Writer Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, has called upon Congress workers to prevent India from being a Hindu Rashtra, for, if it happens, it will be a betrayal of the Congress leaders of the past, who fought for a secular India.
Delivering the keynote address at a history seminar organised by the District Congress Committee here on Friday as part of the ‘Thrivarnotsav’, the month-long celebrations following the inauguration of the new DCC building, he reiterated his previous controversial comment that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were a cancer on Indian society. “After the terrorist attack at Pahalgam, they did not express sympathy towards the family of the deceased. Instead, they tried to create hatred between Hindus and Muslims,” he said, recalling the social media slugfest against the daughter of one of the deceased who referred to her rescuers as her brothers in Kashmir.
On the alleged distortion of history by the BJP government at the Centre, he said, “We have true history to back up our allegations. They [BJP] have to write fiction to justify their existence.”
Mr. Gandhi said the government’s attempt to renovate Sabarmati Ashram was an attempt to wipe out history as the Ashram was where the freedom movement was planned and strategised. “It will have the same plight of the Patel statue. People who see the Patel statue do not think about the history associated with Patel,” he added.
Mr. Gandhi inaugurated the Mahatma Gandhi School of Political studies and released its logo on the occasion.
Inaugurating the seminar, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said the fascists had always tried to rewrite history as it suited them.
“The Congress is a democratic party. Our leaders shared a bond despite their differences. They have a right to have different opinions,” he said, dwelling on the controversy surrounding the birth centenary of Chettur Sankaran Nair, the first president of the Indian National Congress from Kerala. “Chettur believed that Gandhi was wrong, and that his methods caused anarchy. But he was the one who fought legally against General Dyer after the Jalianwalah Bagh massacre,” Mr. Chennithala said, adding that the BJP was trying to capitalise on the differences of opinion among Congress leaders.
“Netaji and Gandhi had different views on how the freedom struggle should have been fought. But Netaji was also the one who referred to Gandhiji as Mahatma the first time,” he pointed out, recalling the differences of opinion among leaders like Patel, Azad, and Nehru.
M.P. Abdussamad Samadani, MP, stressed the need to use a secular lens to look at events of the past as each era had its own peculiarities that might not reflect well in the present context. Social critic Hameed Chennamangalur and KPCC general secretaries K. Jayanth and P.M. Niyas spoke on the occasion.
DCC president K. Praveenkumar presided over the session.
Published - April 25, 2025 08:05 pm IST
