Ashutosh Gupta's Hindu Rashtra

 Ashutosh is the editor of 'SatyaHindi.com'. His star was rising as a journalist. He got into politics and was the spokesperson of the AAP party. But the man was a cretin. He quit the party after failing to get a Rajya Sabha seat. He should have remained and taken a chance on winning Chandni Chowk and getting into the Lok Sabha. Then, he chose the wrong time to climb onto the 'Gandhi's Hinduism v BJP Hindutva' bandwagon. Congress decline continued and thus Ashutosh had no new home to go to. Over the last 3 years he has looked increasingly foolish and out of touch with his audience.

What is the reason for his stupidity? The answer is that he spent 8 years at JNU studying worthless shite. Thus his brain rotted away.

He writes in the Indian Express-

In his book JNU: Nationalism and India's Uncivil War, professor Makarand R Paranjape fails to understand the essential irreverence that characterises the premier university.

Irrelevance, yes. Irreverence- sure, if you are just marking time before Daddy sends you abroad or you get into the IAS. But, for the vast majority of rural and vernacular medium students, reverence for English language instruction and Western pedagogy motivates their wasting their time there. JNU was set up just after devaluation. It was obvious that Dads who'd gone to Cambridge couldn't afford to send their daughters, or even their sons, abroad. This was the reason the Govt. spent money on a place named after the last Englishman to rule India.  

Despite teaching for over two decades in Jawaharlal Nehru University, the academic seems intimidated by all that the university stands for.

It stands for being shit because it is tax payer's money that is being wasted. If it weren't so heavily subsidized students would insist on getting value for money. Paranjape knows about JNU because he has been there for 20 years. Ashutosh left 25 years ago.  

Jawaharlal Nehru University is an idea which is dreamy and irreverent,

which is cool if Daddy is rich or you're a shoo in for a scholarship to the States. It is not cool if your family back in the village is pinning all their hopes on you.  

challenges the stereotypes,

you can challenge stereotypes at the tea-shop or in the bus queue. Young people are sacrificing the chance to earn and to acquire work skills by attending College.  

breaks traditional moorings, is Leninist in its thought process

in other words, shit in its thought processes 

but Gandhian in ethos

and hypocritical and useless in its ethos. Gandhi was paid a lot of money by a bunch of rich people who got richer thanks to him. Also, he kept the Brits in India and let them dictate the pace and scope of reform.  

and that makes it mystical and intriguing,

this guy is successful probably because his Hindi is good- thanks to Allahabad University- and he has fond memories of the 8 years he whiled away being subsidized by the Indian tax-payer. But, back then, the 'opportunity cost' of wasting your time was much less because jobs were scarce.  

and, in certain ways, spiritual. For an outsider, JNU is intimidating

For people who have teach those cretins and have to navigate its crazy politics the place isn't just intimidating. It is atrocious.  

but for someone who has lived on the campus as a student, not as a teacher, JNU is endearing.

35 years ago, maybe. But the world has changed. If you get an M.A in shit you enter the workforce as a junior to a guy who is younger than you and who never went to Collidge.  

I know this because I spent eight glorious years on campus

he got two worthless M.As thanks to the generosity of the Indian tax-payer.  

as a student and I was not a communist. And, of course, neither was I an anti-national.

He was just an idle fellow who didn't or couldn't crack the UPSC.  

I joined JNU in 1986, when communism was fading the world over and I exited JNU when the Soviet Union was no more. So, while reading this book written by professor of English, Makarand R Paranjape, I was not surprised that he failed to understand JNU.

Whereas this cretin understood it.  

He seems intimidated by the idea called JNU despite being a professor for more than two decades in the campus.

The guy is worried that the Govt. will pull the plug on JNU or just pack it full of RSS types. He is trying to show that not all of its people are, as Nivedita Menon proudly says, part of the tukde tukde gang.  

I dare not say that he wrote this book out of hate, rather, while writing, he believed that like the Communist Manifesto, his book would trigger a “revolution” and JNU would be wiped clean of the “malaise” that makes it the best university in the country.

