Aditya Aamir
What is the Congress getting into by seemingly joining hands with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s rabidly Hindutva leader Pravinbhai Togadia? Does Congress president and Shiv bhakt Rahul Gandhi even know which of the 36 million Hindu gods Togadia prays to? Maybe it is a god who might be in the crosshair of Lord Shiva’s trident and Hindu gods do keep their rivalry alive.
The fact is that with Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia and Patidar leader Hardik Patel landing up at Togadia’s hospital bedside, the Congress has caught a flu virus, which has no cure other than to give up the ‘Hinduism’ card that will work for the party only so long as the distinction between ‘Hinduism’ and ‘Hindutva’ is kept well apart.
Togadia happens to be the most ‘viral’ form of ‘Hindutva’.
In fact, he is the rabidly toxic face of Hindutva. Just because the BJP distanced itself from Togadia in the recent Gujarat elections does not mean he has acquired a moderate face in the Hindutva pantheon. You cannot expect the leopard to change its spots or the hyena to lose the power in its jaws. The Congress’s ‘Hinduism’ plank will be shattered to pieces in the grip of Togadia’s Hindutva jaw.
Coming on the heels of the other Hindu-strides, how the Congress party has taken under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership this one too is reckless, to say the least. The Ram-Ravan posters in Amethi with Rahul as Ram and Modi as Ravan was another misstep the party could have avoided. Picturing Rahul as Ram with no Ravan in the frame would have been enough for people to get the drift. Why bring ‘Modi-the-Ravan’ into the picture when every Hindu, nay every Indian, knows by heart the Ramayana?
And now Togadia! Hardik Patel meeting Togadia would have been enough. Isn’t Hardik the messenger boy of Rahul Gandhi? Why send Modhwadia to the hospital? Now, with so many assembly elections on the assembly line this year, Congress leaders, including chief ministers, will have a fight on hand to explain the difference between the party’s so-called ‘Hinduism’ and the BJP’s ‘Hindutva’.
Can Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah go forward with his ‘Hinduism’ talk to take on the BJP’s ‘Hindutva’ and come up trumps as the state readies itself for assembly elections? So far the CM was ably keeping himself in the reckoning against a slew of attacks on his Hindu credentials from “Hindu icons” such as Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP president Amit Shah. With his humble farmer origins, Siddaramaiah was emerging as more cow-friendly than the cow rakshaks in the BJP. Henceforth, Togadia will dog him to every temple and cowshed the same way as the rabidly Hindu VHP leader will be on the heels of Rahul Gandhi on his temple-runs.
Rahul Gandhi on his Gujarat temple-run was a pleasant surprise and without doubt it got the Congress political dividends. Maybe not as much for the Gujarat elections, but definitely for the long run. Rahul with vermillion on his forehead was more than a photo-op, he was a credible challenge to the hardcore Hindu typified by the BJP Hindu. India through the ages has been of the moderate rather than the fanatic. Even the fanatic Muslim had to contend with the moderate Sufi Muslim.
Talking about the Indian Muslim, Rahul Gandhi has already distanced the Congress from its once redoubtable Muslim vote-bank with his soft Hinduism. With Togadia hovering over his shoulder, he has likely broken the Indian Muslim’s back. Fundamentalist Muslim leaders such as Assauddin Owaisi were already taking advantage of the Congress’s inclination towards ‘Hinduism’, but with a ‘Hindutva Congress’ they will go all out to wean the last of the Muslim from the Congress camp. This when the BJP has been poaching on the Congress Party’s Muslim vote-bank.
Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party, with or without Togadia, cannot draw away a significantly large chunk of the Hindus to its fold and translate it into electoral victories, which raises the question: has the Congress given up its secularism plank altogether? Congress leaders in every state going to polls will be posed that question. The answer will be hard to convince the secular Indian, Hindu or Muslim.
Rahul Gandhi’s temple-runs will henceforth be seen as rank electoral opportunism. If the Congress is thinking that by doing all these shenanigans on the eve of a SC ruling on the Ramjanmabhoomi dispute, which could go the Hindu-way, it will rake in Hindu votes, then it is banking too much on wishful thinking.(IPA Service)
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