Comments by Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide are intended to tarnish Bapu’s image, says Tushar Gandhi

Tushar Gandhi expresses hurt over slanderous remarks against Mahatma Gandhi by radical Hindutva leader Bhide. He calls it an orchestrated campaign to tarnish Bapu's image. FIR registered against Bhide, but Gandhi questions why he hasn't been arrested yet. He says hate & violence normalizing rapidly in India due to such strategies.

Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said that he was “very hurt” by the slanderous remarks made by radical Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide against the father of the nation. He said, “It is a very orchestrated campaign to tarnish Bapu’s image and he expected complaints against Mr. Bhide from across the country.”

Last week, during his tour of Vidarbha, Mr. Bhide made controversial remarks against Gandhi at a public gathering in Amravati. After the Maharashtra unit of the Congress party demanded his arrest in the Assembly, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against him under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony).

Responding to the remarks, Mr. Gandhi said, “As a family member, it’s hurtful. But I have gotten used to this kind of abuse and criticism. Till now, the attacks were on Bapu himself. But now his family members and ancestors are being targeted, which is very annoying and hurtful.”

He said, “This is stemming from the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), it is a very orchestrated campaign of misinformation and hate. They (RSS) have continuously carried this out even when Bapu was alive. So, it is not surprising at all. Just the characters change from time to time, different people come up and make these statements. But these are not standalone ones and even loose cannons, these are all programmed performers given a toolkit. It’s very systematically carried out. It is all created in a very skilful manner to push the envelope of Gandhi hate. A similar thing was done with the Nehrus and now most people believe that [Jawaharlal] Nehru and Feroze [Gandhi] were Muslim and now a similar narrative is being floated about Bapu.”

“When Mr. Bhide made those statements, the audience was laughing and applauding. There should have been FIRs against Mr. Bhide from across the country, people who claim to be Gandhians have done nothing about it.” So, you can see the malice that has crept into our society. “We don’t go through a 24-hour period without some report of hate and hate crime happening. Hate and violence are normalising so rapidly in our country and these are all strategies,” he added.

Mr. Gandhi questioned why Mr. Bhide has not been arrested yet. He said, “Why is it taking so long to arrest him? The police have not acted upon the FIR because they are waiting for a nod from the Mantralaya and the Prime Minister calls him (Bhide) Guruji.”