Modi, Bhagwat, Gita and more: 5 must-see highlights from Firstpost Salon with Aatish Taseer

The guest for the first edition of Firstpost Salon was author and journalist Aatish Taseer, who joined us for a lively discussion about one of the more incendiary topics in Indian politics: the elite of Delhi. Here are some of the most memorable moments from the conversation with the author of The Way Things Were.

‘Modi could be mesmerising’

Given he tracked the 2014 elections rather closely, Taseer was of the opinion that the BJP leader while seeming disturbing initially, had also been very compelling.

Taseer said that after attending the first few rallies of Modi he had some reservations because of the BJP leader’s ability to produce a feeling of shame and turn into anger and also incorporated elements like class warfare and veiled majoritarianism.

“There was something about it that was latent hooliganism which was impossible to ignore. But at the same time he could be mesmerising, he could be funny,” Taseer said.

Modi had an ability to understand centre right politics and convey them to people simply which was very compelling, Taseer said, proceeding to launch into a pretty good impression of the BJP leader.

Taseer said that the mandate Modi had received was very much for the change in direction from regular politics.

The author also said that he had begun tracking the elections with only one pre-conception: the mediocrity of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

“I knew that one political establishment would have to go and I didn’t believe this political establishment had any real talent,” he said.

Check out the other highlights