Ahmedabad: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi signalled Wednesday, from the platform of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in Ahmedabad, that the party is aligning its social justice agenda with the idea of pluralism—an apparent outreach to regain Hindu votes that it has lost over the past decade to a rising BJP.
“We also call ourselves Hindus, but this is not our religion. Our religion is one that respects all and loves every person irrespective of caste, creed, religion and gender,” he said, referring to the act of a Rajasthan BJP leader sprinkling Ganga water to purify a temple visited by the state’s Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully, a Dalit.
“Our Rajasthan legislative party leader, Tika Ram Jully, visited a temple. And the BJP leaders washed the temple following his visit. And they call themselves Hindus. They don’t give Dalits the right to enter a temple and when they do, they get the temples washed. This is not our religion,” Rahul, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said.
He went on to say that the “hearts of BJP workers are filled with hate”, while in contrast, Congress workers treat everyone as human beings, on an equal footing. He alleged that the BJP wants to treat every tribal, Dalit, and backward caste individual the same way they treated Jully.
“This is what the fight is about,” the Rae Bareli MP said, in a speech that lasted 40 minutes. Before he spoke, the AICC adopted a political resolution “reaffirming” its commitment to secularism “inspired by the age-old traditions of India, that is Bharat”.
A draft of the resolution, discussed at the party’s working committee meeting Tuesday, initially omitted any mention of secularism. However, the term was added to the resolution by the drafting committee headed by Congress Rajya Sabha Randeep Singh Surjewala in a late evening meeting the same day.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge too, in his speech, referred to the Rajasthan controversy, saying if the leader of Opposition in a state has to face such discrimination, “imagine what our people in villages are facing”.
“And then they accuse the Congress of not following Hinduism. We are also Hindus. Dalits, backward castes are also humans, they are also Hindus,” Kharge said.
Over the last decade, the Congress has struggled to come up with a counter to the BJP’s political Hindutva. At various points, Rahul has tried to indulge in political messaging by visiting temples, drawing differences between Hinduism and Hindutva, but a coherent response to speak to the Hindu voter has eluded the party.
Rahul praises Revanth Reddy
In his speech, Rahul heaped praise on the Revanth Reddy-led Telangana government for its “revolutionary work” in terms of carrying out a caste survey and passing two bills enhancing reservation for backward castes to 42 percent in education, employment and polls to rural and urban local bodies.
“Telangana has shown the country the path ahead. We will break the ceiling on reservation set at 50 percent across the country. The beginning that we have made in Telangana will be done across the country,” Rahul said. Incidentally, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah’s name did not figure in Rahul’s speech that pivoted on the theme of social justice.
‘No Modi-Trump hugs now?’
The Congress leader also took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the imposition of 27 percent tariff on Indian goods exported to the US by the Donald Trump administration.
“Did you see any pictures of hugs from the US this time? It seems Trump ordered Modi that there will be no hugs this time. This time new tariffs will be imposed instead. The two-day drama in Parliament was to divert attention from this. This will bring an economic storm and millions of people will face losses. Where is Modi now? Where has he gone hiding?” he said.
Rahul also taunted the PM over the latter’s meeting with Bangladesh chief adviser Muhammad Yunus. “He (Modi) was quiet in that meeting. Where is his 56-inch chest now?” said Rahul.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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