Pigs have flown, our dear readers. It was a fine, sunny pre-parali afternoon and I was enjoying my afternoon cup of adrak chai when a wellwisher sent across a tweet. “What to say about the Sanghi who never went to a Shakha”. The tweet was by Haryana Pradesh Congress Sevadal account.
The tweet in Hindi talked about breaking down walls of hatred and building a better tomorrow. It had pictures of Wayanad MP and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at places of worship for Hindus and in some he was surrounded by religious heads of other faiths.
Except, Congress social media account got the wrong Rahul.
And imagine this change of plans for Rahul coming just a day after Rahul (Roushan) attended an RSS event for the first time in his life on 2nd October, 2022.
Spent Gandhi Jayanti morning at an RSS event in Delhi. Sanghi who finally went to a shakha 😆 pic.twitter.com/xAzLiqNc8E
— Rahul Roushan (@rahulroushan) October 2, 2022
To put things in perspective, Rahul (Roushan) has authored a book titled ‘Sanghi Who Never Went To A Shakha’ while Rahul (Gandhi), when not away at undisclosed locations outside India, spends major chunk of his life hating on the RSS. So much that days after Rahul (Gandhi) started his Bharat Jodo container yatra, Congress social media accounts put up a message on social media wherein it showed burning of the half-pants worn by RSS Swayamsevaks with a caption that read ‘145 days to go’.
Five days into this ‘yatra’ which was advertised as Congress’ move to ‘unite’ India, the party’s official social media handles have shared the above disturbing image which talks about complete annihilation of those associated with the Rashtritya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) by showing the half-pants the Swayamsevaks wear as part of uniform on fire.
Amidst all this, imagine the multiple emotions the team at OpIndia went through. From shock…
… to amusement…
… to just plain facepalm.
But then, we immediately decided to not let go of this opportunity to pull the leg of our boss, Rahul Roushan, whom we dearly love and hate at the same time.
And other than documenting this embarrassing situation for boss Rahul (Roushan), we also take this opportunity to remind everyone how this is not the first time Congress social media accounts have goofed up over the years.
In October 2021, Maharashtra Congress Sevadal cracked a ‘rice bag’ joke to target PM Modi. Quoting ANI’s tweet that talked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Sevadal cracked a ‘Rice Bag’ joke. The organization wrote, “BIG BREAKING: IMD warns of a massive shortage of rice due to low yield and untimely rains. PM Modi taking all necessary steps in the direction.”
‘Rice Bag Convert’ or ‘Rice Christians‘ or simply ‘Rice Bag’ refers to people who convert to Christianity after being induced to do so by Christian missionaries on the promise of material benefits. The term has been in use for centuries. According to The Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, published in the 19th Century, Rice Christians are “Converts to Christianity for worldly benefits, such as a supply of rice to Indians. The profession of Christianity born of lucre, not faith.”
Over time, the usage of the term has entered mainstream use to mock Christians who converted for material benefits.
In May this year, Maharashtra Congress Sevadal again tried to whitewash crimes of the tyrants like Aurangzeb.
The official handle of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Sevadal insinuated that the ancient Hindu temple was not destroyed by the Mughal emperor, by claiming how the photograph taken in 1890 can prove that Aurangzeb had destroyed the temple when the Mughal emperor had died almost two centuries prior.
Congress Sevadal tried to dismiss the fact that Aurangzeb had destroyed the temple to build just because a photograph of the partially destroyed wall was taken decades later. But the fact is, it is an undeniable fact that the original Kashi Vishwanath temple was destroyed during the regime of Arungzeb and the mosque was built on its ruins. Even the Muslims don’t deny this fact, they only justify this by saying that Aurangzeb had ordered to demolish the temple after spotting some crimes by the priests in the temple.
This is not it. In 2019, the official Twitter handle of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Sevadal launched a sexist attack against union minister Smriti Irani by posting a fake screenshot of a TV news report. The verified Twitter account posted an image which looks like a screengrab from a Hindi News Channel, and it reports that Smriti Irani has said she will commit suicide if prime minister Narendra Modi loses. Later the tweet was deleted.
Similarly, ahead of Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections, UP Congress Sevadal account shared video of flooded roads to insinuate that the UP administration was not managing things. Except, the video was from Rajasthan, a state ruled by Congress itself.
It is almost as if gaffe-king Rahul Gandhi himself runs these accounts.
What is Congress Sevadal
Congress website does not have much description on what ‘Sevadal’ faction does, but from other websites, it appears to be just another wing to accommodate people and make them leaders so they feel important. It is supposed to be some sort of ‘grassroots’ front organisation and is present in all states. It is supposed to be volunteer based organisation and no surprise that the first President of Sevadal was Jawaharlal Nehru.
