Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma's great grandson, tells US lawmaker Ro Khanna about India's 'plunge into an abyss of hate'

Khanna met some of the Muslim victims of the recent communal violence at Nuh in Haryana. He also had a meeting with S Q R Ilyas, the father of Umar Khalid.

Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi told United States lawmaker Ro Khanna about India’s “plunge into an abyss of hate” and his words meant “more than almost any other” to the Progressive Democrat member of the US Congress.

After Khanna and seven other US lawmakers had meetings with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday, Khanna replied on X to a post by Tushar Gandhi, an author and a well-known critic of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, about the chat they recently had in Mumbai.

Khanna met some of the Muslim victims of the recent communal violence at Nuh in Haryana. He also had a meeting with S Q R Ilyas, the father of former Jawaharlal Nehru University researcher and student leader Umar Khalid, now in jail for almost three years since being arrested by Delhi Police in September 2020 and booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or the UAPA.

After Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha following his conviction in a criminal defamation case by a court in Gujarat on March 23, Khanna had posted on X that the expulsion of the Congress leader from the lower house was “a deep betrayal of Gandhian philosophy and India’s deepest values”.

He, however, had no meeting with the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family during his visit to New Delhi this week. Tushar Gandhi alleged that the government had thwarted the US Congressman’s meeting with Rahul Gandhi.

“I met with US Congressman @RoKhanna in Mumbai. I briefed him about situation in India, the nation’s plunge into an abyss of hate, divisiveness & (and) violence. He, I believe, wanted to meet the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi who he says is his inspiration,” Tushar Gandhi, who has been campaigning against communalism, posted on the social media platform. “As Gandhi’s great-grandson and a guardian of his legacy, your words mean more to me than almost any other,” Khanna, an Indian-American member of the US House of Representatives, replied.

Khanna and Michael Waltz, a Republican Party’s Representative in the US Congress, co-chair the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.

They were joined by Ed Case, Kat Cammack, Deborah Ross, Jasmine Crockett, Rich McCormick and Shri Thanedar, all members of the US House of Representatives, during a visit to Mumbai and New Delhi over the past few days.

Khanna’s grandfather Amarnath Vidyalankar had not only taken part in the struggle for independence in India, but had also spent four years in jail with Mahatma Gandhi. He was also a member of the first Parliament of India.

A meeting between Khanna and commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra in New Delhi triggered criticism from a section of social media users. The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) took to X to convey to the US Congressman its deep disappointment over his meeting with Iyer-Mitra, whom it referred to as a ‘far-right Islamophobe’.

The IAMC reposted a JNU historian’s post citing Iyer-Mitra’s earlier social media posts criticizing US Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who had boycotted Modi’s address to the American Congress a couple of months back in order to protest against religious intolerance, human rights violations, and backsliding of democracy in India.

“I unequivocally stand for pluralism and the human rights of minority populations, including Muslims, whether in India or America. My positions are well known. And I firmly stand by my values no matter who I meet with and am proud to convey them,” Khanna responded to criticism on X. He stated that no one should shy away from debates and opportunities to engage people with different ideologies. He added that his core values had never changed as a result of meeting people.

“I was warned that Ro (Khanna) oscillates. I discovered a sincere man & (and) a shrewd politician,” Tushar Gandhi posted on X about his meeting with the US lawmaker.