This is in response Lakshmi Chaudhry's article in the Firstpost.com titled "Unnecessarily Personal", where she and her co-author Sandip Roy had blasted Modi for being "personal" in his attacks on the Gandhi family in his Amethi rally.
Four points are in order -
One, she should be reminded that "personal attacks" or "comical take on personalities" aren't necessarily journalists' realm. Anybody can do that as long as there are listeners, and is within the so called "Lakshman Rekha" or "Point of Decency". Blunt frontal attack of the abusive nature, such as the ones churned out Digvijay Singh, Beni Prasad Verma, Mamta Bannerji or that once-cerebral-now-ridiculous Derek O Brien, are the ones that are rank indecent.
She should probably remember that in the past she had her own "personal take" on "Robert Vadra", on how he managed to get "Priyanka Gandhi", leaving aside his personal wealth accumulation. Her own sarcasm on leaving Modi's wife out of the picture, where she had taken a rather roundabout route peppered with her usual opinions and wacky writing style, before coming to point. She should probably stop taking moral highhandedness in these matters.
Two, this entire election has already descended into a personal battle. When BJP was crying about growth and development, AAP was sounding its anti-Corruption jingle big time, the other parties and the media started making it a "Modi vs. Others" battle. Every single pseudo secular party or its members started the whole "Stop Modi at All Costs". If at she had to voice her opinion, Lakshmi with all her wisdom and sarcasm, should have done this a lot earlier. Her own writings are bordering on personality sketches and more in the nature of sarcastic psycho-analysis. I find her entire rant reeking of hypocrisy.
Three, the issue in Amethi is the Gandhi surname. When a candidate wins an election with almost 80% of the polled votes with little or no effort, without doing anything of worth, with substantial portion of the constituency still be underdeveloped, with lakhs living below poverty line, it is obvious they are attracted to the personality and the surname, rather than any appreciable quality, it is rather important to destroy the "aura" surrounding that name, and make the general public realize what is important, and what isn't.
Repetitively invoking Rajiv Gandhi as if he is some god sent man, and a great martyr who shed his life for the benefit of the Country (to be sure, he reaped what he sowed), people have been fed on this emotional blackmail, and unjustly extending the legend of that surname endlessly. Without that surname, Rahul Gandhi cannot even get a basic job, and here with all daftness, people are projecting him as the Prime Ministerial material. His own administrative capabilities have been shown to be zilch, and if this fact is not conveyed to the general public, what else should be?
Four, the person intoxicated with power isn't just Modi, every single politician of worth is intoxicated. So are very top and popular journalists. The very fact that people like me enjoy Lakshmi's writing doesn't mean that she can take our intelligence for granted, and write arguably the dumbest article she has every written. It appears to me that entire article was based on misplaced belief that the entire Gandhi clan is from the heaven. Or probably she has joined ranks with the ever growing group of Secular Gang, whose understanding of real Secularism is as good as the understanding of basic economics of the Gandhi clan.
The following concluding para of Lakshmi Chaudhry pretty much sums up her entire post, and is an apt summary of what she actually is - "Modi can become so intoxicated with his own power that he doesn't know when to say when. Ahankar, as it turns out, is not the sole preserve of the parivar." Replace Modi with Lakshmi Chaudhry, and you wouldn't be more right.
The following concluding para of Lakshmi Chaudhry pretty much sums up her entire post, and is an apt summary of what she actually is - "Modi can become so intoxicated with his own power that he doesn't know when to say when. Ahankar, as it turns out, is not the sole preserve of the parivar." Replace Modi with Lakshmi Chaudhry, and you wouldn't be more right.
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