india

Updated: Oct 04, 2019 20:04 IST

The Congress on Friday asked the government to take action against those “defiling the memory” of Mahatma Gandhi by “celebrating” his assassin Nathuram Godse on social media.

“Two days ago, we had commemorated the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, but unfortunately on that very day on social media, what was made to trend is Nathuram Godse,” party spokesperson Manish Tewari told a news conference at the Congress headquarters in Delhi.

On October 2, a hashtag ‘#GodseAmarRahe’ had trended on Twitter.

“Who are these people, who are these forces, who are behind them, who seek to defy and dishonour the memory of the Father of the Nation by celebrating his assassin?” asked Tewari.

“Why has the government not taken suo moto cognizance of this? A government which has been hyper-active in instructing social media companies to take down posts and perhaps ranks first in the world in doing so has, perhaps, deliberately decided to not take cognizance of such a deliberate insult to the memory of the Father of the Nation.”

The main opposition party demanded that the government should “enquire and hold those people to account who are responsible for defiling the memory” of the Father of the Nation.

It also urged people and “pluralistic and nationalistic” political parties to stand up collectively to fight against the “growing spectre of authoritarianism” under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule.

Tewari said this growing authoritarianism in the country will sound the death knell for democracy.

“If you look around the country, there is a strange spectre of authoritarianism which has been let loose ever since the BJP government came into office for the second time,” he alleged.

The Congress leader claimed that TV producers of Doordarshan are suspended merely because they do not show the Prime Minister live.

“A doctor, who was exonerated by an enquiry committee after spending nine months in jail, now finds himself as a target for another enquiry committee because the objective seems to be very clear that certain people have to be fixed at all costs. Eminent intellectuals of this country, who write an open letter to the Prime Minister asking for action on mob lynching, find themselves to be subjects of an FIR. Where is this country headed?”

Tewrai said people need to seriously think and apply their minds to what has happened to this country in the past 120-odd days since the BJP-led government assumed office.

“The portentous signs of growing authoritarianism will spell the death-knell of democracy, if people and all right thinking progressive, pluralistic, nationalistic political parties do not stand up collectively against this authoritarianism which seems to have become the new normal in this nation,” he added.