As a battered and bruised Congress faces the daunting task of reinventing itself in the coming year, the party is in the throes of a debate on the future enunciation of its core ideological plank of secularism but without alienating the majority community or appearing to be overtly pro-minority.
This discussion has acquired greater urgency after the party lost poorly in the Lok Sabha election and subsequent assembly polls to a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party. The recent focus of the BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and its affiliated bodies on religious conversions and “love jihad” has further sharpened this internal debate in the Congress.
The issue figured prominently in a series of meetings convened by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi with small groups of party leaders over the past two months but the leadership is still to formulate its response on what is a highly sensitive and emotive matter. The Nehru-Gandhi scion has asked Congress office-bearers to get feedback from district and block level leaders about the party’s ideological position and whether there was any merit in the perception that the party is anti-Hindu or pro-Muslim.
Dilemma on future strategy
Former Defence Minister A K Antony first flagged this issue some months ago when he publicly stated that the Congress might have lost the Lok Sabha because of its perceived appeasement of the minorities. “Some sections of society have an impression that the party is inclined to certain communities or organisations,” he had said. “People doubt whether that policy is being implemented or not.”
While senior Congress leaders repeatedly maintain that the party cannot afford to forsake its secular plank, they also admit that the BJP and RSS campaign to brand their party as being “enemies of the majority community” is a matter of deep concern. The party has to necessarily rework its strategy to counter this campaign. But the big question is how.
On one hand, there is a view in the party that the Congress should not fall into BJP’s trap by reacting to its communal agenda. On the other hand, there are leaders who want the leadership to spell out the party position clearly so that the party “does not fall between two stools”.
Those who want the Congress to ignore BJP’s Hindutva plank have suggested they should corner the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government on its anti-people policies. In this context, a Congress general secretary said they should focus on the raw deal being meted out by the ruling alliance to farmers who have been denied a hike in the minimum support price for their agriculture produce.
Focus on economic issues
The Congress leader pointed to the recent farmer protests in Chhattisgarh and Gujarat, organised by the RSS-backed Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. “This government came to power with the promise of improving the economic condition of the common man, so we should take on the government on economic issues,” he said. Similarly, he said, the Congress should highlight the changes being proposed in the land acquisition bill and the rural employment guarantee scheme to underline that the Modi government is acting against the interests of poor labourers and farmers.
However, Congress leaders who favour greater clarity on ideological issues argue that any ambiguity on such a sensitive matter is bound to be exploited by the BJP.
Referring to the recent controversy over religious conversions, a former Congress chief minister said the party should have called the BJP’s bluff on a having a debate on an anti-conversion law. “We should have told the BJP to convene an all-party meeting to elicit everybody’s views,” he explained. “But if our party says otherwise, we give the BJP an opportunity to dub us as being anti-Hindu.” Leaders like him advocate what has been described as a “soft Hindutva” approach.
'B-team of BJP'
This is immediately countered by others who point out that the Congress should not do or say anything that will reduce it to a “B-team of the BJP”. If people have to vote for a Hindu nationalist party, it will vote for the “original” BJP instead of opting for a “wannabe” party, it is argued.
“Any communal party in a democracy poses a serious challenge,” a senior Congress office-bearer maintained. “Hindutva is the ideology of the BJP and the RSS. We are not competing with them on this point. Instead we should expose their agenda.” He stated vehemently that there is no question of straying from the party’s well-known position on secularism.
Another senior Congress leader remarked, “We have to work on strengthening this plank. We have to highlight that the party believes in inclusive politics and speaks for everyone.”
This debate is bound to intensify in the coming days as a demoralised Congress rank and file seeks answers on how it should rebrand itself to stem the slide in its fortunes and regain its eroding support base.
Revisiting an old question
But this is not the first time that the Congress has faced this dilemma. The party had to make a tough choice in Gujarat after Sonia Gandhi’s description of Modi as “maut ka saudagar” (merchant of death) boomeranged. It ended up strengthening the BJP strongman and provided him an ideal opportunity to lend a communal flavour to the assembly election.
Following a fierce internal debate, the Congress then decided to recalibrate its stand and not to focus on the 2002 communal riots to avoid any issue that could polarise the electorate. The Congress instead took a decision to highlight the Gujarat government’s poor performance to dispel the popular perception that the Gujarat chief minister had delivered on his promise of providing good governance. Unfortunately for the Congress, it failed in its attempt as the party lost three successive Gujarat assembly polls.
Like Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi also encountered similar issues when he was prime minister. In an attempt to woo the Muslim community, he got Parliament to pass a law overturning a Supreme Court judgement in the Shah Bano case which provided for maintenance to divorced Muslim women. When he was accused of pandering to the Muslim community, Rajiv Gandhi sought to placate the Hindus by allowing the unlocking of the Babri Masjid in 1986 but ended up strengthening the RSS and BJP’s Ram temple movement.
