Metamorphosis of the “secular democratic republic of India into a rabidly intolerant fascistic Hindu Rashtra of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh” is being attempted, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Wednesday. He called for an intellectual resistance to the transformation.
Addressing a lecture ‘Neoliberialsm, Communalism and Intellectual resistance’ at the 77th foundation day of National Book Trust, Mr. Yechury said that the most crucial target in this transformation was to replace “the inclusive Indian nationalism with an exclusive concept of Hindu Rashtra.”
The CPI(M) leader recalled the developments at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Hyderabad Central University.
“What we are witnessing today is not fascism yet… Fascism means replacement of parliament democracy with a naked terrorist dictatorship. We have not yet allowed them to jettison parliamentary democracy,” Mr. Yechury said. But the attacks in Uttarakhand and Arunanchal Pradesh were indications that we were getting close. “It is not that we will wait for fascism to arrive and then fight it because then there will be very few left to fight.”
