Thiruvananthapuram: In Kerala’s capital city, Thiruvananthapuram, tensions arose after Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Tushar Gandhi said at an event that the soul of India was afflicted with cancer and the Sangh Parivar was spreading it. The speech by Tushar, who came to Neyyatinkara here to unveil Gandhian representative Gopinathan Nair’s statue at his residence in TB Junction, irked the BJP and RSS activists, who demanded a retraction and apology. However, Tushar said that he remained in his stand and hailed Gandhi before he left the place, The Times of India reported.
An infuriated pack of RSS-BJP workers blocked Tushar’s car, chanting slogans, but he refused to retract and countered the saffron teams with slogans like "down with RSS” and “long leave Gandhi”.
Congress and Communist party leaders in the state condemned Sangh Parivar workers for creating a ruckus at the event. Congress party chief in Kerala, K Sudhakaran, said that the Sangh Parivar activists were being haunted by the ghost of Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Gandhi. He reminded that communal forces that mock Gandhiji and praise Godse have no place on the secular soil of Kerala. The Sangh Parivar is indeed a cancer that has infected the soul of the country, threatening secular values, democracy and freedom.
CPI state secretary, Kerala, Binoy Viswam, said that the bullet that killed Gandhiji and Godse behind it is still alive. The RSS is the one who betrayed all Indian struggles for the British, and the Hindutva organisation has a grudge against everything Gandhiji stood for. It is an ignorant, arrogant, insolent and unforgivable act to block Gandhiji's grandson, Viswam said.
Meanwhile, Tushar Gandhi told the media that everyone has the right to protest in a democracy.