29th November 2017 might turn out to be a day of momentous gaffes for the Congress party.
Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi who has been going on a “temple run” in Gujarat ahead of state elections, saw his “pilgrimage” getting 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 the 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 the Congress was questioned by social media users who hinted towards a possible catholic origin of the Congress Vice-President.
Speculations aside, it seems that such an assertion of a ‘Janeu Dhari Hindu’ identity exposes his and his party’s hypocrisy on this whole caste/religion issue.
For example take this statement made by Rahul Gandhi two years ago, while he was undertaking some farmer outreach program in Uttar Pradesh. While being asked by a reporter whether he endorsed the Brahmin narrative of the UP campaign, he replied that:
I don’t believe in caste, nor endorse any of that. UP needs to get out of this morass. The only way to do that is to become a party that represents everybody equally. My view is the Congress is a party for all
Quite clearly it seems that the Rahul Gandhi of 2016 would have thoroughly condemned his party’s idea of depicting him as a “Janeu dhaari Hindu”.
Such a list doesn’t end here:
- Around the same time, reports had emerged from Uttar Pradesh which quoted Rahul Gandhi accusing the BJP and RSS of being traders of religion. He was quoted as alleging that the BJP would do anything to come to power like using issues means like religion, cow and violence. That Rahul Gandhi too might be outraged when he knows that currently Rahul is touring various temples of Gujarat, possibly in order to woo the Hindu voters and the Congress too has affixed an outright Hindu identity to the leader.
- Rahul had also tried to take a moral high ground when it comes to caste and religion issues in 2013 when he was quoted as accusing the BJP of dividing people on the basis of region, religion and caste to win the then upcoming election of Rajasthan. This again completely contradicts the current actions of Rahul and the Congress.
One doesn’t even need to go this far back in time to dig up such glaring contradictions:
Just this September, while addressing a divisional congregation of the Congress activists in Nanded, Maharashtra, he was again seen accusing the BJP of dividing people on the basis of caste and also claimed that his party will not allow them to do.
Such paradoxes might lead many to believe that the Congress has glaringly exposed its own hypocrisy when it comes to using caste and religion for winning elections, something which the party and its “heir apparent” have time and again been accusing the BJP of doing.
