On Tuesday, May 2, Congress released the party’s manifesto for the upcoming Karnataka Elections. In the manifesto, the grand old party, along with several other promises, also vowed to put a ban on the Hindu outfit Bajrang Dal if it is voted to power in the state.
The controversial manifesto released by the Congress Party also went on to brazenly equate the Hindu activist group to the banned Islamist terrorist organisation Popular Front of India (PFI).
Karnataka Polls: "Will ban…," Congress cites Bajrang Dal, PFI in manifesto
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“We believe that law and Constitution is sacrosanct and can not be violated by individuals and Organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on any such organisations,” read the party manifesto.
VHP hits out at Congress for its anti-Hindu election manifesto
Hindu organisations did not take kindly to the Congress manifesto, which pledged to outlaw the Hindu organisation, Bajrang Dal. Slamming the grand old party for making such unconscionable remarks in its poll manifesto, Vinod Bansal, the national spokesperson of Vishva Hindu Parishad said that he was not completely surprised though as the remarks made by Congress were completely in sync with the party’s “Jihadi mindset.”
He further denounced the Congress for repeatedly seeking to humiliate Hindus in an effort to placate and pacify Islamists. He asserted that Congress had a track record of supporting jihadis and sheltering Islamist terrorists.
The VHP leader claimed that equating Bajrang Dal with PFI is the final nail in Congress’s coffin. “By making such reckless comments in the poll manifesto, the party has penned its own death warrant”, he said.
बजरंग दल से PFI की तुलना..!!
— विनोद बंसल Vinod Bansal (@vinod_bansal) May 2, 2023
कर्नाटक में कांग्रेस का नाटक बहुत हो चुका। ये घोषणा पत्र ही कांग्रेस के अंत का कारक बनेगा।
The Congress party, which seeks to portray itself as a pro-Hindu party by having its leaders visit temples before every election and by attempting to “saffronize” Rahul as a Janeu-dhari Shiv Bhakt, has glaringly exposed its own hypocrisy when it comes to using caste and religion for winning elections, said Vinod Bansal.
Amit Shah says Congress will un-ban PFI if it comes to power
Addressing a public meeting at Shirahatti, Shah said, “Each vote counts, so ensure it goes to the right leadership. When the people of Karnataka press the ‘Lotus’ symbol, understand that you are not voting to elect an MLA or a minister and Chief Minister. Your vote will further strengthen PM Modi’s hands in creating ‘Mahan Karnataka’. Your vote will protect Karnataka from PFI.”
Shah said, “Only BJP can offer protection and prosperity to Karnataka. It is the BJP which banned the PFI thereby ensuring a peaceful and safe environment. We also banned cow slaughter, provided healthcare facilities to people, ensured proper sanitation facilities and ensured overall development in Karnataka,”
Rahul Gandhi, Congress and the anti-Hindu mindset
That the sheer anti-Hindu mindset the Congress party has displayed by proposing the ban on Bajrang Dal in its poll manifesto does not come as a surprise. Be it Rahul Gandhi’s RSS killed Mahatma Gandhi remark or Congress leader Digvijay Singh stating that in India, Bajrang Dal and BJP are funded by Pakistan’s ISI, the Congress party, due to their inherent anti-Hindu proclivities, has always harboured hostility against Hindu organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal. Many incidents, where anti-Hindu sentiments by Congress were on display, have been covered by OpIndia over the years.
It is to be kept in mind that the equivalence drawn between a radical Islamist outfit which vowed to commit a genocide against Hindus and a Hindu organisation that merely focuses on defending Hindus and Hindu culture from violent Jihadis, was also made by Rahul Gandhi himself years ago.
In 2010, a Wikileaks cable revealed that right after the dastardly Mumbai terror attack in 2008 by Pakistan-backed Jihadis, Rahul Gandhi had said that Hindu groups pose a greater risk than the Jihadis who attacked Mumbai in 2008. These comments by Rahul Gandhi were made in 2009 to Timothy Roemer by Rahul Gandhi. In the leaked cable, Rahul Gandhi said there was evidence of some support for the LeT among Indian Muslims, the ambassador wrote, according to the cable. (here 238) “However, Gandhi warned, the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalised Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community,” Roemer wrote.
