Rahul Gandhi woke up early today to wish his followers on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. While wishing his followers, Rahul Gandhi shared a graphic with the inscription “Ganesh Chaturthi ki hardik shubhkamnaye”, there was, however, one crucial element missing from the graphic. The image of Lord Ganesh himself.
हमारे देश की उन्नति के रास्ते का हर विघ्न दूर हो!#गणेश_चतुर्थी pic.twitter.com/4ftJNWlgIx
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 10, 2021
Several netizens noticed the trend where Rahul Gandhi was perhaps deliberately not including the picture of Hindu Gods when he wished during festivals and reacted to the same.
One wondered how Rahul Gandhi was celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi without Lord Ganesh being there in his greeting.
भाई साहब, गणपति के बिना कौन सी #गणेश_चतुर्थी ?
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) September 10, 2021
Another Twitter user noticed that Rahul Gandhi not using images of Hindu Gods seems to be a trend. Even while wishing Janmashtami, the image of Lord Krishna was missing from his greeting.
Janmashtami wish. Guess he has problem with idols. https://t.co/FETg4kivfy
— Nikhil (@nikskhandelwal) September 10, 2021
Taking a cue from netizens, BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya too took to Twitter to question Rahul Gandhi as to why the image of Lord Ganesh was missing from his wishes.
Rahul Gandhi wishes Ganesh Chaturthi without even using a picture of Ganesh ji.
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) September 10, 2021
This disdain for the Hindus, their culture, beliefs and traditions for a former Congress president is troubling. Imagine the systematic discrimination Hindus would have suffered under the Congress. https://t.co/vPIeIatZrg
While using a basic graphic to wish Hindus on their festivals seems perfectly reasonable, several netizens were outraged about Rahul Gandhi habitually leaving the image of the Murti out of his greetings. It is to be remembered that in the recent past, this seems to be the third time that Rahul Gandhi has conveniently left the idol out.
In the first instance, Rahul Gandhi shared an image of Sumit Antil, a para-athlete who won gold at Tokyo Paralympics except that he had cropped out the ‘Om’ from the chain Antil is wearing. This comes on a day he shared fake ‘hate crime’ clip to further the ‘Dara Hua Musalman’ narrative. Rahul Gandhi also likes to identify himself as ‘Janeudhari Brahmin’ of the Kaul Dattatreya Gotra and also as a Shiv Bhakt. Netizens, however, were quick to point out that the actual image of Antil showed him wearing the ‘Om’ pendant in his chain.
Then, he had shared a Janmashtami greeting without using the image of Lord Krishna.
आप सभी को श्री कृष्ण जन्माष्टमी की शुभकामनाएँ। pic.twitter.com/27wc3KpWtT
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 30, 2021
Now, on Ganesh Chaturthi, Rahul Gandhi seems to have repeated his trend and left out the image of Lord Ganesh from his greeting. In Hinduism, idols of Hindu Gods have a special meaning in any festival. With Rahul Gandhi leaving out the Murthi of the Hindu Gods twice and cropping the Aum pendant of Sumit Antil once in quick successions, Hindus, at least on social media have started to wonder if Rahul Gandhi has some inherent problem with Murthi worship of Hindus or whether he is leaving the Murthis to appease a certain section of Left intelligentsia that has started to harbour intense hatred for Hindus and Hinduism.