Author Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, has said that 2024 will turn into the year of formation of Hindu Rashtra if the Sangh Parivar wins the Lok Sabha elections.
“Secularism as a constitutional pledge will be scrapped and a monolithic state will be formed. That is definite. In that kind of a state, there is no place for democracy,” he told The Hindu in Kochi on Saturday. Mr. Gandhi was in the city to attend programmes organised by Secular India Movement, Sabarmati Study and Research Centre, and Friends of Tibet.
On how the Opposition must approach the Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Gandhi said the Opposition should focus on its survival. “There will be no Opposition in the country post-2024 [in the wake of a Bharatiya Janata Party victory]. It was the basic idea of India that was seen at the time the nation won its independence. It will be murdered. There are no two ways about it. So, for the nation as well as for a multi-party democracy, 2024 is a question of survival,” he said.
Mr. Gandhi said all the agencies and institutions were being utilised by the government for promotion of its own agenda or to stifle all voices of opposition. “They are already doing that in an open way. There is no hiding or any kind of camouflage anymore. We are an authoritarian democracy at the present moment. Democracy has been marginalised and the rule of an individual is what we are witnessing,” he said.
On the state of media today, Mr. Gandhi said signal had been given that “if you remain in line, if you become our propagandist then you can survive”. “If you question the government, then you will be punished. The media by and large has fallen in line with the government. A few institutions that had shown its independence have been forced to suffer the consequences,” he said.