This discussion has acquired greater urgency after the party lost poorly in the Lok Sabha election and subsequent assembly polls to a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party. The recent focus of the BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and its affiliated bodies on religious conversions and “love jihad” has further sharpened this internal debate in the Congress.
The issue figured prominently in a series of meetings convened by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi with small groups of party leaders over the past two months but the leadership is still to formulate its response on what is a highly sensitive and emotive matter. The Nehru-Gandhi scion has asked Congress office-bearers to get feedback from district and block level leaders about the party’s ideological position and whether there was any merit in the perception that the party is anti-Hindu or pro-Muslim.
Dilemma on future strategy
Former Defence Minister A K Antony first flagged this issue some months ago when he publicly stated that the Congress might have lost the Lok Sabha because of its perceived appeasement of the minorities. “Some sections of society have an impression that the party is inclined to certain communities or organisations,” he had said. “People doubt whether that policy is being implemented or not.”
While senior Congress leaders repeatedly maintain that the party cannot afford to forsake its secular plank, they also admit that the BJP and RSS campaign to brand their party as being “enemies of the majority community” is a matter of deep concern. The party has to necessarily rework its strategy to counter this campaign. But the big question is how.
On one hand, there is a view in the party that the Congress should not fall into BJP’s trap by reacting to its communal agenda. On the other hand, there are leaders who want the leadership to spell out the party position clearly so that the party “does not fall between two stools”.
Those who want the Congress to ignore BJP’s Hindutva plank have suggested they should corner the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government on its anti-people policies. In this context, a Congress general secretary said they should focus on the raw deal being meted out by the ruling alliance to farmers who have been denied a hike in the minimum support price for their agriculture produce.
Focus on economic issues
The Congress leader pointed to the recent farmer protests in Chhattisgarh and Gujarat, organised by the RSS-backed Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. “This government came to power with the promise of improving the economic condition of the common man, so we should take on the government on economic issues,” he said. Similarly, he said, the Congress should highlight the changes being proposed in the land acquisition bill and the rural employment guarantee scheme to underline that the Modi government is acting against the interests of poor labourers and farmers.
However, Congress leaders who favour greater clarity on ideological issues argue that any ambiguity on such a sensitive matter is bound to be exploited by the BJP.
Referring to the recent controversy over religious conversions, a former Congress chief minister said the party should have called the BJP’s bluff on a having a debate on an anti-conversion law. “We should have told the BJP to convene an all-party meeting to elicit everybody’s views,” he explained. “But if our party says otherwise, we give the BJP an opportunity to dub us as being anti-Hindu.” Leaders like him advocate what has been described as a “soft Hindutva” approach.
'B-team of BJP'
This is immediately countered by others who point out that the Congress should not do or say anything that will reduce it to a “B-team of the BJP”. If people have to vote for a Hindu nationalist party, it will vote for the “original” BJP instead of opting for a “wannabe” party, it is argued.
“Any communal party in a democracy poses a serious challenge,” a senior Congress office-bearer maintained. “Hindutva is the ideology of the BJP and the RSS. We are not competing with them on this point. Instead we should expose their agenda.” He stated vehemently that there is no question of straying from the party’s well-known position on secularism.
Another senior Congress leader remarked, “We have to work on strengthening this plank. We have to highlight that the party believes in inclusive politics and speaks for everyone.”
This debate is bound to intensify in the coming days as a demoralised Congress rank and file seeks answers on how it should rebrand itself to stem the slide in its fortunes and regain its eroding support base.
Revisiting an old question
But this is not the first time that the Congress has faced this dilemma. The party had to make a tough choice in Gujarat after Sonia Gandhi’s description of Modi as “maut ka saudagar” (merchant of death) boomeranged. It ended up strengthening the BJP strongman and provided him an ideal opportunity to lend a communal flavour to the assembly election.
Following a fierce internal debate, the Congress then decided to recalibrate its stand and not to focus on the 2002 communal riots to avoid any issue that could polarise the electorate. The Congress instead took a decision to highlight the Gujarat government’s poor performance to dispel the popular perception that the Gujarat chief minister had delivered on his promise of providing good governance. Unfortunately for the Congress, it failed in its attempt as the party lost three successive Gujarat assembly polls.
Like Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi also encountered similar issues when he was prime minister. In an attempt to woo the Muslim community, he got Parliament to pass a law overturning a Supreme Court judgement in the Shah Bano case which provided for maintenance to divorced Muslim women. When he was accused of pandering to the Muslim community, Rajiv Gandhi sought to placate the Hindus by allowing the unlocking of the Babri Masjid in 1986 but ended up strengthening the RSS and BJP’s Ram temple movement.
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