How Congress is talking 'secularism' and pandering to Hindutva
Isn’t it time the Congress and Digvijaya Singh shed their sham secularism, because not only has this duplicity rubbed off on the party and leadership but has also stuck to it as its own doctrine.
And why pick Singh specifically? He is Mr Secularism Redux-tion, what with his reactive tweets on Islamic terrorism, police encounters, Muslims, Hindutva violence, among others, which fly off his Twitter handle when he’s not making pronouncements on television channels about the same.
Of course, there have been times when Singh has forced an alternative narrative to the official version - from state, police to Hindutva extremists - but it has been dimmed by his ambiguous and misleading accusations, not just confounding the issue but questioning the very purpose of the protestations.
The latest in Singh’s scheme of things is the outrageous claim that the Telangana state police were running a fake ISIS website to radicalise and trap Muslim youth. Singh accused the Telangana police of posting inflammatory news on fake websites to lure and then criminalise the youth, and asked for stringent punishment against the perpetrators.
Not surprisingly, the state police swiftly slapped an FIR under Section 505 (IPC) against Singh for “statements conducing to public mischief”.
The FIR perfectly sums up the banality of the Congress’ hollow secularism, and the reason why people have junked it for its lack of sincerity and seriousness. Typically, Singh had no basis to make this wild claim, there was no back-up evidence or investigation, or even a confession; just a whimsy like the many other claims he has made earlier.
His sympathisers say that Singh had to make a splash after he was booted out as state in-charge of Karnataka (soon going to the polls) and Goa, for being outsmarted by rival BJP who rushed to form the government despite the Congress being the single largest party in the election.
Conspirators in the capital are gleeful Singh may have botched the Congress’ chances of putting together a broad political coalition against the BJP in the national game, by alienating Telangana CM KC Rao, of the TRS, who is undecided which side he is on.
No one wants to deny Singh his 15-minute shot at fame, he is free to chase his fame and political fortune, but he has assiduously built his "secular" image in tandem with the Congress’ make-believe world of secularism.
How does Singh mirror the Congress? It is its schizoid nature that Singh so flashily displays as a badge of honour; and he is as close anyone can get to know what the Congress believes on secularism.
Take the cow slaughter ban that the Modi government has brought into public discourse, along with violent vigilantism, murderous lynchings, beef bans, etc.
The Congress has not challenged the Modi government nor attacked the prime minister for being silently approving of cow vigilantes by refusing to condemn their murderous acts; all it has done is to cluck about how cow vigilantes are taking the law into their own hands and then mumble about individual choice, eating preferences, and cow protection in the same breath.
Singh’s declarations simply confirm his party’s duplicity. He has tom-tommed that he will get the Congress to support a country-wide ban on cow slaughter, and in a desperate bid at competitive Hindutva politics, has proudly declared that it was the Congress that had banned cow slaughter in 24 states, out of 29. And, he added for extra flourish, that as a proud Hindu, he supported the slaughter ban.
It must be noted here that Singh as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh wrote to then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee soon after the 2002 Gujarat riots, asking for a national ban on cow slaughter, and even launched a high-pitched campaign to counter the BJP’s Hindutva campaign for his state election in 2003. Singh was routed in the poll to never return to the state.
With these utterances, aren’t Singh and Congress pandering to majoritarian claims of cultural dominance? Nehru’s secularism, which Singh flaunts occasionally to bolster his deep Congress roots, was not just about Hindu sentiment but a celebration of all faiths that enhanced India’s plurality and diversity.
It is obvious this new majoritarianism has sneaked into the Congress lexicon only to pander to Hindutva emotions that have exploded in popular imagination because of the Congress’ two-timing politics.
Can anyone forget the Congress’ duplicity and treachery with the Sri Krishna Commission report of the 1993 Mumbai communal riots? Not only did the then Congress-NCP government, which came back to power in 1999, stall the implementation of the report - which could have thrown the late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and criminal police officials into prison - it simply threw the report into the dustbin.
Of course, the Congress’ passivity and tardiness in investigating the 1984 riots, the Gujarat carnage in 2002 and Muzaffarnagar 2013, when it was in power at the Centre and had the national investigating agencies under it, is a case in point.
Then there are the pious claims about the plight of Muslims and Singh mirrors the Congress when he bursts out intermittently about their pathetic plight. His recent charge (after a Muslim youth with alleged ISIS links was shot dead in an encounter in Lucknow) that the continuous injustice done to Muslims and the prosecution of innocents will make Pakistan attractive to them, has actually exposed the Congress’ apathy towards the community.
Did the party even remotely attempt to implement the Sachar Committee report, set up by its own PM Manmohan Singh, which found that Indian Muslims were more backward than SCs and STs, and that their representation in the behemoth Indian administration, from law to police, was dismal compared to their population?
The Congress-led UPA government had eight years in power to make policy changes to help improve their plight; instead it shied away from doing anything by saying it would ghettoise the community!
Has the Congress’ secularism been a force for social change? No. If the party believed in pursuing genuine secularism, it would not be squeamish about denouncing the misuse and distortion of Hinduism for the sake of politics, nor succumb to majoritarian claims.
It would rightfully condemn the politics of hate and humiliation and fight alongside all those who stand up to it. Instead, there’s nothing beyond a few utterances about respecting religious sentiment (read majoritarian Hindu), cow protection and conservation, even as the leadership dodges questions about cow slaughter and beef ban.
And for a touch of the absurd, the Congress' tepid secularism has not just invited jeers of being the B-Team of the BJP, it is also seen as a party for Muslims only.
If you are peering into the hollow core of Congress’ secularism, it is Singh who has a solution, when he says the Congress must convert the fight between personalities into a fight between ideologies. He could shoot off the first tweet to start the battle.