On the eve of Mahatma Gandhi's 75th death anniversary, his great-grandson Tushar Gandhi said 'Bapu's' dreams for India have been killed off by his murderers.
"It only took 75 years for Bapu's murderers to murder India of his dreams. He(sic) Ram," tweeted Tushar Gandhi.
In an interview given to AFP at his Mumbai home, Tushar Gandhi said “the ideology of hate, the ideology of polarisation, the ideology of divisions” has captured India and Indian hearts.
Tushar Gandhi says the Mahatma's killer Nathuram Godse, a religious zealot, is now revered by many Hindu nationalists. “For them, it's very natural that Godse would be their iconic patriot, their idol.”
Blaming PM Modi
Tushar, who is an author and social activist, attributes this tectonic shift to the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the BJP. Modi took office in 2014 and Tushar says his government is to blame for undermining the secular and multicultural traditions that his namesake sought to protect.
"His success has been built on hate, we must accept that," Tushar added.
"There is no denying that in his heart, he also knows what he is doing is lighting a fire that will one day consume India itself."
One of the tweets put out by Tushar Gandhi on Sunday was on Modi. “If calling Modi Guilty for the mass murders of 2002 in Gujarat is Contempt of Court, so be it,” he tweeted.
In June last year, the Supreme Court had dismissed a plea of Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) clean chit to 64 people, including then chief minister Narendra Modi, in the 2002 Gujarat riots case.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar upheld the Special Metropolitan Magistrate’s order rejecting Jafri’s protest petition against the closure report filed by the SIT.
The apex court had upheld the Gujarat high court order and said Jafri’s plea that there was a larger conspiracy involved was devoid of merit.
Congress leader and former MP Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed in Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, a day after a coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat.
(With inputs from AFP & PTI)