India, July 20 -- So there it was out again last week, the subject of linguistic apartheid. This time it took Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to stoke the perennial conflict between the genuine earthiness, rooted realism and honest communication of the Hindi-speaking northerner and the assumed glibness, skimming concern and a feudalistic empathy of the English-educated elite for the countryside. There is no doubt that as a loyalist chieftain of the Congress court and an artful politician who knows to convert every situation in his favour, he has staying power. But to dismiss the comparative weightlessness of his challenger, Sachin Pilot, to the latter's good looks and English-speaking ability was all too uncalled for and a facile di...