Who could have thought that a day would come when we will need to prompt Arun Shourie to learn something from Malini Parthasarthy?

But we live in times when ideological (I know, “ideological” is a strong word) lines are constantly being blurred and by the end of the day it is difficult to understand who stands for what?

It seems a particular class has taken “50 Shades of Grey” too literally — I don’t mean in terms of sexual content of the book, but the concept that there are different shades of grey. The greater number of shades, the greater degree of confusion and hence, the bigger the scope for basically doing whatever you want to do without a moral dilemma.

Only time will tell what has gone into the head of Arun Shourie or whether he has always been the way he is acting these days, but all of you know by now that he has become a darling of the lib-sec group of intellectuals, writers and journalists. Suddenly he is an “eminent” journalist and a former minister. I remember just a few years ago he was a “sanghi” and a right-wing ideologue who believed that the Babri Masjid demolition was a historical wrong done right and Narendra Modi was the best choice as India’s Prime Minister.

Arun Shourie suddenly realized — just after it became clear that he had been totally ignored by the Narendra Modi government — that Narendra Modi is the worst thing that has happened to independent India. There is an undeclared state of emergency in the country, he is often found saying in his flamboyant Punjabi style. No freedom exists. Communal tension is at its peak. Economy is going down the drain.

Who knows? He might be right.

Even if he was disgruntled with the Narendra Modi government, he didn’t have to become a concubine in the harem of those he has ideologically opposed for years. He has written multiple books on how the very same people for whom he has suddenly turned into a darling have been intellectually and morally bankrupting the country.

He is all over the proverbial town telling every eager ear what a sorry figure Narendra Modi cuts and what a disastrous performance his government has had so far. He called Narendra Modi the weakest Prime Minister India has ever had.

All this for not getting a ministerial post? Even Nawaz Sharif’s dehati aurat (real dehati aurat, not Manmohan Singh) would have shown more dignity.

Contrast this with Malini Parthasarthy, former editor of extremely anti-Hindu newspaper The Hindu .

There have been CBI raids on Prannoy Roy’s residence as his company or group of paper companies are suspected of embezzling crores of rupees. The usual news media wheeler dealers are crying foul and saying that the CBI raids are nothing but intimidation by the government to curb “free media”.

Ever since its inception NDTV has been a Congress mouthpiece and not just a mouthpiece, a complete anti-BJP and after 2002, anti-Modi machinery. They don’t even pretend to be objective. In fact, they are so blatant that recently when a group of Congress rowdies slaughtered a cow in Kerala NDTV kept saying that an ox was slaughtered, so much is there slavish mentality towards the Congress party.

But they always take a moral high ground of being objective and being at the forefront of the mythical “free media”. It’s like a naked person standing in front of you and insisting that he is fully clothed and then blaming you of bias if you think differently.

So there has been the usual brouhaha by the “media fraternity” with all the old hags blabbering about media being throttled and the country being in a state of emergency and all that crap.

Image credit: The Wire

Amidst all this, Malini Parthasarthy posted this message on Twitter:

As she was hurtling towards becoming a Right-wing superstar, she posted this

Due to her stand that a corporate investigation shouldn’t be termed as an attack on the entire news media fraternity, she got blocked on Twitter by none other than Prannoy Roy, who himself is worried about his freedom of expression.

Now since Malini was speaking against NDTV, a channel, according to the Right wing, that is the kernel of everything murky that goes on in the bordellos of politics and news media, some people even started welcoming her to the saffron fold. She quickly threw water on the newly lighted embers:

Which is totally fine, and in fact, commendable. You can oppose an opinion or an attitude without changing your ideological plume, and the very same thing Arun Shourie could have done.

He has done totally the opposite. It is understandable that he was upset with being ignored. He could have easily disagreed with the economic policies of the current government (he is right when he says the government is basically following the old policies). He could have also lambasted Narendra Modi for all his flip-flops and for creating a coterie around him. He could have also expressed his discontentment about not being included in the Cabinet — he was so loved that people would have understood. Everybody still agrees that he could have actually contributed to a great deal.

But it doesn’t mean start endorsing the nonsense Prannoy Roy and the likes are spouting. He could have taken a stand and said that even when I don’t agree with Narendra Modi and I’m really pissed I wasn’t made a minister, it doesn’t mean I don’t understand your manipulations and conceits.

In his position it was very easy to say. He is such a big name, he doesn’t need anybody. Actually his is the name that everybody around him needs. He has squandered away his goodwill.

On the hindside he has always been very cozy with the so-called Lutyens’ Delhi elite circle. Despite his ideological leanings and his stand against leftist intellectuals and historians, by the end of the day, they are all warm chums. He is even related to Prannoy Roy.