'WHATEVER IT FAKES' -- SO MR RAJDEEP, WHERE ARE YOUR RUSSIANS?

The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming
Director: Norman Jewison
Writers: Nathaniel Benchley (novel)William Rose (screenplay)

When a Soviet submarine captain comes up for a look at America (off the coast of a small island in Massachusetts) he runs aground. He sends his two English speaking crewmen to procure a boat with enough power to pull them off. The 2 English speakers, along with 7 other Russian sailors, don't exactly blend in and the town is convinced that they are being invaded. (courtesy IMDB)

If print journalism is literature in a hurry, then TV journalism’s a woman of lesser virtue, hopping from bed to bed, trying to warm as many of em as she can, before sun up.
This small story we've done here, is dedicated to all those one-street towns and two-town states, which have had to suffer from the marauding excesses foisted on em, by these big-town TV cowboys who storm in riding from the capital, ‘chasing’ a story once in a while.
And by the time they’ve made ‘sense’ of the story and gotten under it’s ‘skin’ and ‘nailed’ the conclusion, you’d do well to observe that these fat-assed punks, haven’t even gotten their butt off the saddles even once.
Now that we’ve done the sermonin bit, let’s get to business.
There are times guys, when news doesn’t look 'beautiful' and FACT simply isn’t ‘enough’ to be put on the table for supper. It is around times like these, that newsmen start getting ideas. And in the quest to make a small, but factually correct story ‘grand’ and of ‘mammoth’ proportions, journos botox it with an ounce of fiction and a few pounds of that Sagarika Ghose kind of make-up.
And where do these new age journos seek inspiration from… Books? No... journalists today have nothing much to do with books. They look to films to spice things up.
And we believe that is what exactly happened with CNN-IBN Russian-‘mafia’-in-Goa investigation, that was broadcast sometime before the state assembly elections here.
Instead of sticking to facts, the investigation team perhaps 'fell' for how the story would sound later, whenever they recalled their moments of glory… ‘Russian mafia’… oh yes… it does have that twang. That’s just the kind of spice you are looking out for. A fancy phrase to pitch your story to your commissioning editors.
There are just about so many holes in this story, that Rajdeep surely won’t have any trouble finding one to sink his head in, if at all he figures this con out.
First allow us a premise…
Fact: Politicians have received kickbacks for land deals in Goa
Fact: Babush Monserrate is no babe in the woods and his role as Town and Country Planning department minister is shady and sickening to say in the least.
Fact: Land grabbing by non-Goans (read foreign nationals and non Goans included) and is a major issue in Goa.
However, the 'facts' which have been ‘exposed’ by the CNN-IBN investigation (you guys can corroborate it using these links) are grossly off the mark in some cases and in one instance a complete lie)
Impact: Goa govt probes land mafia
Goa leader's pals: Russian mafia
Russian mafia usurps Goa land
This is what the CNN-IBN claims are the main findings in their story.

• The Russian mafia is buying up copious amounts of land in Goa. They claim they have proof to prove the same.
• CNN-IBN claims they caught Town and Country Planning minister Atanasio Monserratte alias Babush Monserrate on camera taking a bribe for a land conversion deal.

Guys, the evidence we have to prove this story wrong, is no earth-shattering scrap of paper, which we 'dug out' after six months of toil. Neither is it a product of an undercover operation that we launched earlier or some bullshit like that.
The information we are putting up now is available with every accredited journalist in Goa. It’s no confidential document. This piece of information was tabled in the House during the last assembly session. It’s a starred Legislative Assembly Question (LAQ) tabled by an opposition MLA Ramrao Dessai from Curcorem, which was answered by the government on July 17, 2006.
Dessai in his question has asked the minister for Revenue for the number of cases that have been received by the government in which foreign nationals have purchased land in Goa…
If any of you guys need this document, you could obtain a copy from the Goa legislature wing. We have uploaded a scanned image of LAQ in question. There are about two dozen sheets of annexure giving details of these land deals. You'd find your answer there.

According to this document, do you know how many pricks from the dreaded Russian ‘mafia’ have brought land in Goa? Well out of the 482 cases where foreigners have picked up land in Goa, only two cases involve Russians. Two guys… a mighty big mafia operation ain’t it? Well, if two heads can make a Russian mafia, three heads could make the Russian infantry na?
And to top it all guys, you know what the CNN-IBN investigation team have missed?
Contrast this bit of info.
While there were two chappies from Russia who’ve bought land in Goa, there are 311 Britishers who’ve done the same in a similar timespan. Imagine guys, while CNN-IBN went sniffing up the wrong tree with the Russian land mafia bit, there were actually 311 Brits who’ve brought land in Goa within the same timespan. Now, that's fishy isn't it?

And the mighty investigation team missed this! Pooh…
And about the part where CNN-IBN claims they have Babush on tape, guys read this post which we’d filed sometime back… This is a lie.
The entire investigation was based on two factors one of which was a documentary trail, which the channel claimed was enough to convince them about the existence of a Russian land mafia. This documentary trail was one case? One case... that was enough for them to arrive at a conclusion that there’s a Russian land mafia? You guys should come to Café Prakash and hear the conspiracy theories there… you could even get a lead to a land mafia operating Mars at Café Prakash… Secondly, Babush was never caught on tape taking a kickback. The channel lies when it says this. Unless they have him on camera and they haven’t shown the bit… now that would mean something else altogether.

Guys we are going to put out another bit on this Russian mafia scare in a few days… Maybe Monday or Tuesday next week… It’s a small observation we’ve to make on a similar story which was carried as a cover in Outlook some time back called ‘Molotov on the Mandovi’… if you guys have the patience do look it up next week… if you think this is cock-and-bull stuff you could ignore this request…