At the onset, let me make a full disclosure – I am a non-preaching Catholic. So it should come as no surprise to you when I say that the William J Kirkpatrick hymn ‘Lord I am Coming Home’ began playing in my mind when I saw Rahul Gandhi’s Mansarovar photos, then a video of him sprinkling the holy water from Mansarovar at Raj Ghat and finally reading about his tryst with Shiv bhakts in Amethi recently.
In the hymn the penitent repents his wayward ways and looks forward to the promised solace and reward. Now why would the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have an issue with this Ghar Wapasi?
Home Coming King
The Hindutva brigade has been demanding Indians of various hues either go, to what they believe is, home or return to the fold of their forefathers ie Hinduism. While Christians have been shown the road to Rome, the Right have been kind enough to offer more than one choice to Muslims. There is also the Ghar Wapasi programme, in technological terms it is a socio-religious reboot. The Hindu Right are beholden to the the early Christians for the idea of this conversion programme as the pioneers showed them the way to increase their flock. This ceremony has also been called shudhikaran – a cleansing, for and of the way of life, of the stains of recent anointment by Abrahamical religions. Unfortunately this scheme is not secular, as it only targets Muslims and Christians.
When the Right has a systematic well established programme to create a socio-religious Sonnerkind why are they not happy with Rahul voluntarily donning their colours?
In the current climate it is but natural that Rahul Gandhi would want to emulate Narendra Modi. Why else would Rahul do a Modi hug on Narendra Modi? It is another matter that Rahul could not know that he would reduce the value of that patented hug. This debacle has left Rahul undeterred. It is regrettable that his willingness to go the extra mile and climb mountains in his desire to adopt the Saffron agenda is not being welcomed and infact is being rebuffed by Modi and his henchmen.
Are Rahul’s bumbling efforts to imbue the Congress with saffron giving his party the sheen of ‘the new kid on the block’ and therefore making the Right irrelevant? By the scion of the Gandhi’s playing the Right tune note-for-note, though at a lower key, has he conducted a surgical strike on, or demonetised, their parochial agenda?
Or If You Can’t Beat ‘Em—-
Charles Caleb Colton said ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’, in other words it is an acknowledgment of a great idea. One does wonder if there is a bigger agenda to the Congress cottoning up to the belligerent Hindu electorate. It could also be that they don’t have the wherewithal to reinvent themselves. Maybe, Rahul Gandhi sees value in an idea that saw the BJP grow from a party with just 3 Members of Parliament (as Jan Sangh) to one with 273 in 2018.
The pendulum’s swing to the Right is not by chance. It was a result of a perfect storm created by the corruption of the UPA II, the anti-incumbency vote, Narendra Modi’s outsider status and the careful tending and steady rise of the bellicose Hindu. To have all the pieces in place requires skill, opportunity and luck. One could say that the Congress is plagiarising from the BJP because they aren’t sure if they have any of the three. It can also be said that instead of investing in building their own herd, the Congress is rustling the herd corralled by the Right. Given that there is not much time to 2019 this is a pragmatic but terrifying choice.
The route to Make India Great Again, and therefore the Party, via the saffronised path has not been privatised nor is it a toll road where Rahul has to pay for its use. It is no surprise, then, that Rahul has taken the road well travelled.
Speaking of ‘pay’, what is the cost for this makeover, to him and for Indians?
Reams have been written as to why the young Gandhi has nothing to lose, it is altogether a different matter when it comes to the country.
Rahul’s choice should scare the bejesus of everyone because by copying the antics of the Right, their narrative is being given credence and their language is being made the lingua-franca of socio-political discourse. By creating a soft Hindutva brand to counter the jingoistic one peddled by the BJP and RSS combine, Rahul Gandhi is making the Hindutva agenda more palatable for those who believe in India’s secularism. This neatly fits into Mohan Bhagwat’s statement ‘Anybody living in India is a Hindu’. Worse still, it would seem that the Congress I, so proud of being The freedom movement and The foundation of India, has not found an answer to the corrosiveness of the Right.
Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology inspired people to act peacefully for India’s freedom. The Hindu Right ideology goads people into physical action as a means of restitution for perceived historical wrongs. The agenda of the Right is being proven right by Rahul trying to morph into the ‘Lesser of the Two Evils.’ The Right is not the only threat to this country’s secular credentials, the lack of ideas on the part of the young leader of India’s Grand Old Party is also a danger. As India watches the Congress take tentative steps into the Saffron cesspool it would be reassuring to know if they have a trip switch handy.
(The author is a freelance writer based in India, who has written for publications like the Hindu, Wire and Quint.)
