Congress must say sorry to the Bania Community for disrespecting them

Ever Since Narendra Modi reduced Congress to 44 chairs in Lok Sabha and almost no CM chairs across the length and breadth of India, Congress has gotten very creative. Modi government has completed 3 years at the center and there are no reports of any scams. The ministers are responsive and accountable. The bureaucracy is more effective than ever. The morale of the armed forces is at an all-time high. The otherwise belligerent neighboring nations are licking at their wounds. In short, the situation is nightmarish for the opposition. An opposition thrives at the failures of a government. But what if the government is near perfect? The opposition has no option but to become extremely imaginative so that they can create mountains out of molehills, issues out of non-issues, riots out of scuffles and agenda out of news.

The opposition started their silly little revolution against the government with the Dadri Drama, they got a bit more creative with a spate of student agitations. From JNU to Hyderabad University, From Jadhavpur University to Delhi University, from Kanhaiya to Gurmehar, From Umar Khalid to Rohith Vemula, they invested every bit of their strength to malign the government. But there is one fact about lies, they get exposed sooner or later and so they did.

Congress and the opposition even tried to engineer riots and caste violence, for instance – Bhim Army Vs Upper Caste in Saharanpur and the Farmer Agitation in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. But they met the same fate. Social Media called their bluff, and they had to surrender meekly.

Now that their farmer agitation ploy flopped on the political box office they have latched on to a new issue. And the issue this time is – BJP President disrespected Mahatma Gandhi – The Father of the Nation.

Mahatma Gandhi, bahut chatur baniya tha woh, usko maloom tha aage kya hone waala hai, usne azadi ke baad turant kaha tha, Congress ko bikher dena chahiye. (Mahatma Gandhi, he was a very clever baniya, he knew what was going to happen. After independence, he had said that the Congress should be dissolved.)

Source – Financial Express

This is what BJP chief Amit Shah said while addressing a gathering in Raipur.

Congress says that by calling Gandhi a Chatur Baniya, BJP President Amit Shah has insulted him. And to be very honest with the readers, my naïve mind doesn’t really understand how calling someone Chatur Bania an insult?

Chatur means Clever, Ingenious and resourceful. If a person is bestowed with the talent of thinking out of the box, he is clever. Clever people have strong survival instincts. Clever people don’t budge under pressure, they come up with a unique solution to the most unexpected problems. Clever people are problem solvers, advisors and game changers. While most people just survive, clever people push the humanity forward.

Bania is the Tadbhav form of the Sanskrit words Vaṇij which mean related to Vanijya (Commerce). In simple words Baniya refers to the general trading class in Hindus. Baniyas are one of the most prosperous and enterprising communities in India. A Baniya is known for his astute sense of business, clever negotiation skills, a natural flair for mathematics and an uncanny foresight. Let us look at some of the biggest entrepreneurs from India – From Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal of Flipkart to Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Enterprises, From Anil Agarwal of Vedanta Resources to Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola Cabs, From Rohit Bansal of Snapdeal to the most entrepreneurial Politician of all times Arvind Kejriwal. They have one thing in common. They all belong to the Baniya Samudaay. Their vision has turned their start-ups into to the biggest success stories in India’s Entrepreneurial circuits.

Now let us come to Gandhi. A simple google search is enough to establish the fact that Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi, the father of the nation and the icon of India’s struggle for Independence was a Modh Bania by caste. So when Amit Shah called Gandhi a Bania, he was not using the term Bania as an adjective, he was simply stating facts. Amit Shah was simply calling Gandhi a supremely entrepreneurial man, a man gifted with the art of clever negotiations, a man of foresight. And when he added the term clever, it was simply an effect multiplier.

Was Mahatma Gandhi not a clever Bania?

• He was supremely entrepreneurial – All his marches and peace protests testify this fact.
• Gandhi could think out of box – When the entire world resorted to armed struggle, he made non-violence his weapon
• Gandhi had uncanny foresight – Every fast he undertook was for a motive, a motive he could clearly see and others couldn’t
• Gandhi had terrific survival instincts – From a man who was thrown out of a train compartment to the icon of billions endorse this fact

There is nothing wrong in calling someone a Chalak Bania. It’s a compliment. It is the validation of someone’s unique abilities and foresight. If someone is offended upon being called a Chalak Bania, he is either a lunatic or has a deep-seated hatred for the community.

And there is only one thing and one thing alone that can be derived from this episode. Congress has a deep-seated hatred for the Bania Community. Why will the name of the community irk them so much unless they hate the community. Congress has disrespected one of the most enterprising communities of this country. They should immediately issue an unconditional apology to the community and say sorry to Mahatma Gandhi for using him to serve political brownie points.