The Indian Institute of Science takes top spot.  

Before I joined JNU, I studied at Allahabad University, which then was called the Cambridge of the East,

but only by people who went to Oxford 

but it was JNU which transformed non-entities, many like me, from small town, lower middle-class boys into men ready to fight for universal values.

If by universal values you mean stupid shit- then sure. What was the point of the AAM party? Have Lokpals helped anyone? Still, Kejriwal is a smooth operator.  

Of course, JNU even then was a citadel for communist ideas but it was an intellectualism of a very high order,

which this cretin could not fathom. The fact is back when JNU was created communism was about higher maths- Kolmogorov, Kantorovich, Pontyragin etc. But it was the Indian Institute of Statistics and DSE and one or two other places which taught that stuff. The JNU was and remained useless. Still that's where you went to hang out till you cracked the IAS or got a scholarship to the States. The jhollawallah vibe was cool provided underneath your khadi kurta you were wearing authentic Levis which Mamaji sent you from Amrika.   

refreshed by democratic values and egalitarianism, which abhorred any kind of sectarianism, communalism and casteism,

but bigotry against the Sangh Parivar was obligatory.  

and was not intimidated by the all-powerful establishment. That is why it invited the wrath of Mrs Indira Gandhi.

And meekly surrendered. Still, I recall the heroic role of JNU staff in fighting Congress mobs during the anti-Sikh riots. True this heroism was only demonstrated by eating samosas and drinking chai in a defiant manner but it was valor nonetheless.  

So, if the Narendra Modi administration is angry with JNU, I am not surprised.

Modi benefits from the stupidity of JNU and Jamia Millia.  

I would have been surprised if it had surrendered to the hegemonic right-wing ideology.

What would be the point? The jhollawallahs, like Ashutosh himself, help the BJP by their stupidity. 

I can understand professor Paranjape’s anguish when he writes “Everything is political. Or politicised. Anti-government activists thriving at the government’s expense. This was what JNU socialism seemed to boil down to.” I was aghast to read that a professor of his calibre equates “anti-government-ism” with “anti-National-ism”.

But Ashutosh shared a platform with Nivedita Menon when she made that 'tukde tukde' comment. No wonder Kejriwal got rid of him. 

The central govt. funds JNU. It can turn it into an RSS stronghold. Only if it raises standards and contributes to economic growth will it be left alone. When a particular administration keeps getting re-elected it gets to decide what is Nationalism and what is separatism.  

He writes, “…I challenged the overwhelmingly anti-government, one might also say anti-national, stance of the JNU student union.”

Maybe that was true. But it is foolish to try to debate with fools. 

When a professor borrows a phrase like “tukde tukde”,

Nivedita Menon did that but Ashutosh did not leave the dais.  

I am sure he has his reason but I was rather surprised when he relates Gandhi with violence. While lecturing students after the Kanhaiya Kumar episode, he says, “Gandhi was forced to settle for the violence of the state in maintaining law and order. That to him, was preferable to indiscriminate mass violence.”

This is perfectly true. Gandhi supported the Kashmir war. He condemned mass violence.  

Non-violence was the basic essence of Gandhi,

non-violence against the British, yes. But not non-violence against Pakistani invaders of Kashmir.  

the reason for his existence, and to even tangentially read otherwise will be a wrong reading of Gandhi.

It will be the reading of Gandhi which he himself intended. He said ' the job of armed forces is to march ahead and repel the attacking enemy'. Gandhi drew a sharp distinction between organized and professional armies and police forces using violence and mobs running amok.

He would have urged JNU students to immediately terminate their studies and go to the villages and talk bollocks there. 

It was this reason that he was iconised

idolized- still, the man's Hindi is good, thanks to Allahabad University 

by Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela

who said he preferred Nehru. Mandela did not believe in non-violence 

and Martin Luther King.

who was a Christian clergyman.  

