NEW DELHI: In an era of technology where everything and everyone is connected, falsehoods and distortions will show up swiftly and will delegitimise the whole project, author, journalist and politician Arun Shourie said in his keynote address, "A Few Lessons for Followers", at the Times Litfest here on Sunday.

Shourie said that in 40 years of observing politics in India, he had never witnessed an exaggeration of falsehoods of the kind happening now, and that the only way to challenge an opposing narrative was to counter it by reading and mastering their own texts. "If you find, for instance, BJP use Ambedkar to say he supported Hinduism or BJP, read his 'Riddles in Hinduism' and question them with what he has said in the book."

In a sharp critique of the incumbent Narendra Modi-led BJP government, Shourie, also a former minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, said, "No Prime Minister's Office has been weaker than the one in power today because of the insecurities of the people on top."

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Concerned at the rise in communal incidents in India, Shourie said, "Every group can be inflamed today. But what is important is that violence is not done by the masses as a whole; a very small minority has to be inflamed and the rest will appropriate the violence. It happened in 1984, and the same thing happened in 2002. These things are contagious. Unless we are cautious, we will all become participants in this."

Shourie said it was most dangerous when small minorities indulging in violence "marry the state", multiplying in force as a result. "Mussolini's goons were nobody's until they met with the state," Shourie said. He added, "I fear this will get worse because Modi realises he has not been able to, and won't be able to, deliver on his promise of development. So they will only work harder to do what they do best: divide people and then conquer."

There's light at the end of the tunnel, though, Shourie said. A state machinery, however large, is finite, and the search for purity, he said, will come about.

On a lighter note, Shourie also said it is not necessary to argue too much. "The best way to deal with a balloon is not with a sledgehammer but with a pin. Humour is the best way, and with civility and reason," he said.

