The Odisha wing of Congress committed a blunder on the 21st of September through its official Twitter handle. What makes the mistake a blunder is the fact that it was committed solely by the Congress leadership and its public relations team alone, there was no provocation or outside force which forced them to commit the error. On 21st September the Muslim population of the country comes out to take part in the mourning of Muharram. It is a day of fasting for the Sunni Muslims but the Shia population around the world take part in grand processions to mourn the death of Imam Hussein and his family.
Of all the things Muharram is, it can never be called a happy occasion for the Muslims, a day of fasting and respecting the sacrifice of the martyrs of Islam can never be a joyous occasion. Therefore when the Odisha state wing of the Congress tweeted, “Wish you all a very Happy and blessed Muharram”, it not only defeated their aim of bonding with the Muslims but also made them appear as uneducated folks who are disconnected with reality.
Muharram is the day when the Shia Muslims from around the world mourn the death of one of their most prominent leaders since Muhammad. The battle at Karbala which raged on for 10 days claimed the lives of Imam Hussain and 72 of his followers and also the women, children and elderly people. There is absolutely nothing which is worthy of celebration in the month of Muharram. Ashura or the 10th day of mourning is when the mourning peaks. Processions of Shia Muslims come out on the streets and hurt themselves to remember the pain and sufferings faced by Imam Hussain and his followers.
It is this day on which the Congress state unit from Odisha chose to send out their tweet which reeked of insensitivity and apathy. The Congress for long has tried to fool the Muslim population of the country and make them believe that they are indeed the one and only true saviours of the Muslims, however this time their facade unravelled on its own. The Congress leadership, this time thankfully from the state level and not the central as is usually the case, struck a blow to the party’s efforts to build a voter base in Odisha where it is not even the primary opposition. The Congress seems to be failing and how, the debacle of Congress in 2014 will likely be repeated in 2019 if this situation persists. Not only is there a severe lack of leadership in the oldest national party of India but there also seems to be a poor execution process which has set in throughout the length and breadth of the party. Incidents like these also dispel the myths which the Congress has tried to build in the country of being pro-Muslim and of being their well wisher. A national party which does not understand the basic differences of a religion claims to be their champion, sad indeed.