Mumbai: Civil society organisations have condemned the targetted heckling of Tushar Gandhi in Kerala after demands of his arrest have been raised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteers.
Gandhi, who is the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, had been invited at an event in Thiruvananthapuram’s Neyyanttinkara to mark the 100 years of the momentous event when Mahatma Gandhi met Narayan Guru, a progressive reformer and a revered figure in Kerala. Gandhi also unveiled the statue of P. Gopinathan Nair, the late veteran Gandhian at this occasion.
During his speech on Wednesday, Gandhi said, “We will be able to defeat the BJP, but the RSS is poison. They are trying to destroy the soul of the country. We should be fearful about that because if the soul is lost, everything is lost.”
Gandhi’s statement invited massive backlash from the supporters and workers of the RSS and BJP. The group, which had mobbed up Gandhi and tried to stop his car, demanded him to take back his words and apologise for his statement. However, he refused to withdraw his statement and drove away after raising the slogan, “Gandhi ki jai.”
The incident has created a political storm as the BJP and RSS have demanded Gandhi’s arrest, while opposition parties have condemned the act by BJP-RSS members. Former union minister of state and BJP leader V. Muraleedharan demanded that Tushar Gandhi be arrested for his statements based on the BJP’s complaint. On Friday, Gandhi reiterated his stand and refused to apologise for his statement.
Following the heated political storm, Hum Bharat Ke Log, a collective of civil society organisations and activists, issued a statement condemning the targetted hackling of Gandhi and alleged the act to be the fascist nature of BJP-RSS to intimidate prominent personalities.
“Today, despite the odds, Tushar Gandhi remains committed to the cause of communal harmony, even as the RSS-BJP continue to spread hate and indulge in hate crimes and divisive politics. We thus unequivocally state that we stand with Tushar Gandhi & condemn any form of intimidation or violence against him,” read the statement by Hum Bharat Ke Log.
Dr. G. G. Parikh, Medha Patkar, Prof. Anand Kumar, Prof. Ram Puniyani, Javed Anand, Shyam Dada Gaikwad, Anand Patwardhan, Adv. Prashant Bhushan, Dr. Sunilam, Prof. Zeenat Shaukat Ali, Irfan Engineer, Feroze Mithiborwala and others endorsed the statement.
