Even after the passage of the women’s reservation bill in the Lower and Upper House of the Parliament, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi made controversial remarks against the bill. He said the bill is a “distraction and diversion tactic from the demand for a caste census”.
The Gandhi scion said that the bill comes with two footnotes that the Census and Delimitation will have to be done for the implementation of the bill. He said, “Both of these will take years. The truth is that the Reservation can be implemented today…This is not a complicated matter but the Govt doesn’t want to do that. Govt has presented this before the country but it will be implemented 10 years from now. Nobody knows if this will even be implemented. This is a distraction tactic, diversion tactic.”
#WATCH | Congress MP Rahul Gandhi says, "Women's Reservation Bill is great but we received two footnotes that Census and Delimitation need to be done before that. Both of these will take years. The truth is that the Reservation can be implemented today…This is not a complicated… pic.twitter.com/BzLvKzOrL0
— ANI (@ANI) September 22, 2023
In a tone that seemed to pit women’s reservation against OBC reservation, Rahul Gandhi said, “What is it that you are being diverted from? From OBC Census. I spoke of one institution in Parliament, that which runs the Government of India – Cabinet secretary and secretaries…I asked why only three out of 90 people belong to the OBC community?… I don’t understand that PM Modi speaks of OBCs every day but what did he do for them?”
#WATCH | Women's Reservation Bill | Congress MP Rahul Gandhi says, "What is it that you are being diverted from? From OBC Census. I spoke of one institution in Parliament, that which runs the Government of India – Cabinet secretary and secretaries…I asked why only three out of… pic.twitter.com/6WVKGgYXb8
— ANI (@ANI) September 22, 2023
He further said that the reservation for OBC MPs and MLAs is not the question and asked why there are only 3 out of the 90 secretaries from the OBC category. The media also questioned Rahul Gandhi if he regrets that the OBC quota was not provided in the women’s reservation bill brought by the UPA. “100 per cent regret hai. This should have been done then. We will get this done,” the Congress MP said.
Demanding a caste census, Rahul Gandhi said that Lok Sabha is called the temple of democracy. Then he went on to say whether any BJP MP take any decision, do they make any law or participate in making a law? “Not at all. Neither Congress MP, BJP MP, nor any other MP. MPs have been turned into murtis in temples. OBC MPs have been filled like murtis (in the Parliament) but they don’t have any power. There is no contribution in running the country. This is a question I have raised.”
“Every OBC youth must understand that should you get a chance to run this country, yes or no? If yes, then is your population 5%. And this is what the BJP is trying to distract from”, he continued.
The Congress leader has demanded that the delimitation clause should be removed from the bill. “Are you going to make separate reservation provision for OBC and women in the government in future?” the Congress leader asked. He also claimed that it is very much possible to implement the law from today itself.
Notably, Congress MPs and its allies in the UPA had blocked the passage of the women’s reservation bill during the UPA regime. Opposition parties, including those who were members of the UPA, like SP, RJD, LJP, and JDU were some of the parties whose leaders in the Parliament vehemently opposed and stalled the passage of the Bill.
The Vajpayee government introduced the Bill in the Parliament at least six times but the same was blocked thanks to the Congress. Lacking a majority, the Vajpayee government was dependent on the Opposition for consensus.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘murthi’ comment and why it is deeply Hinduphobic
In his desperation to deride the Modi government, Rahul Gandhi ended up making a statement which was deeply Hinduphobic. While trying to make the point that MPs were not contributing to any productive work in the parliament by way of formulation of laws, Rahul Gandhi compared them to Murthis in a Temple. He said, “Not at all. Neither Congress MP, BJP MP, nor any other MP. MPs have been turned into murtis in temples. OBC MPs have been filled like murtis (in the Parliament) but they don’t have any power. There is no contribution in running the country. This is a question I have raised.”
Rahul Gandhi essentially said that MPs in the parliament were powerless just as murthis in a Temple. This is the exact trope which is used by Islamists to negate and insult Murthi-puja – the very core of the Hindu faith. The argument made by the Islamists and extremist Christians is that the Murthis in the temple are merely stones and serve no purpose beyond perpatuating superstition. This line of argument is extended to denying legitimacy to Sanatan Dharma and the Hindu faith in general, insulting those who practise ritualistic Hinduism.
Rahul Gandhi made the argument that the Murthis, that Hindus worship, are powerless and ‘useless’, just as the MPs in the parliament – which is to say – they serve no purpose.
Hindus worship Murthis believing that they are the manifestation of the spirit of the divine. Every Murthi in a temple undergoes a ritual called Praan Pratishtha after which, is it essentially does not remain a ‘Murthi’ but an embodiment of the divine – with the divine infusing the spiritual essence in it.
For Rahul Gandhi to claim that Murthis are useless, essentially means that he believes Murthi puja – the very core of Sanatan Dharma – is merely a superstition and serves no purpose – essentially furthering the Hinduphobic narrative of the Islamists and Missionaries against Hindus.
This is not the first time that Rahul Gandhi has made Hinduphobic comments. In 2014, speaking about women’s safety, Rahul Gandhi had said that people go to the temple and worship to the Goddess, call women mothers and sisters, but the truth is that those very people molest women in a bus.
Rahul Gandhi seems to have an uncanny ability to connect every ill of the society to the Hindu community and shield every ill of any other community. One recalls how a Wikileaks document revealed how the Congress party played politics over the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. It did not escape the notice of even the then U.S. ambassador to India, David Mulford. The observation made was that the Congress party after the attack had chosen to pander to Muslim fears.
Further, there was another Wikileaks cable that revealed that Rahul Gandhi had travelled abroad and claimed that Hindu extremism is worse than Muslim extremism and terrorism. This comment was made in 2009.
It is, therefore, evident that Rahul Gandhi has a long history of making Hinduphobic comments that target the Hindu community and associating himself with elements who habitually pass Hinduphobic comments. In this instance as well, Rahul Gandhi, in his zeal to attack the Modi government, has ended up insulting the Hindu community and their faith.
