Worse than Trump supporters? When Al Jazeera TV's Mehdi Hasan discovered online 'Hindutva' trolls

Hell hath no fury like an online troll, and British journalist and Al Jazeera TV host Mehdi Hasan discovered the full extent of this after an interview with BJP's Ram Madhav recently.

In the interview titled 'Is Modi’s India flirting with fascism?', Hasan grilled the BJP's General Secretary about a host of issues, to which Madhav responded with some controversial comments like the idea of an 'Akhand Bharat' that included the reunification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and also telling Hasan to worry about his ISIS.

The interview also led to a lot of backlash and online abuse for Hasan, which prompted him to tweet that supporters of Donald Trump and the English Defence League (EDL) could learn from online 'Hindutva' trolls.

Mehdi Hasan tweeted: “I've done 30 odd @AJHeadtoHead interviews with guests from around the world over past 3 years. But never had a Twitter response like this. Over the past 48 hours, Hindu nationalist trolls have tried to smear me as a closet Islamist, a Pakistani and an ISIS supporter. Sheesh. I guess the interview must really have hurt. Why focus on what their guy said when they can just attack the host, right? Classic evasion. The past 48 hours of abuse have taught me that EDL's, Likud's & Trump's supporters have got a lot to learn from the 'Hindutva' crowd online.”

I've done 30 odd @AJHeadtoHead interviews with guests from around the world over past 3 years. But never had a Twitter response like this.

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 27, 2015

Over the past 48 hours, Hindu nationalist trolls have tried to smear me as a closet Islamist, a Pakistani and an ISIS supporter. Sheesh.

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 27, 2015

I guess the interview must really have hurt. Why focus on what their guy said when they can just attack the host, right? Classic evasion.

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 27, 2015

The past 48 hours of abuse have taught me that EDL's, Likud's & Trump's supporters have got a lot to learn from the 'Hindutva' crowd online.

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 27, 2015

I see RSS and BJP spokesmen are now trying to disown/distance from Ram Madhav's comments on @AJHeadtoHead. But forget that: attack the host!

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 27, 2015