When a person is feeling down, a hug may cheer him or her up. The Congress party does not seem to be a firm believer in the hypothesis that hugs may achieve much such as comforting someone or building any kind of relationship with some. For, why else would the President of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi, mock the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the “failure” of “hugplomacy” like an excited and gleeful child when there were reports in the media that the US Congress had approved a bill that delinked military aid given by the US to Pakistan from action taken by Pakistan against Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Rahul Gandhi, then, had not taken over officially as the President of the Congress party. Now, as party President, Rahul Gandhi seems to have had a change of heart. Why else would he send senior leader of his party, Arjun Modhvadia to give a political hug to Pravin Togadia, a firebrand leader, a staunch supporter of Hindutva and also the International Working President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
The reason for Modhvadia’s visit to Togadia was far more holistic. Modhvadia described his visit as “humanitarian” since the VHP Chief has not been keeping well. This is cute at so many levels, considering the fact that Togadiya came out of the Hospital all guns blazing. Looks like Modhvadia ensured that Togadiya got fit enough to attack PM Modi.
Pravin Togadia is a medical doctor by qualification, to be precise, a surgeon. Togadia has been an old colleague of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the RSS. On Wednesday, Togadia who had been missing since the past few hours, was found unconscious at a hospital in Ahmedabad. He addressed a press conference in Ahmedabad during which he levelled many allegations. Togadia claimed that he was being framed in a decade old case in Rajasthan by the agencies. Togadia further claimed that he had received information that he would be killed in an encounter. “While I was offering Pooja yesterday morning, one person entered my office and said that I will be killed in a police encounter”, said Togadia.
Meanwhile the police have rubbished Togadia’s allegations. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) of Ahmedabad, J K Bhatt termed Togadia’s allegations as “just a figment of imagination”. Togadia enjoys Z plus security cover since more than a decade and his claims of an encounter do appear quite unfounded.
Till around 2002, Modi and Togadia had mutually supported each other. However, the two fell out after BJP’s win in the 2002 Gujarat election. Modi had then dropped Gordhan Zadafia from his cabinet. Many had then seen it as an attempt to limit Togadia’s influence on the functioning of the Gujarat Government (Zadafia was seen as Togadia’s man).
In the recent past, too, Togadia had hurled allegations that were seen to have embarrassed the BJP at crucial junctures. In 2008, Togadia had rebuked Modi for allowing the demolition of temples in Gujarat to facilitate the construction of roads. In 2012, Togadia, who is a Leuva Patel, had expressed sympathy at the exit of former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel from the BJP. At that time Keshubhai had formed the Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) before the Vidhan Sabha election in Gujarat. Zadafia’s Mahagujarat Janata Party had merged with Keshubhai’s GPP. However, the GPP could not make a significant impact in the election that year. Subsequently, Before the Lok Sabha election in 2014, Narendra Modi had ticked off people such as Togadia (he had not named him) for making “petty statements”.
Even Hardik Patel expressed solidarity with Togadia. By taking advantage of the situation Hardik and the Congress may once more try to wean away the Patidar community (which has been a strong supporter of the BJP) from the BJP by creating a false impression that by targeting Togadia (a Patidar), the top leadership of the BJP might be trying to undermine the community again. It is for this reason that Hardik Patel also attacked BJP President Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I don’t agree with Togadia on a number of issues, but on this topic, we are as one. Everybody knows the conspiracy being run under Amitbhai and Narendrabhai. It’s a known secret that the RSS is against Pravin Togadia,” said Hardik.
On the contrary, going by how the Congress and Hardik Patel have acted in concert to seemingly sympathize with Togadia, it appears that they could try to exploit the situation and possibly connive with each other to fragment the Hindu vote in the future. While Pravinbhai himself may be a doctor, he himself seems to be now suffering from persecutory delusion for the cure of which he may himself have to see a doctor himself.