With just months away from the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in the State of Gujarat, a video of journalist Mausami Singh, revealing Congress’ strategy of projecting itself as a soft Hindutva party, is doing the rounds on the internet.
In the said video, the India Today Editor could be heard as saying, “I remember once Rahul Gandhi had a roadshow in Gujarat and at that point in time, Congress was trying to project itself as a ‘soft Hindutva’ party.”
She added, “As such, his roadshow took diversions and did not pass through a Muslim-dominated area. It was decided that since Rahul Gandhi was frequently visiting temples, going through a Muslim area would feature people with skull caps in the frame.”
मोसंबी is a frontline कांग्रेस मीडिया कार्यकर्ता with a Purie badge. We gotta give credence to her for this (not so secret) revelation
— iMac_too (@iMac_too) September 23, 2022
Btw, next round of Assembly polls in Gujarat are round the corner. @BJP4Gujarat is lucky pic.twitter.com/aATwf1z9lr
The Congress party desperately wanted to get rid of its Muslim appeasement identity and harp on the growing tide of Hindutva. Mausami Singh had made the remarks during an interaction with Lallantop anchor Saurav Dwivedi on August 27 this year.
According to the India Today Editor, the strategy to consciously avoid Muslim-majority areas was developed by an ex-member of Rahul Gandhi’s SPG (Special Protection Force) named KB Byju.
Reportedly, Bjyu has been a party of Gandhi’s team since 2007 although he is not an official Congress member. Former party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had even mentioned him in his resignation letter.
Azad had said that while Sonia Gandhi is the nominal Head of the grand old party, the key decisions are being made by Rahul Gandhi’s personal assistants and security guards.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad severs all ties with Congress Party pic.twitter.com/RuVvRqGSj5
— ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2022
“Worse still the ‘remote control model’ that demolished the institutional integrity of the UPA government now got applied to the Indian National Congress. While you are just a nominal figurehead all the important decisions were being taken by Shri Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards and PAs,” he had said.
Rahul Gandhi and his temple run
In November 2017, the Congress party announced that Rahul Gandhi is a ‘janeu dhari‘ Hindu after he reportedly declared himself a ‘non-Hindu’ before the darshan of the Somnath temple.
The assertion by the Congress was questioned by social media users who hinted towards a possible catholic origin of the Congress scion. A year later, Rahul Gandhi told a priest in Pushkar that he is a ‘Kashmiri Brahmin’ and his gotra is ‘Dattatreya.’
Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had taken potshots at the Congress over its attempt to replicate the BJP. “BJP has always been seen as a pro-Hindutva party and if someone wants to mimic us, I do not have any complaint. But there is a basic principle in politics, if an original is available why would anyone prefer a clone?” he had famously said.
In 2020, the Congress party went on to celebrate the birth anniversary of Periyar, who advocated physical violence against Brahmins. Rahul Gandhi, the Janeu dhari Hindu, also gave up his ‘sacred thread’ for politics and joined the Lingayat sect in Karnataka.
Recently, he courted controversy for meeting a Christian pastor, who made derogatory remarks about Bharat Mata and the Hindu community. While Rahul Gandhi might resume his temple runs again in the hopes of winning Hindu votes, the electorates are unlikely to forget his duplicity.
