Pune: “We have faith in the Constitution of India. The country cannot be run on the lines of a party’s ideology,” said former Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar at a press meet on Friday held to announce a seminar ‘Sangh Ya Samvidhan’ to be conducted in the city.
The two-hour seminar will discuss whether the Constitution is under attack from groups advocating the Hindutva ideology. The seminar will be held at Mahatma Phule Auditorium in Wanawadi at 12 pm on Saturday. Former JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid, city Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and social activist and lawyer from Gujarat Jignesh Mewani will participate in the seminar.
“If violence increases, it is a threat to democracy. Issues such as soldiers’ deaths, violence by cow vigilantes, farmer suicides, government suppressing students’ voice in educational institutions and economic exploitation are issues that have aggravated after the ruling party came to power. If a believer of Manusmruti is in power, then our country is in danger,” said Kumar at the press meet.
“It has been three years and there is no solution to unemployment as promised by Modi. Instead thousands of youths have been sacked by IT companies,” added Kumar. He said principles mentioned in the Preamble of India such as socialist, secular, democratic and republic, are being undermined by the Sangh Parivar through religious disputes or economic crisis.
Rashid said the Romeo squad was strategically set to gain limelight. “Here we are trying to ease the situation, where a girl and boy can meet freely in public. The government has taken a regressive step like the romeo squad, where they are spreading a sense of fear among the youth by sending a wrong message,” said Rashid.
Reacting to the recent EVM controversy, Poonawalla said, “Our challenge is to demonstrate how an EVM can be hacked. If ATMs of leading banks can be hacked, then EVMs cannot be a big task.” “The Gujarat model is based on fascism and corporatisation of the state. A similar model is being used in making India,” said Mewani.