off the strike is not at all demoralising to us but the way these people called us whatever they want with out even trying the verify the facts and with out even trying to find out our version is what killed our morale. We never wanted to strike in fact and it was forced on us.

Do you atleast know under what sort of conditions these oilmen work and what is their take home salary. You said, we have job security but then do you know that none of us refuse to work on weekends and holidays and work for extended hours day after day. Almost everyone works on a sixth day of the week and half of us work on holidays too. What to do, we would like to spend more time in our in-laws house rather than with our families. We meet the targets set for us with the best possible efficiencies. Why else do you think that the private players and the companies from Middle East employ these people paying them very high salaries? People who resigned 3 - 4 years back are earning atleast 3 - 4 times more than what we earn but we have no regrets for staying with these PSUs. Do you know that most of us are not even getting increments for the past several years and we are only hoping for a decent pay revision and not a greedy one? You people may not understand as you are highly prejudiced and you people have bought the argument of the Petroleum secretary and politicians.

Did you bother to make a comparison with the salary of the bureaucrats and find out why they are paid more even when they sit in AC rooms and roam around in AC cars? No one will have courage to do that. Did you ever try to find out from armed forces if they are happy with the pays scales given to them? They too are unhappy at the way the bureaucrats decide the pay for every one in this country. They cannot go on strike and so they don't. Otherwise anyone will express their dissent to the way the country is ruled by these babus.

Do you think the Oilmen thought about going on a strike on 06.01.2009 and went on strike from 07.01.2009. Did you atleast try to find out how many times the strike notice was given and how many times it was with drawn on assurances from the government. Government never did what they ought to do and now finally they are trying to make scapegoats out of the heads of these oil companies. It is because of these people and their assurances the strike was called off several times and they should be commended for their role in getting the strike deferred for so long. When the notice was given in Nov 2008 do you think the government was correct in announcing the GoM just a few days before the strike and then ask for a months time. They could not have done that immediately after the strike notice was given. The culprits for the strike and the suffering of the people on the road are these very people who procrastinated beyond reasonable limits and forced the aggrieved oilmen to go on strike. It is these people in the government who should be held responsible for this discontent of oil sector employees to simmer and explode. Now we people are afraid and so withdrew but then you should know that when the crude price crosses $50 in the future again exodus starts from these companies. We are not in these PSUs because we are not talented but we are here because we love the country. We are all people educated out of some of the best institutes in this country and that include IITs, IIMs, NITs and some of the reputed universities.

Could you not think for a while that the government saw merit in the demands of oil sector employees and that is the reason they formed the GoM. We did not ask for something out of the world. We only wanted the Justice Rao committee report implemented with a few changes. When the government can accept the Central pay commission report with figures that are more than what was recommended by the committee what is wrong with PRC for PSUs. The people who were in the central pay commission were not good and so their recommendations had to be upgraded while for the PSUs they were again inefficient and recommended more and so recommendations for us had to be downgraded. If that is so please ask the government to ban the people in these two committees from being engaged in future.

Lastly, in the news paper of the same day there was an argument saying that private sector should be encouraged and should be allowed to operate. The person writing this article should atleast be knowing how many outlets the private players closed when the crude price was too high. Now these private players will refuse to produce because the crude price is too low and unremunerative. Ask the government to invoke ESMA and NSA against these people. Let this person who wrote this article recommend this to the government. All of you people roaming around in fuel guzzling machines roam around happily using the fuel produced by these hardworking oilmen and then subsidised for your comfort. If there are private players the government will be happy to announce bail out packages in the name of reviving and giving boost to the economy and they very much love to do that. They will not bother about imposing windfall tax or any such thing if they are earning good profits in order to subsidise common man. They will only overburden these PSUs with subsidy burden and then ask them to compete with private players without providing a level playing filed. They are least bothered about reviving and boosting the morale of simple living and hard working PSU employees.

I only hope that better wisdom prevails on these Media thinkers and that they try to understand the problem in the right perspective. Let me assure you that I am not one of those who favor going on strike and inconveniencing public but then there should be another choice to exercise. Also I hope everyone understands that healthy PSUs are very much required for good health of this nation and this is possible only with efficient and motivated workforce.

