THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Neyyattinkara police on Thursday registered a case against five RSS-BJP workers for obstructing Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and raising slogans against him. The police registered the case suo motu against the BJP-RSS workers, who could be identified, after the incident created ripples in socio-political circles.
The BJP-RSS workers waylaid Tushar at Neyyattinkara on Wednesday evening while he was returning after delivering a speech during the inauguration of Gandhian late P Gopinathan Nair’s statue.
Tushar had criticised Sangh Parivar in his speech and that provoked the BJP-RSS workers to block his car and heckle him, the police said.
Tushar in his speech had dubbed RSS as cancer-spreading, and accused it of destroying the secular fabric of the country. The protestors raised slogans against Tushar demanding him to retract the statements. The incident invited sharp reactions as CM Pinarayi Vijayan termed the incident as an attack against secularism and democracy.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Tushar Gandhi said he didn’t expect such an incident to happen in Kerala. “Being at the forefront of the fight against communal forces, I expected these kind of confrontations. I respect everyone’s right to protest. If something I said hurt them, they have the right to protest,” said Tushar Gandhi.