All protests are political, said the Magsaysay Award winner. 'But these protests are not partisan.' He pointed out how the previous government would disown responsibility when faced with such protests, but the current one brazens it out.

'For the first time we have a PM who brawls on the level of cheap polemic,' he said. According to Sainath, the murder of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi - three defenceless rationalists killed by young hitmen - is a deja vu of Mohandas Gandhi being assassinated by Nathuram Godse.

Sainath, who is now associated with an online rural archive called Pari, took on the right-wing trying to deflect the attention from the protests and said the movement is snowballing.

Produced by Andrew Clarance
Interview by Soumya Shankar

Watch Where was the RSS when the freedom struggle was on? - P Sainath With HD Quality.