http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/ataseer/2011/10/aatish-taseer-the-tnb-self- interview/
> Ida: Sorry! So, we’ve talked about Noon, we’ve talked about Pakistan and > your father, what about India? You’ve said some pretty harsh things about a > certain writer cum activists on the Left–no names!–who, we in the States, > kind of like. She seems, in an environment of rapacious capitalism, to be a > friend of the poor and marginalised. What possible objection could you have > to her? > > Aatish: None except that I don’t think she’s a friend of the poor at all. > She would like to doom them to a permanent state of picturesque poverty. > They are beautiful to her–the poor–beautiful, benign and faceless. And that > is exactly how she wants them to stay. Let me say also that it is not the > poor who animate her politics. Oh, no! The people who get her into the > streets are the new middle classes. This class, still among the most > fragile in India, people who have newly emerged from the most dire > conditions, are despicable to her. She mocks their clothes; their trouble > with English; she hates their ambitions; when India wins the cricket and > she sees them celebrating, her skin crawls; she wants, more than anything, > to do these people down. And it is her overwhelming hatred of them that > allows her to be a friend of movements that are seemingly far apart. The > jihadists, the Maoists, the Kashmir movement, the anti-development > people…they’re all her friends. Anyone who can prove a credible threat to > the future of India is a friend of that woman. I would go so far as to say > she has a prurient fascination with the enemies of India. And where do they > love her? In Pakistan, and in the faculty rooms of Europe and America. No > surprise there. > > Also, this business of pretending she’s a lone voice in the wilderness. > What rubbish! At least have the good grace to admit that not one thing she > says is provocative or new; it is perfectly banal. And we know how well the > universities Europe and America reward this bogus cant! > > > Ida: Are you enjoying yourself? > > Aatish: Hugely. I love it. I love it. Now I shall wait for Indian "liberals" to tear into Aatuish Taseer. shiv
