Dear Rajdeep,
WHAT AN ELOQUENTLY WRITTEN ARTICLE, SO PRIM AND PROPER!
Let me try to dissect this. Here goes! Cheers from Brazil !
You have displayed your global charm at Madison Square Garden. You have shown to the world your commitment to free speech by blocking people who disagree with you on Twitter, and now you have shown how uneducated you are as a Journalist who doesn’t even know what the 1990s were all about.
Let me try to point out your half-baked stupid interpretation of Indian History starting with your opening line:
1) “In the 1990s, the country’s polity was divided by secular versus pseudo secular faultlines”
I forget the only Indian History you have read is what comes out of Ram Guha. But correction, India of 1990s was all about Economic Liberalization.
2) “When I was first accused of being ‘anti-national’ on social media, I was angry.”
Really!? I thought you were first angry at Madison Square when your bluff was called out by Indians on Foreign Soil, where you deliberately tried to provoke and get Anti-Modi statements, and failed with distinction.
3) “Yes, I am anti-national because I believe in an expanded definition of the right to free speech as spelt out in Article 19 of the Constitution. The only two ‘reasonable restrictions’ are incitement to violence and hate speech”
Are you sure? Is that the only reason you keep blocking people on Twitter? Your better half and BY GOD, I MEAN THAT IN REAL SENSE, she has all your faults and more, but I grant her one thing, she hasn’t yet blocked me, and can take it like a man.
4) “Yes, I am anti-national because in a plural democracy I believe we must have a dialogue with Kashmiri separatists as we must with those in the North-East who seek autonomy. I will listen to student protestors in Srinagar or Imphal as I will to those in an FTII or a JNU.”
Yes Dear , you are an anti-national, when you support anti-national Kashmiri Terrorists / Separatists / Secessionists who have killed / raped and driven them out of their lands for no fault of theirs. What do you think you will hear?
5) “The right to dissent is as fundamental as the right to free speech: shouting down alternative views, be they on prime time TV or on the street, is not my idea of India.”
Put your money where your mouth is! I Challenge you to once again fly out to the US. And dissent about the elimination of OBL Saheb in front of the White House. I will see how the US Government treats you for your show of dissent. That will make you an “anti-global” superhero, not just an “anti-national”. And you don’t like India anyways, nor does your wife like Indian men, so that plays out wonderfully well.
6) “Yes, I am anti-national because while I am a proud Hindu who wakes up to the Gayatri mantra, I also like a well done beef steak, which, according to BJP minister Mukhtar Naqvi, is a treasonous act, enough to pack me off to Pakistan. I celebrate the rich diversity of my country through food: Korma on Eid, pork sorpotel with my Catholic neighbours in Goa during Christmas and shrikhand during Diwali is my preferred diet. The right to food of my choice is again a freedom which I cherish and am unwilling to cede.”
I am amazed at the exemplary show of uninterrupted stupidity as enunciated by your extremely close friend moneybags. You celebrate the rich diversity of your country because it grants you the freedom. But it would’nt do you any harm if you are a little sensitive to tradition and culture of ordinary Indians.
And yes please don’t turn this around by asking me to be sensitive to the Killings of KP, that would be another disaster for your intellectual image you have so long tried to maintain, but believe me, everyone knows when the King is not wearing the clothes. The problem it seems is, in your life there was never a person who could teach you the balance between right and just, between duty and responsibility, between justice and equality. It’s like you were taught 2+2 = 5, unlike the rest of us .
7) “But above all else, I am anti-national because I believe in Ambedkar’s concept of a republican constitution.”
The same Ambedkar said that we need to relook the reservation, and that it can’t be a permanent solution to an age old problem, but one word on Anti Reservations, and you start licking your lips, as if you have just tasted “blood dripping beef”, counting the potential for twisting and generating some cheap TRPs.
8) “And when I get weary of the ‘desh-drohi’ abuse I will seek solace in the legend of my original icon, Muhammad Ali, who, as Cassius Clay, threw his gold medal into the river in protest at being denied entry into a whites-only restaurant.”
“White only restaurant”, Man, I have to give it to you, it’s biased like you who built or promoted the same “ELITE INTELLECTUAL SOUNDING , FAKE ACCENT SPORTING SUITED BOOTED IHC frequenting” exclusive clubs across the country, flaunting “I KNOW ALL” attitude, denying the same media space to the common man, till the Social Media exploded, literally pulling the VIP rug from under your feet, making you crawl, and FORCING you to vent anger on the same social media like the other mortals. Welcome to the NEW INDIA!
I have to wonder as to what have communists / Marxists like Raja / Karat / Kavtia Krishnan et. all. contributed to the betterment of India that you have allowed these people, who have driven entire economies of major industrial hubs to shambles (Yes, if you didn’t already know, even before the 1990s “Cawnpore” or as your gen. knows it “Kanpur” was referred to as the Manchester of the East), a free run on your channels, but never invited common people unless it’s (un)common man Arvind Kejriwal, to give them a voice, some air time on what they really want.
All you and your kind did was bring on caged parrots who did all the nice sounding talking. Your video, where you clap your hands before i/v YugPurush is still fresh in on Social Media I believe.
9) “I HOPE SOME OF YOU SAY SORRY TO ME TOO ONE DAY!”
Boy oh boy, you do have BLOATED OPINION of your SELF PROCLAIMED “ANTI-NATIONAL” self , the NARCISSIST in you never ceases to amaze!
And the final nail in the coffin of your logic, READ AGAIN, I AM NOT THREATNING YOU, ONLY BUSTING YOUR ILLOGICAL BALOON WITH AN ANSWER.
10) Post-script: Last week, at the Delhi Gymkhana litfest, I suggested that the right to free speech must include the right to offend so long as it doesn’t incite violence. A former army officer angrily got up and shouted, “You are an anti-national who should be lynched right here!”
THEN WHY IN THE NAME OF JESUS DO YOU BLOCK PEOPLE ON TWITTER ? THEY CAN’T LYNCH YOU ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
But yes, they can definitely bruise inflated egos, but puncturing their empty brains, and displaying to the whole world how naked they stand intellectually.
M2C
Good Morning by the time you wake up to read this! And a great weekend!
