He has associated violence with Hindutva. This is a calculated action, not a political gaffe. His goal is to top the pseudo-secular rankings.
Philosophical disagreements and even outright conflicts between political parties are widespread worldwide. In Europe, parties disagree on foreign aid, immigration, the environment, and religious differences. Thought tanks and party intellectuals facilitate discourse that helps bridge the gap without interfering with it. In India, things are quite different:
Parties argue about fundamental matters of society and culture. Additionally, they don’t represent the sentiments at the grassroots. The articulation at the top ignores the collective consciousness of the Indian people as it moves downhill.
Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, recently attacked Hindutva in Parliament as the most recent illustration of this. The RSS and the greater Hindu perspective on culture, society, and secularism have also faced criticism in the past. Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and others limited their discussion to the minority issue. Their action was to protect a voting base. Rahul Gandhi has made a bigger step. He has associated violence with Hindutva. This is a calculated action, not a political gaffe. Being the best among the pseudo-seculars is his goal. The intellectual trust at 10 Janpath violates its own legacy by appropriating concepts from the discredited Indian left.
The Nehru-Gandhi family’s abhorrence of the RSS appears to have been institutionalized. The democratic spirit is killed by this. There are good reasons why Rahul Gandhi and the current Congress generation are acting so recklessly. Rahul’s early years were profoundly impacted by the three letters, R S S. He was raised during the Gandhi-Nehru family’s crisis of legitimacy. The Rajiv Gandhi government encountered strong resistance from Hindutva elements about the Shah Bano case, even with a two-thirds majority. He has seen firsthand the predominance of his family eroding over time.
The way that Rahul Gandhi interprets Hindutva is contrary to the collective conscience of India. It isn’t a philosophy of politics. In order to help post-Mughal and post-colonial Hindus reclaim their cultural identity and break free from a victim mindset, it aims to Hinduize them. The RSS conveys and contextualizes the teachings of Hindu luminaries such as Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, and R K Mookerji, without offering any new ideas.