Nevertheless, regardless of how great Congress’s animosity towards Hindus may be, by associating Bajrang Dal with the outlawed terrorist organisation, Congress has stooped as low as it possibly could in order to advance its political goals.
Hindu outfits like Bajrang Dal and VHP are actually defensive organisations that try to defend Hindus from aggression by notorious Islamist organisations like PFI and SDPI. Whereas, PFI has a history of engaging in terror activities and attacking Hindu groups such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). What the Congress party has promised now is essentially no different from what Rahul Gandhi had said back in 2009, only a year after the terror attacks in Mumbai.
Government banned PFI
It may be recalled that the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India had in September last year banned the Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and eight of its associates for five years under a stringent anti-terror law, accusing them of having links with global terror organisations, including ISIS.
It may be noted that before the central government had banned PFI, the Kerala High Court had observed that the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) are extremist organisations indulging in serious acts of violence. The Kerala High Court further noted that both SDPI and PFI have a history of attacking members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The ban, meanwhile came, after the NIA in the two rounds of raids recovered several incriminating documents and materials from PFI organizations settled in almost 17 Indian states. The documents included a training module to make IEDs and bombs from available domestic material and also the ‘Mission 2047’ document underlining the PFI goal in the Indian subcontinent for the years to come ahead. The officials also recovered a Mission 2047 CD containing material for converting India into an Islamic State.
‘Mission 2047’ aiming at ‘Gajwa-e-Hind’
The document ‘India Vision 2047’ or ‘Mission 2047’ aims at destabilizing the well-developed infrastructure of the Indian sub-continent and establishing Islamic dominance over the ‘coward Hindus’ and subjugating them. It underlines the goal of the organization to establish the ‘Rule of Islam in India’ and to bring the Indian State and the majority of Hindus ‘to their knees’ when the country would complete its 100 years of Independence.
It aims at targeting Hindus and Hindu leaders to gain control over the country belonging to Hindus, popularly known as Gajwa-e-Hind. Gajwa-e-Hind refers to launching an attack on Hindustan and winning over non-Muslims by killing them or forcing them to convert to Islam. Such a war is executed to win over the ‘infidels’ and is called Gajwa.
Nexus between Congress and PFI
In an effort to win over voters ahead of the Karnataka elections, Congress has brazenly gone on to equate the Bajrang Dal with the PFI and threatened to take serious action against any group of this nature that fosters animosity or intolerance. However, in their haste to engage in appeasement politics, they have forgotten how they have on several occasions fraternized with the terrorist organisations PFI and SDPI to advance their political agenda.
Only recently, the former deputy chief minister of Karnataka and Congress leader Gangadharaiah Parameshwara has sought the help of the extremist organisation Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) to defeat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Notably, the outfit is the student wing of the banned terrorist group, Popular Front of India (PFI).
In 2020, the Enforcement Directorate claimed in a report that the PFI spent about 120 crores in a month to orchestrate the violent riots in the country after the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, naming eminent lawyer and Congress bigwig Kapil Sibal as the beneficiaries of PFI’s funding. Indira Jaising and Dushyant Dave were also named in the report.
The report had, in fact, named prominent individuals to whom PFI had made payments. Congress politician and Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal allegedly received Rs 77 lakhs while Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising received Rs 4 lakhs from one of the PFI accounts based out of Kozhikode, Kerala. Abdul Samand has allegedly received Rs 3.10 lakhs.
Later, Kapil Sibal reportedly clarified that he had received money from PFI only during 2017-18 for the Hadiya Love Jihad case for his ‘professional services’.
Given the history of Congress’ proximity to PFI and the promise in their manifesto to ban Bajrang Dal, it would not be far fetched to believe that Congress has added already-banned PFI in the list simply to monkey balance and mask their true intentions of banning Hindu organisations which defend Hindus against the onslaught of Jihadi violence from outfits like PFI.
