BENGALURU: By visiting temples and mutts, Congress leaders seem to be trying to shed their party’s anti-Hindu image and regain some lost space. However, a change in the grand old party’s stand on Hindutva is unlikely to help it in the Assembly elections.
While Congress president Rahul Gandhi is likely to continue his temple-hopping spree that he started in Gujarat, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too has been visiting a number of temples and religious places in the last few weeks. It seems to be a strategic move by the party as BJP is aggressively pushing Hindutva as its poll plank and accusing the Siddaramaiah government of going out of its way to appease minorities.
“Confronted with the BJP’s hardline Hindutva, the Congress is trying to rearrange its focus and try to get rid of the public perception of being an ‘anti-Hindu’ party,’’ political analyst Prof Muzaffar Assadi told The New Indian Express. “Rahul Gandhi is visiting temples so that a large majority should not feel alienated from the party. However, that will not benefit the party as its electoral base is not going to expand.’’
Dr Harish Ramaswamy concurs with Prof Assadi. “Minority appeasement was rampant earlier, and now that the minorities have woken up, the Congress has no alternative but to make a claim of being Hindu and not actually oppose the ideology of Hindutva.’’
According to Ramaswamy, percentage of vote shift due to change in the party’s stand will be very minimal like in the case of Gujarat elections. “They are trying to tell the people that they may have spoken against the BJP, but that doesn’t mean they were speaking against Hindus. The party is also emphasizing inclusivity.’’ Although Congress hopes to change the public perception, the party seem to end up with a ‘no loss-no gain’ result. While its efforts to woo the majority community may not make much of a difference with BJP supporters, it is unlikely to antagonize Muslims, who mostly back Congress and the JD(S) in a few constituencies.
Congress’ efforts to dent the BJP’s Veerashaiva-Lingayat vote bank by extending tacit support to those campaigning for a separate religion status for Lingayats too seem to have suffered a setback . The issue seems to have hit a dead end at least for now after a committee headed by retired High Court judge constituted by the state government to look into the demand, sought six months time to give its report.
The Congress, however, refuses to admit that there is any change in its stand towards Hindutva. “All these days we were accused of minority appeasement and now we are accused of soft-Hindutva. Actually, there has not been much of a change in our approach or attitude,’’ said senior Congress leader and KPCC vice-president B L Shankar.
According to Shankar, what the party practices is “sincere secularism’’ and not soft-Hindutva. “Visiting temples is not soft Hindutva, and when local people want a leader to visit a temple or a mosque, they do it. It is BJP that is claiming that it is the sole custodian of Hindutva. We are just saying that they are not the sole custodians of Hindutva. What they are preaching and practising is not real Hindutva and ours is inclusive Hindutva,’’ Shankar said.
Assadi says, “Even if they visit temples in Karnataka, no one will bother about it. People know history of the Congress. Even if Siddaramaiah visits temples everyone knows he is a socialist. It’s just symbolic. Unless Congress comes out with an aggressive posture and aggressive argument, it will not have any impact. The Congress cannot be treated as pro-Hindutva party. It is only trying to contain aggressive Hindutva and communal forces.’’