Such a convenient explanation! The left in India is merely a crowd of social parasites seeking to exert influence far above their competence or their roles in daily life.
The best part is that this is quite true of a number. What is a tragedy is that confused people (like you) then go on to think that EVERYONE is smeared with tar from the same brush. As this amazed account actually points out, there is a hard-core of worthy and sensitive people, around whom these others rotate, but to those unable to discover which are borrowed feathers and which are genuinely Jim Crow, to mangle a couple of similes in a couple of languages, they all seem the same.
That is why the hyena pack goes after the intellectual segment; they are not seen as intellectual, but as just other members of the beehive.
Unfortunately, this writer happened to get into the Pupul Jayakar circuit (you, of course, reading a south Indian's account, are knowledgeable enough to know her role, apart from selecting saris for Indira Gandhi), and drew his conclusions about that circuit. What he apparently doesn't know, or didn't know, was that there are a number of circuits like this, and he has apparently not been exposed to them. The Sanghis have their own; equally starched khaddar, intermingled in the same proportions with polyester as this crowd, but speaking, rather than their 'butler' English (the narration says 'butter' English, which you should correct to protect the reputation of the - shall we call him a whistle-blower?), an arch kind of Hindi, spoken with as great an effect in quelling pretensions of equality as the previously mentioned 'butler' English. Actually it is spoken with greater accuracy and verve than the 'butler' English; that, as its name hints, is an acquired patois of the serving classes in British households, as far removed from the masters' English as was Babu English, another patois.
Back to the point: if you have frequented Delhi social circles, you will very soon learn which circles suit you, and empower you, and gravitate to them, and they to you. It is not just about pretentious Indians creating a space for themselves disproportionately bigger than their deserts, it is about pretentious Indians creating many spaces and creating much larger landscapes to dominate. Another circuit, that our dazzled little country mouse might not have encountered in his brief stay, is the cricket administration circuit. Traditionally a method by which fairly large sums of money were parcelled and passed around, where cricketing careers were made and broken over a Whisky Sour, and power was exercised in precisely the same manner that has been described, but in an entirely different context. There are several more; the retired military circuit, poisonous as hell, that is contaminated by greasy, sleek creatures with small beady eyes looking for a breakthrough and an entree into offices that might benefit them.
Thank you for presenting this very amusing note, but I am not sure that you know about the whole territory. The author clearly didn't.
