Training his gun on right-wing forces led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for their “divisive” politics, Sasikanth Senthil, former bureaucrat, said the secular fabric of Indian society that was maintained for centuries was being torn apart by them.

“India had been a harmonious country where people from different religion, castes, languages, and other cultural practices lived. There have been consistent efforts for the last 100 years by the right wing to destroy the social fabric of peaceful coexistence and replace it with one religion and one culture. They have been successful to an extent in the last six years. Their ideology is quite against the interests of different working communities, particularly Dalits and other oppressed, and, hence, should be resisted,” he said.

He was speaking at the Constitution Day programme at NGO Hall here on Tuesday.

“They are going to change the Constitution in such a way that it would be a problem to the oppressed communities. They will end the reservation for unprivileged communities. We should not allow this happen ... Babasaheb Ambedkar has given these rights. We should not allow anybody to snatch our rights given by Ambedkar. We were born and brought up in a safe environment. We should leave the safe environment to our next generation. We need to have a second revolution for this,” he said.

Pointing to the developments in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Mr. Senthil said the BJP-led government at the Centre wants to close down all the universities and other centres of higher education as they were producing rational individuals who would question the irrational policies of the government.

“JNU is a premier university in the country where children from poor backgrounds are studying. The BJP-led Union government wants to close it. That is why it has increased the hostel fee from ₹30 to ₹3,000. It is just a beginning. They would, step by step, close all the universities in the country that promotes rational and scientific thoughts. We should not allow this to happen,” Mr. Senthil said.

Scholar Razak Ustad, Dalit leader Ambanna Aroli, activist Kumar Samatala, and advocate Padmavardhan were present.