A senior lawmaker from President Barack Obama’s Democratic party has compared US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden with Mahatma Gandhi, saying the controversial whistleblower was engaged in a “non-violent” act of “civil disobedience”.
John lewis, one of America’s most revered civil rights leaders, says Snowden, who has come in for some harsh criticism from Obama Administration, was continuing the tradition of civil disobedience.
“In keeping with the philosophy and the discipline of non-violence, in keeping with the teaching of Henry David Thoreau and people like Gandhi and others, if you believe something that is not right, something is unjust, and you are willing to defy customs, traditions, bad laws, then you have a conscience. You have a right to defy those laws and be willing to pay the price,” lewis told the Guardian newspaper.