No expressions of regret, no half measures can make up for the kind of casteist language that Senior Congress leader C P Joshi has used yesterday.
Absolutely unpardonable. This is outright casteist name-calling directed at the PM and a Cabinet Minister. And don’t miss the reference to “pandits” … remember that Jawaharlal Nehru is often referred to as Pandit Nehru.
The only way Congress can possibly atone for this is for Rahul Gandhi to personally apologize to PM Modi and to Uma Bharti.
Instead, Rahul Gandhi came up with a response that didn’t so much as condemn C P Joshi’s remark explicitly.
Wow! Merely expressing confidence that C P Joshi will eventually realize that he has done wrong and suggesting that C P Joshi should express regret.
No condemnation. No apology from Rahul Gandhi. Not even regret from Rahul Gandhi. No expulsion of C P Joshi. Didn’t even ask C P Joshi to apologize, merely suggested that he should express regret.
To a casteist element like C P Joshi, this would feel more like a pat on the back.
The toxic, casteist messaging has been coming from the topmost levels of the Congress Party for a while now.
The remarks of C P Joshi can only be seen as an addendum to those of Congress’ official spokesperson Randeep Surjewala when he explained that Rahul Gandhi is “not only a Hindu but a Janeudhari Hindu“.
The meaning was already crystal clear when the Congress said it at the time. That among the Hindus, the Congress believe there is something very special about being a “janeudhari”. What is special Rahul Gandhiji? Tell us, please.
Around the same time, Mani Shankar Aiyar referred to PM Modi as “neech”. At the time, the media made it appear as if Aiyar had thought of using that expression all by himself. But before this Priyanka Gandhi had herself used the word “neech” for Modi.
Today C P Joshi’s remarks merely provide a confirmation of the thinking within the Congress party.
So it is not like C P Joshi’s words should surprise anyone. Earlier Ghulam Nabi Azad himself had described Modi as a”Gangu Teli”, another direct reference to Modi being born in the Teli caste. We have seen Congress cadre using posters such as this that leave nothing to the imagination.
And yet Rahul Gandhi doesn’t apologize. Doesn’t expel C P Joshi. Doesn’t even condemn.
And neither will anyone from India’s liberal intelligentsia, media or academia condemn C P Joshi. We have had a few stray reactions from them in which they have only expressed irritation at C P Joshi possibly jeopardizing Congress prospects in the Assembly Elections happening less than a week from now. Not one condemnation. Not one call that Rahul Gandhi should apologize.
Where is the entire caravan of Indian liberal revolutionaries who spend their lives delivering heady speeches against caste repression?
I remember one JNU professor who said that Hindu society is the “most violent in the world” because of its repressive caste hierarchy. I would like to know what she has to say about these remarks from Rahul Gandhi’s man.
They get triggered by everything: by the lighting of “Hindu looking” ceremonial lamps, by women wearing sarees, by rasam, by bhajan sandhyas, by Hanuman posters, everything.
Everything they see makes them want to get up and “Smash Brahmanical Patriarchy” and burn Manusmriti. But the one time they hold their peace is when a Congress leader throws casteist slurs at Narendra Modi.
They are still mad at Manu for what he said 2000 years ago. But they have already forgiven C P Joshi.
There is a lesson here for all of Hindu society to remember. Just in case you haven’t figured out the reality of these “activists”, it could not be more clear today. They don’t care even a tiny bit about justice. Their only aim is to divide and defame Hindus, to put them on a defensive, so that they the liberal elite may rule over them.
That is why their idea of smashing “Brahmanical Patriarchy” is to get the OBC Prime Minister voted out of office, to be replaced by a fifth generation ‘janeudhari’ dynast.
Smash hypocrisy.
