Rahul Gandhi is on an interview giving spree and with each interview, he seems to make a bigger fool of himself. In an interview to NDTV, Rahul Gandhi changed the amount he would give every poor person as per his proposed NYAY Yojana. Earlier, it was Rs. 72,000 a year, but in his interview to NDTV, he seems to have changed it to Rs. 3,60,000 a year.

“We boxed PM in, he can’t talk,” says Rahul Gandhi on attack over jobs Watch full interview : https://t.co/3a3CcqaxBK#NDTVExclusive #RahulToNDTV pic.twitter.com/ID2QhPib4W — NDTV Videos (@ndtvvideos) May 3, 2019

Of course, NDTV while sharing the video snippet doesn’t call out the blatant lie, but instead, chooses to focus on the hollow sentence that he has managed to corner Prime Minister Modi over jobs. But the shenanigans of NDTV are widely known and there seems to be no good reason to invest more time in it for the purpose of this article.

When Rahul Gandhi lies or when Rahul Gandhi goofs up, the faithful jesters from his darbar often jump right to his defence. It is hardly a matter of ideology, rather, a matter of survival. After all, it is their job to mount a defence every time the very King they depend on jams his foot firmly in his mouth.

A court jester from the King’s darbar, who also moonlights as a journalist and author, jumped to Rahul Gandhi’s defence when someone pointed out that Rahul Gandhi seems to have jumbled up the numbers yet again.

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She said, “Basic math. 12000 per month equals 72000 per year. Five years equal 60 months. 12000 for 60 months equals 3,60,000. Instead of innuendo, you could have brought out your calculator, if mental arithmetic was an issue”.

Basic math. 12000 per month equals 72000 per year. Five years equal 60 months. 12000 for 60 months equals 3,60,000. Instead of innuendo, you could have brought out your calculator, if mental arithmetic was an issue https://t.co/r22l4kH5EK — Sujata Anandan (@sujataanandan) May 3, 2019

According to her calculation, Rahul Gandhi is right before Rs 12,000 a month would equal to Rs. 72,000 a year. 5 years would equal to 60 months and hence, 12,000 multiplied by 60 months would equal to Rs 3,60,000. Exactly the number Rahul Gandhi mentioned.

She, of course, glosses over the fact that Rahul Gandhi, in the interview said Congress would provide Rs. 3,60,000 per year and not for a period of 5 years.

But that is not the only problem. The mathematics used by this journalist is nothing short of hilarious.

She says 12,000 per month equals to 72,000 per year. A simple calculation would reveal that if Rs 12,000 is paid per month, in a year, that would amount to Rs. 1,44,000.

In her hurry to defend Rahul Gandhi, what she perhaps forgot is that the Congress party had said that any person earning less than Rs. 12,000 would get Rs 72,000 a year. Rahul Gandhi said that an income line of Rs 12,000 has been set for the scheme, and it will cover 20% poorest families of the country. The government will pay Rs 72,000 per year to the eligible families under this scheme, and the amount will be credited directly to the bank account of beneficiaries.

Instead, Sujata Anandan seems to have understood that Congress would be paying poor families Rs 12,000 per month and even in that, she conflates it with Rs 72,000 a year, thanks to skewed maths.

Further, Sujata says that Rs 12,000 for 60 months would mean Rs. 3,60,000 for five years. Well, 12,000 multiplied by 60 would equal to Rs. 7,20,000 so Sujata fails there too. However, Rs. 72,000 multiplied by 5 would come up to Rs. 3,60,000, exactly the amount Rahul Gandhi mentioned in his NDTV interview. The only catch? Rahul ended up saying Congress has promised to pay Rs. 3,60,000 PER YEAR instead of that amount in 5 years.

In a massive display of courage (or brazenness, we can’t decide which), Sujata tells the person questioning Rahul Gandhi that he should have purchased a calculator instead of mouthing off innuendos if mental arithmetic was too much of an issue.

Sujata is the same bright spark who had shamelessly celebrated the tragic suicide of Rohit Vemula because she believed that this would end up destroying PM Modi’s Dalit votebank.

After the servility to the Gandhi and the downright massacre of mathematics in her desperation to defend Rahul Gandhi, we can only hope that Sujata finds a calculator for herself, and while she is at it, perhaps she can look for her missing spine too.