If there is one university which imbibed the basic essence of Gandhi, it is

Gujarat Vidyapith which Gandhi founded. The mother-tongue, or at the very least Hindi as the national language, must be the medium of instruction.  

JNU where disputes were/are not sorted out by the use of violence

because at other Universities Maths professors beat each other until they agree that  the Mochizuki proof of the abc conjecture is flawed. Still, I suppose JNU was less violent than Allahabad. But that's not saying much. 

but by constitutionally mandated means.

This stupid cunt doesn't get that disputes should be resolved through research and the proper application of logic at Universities. Launching hartal against Newton's theory of Gravitation may be 'constitutional' but Universities should be aiming a little higher.  

I am not denying that there were, and are, no exceptions but to deride students for peaceful protests

when they are being subsidized to study stuff useful to the country 

and paint a different picture smacks of an ideological bias and personal prejudice.

Ashutosh is himself a seething mass of bigotry and prejudice. This is because he is ignorant and stupid. Eight years at JNU will do that to you. Look at Dr. Kanhaiya Kumar. Does he know anything about the Economics of Africa? No. His PhD is worthless. He is now with the Congress party. So much for standing with the 'tukde tukde' gang.  

I am glad he did not hide his liking for PM Modi. He writes, “At his best, Modi can be inspiring and visionary … A master political strategist, he is also determined, driven, even, a visionary leader…” To praise Modi, he coins a new phrase for nationalism. He writes, “NaMo nationalism, this is the chant of the mantra of unity, not division.”

Okay, okay. This English Professor's English is poor. But allowances should be made. If you teach at JNU you will soon find your brains have turned to shit.  

I will definitely not call this book a rant of a professor seeking endorsement from the left liberal and, in its absence, finds them “degenerate” and his friends wonder, “how the dominant, left liberal, Congress-sponsored narrative about India is so durable.”

Maybe this makes sense in Hindi. It doesn't in English. The Professor seeks endorsement from sensible people his own age. That is perfectly natural.  

I can understand his pain when he writes, “I realised that even after teaching diligently, faithfully, and one might even say inspiringly for over twenty years, I found no recognition, let alone affirmation in JNU … here being the most published professor did not count for anything at all.”

Because JNU is a shitshow.  

He very honestly poured his heart out. His angst is justified but then that is what JNU is.

Shit. 

Even recognition to academic stalwarts like Romila Thapar, Bipan Chandra, Namvar Singh, Kedarnath Singh did not come easy.

I've heard of Thapar who was from a rich family and got to Cambridge at the same time as Amartya Sen and thus got a head start. But who are the others?  Commies of some sort, I suppose. But their 'long march through the institutions' ended in irrelevance. 

That is JNU.

A shit-hole which was supposed to spread Communism now produces useless tossers like Kanhaiya Kumar who, quite naturally, has been picked up the equally useless Rahul.  

What is Ashutosh's own ideology? I think he believes that the Mahasabha was responsible for Partition. No Muslim ever considered Hindus to be infidels. Savarkar or some other such Maharashtrian brainwashed the Muslims and caused them to demand Pakistan. No doubt, evil Westerners were behind this cunning plot.

In an interview, Ashutosh explains

Why a book on Hindu Rashtra?

I’ve always been fascinated — maybe ‘fascinated’ is the wrong word — by the RSS and its ideology, though for the wrong reasons.

Why would Ashutosh have been 'fascinated' by the RSS? I think the answer is that the RSS played a big role in the rise of Lohia and JP's return to politics and to the resistance to Indira's Emergency. But Janata split on the 'dual membership' issue. Thus, for Ashutosh, the RSS had a magical quality. It was a 'pharmakon'- both a medicine and a poison. Thus Ashutosh got a hard on thinking about it which made him feel manly till he suddenly realized that what he really wanted was a reacharound. That made him feel awfully queer so he went to JNU for 8 years. 

Why ‘wrong reasons’?

