You can run but you can’t hide..

Back in the good, old days, it was easy to run and hide. You could say something or even do something and pretend it never happened. Records used to vanish without a trace, even official records; sometimes they caught fire.

Those were the days. It was easy to run and hide. Then came the “internet” and the odd acronyms of funny, unpronounceable things (what’s a cache anyways?). Suddenly you could not hide. Not anymore. Because some tech-savvy whiz-kid was sure to find a record of every word of wisdom you ever put out on the “net” – including things you thought you had deleted long back. You mean they can still get to stuff even after emptying my Recycle Bin? #^%*!

And so it happened that a report that may have been picked up from another publication went live on a particular website apparently by mistake, with these damning words in the main body:

The marching orders came from the party headquarters in Delhi, the Congress workers reportedly told the owner..

The “marching orders” were allegedly to target Aditi restaurant in Parel which was allegedly issuing receipts making fun of the UPA government. That such marching orders may have come from the Congress HQ was deeply disturbing to say the least. I promptly posted the news on twitter.

A few hours later when I clicked on the link, the offending words seemed to have vanished. Vanished without a trace! No mention at all.  For a brief moment, I wondered if I was imagining things. Then, I remembered the whiz-kids!

Within minutes of putting out a request for help, I managed to get my hands on the original report – as it had appeared a few hours back. Sure enough, the words were there. Congress workers had indeed claimed that orders to shut Aditi restaurant had come from the party headquarters in Delhi.  In normal times, such an order from any party headquarter would attract headlines and lead to frenzied panel discussions, op-eds, debates, and screaming headlines. None of this happened. Instead, there was thunderous silence.

A few days later, another report went live on the website of a leading newspaper. Referring to the Railway scam, the headline read: “Rahul Gandhi has given his go-ahead, so be sure of the appointment”. The news-report mentioned that names of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi had cropped up several times in phone transcripts unearthed by CBI in the Railways jobs-for-cash scandal. This was explosive stuff.

Again, the frenzy and the din that would have normally accompanied such headlines was missing. All we had was the deafening silence of complicity. Sometime over the next few hours, the report disappeared. It is no longer available on the website of the newspaper. But someone had forgotten the whiz-kids – and the power of web-caches. Within a few hours, the whole episode was neatly documented. The original report is now on the web.

You can run but you can’t hide.

P.S. NDTV cache images, thanks to Gururaj; the latest “version” of the Aditi resturant episode on NDTV is here.

Somewhat related: I Hate Bloggers