India, Jan. 26 -- Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, while presenting the Priyadarshini Literary Award to a veteran writer, educationist and literary critic of Kerala, M Leelavathy, on January 19, 2026, in Kochi, recalled her expressing concern about the culture of silence pervading across the country. He calls the culture of silence a culture of cowardice.

What she said was very powerful, which made him deliver an apt, powerful speech at the Maha Panchayat of elected local body representatives:

"The ideological attack of the BJP and the RSS is designed to create a culture of silence. They want compliance from the people of India. They want an India where all our assets, and the assets of the people, belong to ...