By disrespecting Haryana, Rana Ayyub has clearly overstepped the line

Lutyens Media is in some ways a pestilence. Like locusts that swarm during a fixed time every year, the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose, Rana Ayyub and many other pestilential creatures arrive en masse on our TV screens, our newspaper reports, our Social Media feed. Typically, the swarming happens near an election time. And generally, their infestation is caused by a supposed outraging of liberal values. Take for example the present time. Elections in UP are underway, there are signs that what seemed like an even fight between the Liberal SP-Congress and Saffron BJP camps is now turning out to be more one sided. To this, add the usual students politics drama and Bam!, India has got itself an Lutyens Media infestation. The most pathetic attempt of Lutyens Media to cry itself hoarse on the supposed attack by ABVP students is the propping up of AAP-sympathizer, Gurmehar Kaur, who, in one of the dumbest statements in record, held up a placard that read ‘Pakistan did not kill my father, war did’. That she did a great disservice to her father by using the word ‘killed’, instead of ‘martyred’ is one point. The bigger issue is that she has chosen to become a political pawn in the hands of India’s dirty Media-Politician nexus. From Arvind Kejriwal to Barkha Dutt, the who’s who of the Media-Politician mafia are feteing the courage of the young girl, who to be honest has besmirched the name of her Father and brought shame on the homeland, defending which he gave up his life

Gurmehar Kaur also invited a lot of scorn with her ridiculous placard. Virender Sehwag chose to respond with a placard of his own. This placard read ‘I did not score two triple centuries, my bat did’. Twitter went berserk with Viru Paaji’s response. Bollywood actor, Randeep Hooda chose to applaud at what was one heck of a response. Perhaps taken aback by this blatant display of nationalism, along with a good sense of humour, that too from Bollywood actors, most of whom are rather pally with the politicians and the media, Lutyens Media unleashed themselves upon the duo. Shekhar Gupta played the role of infantry chiding Viru and Randeep for their tweets. Perhaps, the Lutyens Mafia expected that a rap over the knuckles would stem Viru’s and Randeep’s oozing nationalism. Randeep, on the other hand chose to be upfront and gave it back to Shekhar for using Gurmehar as a political pawn. And while Randeep and Shekhar were battling it out on the war-fields of Twitter, with the likes of Barkha Dutt standing up as back up support for Shekhar Gupta, Rana Ayyub marched right in.

In a tweet addressed to Randeep and Virender, Rana Ayyub writes ‘Both @RandeepHooda and @virendersehwag belong to Haryana. Sorry to say sir’s, with those tweets about a ‘poor’ girl, you are doing so much!’ and that’s not it, she follows it up with ‘haryana ke hain na. Doing his bit for emancipation of women’, in response to a comment by another Twitterati to Randeep.

Rana Ayyub is wrong, politically incorrect, insensitive and rabid at so many levels that it is beyond comprehension. Simply put, because Rana Ayyub could not convince Randeep and Sehwag of her contorted logic, she went ahead and bad mouthed their home state. Logic being that because Viru and Randeep are from Haryana, their mindset is so medieval that they cannot fathom a young woman speak her mind. The point to be noted is that this is precisely how the ‘Liberal ecosystem’ works. When one of them is attacked, they spare no words and weapons in bringing down their opponent. But when the same fate befalls them, they cry hoarse about Freedom of expression. As someone has rightly said, their FoE is FoE, the other side’s FoE is trolling?

Rana Ayyub’s insensitive remark about Haryana drew the outrage of many Twitteratis, including the Phogat sisters, who pointed out that they too belonged to Haryana. One need no longer wonder how Rana Ayyub became one of Lutyens’ Media’s senior members.

As far as her remark on Haryana is concerned, would it be too much to say that the remark shows her ‘Madrassa mentality’, or am I violating someone’s FoE here?