The RSS ideology wants to divide Hindus and Muslims, 

Muslims were already divided from Hindus by their religion. Some considered it a religious duty to either extirpate idol-worship or else to leave a place where infidels predominated. The Armenian genocide under the Caliph and then the transfer of population after the Treaty of Sevres revived the notion that there must either be separation or conquest. 

and is based on hatred. Any ideology based on hatred is not good for the country, and that’s why I’ve been studying RSS for a very long time.

You began your career as a journalist. What prompted you to switch to politics, and then back to journalism?

People generally don’t believe me when I say I hated politics. I never wanted to get into politics. In December 2013, when Arvind Kejriwal asked me to join his party, I took the plunge because I firmly believed these people were genuine. They were a breath of fresh air at the time. They were not doing politics, they were trying to change politics. It was this thought that made me join AAP.

But over a period of time, I got disillusioned. I realised that politics eventually appropriates even a great movement. The moral capital of AAP got eroded. It was no longer connected to the hopes with which I had joined it. It was a painful decision for me to leave. I quit on August 15, 2018.

So, the guy lacked political nous. Studying at JNU will do that to you.

Did you expect Modi to become the Prime Minister?

No. I was shocked. I felt let down by Indian democracy.

So, this guy was a complete and utter cretin. 

Let down by Indian democracy? How?

It’s not as if India became a democracy only in 1950. India as a civilisation has always been democratic. 

No. It was monarchical or Imperial. 

Hindu religion is very democratic. It’s not like Islam.

There you have it! The guy is a bigot. His fascination with the RSS arises out of his belief that it only exists to fight Muslims. He is disappointed that it isn't doing so. It wants to rid Hinduism of casteism and a sense of hereditary entitlement. Guptaji does not like that. He thinks he is a cut above. 

Ancient India only had kingdoms. Where was democracy?

I am saying, at the level of thought. There is no one god or one book.

Guptaji is not knowing about Veda or Vedanta. Perhaps he thinks this is a Bania trait. 

Hinduism has had the caste system for 2,500 years. You think the caste system is democratic?

That’s a different aspect altogether. I am talking of Hinduism as a religion. I can be a Hindu even without worshipping any god. In other religions, you have to get up in the morning and pray. But Hindu religion provides me a democratic experience. My father prays every morning. But he never tells me, why don’t you pray. So I have always believed that Hindu religion is truly democratic. But then there is this other way of thinking, with which it’s clashing.

Hinduism needed Democracy to reform itself. The alternative was status competition between sub-castes involving not eating potatoes or tomatoes or other such stupid shit. Also, it is better if cousins- be they Gandhis or Thackerays or whatever- to compete in elections rather than try to kill each other so as to inherit the throne. 

The RSS does believe in discipline. Get up in the morning and brush your teeth and do surya namaskar. Don't spend eight years at JNU sleeping all day and dreaming and being 'irreverent'. 

Which other way of thinking?

I mean the clash between the RSS thought process or Hindutva, and classical Hinduism. 

Classical Hinduism was cool with Untouchability. Hindutva is not. It requires energy and discipline to smash that evil shit. Dreaming irreverently for 8 years at JNU does nobody any good.

In 2014, I was surprised. I thought the RSS thought process will not win, but it did. 

Modi won because he said that the top job was just a job. If the administration didn't deliver, he gave us his mobile number so we could text our complaint. Just as a private business redresses customer complaints so as to retain their loyalty, Prime Ministers had to do the same thing. 

Modi knew Indians hated speeches in shuddh Hindi. Instead of talking of Ancient Ind's imperishable glory, he talked about toilets from the ramparts of Red Forth. I think he altered his style of Hindi oratory to come across as a rugged yeoman rather than a Vajpayee type Brahminical cunt. 

I believe Hindu religion and Indian civilisation are going through a deep crisis. It needs to be understood. Unfortunately, we are not introspecting. How can a democratic society and democratic religion give space to such hatred? That is the disturbing thing.

This guy hadn't noticed a little thing called the War on Terror. We hate dudes who want to kill us. Islamophobia was a global phenomena.

