It may be said safely that India’s liberals have had a bad weekend. First, Arnab resurfaced on Saturday with his new channel Republic TV, bearing with him a tape of Lalu Yadav taking orders from dreaded don Shahabuddin. By Saturday night, AAP was going up in flames with Arvind Kejriwal accused of taking ‘bribes’.
With two big secular superstars under siege at the same time, the battered liberal defenses on Sunday were a picture of despair. In their counter operations, it seems that the media made a tactical decision that Kejriwal was the more valuable asset and proceeded to throw a defensive ring around him.
Well, Rajdeep just looks pathetic playing “defense”. We have all seen the video of him when he is in his element as an “offensive” player.
The bitterness was more visible in this tweet from Hindustan Times’ Harinder Baweja.
In desperate times, even the most respectable of liberals will not shrink from “whataboutism”. Here is what Siddharth Varadarajan is reduced to.
What probe? The Supreme Court has already dismissed the case. Look Mr. Varadarajan sir, I read that in on a website you edit:
Maybe perhaps Sid Varadarajan does not read The Wire on principle, not wishing to get high on his own supply? That would explain a lot, actually.
Anyway, the same whataboutist approach appeared at the top of leftist propaganda blog Scroll:
Again, what probe? It’s already dismissed by the Supreme Court. So now we know that those who write for the Scroll don’t read The Wire either.
Also worth noticing here is that “whataboutism” is quintessentially “liberal” quality. Remember they indulged in the same even over the Delhi gangrape verdict by the SC.
Nonetheless, by Sunday night, Kejriwal’s minions were trending #IncorruptibleArvind on Twitter. No surprise there. But here is a tweet that caught my eye.
That’s a typical AAP handle, presumably run by some poor sap called Rohit. But “donate”? Interesting choice of words there, possibly indicating the level of despair in the secular camp.
Now I leave it to your imagination how many of the people above have had to “donate” their tweets over the last 2 days.
Hug a liberal. They have had a terrible weekend.
