“The Congress often finds itself trying to do a balancing act between secular politics and soft Hindutva,” a senior Nagpur-based Congress leader lamented.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s remarks against Vinayak Damodar Savarkar have led to some consternation within the party unit in Maharashtra. Several elected members of the party said on the condition of anonymity that adverse comments on Savarkar do not augur well for the party in the western state.
Officially, state Congress leaders have rallied around Rahul Gandhi with greater zeal. They participated in protests against Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha. But no party leader in Maharashtra has echoed Rahul Gandhi’s “mafiveer Savarkar” remark.
A senior state Congress leader said, “When we discuss reformers or revolutionaries, we have to be very careful about public sentiments and perceptions built over several decades.”
He further said, “Savarkar’s contribution to the freedom movement cannot be questioned. It is a fact that he was sentenced to ‘kala pani’ in the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He served 10 years of rigorous imprisonment, which is unimaginable. At the same time, it is likely that he filed a mercy petition to escape the mental and physical torture. But that does not undermine his role. He has written several books. Ideologically, the Congress may not conform to his ideology, but we should not question his patriotism.”
Not surprisingly then that the recent Congress rallies held in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Akola, and Buldhana saw the party focusing its attack on PM Narendra Modi and the BJP, said political observers.
The Congress stuck to the ‘script’ that the BJP plotted to divest Rahul Gandhi of his Lok Sabha membership as he had asked uncomfortable questions related to Narendra Modi’s ‘nexus’ with Gautam Adani, they added.
While making a public speech, MPCC (Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee) president Nana Patole said: “Savarkar’s two-nation theory is a reality. The fact that his politics led to the Hindu-Muslim divide cannot be ignored. The Hindutva that he propounded led to the creation of hatred between Hindus and Muslims which had lasting implications.”
State Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said, “I would like to ask those attacking Rahul Gandhi, how will they justify BJP’s silence when Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was being insulted? CM Eknath Shinde is just enacting BJP’s script when he says that they will hold rallies across the state to protest Savarkar’s alleged insult.”
A senior Nagpur-based Congress leader said, “We are not learning from our mistakes. Attacking Savarkar does not make any difference to the RSS-BJP. On the contrary, they get an opportunity to question our patriotism. We should not rake up old controversies. We should not digress from our attack on PM Modi and the BJP. If we have to attack the RSS-BJP, we should question the Sakal Hindu Samaj-led rallies against ‘love jihad’ and ‘land jihad.’”
“The Congress often finds itself trying to do a balancing act between secular politics and soft Hindutva,” he lamented.