This author, Shekhar Gupta, a veteran journalist, plays a clever trick in his article, "The holier-than-cow Indian liberal elite is actually Modi’s best friend and ally", of seemingly pretending to criticise so called liberals, self called that is, while assuming everyone sane is united in denouncing PM Narendra Modi of India in particular and BJP in general, and president Trump too of course.
"I might ask though how can you be liberal and yet have a vacuum-packed book of rules, behaviour and speech?" Duh, because the label is fraudulently self stuck by them like other labels such as secular, progressive, intellectual - and equally fraudulently, opposite labels are stuck on those not confirming, such as right wing or worse.
As for abusing trump, dare anyone do that to any bush or even Reagan, Nixon, Ford, Coolidge?
Trump is simply not of the club, hence ostracized. Republicans haven't allowed a decent guy to run after Lincoln, with the only possible exception being Ike.
Abusing PM Narendra Modi of India is a convenient double edged sword, though, as obvious in this article if one reads it. Call him abusive names, and if he calls a spade a spade, publicise him as using the abuse or worse!
Gupta isn't that different from congress fellow travellers the Lutyen's left - should in truth be called leftovers. Of Macaulay policy products.
Some of the comments are typical and illuminating in their stance, especially if one doesn't fall for the diatribe or get lulled as intended. One has to read between lines and know enough to pick the stone that doesn't quite belong in the tray.
Here is one, by a self declared supporter of rg (with the axis half DNA, or tricky question of his evidently multiple citizenship, rendering his Indian citizenship null, not mentioned):-
Steve 24 June, 2018 at 3:20 am
"Mr. Shekhar, as a self-avowed liberal (Amit Shah’s army would consider me a “sickular”), allow me to correct your presumptions about us “ayatollahs”. I’m someone who supports the Congress Party and Rahul Gandhi. Shashi Tharoor is my ideological mentor. I have no affection for Marx and Trotsky although I find some of their literature quite engrossing. But, that’s about it.
"Not all liberals are alike. So, I cannot in good faith agree with your assumption that we have a singular denomination. That’s simply not true. You can be a liberal and not oppose the construction of dams, unlike Medha Patkar. You can be a liberal and a 100% patriotic Indian, nothing like Arundhati Roy or the misbehaving students of JNU. They are reactionaries, just like the Right-Wing have the VHP-RSS and normal BJP voters.
"The lunatic fringes of the Left and Liberal persuasion do not define our identity and purpose. Congress party, as per it’s own creed, is a Centre-Left party. Samajwadi Party, TMC and RJD are slightly more left compared to us. Of course, CPI(M) and BSP-Mayawati are extreme left because they advocate the rights of extremely marginalized groups e.g. Dalits. It’s not that Congress does not support the empowerment of Dalits and Muslims but as a mainstream national party, it has to look after the socio-economic interests of all groups, including wink wink, upper caste Hindus.
"That shouldn’t come as a surprise. BJP isn’t the only party that can claim to safeguard the interests of upper caste Hindus. Congress has been doing something similar for over 60 years. In fact, I’d like to think that we did a much better job than someone like Modi who runs away from his responsibilities of protecting Kashmir, contrary to his election promise of bringing 10 severed Pakistani heads for every dead Indian soldier at LoC. Congress (UPA) never made such exaggerated promises. Being liberals, we believe it’s a bit barbaric to bring severed heads in 2018. But at least, UPA understood the ground realities of Kashmir better than Modi does. We were able to forge a stalemate peace in the Valley. Given the complicated conditions and considerable UN pressure, you’d appreciate it’s not very easy. But, at least UPA leaders knew the pulse of Kashmiris and tried to patch a solution. You see during UPA-2, normalcy was returning to the Valley. Tourists had started filling in the houseboats of Dal Lake once again.
"Then Modi came in 2014 with his tall promise of ache din and everything fell apart in Kashmir. Today the situation in Kashmir is so serious that India may be at its weakest point in terms of exerting control over Kashmir Valley. It might take a long time for a future Congress government to clean up the mess created by an incompetent Modi administration. Modi has the habit of leaving a job half-attended. He is not a finisher. As we saw with demonetisation and other failed schemes. We don’t blame him. Modi simply does not have the level of experience required at running a complex country like India, and Congress simply has more influential people in its ranks to face the diverse challenges of our country owing to the experience gained in running the show for over 60 days. Comparing Congress (and UPA) leaderships with Modi is like comparing a Bollywood film made under the Yash-Raj banner with a two bit C-grade movie from somewhere down South. Hopefully, the people of India will realize the mistake they made in 2014 by giving inexperienced leaders like Modi the reins of food country. Who in their right mind would appoint someone like Smriti Irani to an important portfolio called I&B. Thankfully, she’s been removed now.
