I had just begun to read "Hindutva and National Renaissance" by the joker Subramanian Swamy, to understand what his problem in life is.
Major blunders (or examples of ignorance or stupidity) and at least one instance of ego-mania in the first 43 of the 300-odd page book put paid to my effort.
He begins selling himself and his organization straight away in the preface. Then, entire paragraphs that he used for self-propagation -- about his sacrifices and single-minded pursuit of his goals -- from the preface are copy pasted into the introduction.
I forgave him for that and continued.
Then, as any Hindutva ruffian worth his salt is wont to do nowadays, he appropriates Gandhi. But how? In one instance he claims that Gandhi's biggest contribution to freedom struggle was that he attracted professionals into it, particularly the legal eagles. Pray someone remind this jerk Gandhi actually opened up the freedom struggle from the clutches of a few urban professionals to the Indian masses in the village and moffusils.
Anyway, I let it go.
He then starts comparing Hindutva (not Hinduism, note the term) to other religions. But of course?! And to prove its superiority, he cites the example of a catholic priest who went in search of the "Ultimate Truth" and ended up at the gates of ... Hold your breath... Satya Sai Baba...
I shrank in embarrassment.
And just when I thought I'll push myself a little more, he dropped a bomb by translating my all-time favorite shloka: Asato ma, sat gamaya.
On page 42, he give his translation. It was likely a typo. But that had me. "...move from untruth to truth, from darkness to light, from MORALITY TO IMMORALITY."
(Dummmmm.... Faints!!!)
Either this A-hole was drunk when he wrote this book, or he has just lost his head, or he is one of the biggest frauds using my religion to meet his ends.
Where's the bloody fireplace? 700 bucks for this decaying lump of Hindutva faeces?
