Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP are involved in “appropriation politics” where they have appropriated people like Bhagat Singh, Shivaji, and more recently, Mahatma Gandhi, but have not appropriated their ideas, said Kanhaiya Kumar, former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union.
Addressing a session on ‘Is India Ripe for a Revolution?’ moderated by Sadanand Menon at The Hindu Lit for Life 2017 here on Sunday, he said, “Look at how they are appropriating great people. They are not appropriating their ideology. They are imposing ideology. Soon, they will use a saffron dhoti for Gandhi. This is the reality.”
Stating that the plurality of the country was under constant threat, Mr. Kumar asserted, “There must be ideological unity against the idea of oneness.”
Waves of change
Mr. Kumar said waves of change were rippling across the country.
“Modi has crores of followers [on Twitter]. If you looked at his wall a year ago, you wouldn’t find anything [him]. He has a whole army of paid trolls who ensured they would abuse anyone who said anything against him. But what is the situation today? They have paid trolls, we have free fighters. Everyone is now fighting this ideological war,” Mr. Kumar claimed.