"One might argue that Rahul Gandhi isn’t very experienced either. Fair enough but one must also remember that he doesn’t have any personal ambitions to be PM. He’s pretty content being Congress Party President. It’s not an important issue for Congress Party who will be next Prime Minister. Congress as well as other mature political parties of India don’t believe in running a one-man/two-man show. Congress has always respected checks and balances in institutions and does not let the executive branch gain more power. Congress believes in Coalition Dharma. I think the real issue with present BJP is a self-proclaimed strongman as PM who mistakenly believes that he alone has the ability to solve all problems of India. We saw his boastful claims squandered on the curb during demonetisation and the recent Kashmir imbroglio. Modi is a leader who’s incapable of keeping his allies happy. You cannot expect bipartisanship from such a leader. He has no awareness of political protocols and winning support of opposition leaders. If he had any respect for the Opposition, he wouldn’t appoint a 10th fail B-grade actress like Smriti Irani to ond of the most important posts in the Cabinet.
"Being liberal or secular isn’t wrong in any sense of the word just like being conservative isn’t a problem as long as you’re not an extreme right-winger.
"One more thing, the liberal values of Congress Party in India are not the same as Democrats in the US or Labour in the UK. Indian liberals have no use for Gay rights, abortion rights, same-sex marriage and other unique Western political planks. Recently Shashi Tharoor drew some flak about speaking in favor of marijuana legalization but that’s not a big head ache for Congress party or any other political parties to the left of Congress km India.
"The issues of the Indian liberal are indeed very different. They are steeped in a uniquely Indian milieu and the main concern is about issues that affect the poor and the marginialized of our country. Here is a checklist for you.
"1- We Indian liberals care about the government offering free and subsidized education to all our citizens, particularly the vulnerable sections of our society. We are against the undue importance being given go unregulated private schools under Modi raj. There has to be a balance. Modi government does not believe in utilizing taxpayer funds to build world class schools and Universities. All the IITs, NITs and AIIMS were built under mostly Congress governments.
"2- Likewise, we Indian liberals believe in free or subsidized healthcare similar to most civilized countries.
"3- We Indian liberals believe in social and communal harmony. Also, national unity is a great concern to us. We believe in the territorial integrity of India, much more than the Modi regime does. We hate to see how meekly Modi is giving up on Kashmir.
"4- We Indian liberals believe in Dalit and minority rights, not because they are special people but they are massively underrepresented in the corridors of power. Upper caste Hindus have far more privileges in this country than they realize. It’s only fair to level the field for all Indians a bit, so that good opportunities are served to one and all.
—-
"Mr. Shekhar, I normally enjoy reading your columns but today you have disappointed by painting Indian liberals in the wrong light. The original premise of your article was to create suspicions among the undiscerning public of the real intent and mindset of Indian liberals. I would have never expected that from you. It’s one thing to go after some lunatic fringes in the liberal-left world, but painting all of us with the same brush is not a well thought out premise.
"I expect nothing short of an apology or clarification from you for misunderstanding and misrepresenting us Indian liberals. Whatever you wrote about us here is not who we are. At least I hope that you have had a refresher course on how Indian liberals of Congress party think. So that you don’t misrepresent us again.
"Thank you for reading."
Notice anything wrong, sleight of hand, or worse, there?
Fraud, abusive, false - as is norm these days with congress.
Notice the finesse used in abusing with false accusations re PM Narendra Modi, in mentioning him as well as when praising rg for "not wanting to be PM of India" and being "content being president of congress ", both sides of coin false. Notice the false criticism, and the obvious entitlement to a monopoly of ruling the nation, justified as expertise in doing it - and yet not admitting that the landslide victory of BJP was due to two factors, including the proven governance by the then CM of Gujarat, but foremost being the frauds, scams and incompetence of UPA at everything including the routine terrorist attacks through India during the UPA decade.
Notice above all his abusing minister Ms Irani and harping on her supposed lack of education (which isn't proven but her speeches consistently prove the opposite), while ignoring the same lack of education proven in case of his own leaders with plenty evidence in speeches and more. Notice branding her as low grade actress while omitting exactly what his own leader of the UPA decade did prior to her netting the prize husband - Dr Subramanian Swamy who spoke about the frauds perpetrated by her said he was shocked when he found out, and wouldn't mention it, but people can find out. That doesn't say au pair or waitress or bar maid or dancer.
Notice the adroit non addressing the question of scams and frauds, including the citizenship related ones - neither the current nor the ex president of congress are citizens of India, since there is definite evidence they held and used other passports but no evidence of surrendering any. Notice calling themselves the expensive film while branding BJP as c grade film from South, typical attitude of feudal entitled brats there. Doon?
Bought isn't equal to education. India knows this. Steve hasn't a clue.
https://theprint.in/national-interest/the-holier-than-cow-indian-liberal-elite-is-actually-narendra-modis-best-friend/73907/
Bought isn't equal to education. India knows this. Steve hasn't a clue.
Liberals can go ahead and pour scorn on Modi. It will only strengthen his base and reaffirm the myth of victimhood.