Author Chetan Bhagat on Wednesday landed in controversy and was trolled heavily on social media for saying horse-trading was an art.
Author Chetan Bhagat on Wednesday landed in controversy and was trolled heavily on social media for saying horse-trading was an art.
Taking to Twitter, Bhagat said, “In a hung parliament there’s no ethical way out. So let’s stop moralizing either side please as it is a pointless exercise. Even horse trading is an art form. Another test for both BJP and Cong. Let’s see who’s better at it,” he tweeted.
A day earlier, Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said if the Karnataka governor invites BJP to form the government, it would mean that he was "openly inviting horse trading, corruption and defection in the parties."
Speaking to reporters after meeting governor Vajubhai Vala, Azad said the Congress and JD (S) have adequate numbers to form the government and that the coalition would provide a stable government.
Following Bhagat’s tweets, a number of Twitter users criticised the author for encouraging corruption. Political commentator Meghnad said, “Did you just call buying and selling elected representatives with black money to forcibly gain power in a state an "art form"?”
Another user tweeted, “Your views are even of lower grade than your books.”
With the Narendra Modi government promising that they would be a corruption-free government during the 2014 elections, people didn’t take too kindly to Bhagat’s tweets encouraging horse-trading. One person tweeted, “Only a five-point someone can call horse trading an art form which is otherwise a punishable offence under the Indian penal code.”
Hitting out at his critics, Bhagat subsequently tweeted, "Don’t say it out of context. 1) we are in a hung house, there’s no disney solution here. 2) horse trading doesn’t have to involve money, can just be real politics, 3) tossing a CM post to a 38 seat party you hated before results is just as bad as horse trading. Expecting politics without unethical behaviour is like expecting Jalebis without sugar and oil. Theoretically possible, practically does not work. The best we can hope for is nothing illegal. Ethics work on twitter, not in hung houses."
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