Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Saturday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent warning against "regime change" and expressed his shock after the Sangh leader compared protests in India with recent developments in Nepal, Bangladesh, Albania and France.
"I am surprised that he even made that comparison, because as far as those kinds of open revolts are concerned, ultimately they brought about a kind of violence which none of us support," Sibal said at a press conference in Delhi.
"What India wants is a change of government through democratic means, and I think that Mohan Bhagwat understands that, but is not willing to acknowledge it," he added, pointing to the young people who gathered at Jantar Mantar and held peaceful protests without resorting to weapons or stones. They also went on a hunger strike, Sibal argued.
He alleged that any violence during the protest was caused by outside agencies and questioned the circumstances in which a truck carrying stones was found at the site.
"Nobody has yet inquired as to where that truck came from or how that truck came, because the police and law and order are under the control of the Union through the Lieutenant Governor," the Independent MP said.
Sibal said the regime change being sought was a change of government and the existing political dispensation through democratic means. "When, how, and most peacefully it will happen, only time will tell", Sibal said.
He also accused the RSS of having participated in a previous "regime change" by supporting Arvind Kejriwal, which led to the fall of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
"It was through the legal process -- in other words, there was an election, (Narendra) Modi ji came to power, and we have suffered 12 years of power under Modi ji, and RSS has benefited greatly," he said.
Questioning Bhagwat's assertion that regime change would not bring fundamental change, Sibal called his remarks about regime changes in countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal a "bogey". He asked why the RSS had supported Kejriwal in the past, accusing the RSS chief of avoiding the present issues confronting India.
He referred to the Cockroach Janata Party's protests over the state of school education, alleged manipulation of voter lists, incursions in Arunachal Pradesh and eastern Ladakh, and the detention of young people, academics and opposition leaders.
Sibal claimed that Bhagwat had remained silent on these issues because the RSS benefited from the BJP-led government. He called out Bhagwat's remarks about foreign forces attempting to destabilise India and asserted that unemployment and inadequate educational opportunities were among the country's pressing concerns.
Bhagwat, speaking at the RSS's annual Vijayadashami Utsav in Nagpur on Tuesday, had said agitations seeking regime change did not resolve fundamental problems and could instead deepen social divisions. Citing developments in Bangladesh, Nepal, France and Albania, he said such movements were often driven by forces pursuing their own interests.
He also said protests were inevitable in a democracy but should be aimed at finding solutions rather than deepening divisions.
The Narendra Modi government and the Election Commission have been on the back foot amid mounting protests by Opposition parties, students and civil society groups, seeking the removal of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Nirmala Sitharaman's husband joins anti-SIR protest
Economist Parakala Prabhakar, husband of Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, joined a human-chain protest organised by civil society groups and Left-affiliated organisations in Hyderabad on Saturday, demanding the rollback of the SIR and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Criticising the government for denotifying Jantar Mantar as a protest site, Prabhakar said every place where objections to the SIR were raised was becoming a “Jantar Mantar”. He described the exercise as a “bloodless political genocide of citizenship”.
He also demanded the restoration of deleted voters, the disbanding of the Election Commission and a selection panel for Election Commissioners comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of India.