Aatish Taseer was one of those intellectuals who welcomed Modi as India finally "speaking its own voice", 'real India' emerging from the shackles of the old deracinated Lutyens elite. Now that 'real India' has barred him from entering itself, there are a few lessons to draw (1/n)

Taseer made two mistakes in estimating Modi 1) He separated Modi from RSS, disregarding all evidence. In this (2014) interview, Taseer speaks of Modi looking at Bhagwat and "seeing a fool..whose beliefs and worldviews he has outgrown". This was absurd

since Modi was always quite clear about being a 'Hindu nationalist', was a lifelong member of the RSS, and an enthusiastic participant of the Babri Masjid Demolition. To say nothing about 2002. Or that his Gujarat State represented at that time the purest manifestation of a

Hindutva State where Muslims were de facto second class citizens. He marketed himself well, particularly to elite audeinces in 2012-14 as a tolerant leader, but so does Bhagwat. To buy into his vague accommodative utterances and not see his record was extreme gullibility at best.

2) Taseer was one of those cloistered Westernised elites who romanticize fascist reaction to assuage their guilt about their own privelege.Only a tortured creature of the old elite could portray the victory of Brahmincal Hindutva as India's long suppressed voice finding utterance

The trope of "Modi vs English speaking classes" made for good narrative, but had little resemblance to reality. To say Modi represented authentic Indian voice is to accept that real India is upper caste Hindi speaking and Hindu. Modi's most implacable opponents were leaders like

Laloo, Mayawati, Akhilesh, and regional leaders all over non-Hindi speaking parts of India. The populations of the South that completely rejected Modi did not do it becuase they were deracinated English speaking elites.

So that's the main lesson in Aatish Taseer's coup de grace. There is nothing 'anti-elite' or authentically Indian in Hindutva. It is a movement that until recently was an almost exclusive preserve of the upper castes and urban upper classes, the most priveleged sections of India

And far from being classically Indian, it is very modern and draws most of its ideology from 19th century European nationalism mixed with a heavy dose of 20th century interwar European fascism. So those 'introspecting' liberals who still perpetuate this anti elite narrative as an

alibi to soften the image or obscure the dangers of this fascist government, you are welcome to continue doing so. But you must realise that one day, when they are done with other marginalised people, they will come for you too, and your excuses for them wouldn't save you.