How are him and Puneet different than the people they mock and call evil? Him and Puneet sit around and talk behind people's backs, mock them, get petty over little things, and are partial toward their own group.
I also used to root for Gautam but I just don't see the difference between him and the other group now.
One can blame Puneet and his influence on Gautam but Gautam is not a little kid. He needs to think with his own brain and dissociate himself from Puneet.
They keep stretching the Arya issue and the Karishma issue. This was the very reason that Gautam initially got the "victim" sympathy (i.e. stretching of the gaali issue).