Patna, April 11: The ruling political order in the country is misusing Bapu's name to spread violence and the very things he had opposed during his lifetime, speakers at a discussion on "Mahatma Gandhi and philosophy on peaceful coexistence" alleged today.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar attended the session as part of the audience but refused to speak from the dais despite being called onstage by each of the six speakers who pointed out at the rising intolerance in the country.
The discussions at the session - held as part of the national conclave to mark the beginning of the centenary celebrations of the Champaran Satyagraha - soon gave way to a full-fledged attack on the BJP-RSS combine.
Kumar Ketkar, Mumbai-based senior journalist and chief editor of Dainik Divya Marathi who has been in the crosshairs of the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena for the past couple of decades and has survived attacks by them a few times, fired the opening volley.
Arguing the need to revisit Gandhi in India in the present times marked by rising intolerance, Ketkar said: "Outwardly they take the name of Gandhi, but inwardly, they wish wars. When they talk of decimating Pakistan, they mean Muslims living in our country. This comes to their lips when they assert that those who don't want to live here can go to Pakistan."
He alleged the ruling powers were trying to defame educational institutions such as Jawaharlal Nehru University that believe in peaceful coexistence, and that the media were glamorising violence.
Ashok Vajpeyi, poet, critic and former Lalit Kala Akademi chairman, said more than 100 wars and uprisings were going on across the world, "violence is being portrayed as bravery and we have managed to reach the farthest from Gandhi in political and social life".
He said: "The situation is such that more a political leader tells lies with confidence, the more successful he becomes. Falsity is reigning supreme and common people are accepting things in silence." He added that in comparison to such politicians, Gandhi was a poor orator who used to speak less and that too in whispers. "These politicians are running cleanliness campaigns across the country, but taking garbage to the minds of people and polluting them."
Author Shamsul Islam said: "Hindu rashtra was a demand of Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS when India became independent, but the governments in the following decades believed in the secular structure of the Constitution.
"However," he added, "the gang that has come to power at the Centre brazenly admits that it is accepting the Constitution out of compulsion and has continuously revealed its wish to change it."
Former BBC journalist Ramdutt Tripathy chose to attack yoga televangelist Ramdev without taking his name: "Gandhi was the biggest yogi and it reflected in his thoughts and works. The one who today shakes his belly in the name of yoga is no yogi."
Rajya Sabha member Harivansh and journalist Qurban Ali were the other speakers.
