When the liberals gaffed

We need the liberals to stop undermining their own claims of being above the fray

“I told you so…” my uncle gushed from ear to ear, as he recounted Tarun Tejpal’s escapades to me a day after the news broke out. The man is a Modi adherent and the Tehelka saga was a vindication of his firm, if ludicrous belief that all left-liberals were 'pseudo intellectual farts', sold out and part of a conspiracy hatched in Mao’s China to communalize India.

Across the World Wide Web, and particularly on social media, which is now entirely a fiefdom for right-wing hate, scores of others shared my uncle’s delight in Tejpal’s downfall.  For them it went beyond being a gross transgression by one powerful liberal editor, to testimony of the depravity and moral bankruptcy of the entire intellectual brigade -  that pontificated and sermonized ad nauseam, but didn't quite live up to the exacting standards it set for others. It was for them, to put it brusquely, taking the lid off the facade of liberal self-righteousness.

Restraint isn't exactly a virtue of the liberal classes, particularly those that are impassioned with championing moral causes, no matter whether they believe in them with as much gusto as they make it appear. But in the Tehelka case, Shoma Chaudhury, the managing editor of the magazine & an avowed feminist showed uncharacteristic restraint, and has come out looking like a charlatan for her double standards  in dealing rather indulgently with the sexual assault case in her own backyard, whilst going all out after the CBI chief just days earlier, even asking for his resignation for drawing an analogy to rape.

As the web has democratized thought and opinion, the hostile response towards the ‘intellectuals’ has aggravated over the years –evolving from plain disapproval of their political beliefs and criticism of their ideals on secularism to a more personal attack on the duplicity with which they conduct themselves publicly and privately. Writer Arundhati Roy for instance has been frequently panned for publicly propping up causes of the poorest of poor on one hand, whilst living in one of the toniest neighborhoods of Delhi. She has, the argument goes, been the biggest beneficiary of the very capitalist ideals she so vociferously condemns - cutting multi-million dollar book deals and speaking at global seminars.
 
Given the practical difficulty in actually living the activism they advocate, it wouldn't be harmful, if truth be told, for our liberal voices to exercise some temperance, get off the moral high ground and see the grays. Because trust in the intellectual class seems to be eroding faster than ever, and escaping vigil from the social media, where there is an unfailing backlash against public persons that are seen as being in the least bit contrived, is getting harder. Practice in private, what you preach in public, don't talk the talk if you can't walk it, is the loud message that’s being sent out. 

Unfortunately, India's foremost liberal voices have bungled up, and badly, in the recent past. Two years ago it was Barkha Dutt, group editor at NDTV whose leaked conversations with a lobbyist suggesting that she had a role in fixing cabinet berths went viral on the internet after being published initially in magazines. Dutt put up a strong defence saying she was only prodding the lobbyist in order to obtain more information, but the explanation didn’t cut ice with the internet vigilante who at any rate gun after media personalities with daily dose of abuse, and have been particularly nasty with Dutt for her alleged Congress bias. 
 
Just this week AAP party leader Shazia Ilmi was allegedly caught on spy camera discussing collection of funds without receipts in return for favors. The party has denied the charges and cried conspiracy, but for skeptics, this was just the ammunition they needed to pierce AAP’s claims of high integrity. The Tehelka case has only strengthened the conviction among liberal baiters that the self-proclaimed intellectual experiments of this class with rectitude & justice were unraveling fast.
 
That would be a tragedy. Because no matter the gaffes and the hypocrisy, we need social crusaders like AAP and Tehelka in an era where the search for a moderate voice is getting increasingly tougher, where majoritarianism and xenophobia have never been more pronounced.
 
We also need the liberals to stop undermining their own claims of being above the fray.