After the shellacking in 2014 general elections, the Congress party had set up the AK Antony Committee to list out reasons behind the party’s rout in the 2014 General Elections. The committee in its report noted minority appeasement as one of the reasons responsible for the monumental humiliation that the Congress party experienced. The committee said minority appeasement politics as well as comments made by some Congress leaders demanding quota for Muslims antagonized and alienated the majority community in the country which ultimately contributed to the humiliating loss of the party.
As 2019 general elections are around the corner, it seems that even after almost 5 years, the Congress party has not paid any heed to the report. Instead of introspecting and changing strategy, the Congress party is indulging even more blatantly into appeasement politics and it has intensified its anti-Hindu rhetoric. The senior Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor has repeatedly hurt the feelings and sentiments of Hindus with nasty and anti-Hindu remarks. In July, he said that India will become a Hindu-Pakistan if the BJP comes back to power again in 2019. It was a deliberate attempt to polarize the minority community. The term ‘Hindu-Pakistan’ is oxymoron but it still didn’t stop Mr. Tharoor from saying it and branding the majority community as evil. His comments had caused a wave of anger across the country against the INC.
Now, Shashi Tharoor has come up with even more absurd and anti-Hindu statement. The darling of leftist-liberal has taken it upon upon himself the responsibility of issuing certificate of ‘Good Hindu and Bad Hindu’. Tharoor strongly believes that ‘Bad Hindus’ are those who want a Mandir to be built on the disputed site i.e. the place where a Ram Mandir used to be before an invader demolished it and build a monument.
First of all, Shashi Tharoor needs to understand that he is not the spokesperson of all Hindus. He is a mere politician who is in the business of making absurd statements with an accent to get media attention and stay relevant in the eyes of the public, and to make his party ‘bosses’ happy.
It has almost become a pattern that before every election one of the top leaders of Congress would say something blatantly anti-Hindu leading to further consolidation of Hindu votes. Even Muslim intellectuals who met Gandhi scion advised the Congress to introspect and to not talk about Muslims in particular. Historian S Irfan Habib told the ANI, “Today in the meeting, we advised Rahul Gandhi to not talk about the Muslim community in particular as it will give others an opportunity to polarise him as a leader. He should rather talk about poverty and education. If he does so it will affect 96 per cent Muslims like other Indians.” The intellectuals from the community also advised Rahul Gandhi to introspect on the policies he and the Congress have followed in the past few years and asked him to change the way in which “the Congress worked in the era of 1970s, when it talked about inclusiveness and Sajha virasat.”
The recent statement of senior Congress leader is not simply a ‘slip of tongue’, the anti-Hindu rhetoric runs in the veins of the Congress party and its culture. The statements of its leader are the reflection of the anti-Hindu mentality of the Congress. Such statements just before the crucial election in 5 states which are being also considered as the semi-finale of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be erasing any prospects for Congress’ hope for a comeback.