You make a distinction between ‘classical Hinduism’ and Hindutva. In the current elections, the Congress has become a ‘party of Hinduism’ to fight the party of Hindutva. Is it a good move?

One of the sad things about Indian history of the last 70 years is that Hindus have forgotten that they are Hindus. They never flaunted their Hindu-ness. This provided an opening for the RSS. So, I am happy that Rahul Gandhi is going to temples, I am happy he is calling himself a ‘ Janeu-dhari Hindu’, and I am happy he is embracing Hinduism. Why should the RSS be the only stake-holder of Hinduism? If I am a Hindu, if you are a Hindu, we are all equal stakeholders.

But Hinduism has to proactively smash hereditary entitlement and untouchability and crazy shit about some caste being better than some other caste. The RSS may or may not be religious but it is currently useful to Hindus. That may cease to be the case. The RSS may decide to concentrate just on education. That is the key to prosperity.

In America, no president is shy about being a Christian. Go to any Muslim country. They flaunt their identity as Muslims. Why should Hindus feel shy about flaunting their identity as Hindus? I think that is a mistake we made as a country, and we are paying the price now. I blame the Leftists for this, because their ideology is a negation of religion.

It was that Leftist ideology which dominated at JNU. I have to say the Left did play a good role in getting rid of some traditional customs. There was a time when Leftists were smarter and better teachers than the elderly Rightists who thought girls should not wear jeans and boys should keep 'kudumi' (sikha)

But the Left was never in power in India.

But it was the hegemonic ideology among intellectuals in every sphere — historians, political scientists, journalists, academia. They are the reason we didn’t flaunt our Hindu-ness. There is a difference between Hinduism and Hindutva. Hinduism is about our Hindu-ness, whereas Hindutva is a political ideology that exploits Hinduism for political gains.

This stupid cunt just said that politicians should exploit Hinduism for political gain. But this should not be on caste lines. Rahul says he is a Brahmin Shaivite. That lost him Vaishnavite and non-Brahmin votes. Kejriwal was smarter. He recited Hanuman Chalisa. He didn't remind anyone he was of the same caste as Ashutosh. The one thing a Hindu should not do is say 'there are many gods'. This shows incredible ignorance of Vedanta or Bhakti religion. 

 It has nothing to do with religion. We should all feel proud that we are Hindus. We should take back our gods — the RSS can’t be the owner of our Ram, our Krishna, our Shiva.

They are not distinct.  

As for those who say that Rahul Gandhi is indulging in soft Hindutva, I can only say that these people are not willing to learn from our history.

Our history tells us that being known to have Monist beliefs is advantageous. This suggests tolerance of differences in observances or orthopraxy. 

We have a secular constitution, which says religion should be kept out of politics.

No we don't. Religion is the basis of discriminatory treatment. 

How can you fault Rahul Gandhi for going to a temple?

It appears that one Manoj Tyagi, a media co-ordinator in the Congress party, gave the names of Rahul and Ahmed Patel as non-Hindus to the registry officials at the Somnath Temple with the result that appeared Rahul considered himself non-Hindu. However he had declared his religion as Hindu to the Election Commission. What followed was damage control but that damage was self-inflicted. 

Would Nehru have done it as part of his poll campaign?

That time was different. Now it’s different.

Nehru was popular. He was the Modi of his age. Rahul is the Rahul of our age. 

Hinduism hasn’t changed in the last 60 years. How does it matter if that time was different?

It has changed greatly. Nobody now supports untouchability and misogyny or believes in 'ahimsa' type shite. 

Why did Congress reach a nadir of 44 seats? It’s because the RSS successfully portrayed them as a Muslim party. 

No. It was because Rahul was useless and Congress could not let anyone else shine. Hindus will vote for anti-Hindus provided they are good at their job. Voters are rational. The problem with Congress is that its activists prevented Manmohan from doing reform and then wasted their time maligning Hinduism. 

