- TG Mohandas said his controversial remarks were satirical and hypothetical in context
- He suggested curfew, warnings, and police firing to restore order during violent Jantar Mantar protests
- Mohandas claimed Malayalam satire loses nuance in English, causing his words to be misinterpreted
Right-wing activist TG Mohandas has defended his controversial remarks suggesting that protesters at Delhi's Jantar Mantar should have been shot to restore order, saying his comments were satirical, hypothetical, and taken out of context after short clips from a longer YouTube discussion went viral.
The controversy erupted after a video surfaced in which Mohandas said that, if he had the authority, he would impose curfew in a four-kilometre radius around Jantar Mantar, warn protesters three times to disperse, and then order police firing.
He is a former state convenor of the BJP's Intellectual Cell and a former office-bearer of the Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram, which has close links to the RSS. M Ganeshan, senior Pracharak of the RSS in Kerala, clarified that he is not associated with the organisation in any capacity.
"I would impose curfew in a four-square-kilometre area around Jantar Mantar. I would ask the crowd three times to disperse. Then I would shoot. Some will die, some will survive, some will be mutilated. The situation would be brought under control in four hours. The bodies would be collected and taken to the hospital," he said in the video.
In another part of the video, Mohandas referred to "mass rapes" and claimed that there are women who "like rape", while targeting Left-leaning and secular groups. The remarks drew sharp criticism and became one of the focal points of the controversy.
RSS South Kerala Prantha Sahakaryavah, KB Sreekumar, said that the comments regarding the recent protests are highly condemnable.
"Those are his personal opinions. RSS does not agree with those comments or such views in any way," he said.
Tens of thousands of protesters, led by the Cockroach Janta Party, rallied last week in New Delhi and other cities, demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over the NEET paper leak.
Demonstrations in the national capital turned violent on July 20 when huge crowds attempted to march towards Parliament from the Jantar Mantar protest site. Police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse the protest, triggering clashes and a wave of detentions.
Speaking to NDTV, Mohandas rejected allegations that he had advocated violence against protesters.
He said the controversy was created by people on Facebook who had not watched the complete 31-minute discussion uploaded on the Pathrika Malayalam YouTube channel.
According to him, the widely circulated clips were only around one to one-and-a-half minutes long and stripped his remarks of their context.
Mohandas argued that Malayalam humour, satire and idiomatic expressions lose their tone and nuance when translated into English, making sarcastic or trolling remarks appear as literal statements.
Explaining his comments on opening fire, he said they were intended as a hypothetical illustration of the standard sequence followed by the police and civil administration while dealing with violent riots, including imposing curfew, issuing repeated warnings and, if necessary, using force to restore order.
He also said his remarks were part of a larger discussion contrasting what he described as the limited perspective of ordinary citizens with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's broader view of governance. Mohandas said that while people may demand immediate and extreme action, the Prime Minister weighs wider geopolitical and national considerations before taking such decisions.
He further alleged that the controversy was first amplified by MediaOne, which he described as being run by Jamaat-e-Islami, and was later circulated by Left supporters on social media.
