PM Modi tells people to popularise Mahatma Gandhi's ideals, BJP's Tathagatha Roy lists 9 flaws
"In order to reach Muslim hearts (which ultimately he failed to do in Undivided India), he adopted methods which mark the starting point of his minuses," Tathagatha Roy claimed.
FollowOn the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in paying respects to Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary and called upon the people to further popularise the noble ideals of the Father of the Nation, his party colleague and former Governor Tathagatha Roy has stirred a controversy with his remarks.
In a series of Twitter posts, the former Meghalaya and Tripura governor said, 'Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated today. Any assassination is murder and condemnable. That said, his death anniversary is also a good day to take count of his achievements and failures; the lessons that he taught our nation and the quality of those lessons.'
'First the pluses. His quality of mass leadership was unquestionable. In truth he had followed what Swami Vivekananda said many years back, that ‘dharma’ (which is wider than mere ‘religion’) is central to Indian thinking; Gandhiji used it very effectively to reach the majority of Hindus’ hearts. However, in order to reach Muslim hearts (which ultimately he failed to do in Undivided India) he adopted methods which mark the starting point of his minuses,' Roy said.
Listing Gandhi's flaws, the BJP leader claimed, 'a) Unqualified pacifism aka Ahimsa going against Human Nature; b) Passing off disgusting untruths as truths in the interest of his pursuit of the mirage of Hindu-Muslim unity. Like calling the Moplahs (Kerala Muslims) “brave and God-fearing” after they committed mass murder of Hindus in Malabar; c) Not a word of condemnation even after the mass murder of Hindus in Kohat (now Pakistan,1924), Calcutta (1946) and Noakhali (now Bangladesh,1946); d) Elbowing Netaji Subhas out of the Congress after he was elected President (Tripuri,1939); e) His bizarre sexual experiments with young girls; f) Not opposing partition.'
Tathagata Roy termed Gandhi's move to thrust Jawaharlal Nehru upon the nation as Prime Minister when almost all provincial committee voted for Sardar Patel and 'driving out into the Delhi cold Hindu-Sikh refugees from West Pakistan who had taken refuge in abandoned mosques, as the latter's worst flaws. However, the ultimate flaw, according to the former Governor, was that of Gandhi going on fast to force India to pay Rs 55 crore to Pakistan.
