Jaithirth Rao, popularly known as Jerry Rao, got candid with The Quint, talking about his new book The Indian Conservative: A History Of Right-Wing Thought. His book traces the developments of right-wing conservatism. Jerry answered a few questions about some of the topics he touched in his book.
Talking about Hindu nationalism, he said:
“I think the othering of Muslims would be a very dangerous way of projecting Hindu nationalism, and in the long run will actually hurt Hindu nationalism.”Jerry Rao, Author
Talking about the Ayodhya dispute and why he doesn’t blame the BJP for “capitalising”:
“There is a tide in the affairs of men and BJP took the wave.It was a political gift to them and they would be stupid not to take it.”Jerry Rao, Author
He also pointed out the negatives and positives of the dispute: “I do think that the demolition, and I've talked about it, that the illegal demolition was something that was a matter of great concern and anxiety because you don't go an pull down a building pretty violently. It has a lot of dangers, once that gets legitimised you never know where. That's one of the negative fallouts of the Ayodhya movement. But the positive fallout of course was the whole issue you earlier brought up about caste. There was a great deal of involvement of Dalits and lower castes.”
Jerry Rao is the founder and former CEO of the software company MphasiS. He is the founder of Value and Budget Housing Corporation, an affordable housing venture which he founded in 2008.
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