RSS Backing Makes Modi More Dangerous Than Trump: Teesta Setalvad

‘The BJP government at the Centre is attempting to crush dissent in India’, claims activist Teesta Setalvad.

‘Narendra Modi is a more dangerous force than US President Donald Trump’, claimed activist Teesta Setalvad at a talk on Monday (Photo: Agencies/altered by The Quint)

Speaking to The Quint, activist Teesta Setalvad, whose talk at the Oxford Bookstore in New Delhi was called off at short notice due to “recent protests in the city”, asserted that Hindu right-wing forces are attempting to crush dissent in India.

She also claimed that ‘the backing of the RSS makes Prime Minister Modi a more dangerous force than US President Donald Trump.’

The talk, cancelled by Oxford, was held at the Press Club of India instead.

At a talk in the capital, Setalvad hit out strongly at the Centre, accusing the BJP and allied forces of crushing dissent in university campuses (Photo: Meghnad Bose/ The Quint)

‘BJP Regime Doesn’t Appreciate Democratic Spirit of Dissent’

Oxford cancelling the talk was either an act of self-censorship or there was external pressure applied. Dissent in India is being silenced. The regime in power at the Centre does not appreciate the nuances of democracy and what it means to have a debate. The RSS, which effectively runs the country today, does not even believe in the constitutional values of the country. 

Activist Teesta Setalvad

She added that the threat to free speech faced today is a serious one and that there is an imminent need to build up resistance against it.

‘RSS Backing Makes Modi More Dangerous Than Trump’

We may curse the US for all we like, but look at the protests taken out in America everyday. The media, the women, the workers and all sections of the society are challenging the extremely crass president. But the leadership here is more dangerous. Trump doesn’t have the RSS behind him. The RSS is in power in India today. RSS is a proto-fascist force and it does not believe in the Indian Constitution.  

Teesta Setalvad comparing the leadership of Narendra Modi and Donald Trump

‘College Campuses Gripped by a Climate of Fear’

ABVP supporters during a march in Delhi University’s North Campus on Thursday. (Photo: Meghnad Bose/The Quint)

Setalvad also spoke on ‘the climate of fear’ she felt had taken hold of university campuses across the country.

Look at what is happening in our universities now. Young leaders are increasingly charged with sedition. The kind of violence perpetrated against women in DU should shock all of us, but nobody is willing to come out as we are all scared.