Rahul Gandhi on Sunday declared there was “nothing Hindu about what they (the RSS and the BJP) do” and contended that the hate project had flourished in India only because of political patronage.
Rahul’s comment came during an interaction with students at the Sciences Po University in Paris, and in response to a question about the “scary radicalisation of youth by the Hindutva forces”.
“I have read the Gita, a number of Upanishads; I have read many Hindu books. There is nothing Hindu about what the BJP does. I have not read anywhere, heard from no learned Hindu person, that you should terrorise, harm people who are weaker than you,” he said.
Rahul has criticised the RSS worldview in the past too, drawing a distinction between Hindutva and Hinduism. His party has, however, not pursued this line of argument, probably thinking that such a nuanced discourse was unlikely to bring much political returns.
But Rahul broached the subject again in Paris, going a step further to dispute the use of the label “Hindu nationalist” for Sangh Parivar protagonists, as often done by political scientists in the West.
“‘Hindu nationalist’ — this is a wrong word, they are not Hindu nationalist. They have nothing to do with Hinduism,” he said.
“They are out to get power at any cost. They will do anything to get power. They will do anything to ensure that the Indian caste structure, the social structure, is not threatened. They want the dominance of a few people. There is nothing Hindu about them.”
Hindus’ votes
Replying to a question about the Opposition narrative, he said: “When you see the people on the stage in the INDIA coalition, you must realise that more people from the Hindu community vote for us than they vote for the BJP. Sixty per cent of India votes for us.
“The idea that the majority community is voting for the BJP is a wrong idea. They do polarise society, they divide society and spread hatred. That’s their mechanism.”
He added: “They also happen to have a very good relationship with the most powerful crony capitalists who support them, finance them, help them do what they do. This is the architecture that stands behind the BJP.”
Modi and RSS
“The idea that Narendra Modi is orchestrating this thing is a gross simplification. Modi is an instrument of the architecture. I am pretty confident that the RSS can get rid of Modi in five minutes if they want. It is a structure that is doing this and that structure is now a threat to Indian democracy.”
The former Congress president conceded that the Dalit, tribal and minority communities were under attack and felt unsafe.
Tackling hate
Asked how a future government would deal with the hate project, he said: “If the Prime Minister tomorrow morning decides that there would be no chest-thumping and no violence, it would stop. It is the direction that the leadership of the country gives, the imagination that the leadership of the country gives, that shapes people.
“The feeling right now is that you can do anything and nothing is going to happen to you. The moment the feeling comes that there is going to be consequences to attacking someone, that behaviour will change instantly.”
Referring to the observation about an institutional crisis he had made earlier, Rahul said: “But that does not resolve the earlier question about institutions, which is (about) the sort of disease that has entered the Indian institutional framework, where the neutrality of these institutions has gone out of the window.
“I think… we will have to make examples of these people. We will have to make sure that some of the people who have done what they have done pay a significant price, so that anybody who is thinking of doing it again understands he will have to pay the price for attacking the soul of India.”
Caste stand
On caste discrimination, Rahul went where no other Congress leader probably has so far. He said that denying space to the OBCs and Dalits in governance or business was a “crime” and correcting that should be the central thrust.
“Our idea is that no voice is crushed or intimidated. The injustice the caste system does, the pain and trauma it causes, is beyond anything I know. I see my politics as challenging the idea that the caste order, a permanent hierarchy, should exist in India; that some people have access to all the institutions and structures and others live in poverty,” he said.
“This will be the framework of what the INDIA coalition will be thinking about.”
On the attack on civil society and the harassment of political opponents and critics, Rahul said the Opposition was committed to fighting to protect democratic structures and that India would survive this phase of turbulence.
