Renowned historian and Chancellor of Ashoka University Rudrangshu Mukherjee on Sunday said in Guwahati that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to be the Prime Minister of the people of India.
Launching a scathing attack on the Prime Minister in front of a jam-packed audience, Mukherjee said, “Mr Modi has failed to be the Prime Minister of the people of India. What is worse is that he is unaware that he is only the prime minister of a section of the majority community. He has miles to go before he can be the prime minister of all Indians, if he ever can be that. His aims and aspirations are fundamentally at odds with the pluralist spirit of the many civilizations that have made India.”
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
Mukherjee was here to speak on ‘Challenges to Rule of Law and Constitutional Democracy in India’.
The renowned historian further said that the fundamental features of democracy are under serious threat in India today.
“India today, seventy years after independence, is facing a situation where some of the fundamental features of democracy are under serious threat,” said Mukherjee.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
He said the threat emanates from the ideological orientation of the Prime Minister Modi and of the ruling party the BJP.
“There are two aspects of this ideology —one is the assertion that India is a country of the Hindus and the true future of India lies in making the nation a Hindu Rashtra. Other religious groups — Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, tribals and so on — will have to live in India on terms determined and dictated by the Hindus,” pointed out the noted historian.
He said any criticism of the present government and its actions are labelled as being anti-national.
“In the name of Hindutva and Hindu rashtra the rule of law is made to disappear and mob violence prevails. And because perpetrators of this kind of violence are always supporters of the ruling political dispensation, the police become bystanders and no action is taken against the inciters and the executors of violence.
Stating that murder in the name of Hindu rashtra is fast becoming a way of life in democratic India, he said, “Lynching and mob violence, on the rise in many parts of India, began almost as soon as Narendra Modi came to power. In 2016 a student was arrested from JNU and was beaten up badly by lawyers while the police remained passive bystanders.
“None of the offenders – those who took the law into their own hands –were charged or arrested. Since then the list of such incidents have grown at an alarming rate. And increasingly almost always the victims of the violence are Muslims who are suspected of eating beef, selling beef and so on.
Lashing out at Modi in strongest words, Mukherjee said even though Modi was elected as the Prime Minister of India, he never utter a single word on the instances of mob violence in the cause of Hindutva.
“This has raised eyebrows among certain circles, especially among those who, without being champions of Hindutva, had hopes that Narendra Modi would provide good governance. Mr Modi does not condemn because he does not believe such acts deserve to be condemned. The violent suppression of dissent and the imposition of the Hindutva ideology are essential parts of his core ideology,” said the Chancellor of Ashoka University.
The programme organised by Asom Nagarik Samaj, a Guwahati based civil society group, was also addressed by journalist Ajit Kr Bhuyan, Meghalaya Human Rights Commission Chairman Justice (retired) Aftab H Saikia, veteran politician Bedabrata Baruah, former DGP Harekrishna Deka, writer and activist Paresh Malakar besides lawyer Nilay Dutta. The event, which was attended by over 1000 people, was presided over by physician and social activist Laxmi Goswami.