On Thursday, an ABP journalist took to Twitter to inform the public that Congress has informed journalists about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra fasting for Navratri this year.
कांग्रेस पार्टी की तरफ़ से इस बार जानकारी दी गई है कि प्रियंका गांधी @priyankagandhi नवरात्र का व्रत कर रही हैं
— पंकज झा (@pankajjha_) October 7, 2021
Journalist Pankaj Jha said that the Congress party has sent out information to journalists that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would be fasting for Navratri.
It is interesting that something as usual as fasting for Navratri has been broadcast as a press statement to journalists. With the Uttar Pradesh Elections coming up, it would appear that the Congress party is attempting to turn into seasonal Hindus again right ahead of assembly elections.
The festival of Navratri is a 9-day festival where devotees pray to Maa Durga. The festival marks the advent of Goddess Durga on Earth, and during these 9 days, devotees worship and offer prayers along with special foods to the nine avatars of Goddess Durga.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi: Seasonal Hindus right before elections
The Gandhis, especially Rahul Gandhi-Priyanka Gandhi Vadra duo have a penchant for turning into Hindus right before elections to garner Hindu votes. Ahead of the 2019 elections. Rahul Gandhi had suddenly declared that he was a “Janeu Dhari Hindu”. At that time, incidentally, an old video of Rahul Gandhi had also gone viral where Rahul was seen doing Ganga puja and being nonchalant about it.
In the video, Rahul Gandhi is offering puja, in a crisp white Kurta, the hallmark of every serious Indian politician. Later, the friendly NDTV journalist asks him what he was praying for. In a nonchalant tone that has become synonymous with Rahul Gandhi, he said, “I don’t know, they asked me to be here, so I am here”. In the background, one could hear loud chants of ‘Rahul bhaiya zindabad”.
Rahul Gandhi in this clip dons the role of the quintessential Bharatiya, with the tilak on his head and arms folded, closes his eyes and performs puja in the backdrop of the soothing mantras. He tries extremely hard to ensure that the country, which is still a Hindu majority country despite the best attempts of his family, sees him as his own.
However, his uncaring attitude while the puja was being offered gives him away as someone who is only pretending to be a pious Hindu for the sake of votes and public image.
Before that, in 2017, Rahul Gandhi had gone on a temple run right ahead of Gujarat State Elections. However, soon he got into trouble after social media erupted with reports of him declaring himself a non-Hindu before taking the Darshan of the famous Somnath Temple. Later Congress decided to clarify this ‘gaffe’ by causing extra confusion and later took things to the next level by calling Rahul a “Janeu dhaari Hindu”. This assertion by Congress was questioned by social media users who hinted towards a possible catholic origin of the politician.
Congress’ latest attempt to send a ‘press note’ about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra observing a fast for Navratri seems to be the party’s latest attempt to protect themselves as faux Hindus ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Elections.
While the Congress is sporting their faux Hindu credentials, interestingly, only recently, the Congress was distributing their manifesto in Mosques on Fridays. The minority cell of UP Congress had decided to distribute its Sankalp Patra among Muslims in front of 8432 mosques in UP on Fridays.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee’s (UPCC) minority department has started the process of distributing a 16-point manifesto in front of mosques containing promises to be made to the minorities in the upcoming 2022 UP assembly election.
Some of the important features mentioned in the manifesto include a promise to open tanneries shut down during the Samajwadi Party rule, a judicial investigation into the riots that happened when Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister and also the setting up of Mathur Commission if anyone is found guilty.
This initiative of distributing manifesto outside mosques by the minority department of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee is consistent with Congress Party’s preferential policy towards the Muslims as highlighted by the former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh when he had said that Muslims must have the first claim on resources.
During the 52nd meeting of the National Development Council, Manmohan Singh had said “We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably the fruits of development. These must have the first claim on resources,”
