Two teasers on ‘Buch Bachao Syndicate’ invite viewers to wait for third

"There are some brave journalists, websites and YouTubers who still dare to expose the truth of the powers that be. Legacy media has stopped doing investigative journalism. In a situation such as this, the struggle of the opposition to uphold accountability of the govt becomes a very uphill task,” posted Pawan Khera on X, while releasing a 10-minute vlog about his research into the share market and SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India).

Khera, chairman of the media and publicity cell of the Indian National Congress, was making amends for saying that he and his team were forced to do the media’s job because mainstream media had stopped doing investigative journalism. Sharp reactions from YouTubers and independent journalists followed, and a contrite Khera duly acknowledged their contribution.

The teaser vlogs released on Saturday are just that, teasers. They do not reveal much but promise to reveal a lot more. The shorter teaser released first has Lok Sabha leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi conversing with Khera on the phone. The minute-long video shows the LOP telling Khera that a member of his security detail had asked that morning about the risky phase in the share market.

Khera and his team must find a new way of communicating to people, especially the young, about the risks in investing in shares and how share prices are manipulated by a few. “I am sorry to pester you but a large number of people stand to lose much,” Gandhi says, ending the conversation.

The second teaser shows Khera and his young research team poring over papers and figures and going over allegations made against SEBI by Hindenburg Research and others. He is heard telling his team that the question that needs to be answered is why SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch is helping and protecting the Adani Group. How SEBI has been helping the group, he is heard saying, needs to be communicated simply.

He also points out that with 10 crore Indians investing in shares, it involves those many families and with an average of four members in each family, the lives of 40 crore Indians will be affected by what happens in the stock market. 

In an enigmatic portion of the vlog, Khera is heard explaining that information was being received from various sources, including from anonymous informants known only by their code names.

One such informant, who goes by the name of Maverick, calls Khera, who can be heard asking the source to confirm if he was suggesting that Buch was founder member of a start-up called Predible, which ostensibly received funds from the Government of India and a firm by the name of Jacesa Investments.

The teaser then shows Gandhi walking into the ‘war room’ and asking the team what they have managed to discover and link. Khera says his team is getting ready for the next press conference. However, he laments, the mainstream media gives his team’s findings no coverage, presumably on government instructions. Every silly BJP members’ allegation gets debated on prime time, but painstaking research and questions raised by his team are ignored in the media.

That is precisely why, Gandhi suggests, the team will have to be even more innovative and enterprising. It is important to communicate and demonstrate that without the active complicity of the government and the prime minister, this scandal would not have been possible.

The teasers have whetted appetites on social media, with the second and longer vlog reaching half-a-million viewers. Will the third vlog live up to the promise of showing the SEBI scandal in sharper detail? The countdown has begun.