Unless Congress flaunts its Hindu-ness, it will be dumped in the dustbin of history. 

Kejriwal isn't flaunting shit. The BJP was trying to push him into the Shaheen Bagh camp but he just recited Hanuman Chalisa and prevailed. Congress and the Left lost their deposits. 

Once Rahul started visiting temples, the whole narrative changed.

No. It showed that there was one law for the rich and another for the poor. Rahul can't be a Brahmin because his paternal grandfather was not a Brahmin. He can't belong to Dattatreya gotra. But he can be a better Hindu than anyone who does belong to that gotra if he really wants to be. 

 If we allow the RSS to keep asking, why are you ashamed of being Hindus, then we will lose the plot completely. 

The RSS does not ask that question. They want to recruit Jains, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. 

The current crisis is a civilisational one because the RSS wants to change the core values of Hinduism — ahimsa,

which religion says you should go around stabbing people? 

 satya,

Pope is always saying 'tell lies. It is God, not the Devil, who is the Father of falsehood.' 

 tolerance,

of liars who go around stabbing people? 

 vasudhaiva kutumbakam. 

Don't get married. That is incest. 

It considers these to be perverted virtues that make Hindus weak and cowardly. 

No. Having a flabby body makes you weak. Running away from a fight while shitting yourself copiously is what makes you a coward. Telling lies and sneaking up on people and then stabbing them is not what the RSS advocates.

So it wants Hindus to become ruthless and cruel — it’s a diabolical ideology, and that’s what the Hindu Rashtra project is about. Gandhi was a true Hindu. 

He was a truly ignorant Hindu. But, he thought by giving up sex and doing various types of stupid shite he'd get reborn on a paradisal planet. True Hindus consider transmigration to be part of 'Maya'- delusion. 

He used religion to mobilise people, but nobody could call him communal. 

Except all the people who mattered- viz. the minorities. At the Second Round Table Conference he united Sikh, Muslim, Christian, Dalit and also the non-Brahmin majority of Hindus in Madras Presidency against the INC. In 1939 he stated that Congress was a high caste Hindu party. If the Brits left then the Muslims together with the Punjabis would overrun the country. 

He was also a proud Hindu. But unfortunately, after Gandhi, Nehru did not call himself a proud Hindu.

He had no need to. The guy referred to Allahabad as 'Prayag'. He was known as 'Pandit' Nehru. He did a lot of Yoga. Back then there were Arya Samajis and Brahmos and so forth who had a scruple against visiting Temples. Nobody who mattered considered Nehru non-Hindu because they had met his wife Kamala. Men can pretend to be this or that. It is the orthodoxy of the women which establishes a family's religious credentials. 

In your book, you say the big challenge to Hindutva will come not from Nehruvian liberalism/secularism but from the “Ambedkar army”.

Ambedkar and his pal JN Mandal made a mistake by thinking a Muslim-Dalit was possible. Only JNU type jhollawallahs still believe that shite. 

Yes, absolutely. Nehruvian liberalism is dead. In 1992, the Babri Masjid was demolished and Hindutva forces were victorious. But subsequently, who kept them in check? It was a combination of the OBCs and Dalits. 

But the Yadavs preferred to ally with Muslims against Dalits. The road to Hindu consolidation went through non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav 'Maha-Dalits'. It remains to be seen whether Akhilesh can reinvent his party with Muslims taking a back seat. 

Again in 2019, it is Mayawati and Akhilesh who are giving a tough time to Modi and the RSS. 

Mayawati had become irrelevant which was sad because many admired her courage and even thought her a future PM. 

Dalits and OBCs have been at the receiving end of Hinduism for centuries.

Unless they led or joined a revolt against Muslim power- e.g Sikhs, Marathas etc. 

 Now they feel empowered. They want their share of power, and this is what has created a sense of insecurity among the traditional, upper caste ruling elites. Not surprisingly, it is the upper castes that are overwhelmingly supporting Modi and BJP.

