Megalomaniac
The famous Indian journalist Tavleen Singh has had a significant association with Pakistan, not least through her author son Aatish Taseer. Hailing from a distinguished Sikh family of Gurjanwala, of the Warraich Jat biradari, Tavleen’s father went to the elite Doon School as a boy and there met his lifelong friend Miangul Aurangzeb of Swat. The pals spoke to each other every day on the phone until Miangul Aurangzeb passed away in 2014. Tavleen is no stranger to the syncretic culture of the subcontinent. It’s no surprise therefore that in a recent interview she has censured the Indian PM, after initially supporting him, and likened his treatment of Muslims to Hitler’s treatment of Jews. She also chalks his demonetization action of 2016 down to “megalomania” (it was done simply to prove that he could do it without any consideration of its economic consequences, she said, and without consultation). She fears that “dislike of Muslims has become part of the PM’s DNA”. Interestingly, she traces her first disillusionment to 2015 when Mr Modi wore a suit with his name woven into the cloth. Till then, she says she had believed that he had a spiritual dimension and was free of attachment to possessions. “The suit showed that he is vain and hypocritical”. Her second disillusionment came when the unabashedly anti-Muslim Yogi Adityanath was appointed CM of UP. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the way article 370 was abrogated, followed by the Citizenship Amendment Act which Tavleen calls “India’s first Nuremberg law”. Tavleen Singh denies that her disillusionment with Modi was motivated by his treatment of her son Aatish who has been stripped of his overseas citizenship. Doesn’t all this sound familiar?