Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 14: Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson Tushar Gandhi has refused to withdraw his criticism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and said on Friday that the demand from the saffron outfits for his apology has only strengthened his resolve to “continue to expose the traitors.”
“They wanted me to apologise for what I said,” Tushar said Friday at a function marking the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to the Union Christian College in Aluva near Kochi. He was referring to his remarks from earlier this week in which he called the RSS “poison”.
He further said: “They wanted me to retract my statement. I said I don’t do that. When I say these things, I don’t think to apologise or retract the statements. This incident has strengthened my resolve to continue to expose the traitors. Because this is a fight which is more essential than the freedom struggle. Now, we have a common enemy. They must be exposed.”
While unveiling the statue of the late Gopinanathan Nair, a prominent Gandhian, at Neyyattinkara in Thiruvananthapuram district Wednesday, Tushar Gandhi had 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.”
The remarks evoked strong response from the BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS, with their workers holding protests and even trying to stop his car by blocking its path. Tushar Gandhi refused to withdraw his statement and drove away after raising the slogan, “Gandhi ki jai”. Both Kerala’s ruling CPM and Opposition Congress have condemned the protests.
At the function Friday, Tushar went on to say he was worried that “the descendants of the murderers of his grandfather” would now come after his statue. “I’m really worried. Will they fire at the statue of my great grandfather as they are habitual offenders?”
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Opposition leader V D Satheesan have condemned the RSS and the BJP after their workers staged protest against Tushar Gandhi. Mr Vijayan said it was an attack on the country’s secularism and democracy. “This is deplorable. An action that infringes upon freedom of speech cannot be allowed in a democratic society. There will be legal and democratic action against such tendencies… This incident shows that the protesters’ mindset is not different from that of those who assassinated Gandhi. A strong protest should emerge from secular and democratic society,” the CM said in a statement.
The Opposition leader Satheesan said the incident amounted to insulting Mahatma Gandhi. “The state government and the police should take strong action against this incident. There is nothing wrong with Tushar’s words that RSS is a cancer that has spread over the soul of the country. Fascism is ruling the country. It is eating into the soul of the country. Tushar was insulted for having stated the truth,” he said.
Tushar Gandhi’s visit to Kerala was in connection with the centenary celebration of the historical meeting of Mahatma Gandhi with social reformer Sree Naryana Guru at Sivagiri Mutt in 1925.
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Amidst mounting protest over the incident, Neyyattinkara police arrested five RSS-BJP workers on Thursday. The arrested included a BJP councilor at the local municipal body. The case was registered for unlawful assembly, rioting and unlawful restraint. The arrested were released on bail from the police station, said police.
