New Delhi: Historian Ramchandra Guha on Saturday clarified that his comments on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were ‘cherry picked’ and ‘distorted’. He wrote on Twitter, “My talk was a defence of constitutional patriotism against Hindutva jingoism. I am sorry that a reporter has cherry picked two sentences out of a one hour talk to distort its meaning (sic).”
Addressing the crowd at the Kerala Literature Festival he had said, “Kerala, you have done many wonderful things for India, but one of the disastrous things you did was to elect Rahul Gandhi to the Parliament.”
In an hour-long talk on Patriotishm vs Jingoism he had said, “I have nothing against Rahul Gandhi personally. He is a decent fellow, very well-mannered. But young India does not want a fifth-generation dynast. If you Malyalis make the mistake of re-electing Rahul Gandhi in 2024 too, you are merely handing over an advantage to Narendra Modi.”
In his clarfication Guha also tweeted, “That said, I do believe that the countrywide movement against Hindutva is handicapped by the fact that the party of the freedom movement is so closely controlled by a single family,” he also tweeted.
“I ended my KLF talk by saying that even if the Congress may not be up to the task, ordinary citizens will carry on the struggle in defence of constitutional values. As they have done so admirably in the protests against the CAA.”
Many on the social media criticised Guha for taking on Gandhi while praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his talk Guha further said, “Narendra Modi’s great advantage is that he is not Rahul Gandhi. He is self-made. He has run a state for 15 years, he has an administrative experience, he is incredibly hard working and he never takes holidays in Europe. Believe me I am saying all this in all seriousness.”
Guha has been critical of Modi in the past and even called him a man with “dictatorial qualities”.
Last month, he had also accused the Modi government of using CAA which offers citizenship to undocumented migrants of multiple faiths other than Islam, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan to “divert attention from a sinking economy”.
