Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s persona has become synonymous with goof-ups and blunders. The latest one is calling a Hindu-hating bigot Tipu Sultan an epitome of communal harmony just ahead of the Karnataka elections.
Rahul Gandhi continued the Congress’ new policy of visiting temples and trying to appease Hindus before elections instead of spewing venom against them (Thus, hating Hindus as a general rule with the exception of election campaigns).
As a part of such visits, Rahul visited Sringeri Sharadamba Peeta on Wednesday. There, he asked a question about Tipu Sultan’s contribution to the famous mutt. He was accompanied by the KPCC spokesperson Diwakar, who gave an account of Rahul Gandhi’s visit.
Diwakar told Rahul Gandhi about a letter written by Tipu Sultan to the then seer of the mutt, and the donations made by Tipu Sultan. According to Diwakar, Rahul Gandhi was impressed by Karnataka’s secular ethos, and according to the version narrated by the KPCC spokesperson, called it an illustration of true communal harmony. Thereafter, Rahul Gandhi abruptly continued his bizarre attempt to woo the Hindu community, which justifiably feels alienated from the Congress. He interacted with the Sadvidya Sanjivini Sanskrit Mahapathashala students, and even promised to support the ancient language.
This is not the first time that the Congress has rubbed salt in the wounds of Hindus by making a hero out of a tyrant. The atrocities committed by Tipu Sultan against Hindus are well recorded in history. One of his most barbaric acts was the massacre of 800 Mandayam Iyengars of Melkote, while raping and taking hostage women and children. The infamous ethnic cleansing of Kodavas as well as other Hindu communities of southern India is still etched in people’s memories. The injuries inflicted by Tipu Sultan were so brutal that the Mandayam Iyengars have not celebrated Deepavali, the most pious of Hindu festivals, till date. While the Hindus throughout India and in fact around the globe celebrate this day with great fervor, the Mandayam Iyengars mourn this day. Not only this, Tipu ransacked close to 8,000 Hindu temples, including some famous and prominent ones, during his heydays.
However, in a bid to eulogize the despot and secure electoral support from the community to which this notorious ruler belonged, the Congress keeps celebrating his mythical contributions. Therefore, in grave distortion of history, it has become an annual exercise to celebrate Tipu’s birth anniversary and declare him the epitome of secularism. Tipu’s secularism is at the best only as real as Congress’ brand of secularism.
The problem with Rahul Gandhi is that he is unfit for Indian politics. But the Congress keeps persisting with such an incompetent and reluctant heir. Rahul Gandhi’s latest blunder was calling the Mahabharata war 1,000 years old.
Some sections of the media, meanwhile, continue to create a myth of a grand comeback by the Congress prince before every crucial election. However, it seems that what Congress needs is not fake comebacks but a serious change in leadership and campaign policy. Rahul Gandhi’s incompetence will not miraculously vanish after some enlightening sabbaticals. As far as Congress’ policy is concerned it seems that having lost the Muslim vote to other regional players, and it is now keen to create a Hindu voter base. But at the same time it does not want to lose the negligible Muslim voter base it still occupies. The result being that the already irked Hindus are not at all impressed and the existing Muslim vote bank created by decades of appeasement is shrinking further because for them the Congress is no longer the “secular (read pseudo-secular)” party that it used to be.