As India continues to resist the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the NRC, a ‘second coming’ of the civil disobedience movement seems to be in order. Weighing in on the matter, Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson and the founder of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, stated that even the government is confused on the issue.
“The government themselves is confused. They don’t know what they want. This is because there is dishonesty on the part of the government. They are not willing to come out and openly state the agenda behind these two laws or methods that they want to impose on India.”Tushar Gandhi, Founder and President of Mahatma Gandhi Foundation
“They are so desperate; you see the speeches they are making. The speech in Ramlila Maidan, within five minutes of that speech, all the lies that were spoken from the dais were listed out and shown and proven to be lies. Now, what is a greater tragedy than a prime minister being caught lying to his own people?” he added.
Criticising the violent curbing of protests by the police in multiple cities, Gandhi emphasised that the police must realise that they only serve the Constitution of India.
“Police are now seen as servants of the government in power and the muscle to carry out the agenda of the government in power and to crush people. Police must realise that they only serve the Constitution of India and are actually protectors of the people. They are not thugs of the government in power and I think this stems out of the reluctance of the Opposition and the government to implement the police service reforms that have been recommended by the Supreme Court and have been languishing for so long.”Tushar Gandhi, Founder and President of Mahatma Gandhi Foundation
Rubbishing Home Minister Amit Shah’s claims that there is no link between the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), Gandhi said that the government is trying to bring in the NRC through the back door as NPR.
“It is NRC through the back door, there is no question about it. They are trying because they have now hit a wall of protest on the NRC issue... they are trying to be cheeky. They are trying to bring NRC through the back door and camouflage it as something that they can claim is purely a census exercise.”Tushar Gandhi, Founder and President of Mahatma Gandhi Foundation
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