Patna: Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi on Saturday exhorted people to follow and practise ‘aggressive and militant secularism’ in the country, as the RSS, along with its political wing BJP, is a “very efficient ideological machine” that is bent upon subverting the “idea of India” enshrined in the Constitution.
“The ‘Sangh parivar’ is a very efficient ideological machine. This is not the phase of what used to be called India in transition. They have structure, commitment and a very strong army,” Tushar said, adding: “For us, this has to be a phase of aggressive liberalism. People have to be aggressive and militant secularist if the idea of India has to survive and sustain.”
He was speaking at a discourse programme organized on ‘Sajha Bharat, Sajhi Virasat’ theme under the aegis of the CPI that also had representatives from the state units of the CPM, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), CPI (ML) and Forward Bloc.
Like Tushar, CPI central secretariat member Atul Kumar Anjan also condemned communalism of both majority and minority groups and said people should try to understand the real nature of the politics unfolding under the aegis of the RSS affiliates and the BJP.
National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) general secretary N E Raza said earlier women, across caste and religion, were the victims of communal riots, but now they are being mobilized to participate in riots.
Expressing his apprehensions about the “inevitable change” in the Constitution, Tushar said the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee was different from the Narendra Modi dispensation at the Centre, because the latter has majority on its own strength in the Lok Sabha.
“The move for change in the Constitution was made even under the Vajpayee government, but now it is very near the reality. They go even to the assembly elections with a target in hand, like on ‘ashwmedh yajna’. Once the states are under their control, they would have majority in the Rajya Sabha and then the country would be an open field for them,” Tushar Gandhi warned.
An atmosphere is being created through their well-thought out designs like ‘love jihad’, proposal for the adoption of the Gita as national book, ‘ghar vapsi’ ceremonies and one or the other statement that first raises controversy and then leads to apology in Parliament. “The intriguing aspect is that no one forces the PM to clarify the Union government stand,” he rued.
The overall strategy of the ‘Sangh parivar’, as he said, was to stick development tag on the PM and leave all other activities on its affiliates, which is why PM Modi talks about development, creation of wealth and jobs for the youth and the unemployed. “But the PM should be asked questions. The PM has to answer where the ‘paravartit (converted)’ Muslims would be placed in the Hindu caste hierarchy,” he said.
Tushar said all the political parties from the Left and socialist to the Congress should go for deep introspection and ask why they
yielded their ground to the ‘Sangh parivar’.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Tushar-Gandhi-advocates-aggressive-secularism/articleshow/45507846.cms