Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday turned a ‘Mehangai Hatao’ rally on its head and instead delivered a sermon on the difference between ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hindutva-vadi.’
‘‘I am a Hindu, not ‘Hindutva-vadi,’ and India is a country of the former, not the latter, he said in the preface to his treatise.
‘Hindutva-vadis’ have to be ousted and the rule of 'Hindus' has to be restored,’’ he declared with aplomb.
Possibly remembering midway that the rally was about ‘mehangai,’ Rahul changed gears but went off the tangent, pinning the blame for inflation also on Hindutva-vadis.’
Incidentally, it was not his customary street talk, to which Rahul is accustomed, but a big show of strength in Congress-ruled Rajasthan. Both party president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were also present – which is seldom the case -- along with the other top brass of the party.
Around 400 prominent leaders from states were also in attendance at the jam-packed Vidydhar Nagar stadium of Jaipur.
Sonia, however, did not address the rally, possibly to give Rahul a field day. Even Priyanka took the back seat and was deftly dispensed away with even before Sonia and Rahul could reach the dais. Nonetheless, she had the good sense to focus on inflation and issues of farmers.
Warming up to his pet theme these days, Rahul asserted that India is a country of ‘Hindus’ and not ‘Hindutva-vadis.’ The latter follow the path of 'Sattagrah', not 'Satyagrah,’ said the Congress leader, coining a new word and drawing a distinction between the quest for power and the search for truth.
And then he attempted to answer a question which has stumped even the learned. "Who is a ‘Hindu’? Someone who respects every religion and is scared of nobody. Those in power are false ‘Hindus’... India is experiencing a ‘Hindutva-vadi’ raj, not ‘Hindu raj’. We want to remove these ‘Hindutva-vadis’ and bring in ‘Hindu raj’," he declared with a degree of finality.
To those who may not have a nuanced understanding of the two terms, he explained that Mahatma Gandhi was a ‘Hindu’ and Godse was ‘Hindutva-vadi’.
The BJP responded by saying Rahul and the Congress had a "pathological hatred" of Hinduism. "It is in the character of the Congress and the Gandhi family to attack Hinduism at every opportunity... What they say is not a coincidence but an experiment. And the headmaster of this experimental lab is Rahul Gandhi," the BJP's Sambit Patra was quoted as saying by PTI.
