TMC member Saket Gokhale is in the eye of a raging political storm after he came under public scrutiny for misappropriation of funds he collected through donations. As murky details of his swindling came to the fore, along with the allegations of sexual misconduct against him, a nefarious campaign is underway that provides a glimpse into the pervasive hate speech that goes around unchecked in the country.
With Saket Gokhale under the scanner for swindling money he sought in the name of activism, a raft of disillusioned left-leaning liberals have attributed Gokhale’s depravity to his Brahminical roots so as to salvage eroding public trust from the leftist ideology, of which Saket was and continues to remain one of its staunch adherents.
Many leftists, who have now become a butt of jokes on social media for being conned by a man who tapped their hate against PM Modi, resorted to what they have been doing since time immemorial: play the victim card and pass the buck on the Brahmins for their misery. After Gokhale was exposed for his swindling, allegations were hurled by the critics at the left ecosystem for harbouring and hailing people with questionable character. In opposition to this, the left-leaning ideologues and their supporters displayed unmatched alacrity in highlighting the TMC member’s Brahmin roots and blaming it for his wrongdoings.
Leftists highlight Gokhale’s Brahminical roots to spew venom against Brahmins
“A Brahmin man comes, loots this world of 22 lakhs and then loses all shit when people question him and cries saying he is a victim knowing fully well that he will get away in this system no matter what. This Brahmin audacity & entitlement needs to be put down,” said one of the Twitter users who appeared to be inclined towards the Left.
Others too highlighted misappropriation of funds by Saket Gokhale to insinuate how Brahmins are untrustworthy and deceitful.
Yet another Twitter user, Dilip Mandal, vilified Brahmins by asserting that Saket Gokhale’s misappropriation of funds is similar how to priests demand money by promising people to provide them with a better afterlife. Mandal also stated that this habit is longstanding and it would not go away too easily.
The Left spews anti-Brahmin vitriol as it tries to evade public reckoning over Saket Gokhale saga
Gokhale, before his undoing, was one of the blue-eyed boys of the liberal intelligentsia and supporters, who routinely interacted with him on various social media platforms and hailed his work for fighting against the “fascist” central government. Gokhale, for his part, had routinely and emphatically associated himself with the liberal ideology, something which the left-leaning liberals never rejected or questioned.
Now, as they feel cheated by one of their own and scathing questions are being raised on the ideology that attracts such immorality, the leftists have tried to deflect the criticism by reinforcing the victimhood narrative. Brahmins are being targeted now because Saket Gokhale happens to be a Brahmin. The fact that he never emphasised his Brahmin roots or revelled in being a Brahmin is not an important nugget of information that is worth enunciating because doing so would expose the moral decay that is plaguing the Left.
Moreover, since Saket is not from the BJP or the RSS, the organisations that have been ceaselessly reviled by the Left, the left supporters cannot dehumanise him the way they have come to dehumanise BJP and RSS workers who had been victims of hate crimes perpetrated against him. Therefore, the Left ecosystem is using Saket as a stick to beat Brahmins and propagate their anti-Brahmin propaganda to emerge from this imbroglio unscathed.
Instead of admitting that their hatred for PM Modi had clouded their judgment about the character of a person they were entrusting their hard-earned money with to continue his activism, the leftists are hiding their tomfoolery now by spewing venom against the Brahmins and making sweeping generalisations about Brahmins being innately fraud. Because doing otherwise could be catastrophic for the cause of left-liberalism. Admitting their own gullibility for being duped by Saket Gokhale would not only highlight their own fallibility but will also weaken the public confidence in the Left ideology. Therefore, they are now disingenuously calling attention to Saket Gokhale’s Brahmin roots and disparaging Brahmins for the vices of one of their own.
Nevertheless, the entire episode demonstrates how hate speech against Brahmins is rampant in India. It shows that Brahmins in our country do not enjoy the same citizenship status as accorded to the minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, whose rights are vigorously defended by the left-leaning liberals. A few weeks back, the entire liberal ecosystem swung into action to condemn Yati Narsighanand Saraswati for his remarks made at ‘Dharma Sansad’ in Haridwar. By contrast, the same level of concern was not extended to Brahmins. Instead, the Left continues to regard them as fair game, as expendable commodities who can be sacrificed on the altar of their ideology. This allows the Left to not only reinforce their anti-Brahmin propaganda but also aides them in pulling a veil over their association with Saket Gokhale.
Saket Gokhale accused of misappropriating funds collected from Modi haters
Rahul Gandhi fanboy turned TMC member Saket Gokhale came under scrutiny for alleged misappropriation of funds after poet and writer Hussain Haidry and several others raised demanded accountability from the activist politician on the utilisation of funds collected through fundraising campaigns.
Saket Gokhale was collecting funds through online fundraising campaigns for several years now and has collected lakhs of Rupees. But despite several donors and social media users demanding the details of the utilisation of the funds, he has been refusing to provide the same. When he was working as a Congress supporter, several Congress members and supporters had demanded accountability from him, but he had refused to provide.
It is alleged that all Saket Gokhale does is file online petitions for free and does not follow up with his petitions in courts. Therefore, he does not spend any money on his ‘activism’, and all the money donated to him by Congress workers and supporters go towards his personal expense.
Therefore, Hussain Haidry has demanded that Saket Gokhale give the details of how he spent the money he raised through fundraising campaigns. He said that hundreds and thousands of people, especially Muslims, have donated to Gokhale in the last 2-3 years in small amounts, but no stupendous work has been done by him.
He said that Saket Gokhale never replies if one asks for CA audited receipt and payment accounts till date, and status of work done till date in terms of FIR, PIL, RTI, Complaints filed with cost per case.
As allegations of misappropriation of funds started being levelled against Saket Gokhale and users demanded him to get his account audited, the TMC leader brazened it out, stating that he had already mentioned that funds he had procured through crowdfunding would be for his “sustenance” and that one does not promise “audited accounts” for monthly living expenses.
