In the flow of recent events, Ramachandra Guha, the famous Indian historian and author who is known to write about Mahatma Gandhi was seen opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He stood in unison with the people of Delhi opposing the act and was also arrested for the same. However, what has come to the limelight are the recent statements which Mr Guha has made about the Gandhis’ and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) during his talk on, “Patriotism Vs Jingoism.”
He says, “a fifth-generation dynast Rahul Gandhi has no chance in Indian politics against Narendra Modi who is a hard-working, ‘self-made’, with administrative experience of 15 years and Kerala did an unfortunate thing by electing the congress leader to parliament.” There has been quite a lot of hype about his statements over the internet. While on one side, he opposes the Citizenship Amendment Act, he also praises PM Modi. He added that if Malayalis make the same mistake by re-electing Rahul Gandhi again in 2024, it will be merely like handing over an advantage to Narendra Modi.
After what the government did to him, he was expected to criticize the Modi government in front of all. However, what he did was totally shocking for everyone.
My talk was a defence of constitutional patriotism against Hindutva jingoism. I am sorry that a reporter has cherry picked two sentences out of a one hour talk to distort its meaning. https://t.co/9RDFolywWk
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) January 18, 2020
Nevertheless, a closer look will reveal that these statements are just mere parts of a speech Mr Ramachandra Guha gave at the Kerala literary festival. A recent statement made by him on his twitter account says, “my talk was a defence of constitutional patriotism against Hindutva jingoism. I am sorry that a reporter has cherry-picked two sentences out of a one hour talk to distort its meaning.”
The very next day after praising the PM of the nation Mr Ramachandra Guha was yet seen criticizing CAA by stating it as “illogical, immoral and ill-Timed”. As per the reports, he also said that NRC, along with CAA, would make Muslims community vulnerable. Further, he added that it is heartening to see people come together to protest against the act.
We should also not forget that it was because Congress didn’t do justice to the people of India and didn’t fulfil their wishes that BJP came to power. Though, the people have never questioned and criticized it like Mr Guha.
Furthermore, we can also say that it is a sign of healthy democracy that a person of high prestige can openly criticize not only the government (by opposing CAA) but also, criticizing the opposition because it is the duty of the opposition to bring the flaws of the government into light and maybe Congress is lagging somewhere behind. Now we can hope that the statements made by Mr Ramachandra Guha will put them into self-introspection.