All our grievances are genuine. Support us if you can but don't malign us, don't demotivate us.

Best reagrds,

Chandra Sekhar

It is War - Poetry is the best expression at such times

समुन्‍द्र के अथाह से तेल क्‍या ये पत्रकार हैं लाए,

क्‍यों देश की राजधानी में इनके डटे हैं चैनल,

केवल मिडिया क्‍या देश चलाएगा,

सत्‍यम का सत्‍यमेव इस देश ने लिया है देख,

प्रशासन ने भ्रष्‍टाचार हर क्षेत्र में दिया है पेल,

अब देश द्रोह का तमगा मिलिभगत कर हमको दे दिया,

देवड़ा ने मिडिया को दी बधाई,

इसके पीछे का क्‍या है राज,

कौन किससे मिला “जी” कुछ तो करो आवाज,

जनता को गुमराह किया किसका है यह अगाज,

करो सबसिडी का अंत, है किसी माई के लाल में दम,

क्‍यों हो गए इन प्राईवेट तेल कम्‍पनियों के पेट्रोल पंप बंद,

क्‍यों हो रहा है देश के टेलेन्‍ट का पलायन,

सेंसेक्‍स को किसने शिखर तक पंहुचाया और धड़ाम से गिराया,

देश के वित्‍त मंत्री ने एक तरफा जानकारी होने का दम दिखाया,

कर दी हड़ताल तो गैर कानुनी डंडे का दमन चक्र चलाया,

ये ब्‍युरोक्रेट जिला स्‍तर से डंडा है चलाते,

इतनी मोटी चमड़ी हो गई है कि सरे आम जनता को गुमराह हैं कर जाते,

कई के पास अपार सपंत्‍ति, नल की टुटियों तक पर सोने का नक्‍काशी,

भोली भाली जनता को गुमराह की साजिश,

हमारे टेक्‍स से अपनी तनख्‍वा हैं पाते,

मिडिया के नाम पर टेक्‍स तक की छूट ले जाते,

घुस खाकर देश द्रोही हमे है बताते,



Neesha Jain

Media Role

My friends and colleagues have poured their anguish in the pages preceding mine. At this moment, I would just like to add a few points :-

• In the not too far away past, when our country was on the throes of bankruptcy and gold had to be pledged, there was only one organization which could stand “sovereign” guarantee to the nation and that is IndianOil. We, as employees had toiled hard to achieve the sovereign guarantor status, and are proud of this fact, and if the effort then constitutes to be termed as terrorists, it is pathetic on the part of misguided media.
• In the last few days, the media has acted as the witness, jury and judge – all rolled in one – and condemned all Oil Sector officers. The famed equality principle was nowhere to be seen or heard. Was the media muzzled and forced to portray one side of the story only? The simple journalistic principle of checking a hypothesis and verifying before reporting as a fact was totally thrown out of the window. Does TRP and revenue cloud the simple act of judgement?
• During the Crude Oil crisis, PSUs were forced to operate their Retail Outlets (ROs) and sell products at Government dictated prices. The effect is there for the entire world to see – with huge losses day after day, and poor balance sheets in addition to downgrading of rating leading to further erosion in value. The private Oil Companies had promptly closed their ROs without any compunction whatsoever.
• Why did the media take the partisan line? Was there pressure from Govt. or the private Oil companies who had made the media toe their line? Is there an insidious design to market their products in the country, when the EOU status, received under great fanfare, is now no more attractive with overseas markets in doldrums?

There are deeper issues than what has been portrayed in the media. A debate on the role of media and other agencies involved or likely to benefit from discrediting of Oil Sector officers is imperative. I am sure we all want the truth to come out and the taint of “terrorist” with which we have been painted, will have to be washed away.

Nandakumar

TOI- Times Of India News dtd 16-9-2009

At last media has woken up. This is why I read TOI! They do maintain the standards of news reporting and presenting facts to the Public. Alas if only I could say this of some other papers.

Please click on the images to open it in browser and read or click here

Role of Indian Media in dissemination of information

"Aloker ei jharna dhara-ey dhui-yey dao Apnakey,
Ei luki -ey Rakha Dhular Dhaka Dhuiyey dao"
-- Rabindranath Tagore
Translation:
Alok=Light, Jharna=Spring, Dhara= Flow, Dhuiey= Wash, Dao= Do it, Apnakey- Self/ Yourself,
Ei= This, Lukiey= Hidden, Dhular= Dust, Dhaka= Covered.