Gupta comes from that grouping. It may be that his family hates OBCs and Dalits. But they also love money and security. They vote for the party which locks up gangsters and enables the economy to expand. 

What could happen with a second term for Modi?

The 2019 election is a battle not between two political parties but between two Indias: a Hindu India and a Hindutva India. At stake is the entire Hindu civilisation.

Fuck would a guy who spent 8 years at JNU know about any type of civilization? 

Not a battle between Hindutva India and secular India?

Secularism is dead. What has passed for secularism in India is a negation of religion. Secularism as a negation of religion will never work in India. Secularism that maintains equidistance from all religions, and allows Hindus to flaunt their Hindu-ness, Muslims their Muslim-ness, and so on — that secularism will be the new norm in Indian democracy.

No it won't. Nobody wants kids to go around flaunting shit. Let them acquire some useful work skills and start earning money. 

You haven’t said what happens if Modi wins again.

If there is a second term for Modi, India will for the first time be in danger of becoming an ideological state. In an ideological state, everyone, and every institution — the press, judiciary, election commission, RBI — has to work for the construction of a utopia. It is evident that many of these institutions have already surrendered.

In other words nutters like Ashutosh are going to be completely useless as journalists. They will only see what they want to see. Interestingly, Ashutosh has now turned his guns on Kejriwal. He asks why AAP is removing pictures of the Mahatma from government offices in Punjab and Delhi and replacing them with pictures of Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar. 

, former AAP member and journalist Ashutosh tweeted: “@ArvindKejriwal There is a small question that shouldn’t Gandhiji’s picture also be there along with Babasaheb Ambedkar and Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh? There was a picture of Bapu in Ramlila Maidan hunger strike.”

Ashutosh told a Telegraph reporter: “Gandhiji doesn’t fetch votes for parties any more and the use of his photo is merely symbolic. The basic premise of Hindutva is that Gandhi was responsible for Muslim appeasement, beginning with the Khilafat movement in 1919, and in today’s Hindutva paradigm he is a misfit…. The mention of Gandhi and Nehru today can damage electoral prospects rather than improve them.”

He added: “Bhagat Singh on the other hand has been made a symbol of masculine nationalism. People (at large) do not know that he was an atheist and a communist.... They believe the myth that Gandhi did not save him from being executed.

“Ambedkar can’t be ignored as he is the icon of Dalits who are more than 17 per cent of the electorate…. In Gujarat, the AAP is forced to invoke Gandhi as he is from the state although today Sardar Patel has become a bigger icon in Gujarat.”

The problem with the Mahatma is that he has the same surname as the moon-calf Rahul. As a matter of fact the dude was plenty masculine. He led an ambulance corps in two of Britain's war and tried to enlist again in the Great War but was too ill with pleurisy to do so. Still he tried to recruit Gujaratis to go fight for the King Emperor but they chased him away once they realized he was talking bollocks. On the other hand, Gandhi- at Champaran- distracted attention from the anti-cow slaughter violence in Bihar which led to beef disappearing from the market. Gandhi and Rajaji and so forth may have believed that Hindus were shit at fighting and that if the Brits left then Afghans would pour over the border. But there were plenty of martial castes amongst the Hindus- Marathas, Mahars, non-Brahmin Madrasis (quinsaps) etc. I suppose Ashutosh, whom I take to be a Bania like Gandhi, gets a hard on when thinks about such folk but worries this involves the loss of his anal cherry. Kejriwal, however, is not afflicted by any similar craziness. He thinks Aamir Khan in 'rang de basanti' was too cool for school (JNU presumably) and doesn't feel an anal itch when he gazes at Bhagat Singh's portrait. 

Will Kejriwal be able to expand AAP into less affluent States?  Why not? He has shown he can get rid of nutters like Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan and this silly Ashu-tosh talker. The question is whether he will tolerate an alternative power center in Punjab. The Bania/Jat divide might resurface. Still, we wish the new administration well. It can't do worse than the previous bunch of jokers though the new CM is a bona fide comedian. But then so is Zelenskyy.