Over the last two days, there has been a huge uproar over certain remarks made by the General Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party, Ram Madhav, in Al Jazeera’s show – Head to Head hosted by Mehdi Hasan. There have been major attacks from all ends on Twitter — Hasan was trolled and so was Madhav. I feel that most of these remarks made on social media have been uncalled for and to a point that is embarrassing.

As a student of Oxford University, I had the opportunity to attend the live recording of Head to Head, as well as a roundtable organised by a group of students at the Blavatnik School of Government. While one is entitled to whatever opinion they may form after watching the interview, I feel I should inform viewers about Madhav’s views, which he clearly expressed at the roundtable two hours prior to the shoot. I do not intend to defend either party here, but just want to share what I heard.

The duration of the Head to Head shoot was around 90 minutes with high pressure questions coming in from the start. I have seen almost all TV debates in India and nothing comes close to what happened here. There were questions and counter questions but there were two remarks that have completely stood out and driven the public discourse.

I have usually been sceptical about right-wing leaders and the thoughts they represent.  However, during the roundtable discussion, Madhav spoke on topics that many BJP leaders shy away from. He passionately spoke about LGBTQ rights in India, our relations with Nepal, the goods and services tax, intolerance and BJP’s agricultural policies. Below are two topics on which Madhav elucidated his views at the roundtable:

On ISIS

Madhav mentioned clearly how certain ministers of the British government were receiving death threats and that that is what is intolerance, not what the media reports. He said that you cannot equate trolls to regular citizens and that the government is trying hard to stop various unfortunate incidents that seem to be erupt around elections.

During the Head to Head interview when he said “your ISIS”, it was clear to me that he said it as a general figure of speech and was not pointing to any individual (and not Mehdi in particular). The booing happened as a reaction to that phrase and not how it was meant.

On Akhand Bharat

While during the roundtable he did not use the term Akhand Bharat, Madhav mentioned that if European Union can have 20+ nations come together, if West and East Germany can get together, it would be amazing if the Indian subcontinent could also come together. Is this something many Indians would not want?
As I mentioned above, Head to Head is one of a kind combative format and judging either the guest or the host on the basis of just that interaction is not the best idea.  Indian politicians have had a long history of making ridiculous remarks. But, in this case, the outraged trolls remarking on this have been far more ridiculous than the politician in question.