Last month, I attended a weekly rally of the infamous Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, better known as Pegida, a far-right organisation that shot into news last year for its mass demonstrations against “Islamisation” of Germany. I had a long conversation with its founder Lutz Bachmann and leader Tatjana Festerling. Both were ecstatic that Festerling had won about 10 per cent votes  in the just-concluded first phase of the mayoral elections in Dresden. The results came at a time when everyone had written them off, and Bachmann spoke to me about their plans going forward.

It was interesting to meet Bachmann, the much-hated man in Germany currently; in a rainy evening, on the steps of Dresden’s opera house. I shall write about the events of the evening, and the long chat with Bachmann and Festerling, in another post.

In this post I share with you my story that was published in Scroll.in. Please click here to know who’s the latest idol of the notorious Pegida leaders.

A follow-up, analytical piece based on the Scroll.in story was published in the Washington Post’s Worldview blog soon after. You can read that here.