Vigilante violence backed by supposed enforcers of law: Sonia Gandhi

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Slamming the “culture of vigilante violence”, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said it was being “actively supported” by those who are supposed to enforce the law and that the nation was facing a great challenge in the form of “domestic misrule”.

She said India has reached “a crossroads marked by increasing threats of authoritarianism and bigotry” and the “inclusive conception” of the country was “under attack”.

“We are in a war of ideas. We wage this war to preserve our ideals, which have built India up as a model of democracy, diversity and co-existence. When these ideals are threatened, India itself is in danger. And if we do not raise our voices, if we do not speak up, our silence will be taken as consent,” Gandhi said.

She said the press was being “pressured to obey and applaud” rather than to question and speaking the truth was the imperative of the present age. Gandhi was speaking at a function here where President Pranab Mukherjee released a commemorative publication of the National Herald newspaper, which was run by the Congress, on ’70 years of India’s Independence’.