9 min readNew DelhiJan 25, 2023 09:01 PM IST
First published on: Jan 25, 2023 at 09:01 PM IST
Congress leader Anil K Antony, the son of former Kerala Chief Minister and Defence Minister A K Antony, stepped down from his positions in the party’s communications team on Wednesday following a scathing attack on the party leadership. This followed a row triggered by his tweet on the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question” in which he called for national interests to be placed above the views of an international media entity such as the BBC.
In an interview to The Indian Express, Antony discusses in detail what prompted him to speak out, the pressure he faced to retract the tweet, why he resigned, and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s dig at him.
Your views on the BBC documentary have created a controversy. What prompted you to make the remarks?
First of all, I had no intention to create any kind of controversy. It was not meant for that. It was a general observation in view of certain narratives. It was very self-explanatory too. The first sentence itself says very clearly that, and the BJP and I are entities that actually have a lot of strong differences of opinion on a lot of things. But when it comes to the country’s core interests, including national interests and sovereignty, I think we should keep partisan politics out of it because I personally feel that is playing with fire and which will have bad long-term ramifications. So I said the country’s sovereignty comes over everything else.
Secondly, when you talk about the documentary, we have our institutions, a lot of national institutions. I am not saying that everything is perfect, everything is 100 per cent good. Some institutions maybe 80 per cent good, it could be 60 per cent good, 20 per cent good. But at the same time, we don’t want to create a scenario where foreign entities and foreign institutions can come here and gain precedence over it. I saw some of the people around me who suddenly were placing the words of some of these entities over our institutions. So, I thought it is a trend that can compromise and weaken the long-term interests, including our sovereignty, in various manners and I just made a casual observation. I had zero interest in turning it into a controversy.
Why do you think a BBC documentary can affect India’s sovereignty?
It is not a documentary. I am not against the screening of anything. I am very happy and proud of the fact that India is the world’s largest democracy and in a country like ours, freedom of speech and freedom of expression are paramount for democracy to function. I am not somebody who is for the ban of any documentary, book, or film. Because I believe people should view and read whatever they would like. Yet I made a small observation that people should also know where things are coming from. The people who are behind the documentary are the same people who once pushed the narrative of the Iraq War, which was responsible for the death of lakhs of people and the displacement of millions. So, somebody like that creates a project and comes into the country, we actually need to understand where it comes from and need to be a little cautious about it. I did nothing wrong in just hinting that … nor do I think that I have done anything wrong when I said that we should not let foreign agencies and institutions try to dilute the sanctity of our own institutions.
What happened after that tweet?
Some people wanted me to retract the tweet, some people wanted me to apologise for it, and some people wanted to give a counter. But, at the end of the day, I feel whatever I have done is based on the best of my beliefs, understanding and my convictions. I said I am not going to withdraw it.
Did the Congress ask you to withdraw? Who from Congress asked you?
I don’t want to name people. But there are certain elements in the Congress, some of them are leaders themselves … some of them through their proxies, they have been pressuring me. There were certain statements, especially in Kerala, that said they are going to take action against me, remove me from the party, for something which I 110 per cent believe and which 90 per cent of the country will accept that partisan politics shouldn’t come above national interests. I don’t know why it irks a lot of people.
Why did you resign from all positions in the party?
This is something that has been brewing for a while. I have been working for the party fully for three to four years. In these years, there have been many instances of these targeted cyber attacks etc that were coming and I always knew that these attacks are coming from certain specific corners of the Congress party itself, especially in Kerala. I informed the state and national leadership but nothing happened and I know why nothing happened. But I am not somebody who holds grudges or gets bothered about trivial issues. But what happened in the last 24 hours prompted me to realise that somebody like me will find it difficult to actually work and do anything in the organisation. Because at the end of the day, you don’t agree with a tweet and then … you go to my Facebook wall…my WhatsApp messages, text messages, it is full of threats and abuses, the vilest of comments. It is cyber-bullying at its worst and I know it is coming from certain corners of the Congress.
Who are you referring to?
I don’t want to take names. I know who it is and they know that I know. I know where it is coming from. You have created such a horrendous toxic culture. I am a professional, I work in the field of technology. I am a Stanford graduate. I realised that I don’t want to be in this kind of toxic, vicious, malicious environment … Finally, with all the comments that were coming from certain sections, I thought it was best that I move on with my life.
But you have not resigned from the Congress.
I have resigned from all the posts.
Do you continue to remain in the Congress?
Yes.
Did you speak to your father before deciding to resign from all posts?
No. I haven’t at all. It was my personal decision based on my own convictions and conscience.
Are you planning to join any other party?
Absolutely no. At this point in time, my focus in my life is my career. That is what I would like to focus on. Politics is not something that I am not interested in even thinking about at this point in time. I want to pursue my other interests. Politics is not my first priority now.
Congress communication department head Jairam Ramesh has put out a tweet drawing a comparison between you and Oommen Chandy’s son Chandy Oommen. How do you react? One other charge is that you never participated in the Yatra.
I had very specific responsibilities from 2019 to 2021 and whenever I was given some specific responsibilities, I have been doing it to the best of my capability. At the same time, I am a full-time professional also and I have a lot of other things to do. At the end of the day, I just don’t want to run around and do errands for somebody to please people. That is not who I am. If Mr Ramesh actually thinks that I am going to run around doing people’s errands etc to get into people’s good books, then I think he has actually had a very wrong impression of me as a person. I have other things to do in my life.
Who was your letter addressed to?
I have sent it to the central leadership and I have sent another resignation letter to the state leadership.
In your letter, you said that “by now I have been made well aware that you, your colleagues and the coterie around the leadership are keen to work with a bunch of sycophants and chamchas, who would unquestionably be at your beck and call”. Who is this “you”, “your colleagues” and the coterie that you are referring to?
Those who got it got it. I don’t want to name anybody.
In an interview to The Indian Express, Antony discusses in detail what prompted him to speak out, the pressure he faced to retract the tweet, why he resigned, and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's dig at him. (Facebook: Anil K Antony) 
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