Recently Barkha Dutt promoted an article she had written in Hindustan Times with the following tweet:
barkha dutt (@BDUTT) tweeted at 11:20 AM on Sat, Feb 09, 2019:
From Bengal to Robert Vadra the BJP gets its timing wrong. And this may even boomerang. My column in @htTweets https://t.co/Ul86tgN4QU
(https://twitter.com/BDUTT/status/1094111291172679680?s=03)
My immediate reaction to it was: “So, given the pathological hatred that Barkha Dutt has towards BJP in general, and Narendra Modi in particular, she should be celebrating at the supposed incompetence that the BJP has exhibited. In fact, she should not write such articles so that the BJP should remain in a stage of delusion that it has undertaken master strokes!”
This, of course, is a polemical point. But when confronted with statements that border on stupidity, even though expressed in good English, responding logically does not work.
When the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, went on her dharna against the CBI inquiry of the Kolkatta police chief, Dutt had said that Banerjee has invoked the Bengali pride. If Dutt thinks that Bengali pride is linked to the chit fund scam, she has insulted not only the people of West Bengal but also the whole country. Dutt is effectively saying that people will tolerate the apparent fraud in the way money was raised from people of West Bengal. Some have lost their life savings, and some have committed suicide.
Similarly in case of Robert Vadra, the issue is whether the cases that have been filed against him have merit or not. Did Vadra accumulate wealth through illegal means? This is not a case of electoral politics, but of justice being done.
One has to wonder if Dutt is trying to misuse the opportunity that has been provided to her by a media outlet to write on issues relating to the nation in a way that will frighten the BJP in taking actions that are right, legally and morally. If so, it is not just she who has to be held responsible, but also the publication that has provided the space.
Let not hatred in the electoral arena be used to cause irreparable damage the nation and the people.
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