--Let this Brilliant Light that springs forth like a fountain from the depth of the earth wash away the thick layer of dust that was hiding your real self.

Just like the the Nobel Laureate Poet is involking the shining light to wash away the age old layers of dust that had hidden our true selves, I thank the Media & all those who are behind them for their abominable behaviour as pointed out by the aggrieved Officer's mail to Zeenews Network (in Post-no-1 of this blog), because it has actually wiped off the layers of dust on our collective souls. Your behaviour has now made us shake our lethargy and indifference to our environment and have shaken our collective SOULS! You have started a MOVEMENT.

Never before you saw a 3 day strike in the Oil Sector in the history of Post Indepedent India( for that matter even before that) and yet we ask you, DID you ever think why???????? Alas you did not even have a child's curiosity to ask questions.. What you did was just club our strike with the Trucker's Strike and even confused who is demanding what (saying Petrol Pump employees are asking for reduction of price)!!!

Yes, I thank you Zee news, I thank you Star news, I thank you India TV! I thank you Aaj Tak! I thank all of you Private News Channels for what you have done in 3 days, we never dreamt of doing in years!

I SALUTE you & your bunch of shrieking, loud voiced, theatrical, half witted, uninformed news anchors who thrive on the moment - you who employ these people who do not even half the brain to understand that "Electricity cannot be stored" as proved by the half witted lady of a news channel whose voice revealed her anxiety of meeting her target (her editor must have told her.. "get the interviewee to say that his buffer of electricity will last 2 days" and so this oil strike is so much harmful or else YOU will not get your increment!!). The top man of the Delhi Power station kept telling her that - yes the gas turbines were not running due to shortage of gas (due to the strike) but electricity shortfall of 500 MWs is being taken care of by his coal based generation and tapping from the neighbouring GRID - & so there will be no problem..but this young lady kept pestering him (in Hindi) "So, Sir, your gas turbines are not running.. what do you think? How long will your buffer or stock will last?" The man kept saying.."We cannot not store Electricity.. My gas stock is not there but no problems we will take electricity from UP Grid" she insisted "Phirbhi (Still 2 days 3 days?)" Why not? This is the Quality of Private Sector TV Channels!! Alas!!

Poor people they are, my dear readers!! I know they, the pvt media, are helpess. After all all THESE private Channels have to compete! Till late 70s or early 80s we had only the print media, which was much more responsible at that time. Then came Doordarshan or DD as we now know it as. Then suddenly in the past few years with the technological advancement we have seen mushrooming of a plethora of Private News Channels. And these news channels need their TRPs to survive.

Because greater the TRP means greater the advertisement Revenue they can earn and and and..and (???) .... hmm..why do you think PRIVATE PLAYERS DO business for? TO make money! ! (See Satyam??) No prizes for the answer!

(NEVER FORGET THIS-- Private Players do buisness for Money- because this site will deal on that too, and take you through a Premiere show- one who these people never dreamt of.)

So at least we saw DD news give a more subdued coverage, because it is not there for TRPs, though of course it too did not portray our points and views. But then they are excused, after all DD News is owned by Govt just like we are.. the POOR PUBLIC Sector !! In fact more so!

What Mr D. Ray, has pointed out in his well written letter (and I can understand how much time he must have taken to form the words- after all he is part of management of INDIANOIL) is that the Private Media has behaved very irresponsibly, their anchors only believing in Sensationalising the News without taking the Trouble of Probing the facts and performing the TRUE role of the MEDIA- Bringing out the TRUTH.

Yes a strike is the last resort, but when the other side will not listen at all, then what next? This is an eternal debate that wil keep raging till the end of PSUs.

But I am happy that in this process the whole incident now has unleased an unparalleled anger among not only Oil Sector but all Public Sector Employees and if the officers can only now channel their anger into creating a new dawn Unionism at least the next strike will not fizzle out in this manner, if we ever have to resort to it again.

Jai Public Sector!
Jai Hind!

Shantanu Das