Some people create their own storms, and then get upset when it starts raining heavily. This quote is accurately applicable to the Grand Old Party which often indulges in tendentious demagoguery and promptly claims the moral high ground when they face backlash. A recent instance of this is the comment by Amit Shah on Rahul Gandhi’s road show during his nomination from Wayanad last week.
Wayanad witnessed an atmosphere of enthusiasm and excitement over the filing of Rahul Gandhi’s nomination on 4th April. However, the enthusiasm soon dulled with the mass of “green flags with a white star and crescent” which outnumbered the Indian flags and Congress flags to such an extent that they ceased to be visible. Images and videos of these flags were captured and made viral on social media. The citizens, justifiably shocked, perceived the flags as those of Pakistan’s.
https://twitter.com/koenamitra/status/1113783245630517258
Joker Rahul Gandhi's road show in Wayanad. All the best Hindus. ✌️ pic.twitter.com/SMHBkyyUf4
— Akshay (@akshaykatariyaa) April 4, 2019
Due to the extensive deceptive similarity between the two flags, the prudent man obviously thought the flag as Pakistan’s. This led to a lot of backlash on the social media. It later came to light that these flags weren’t Pakistan’s, but were in fact belonging to Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), one of Congress’ allies. The whole scenario becomes even stranger when the flags were waved at the road show, even after Congress’ explicit instructions to IUML not to wave the green flags as it might “backfire in North India.”
In this scenario, BJP president Amit Shah stated, “When a procession is taken out there, it is difficult to make out whether it is India or Pakistan.”
Amit Shah’s statement is receiving criticism from the opposition, who has accused him of “dividing people on communal lines” and “creating animosity between different religions”.
However, the statement isn’t out of place at all, considering the BJP president is merely voicing what the citizens have been collectively expressing since the past week.
Moreover, his remark stems from IUML’s unique history which dates back to the independence. All India Muslim League, the party which strongly advocated the establishment of a Muslim-majority country which led to the independence, had divided into 3 separate parties, one each for Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. The one is India came to be known as “Indian Union Muslim League”. This was done on Jinnah’s advice when he stated, “There must be a Muslim league in Hindustan. If you are thinking of anything else, you are finished.”
IUML was formed on the advice of Jinnah just before he left. Jinnah said "There must be a Muslim league in Hindustan" pic.twitter.com/IofPwcyEPd
— True Indology (@TrueIndology) February 13, 2017
The party, though claiming to be “secular” in their motto has contradicted itself time and again by advocating the Sharia law. They view one of their key achievements as campaigning for the protection the ‘Sharia’ in the constituent assembly, leading to Jawaharlal Nehru agreeing to keep the Muslim Personal Law in force. The party has always viewed religion as being above national interests, especially when they strongly voiced against the amendment to the constitution which would make it the fundamental duty of every citizen to observe Directive Principles which would have included the Uniform Civil Code in place of the ‘Sharia’. They were also involved in the opposition of Vande Mataram song and in the linking of Aligarh Muslim University with the religious identity of Muslims. Apart from these, their major work in India has been in the recognition and implementation of the Sharia law.
Moreover, Mohammad Ismail, the founder President of IUML, even bargained with Congress to “recognise the League as sole representative of Muslims”. Though the Congress did not oblige but for its vote bank politics, it encouraged the Muslims to raise voice over the issues related to their religious identity.
The anti-nationalist interests of the party came out in the Marad massacre in 2003, when the judicial commission probe stated that “The Muslim League was directly involved in both the conspiracy and execution of Kerala’s worst ever communal carnage.” The commission had also pointed a finger at Congress when it slammed the then AK Antony government for refusing to order a CBI probe.
Congress and the IUML have been practicing vote bank politics since a long time, in furtherance of their political agenda. The congress uses the party for appeasing the Muslim voters, on a quid pro quo basis. Reiterating this fact is the statement by K P A Majeed, Muslim League state general secretary, “Muslim League is the deciding factor in the constituency. In 2014, the Congress candidate won because of the votes garnered from three districts, where IUML has an upper hand.”
In a move arising from fear and insecurity, Rahul Gandhi had decided to contest from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala as his second seat along with Amethi. The constituency has been chosen due to its unique demography of minority dominated population wherein Hindus just make up 34% of the total. Rahul Gandhi, imbibing from his elders, wants to garner support through practicing vote bank politics. Garnering support from its traditional ally, IUML, Rahul Gandhi viewed Wayanad as an obvious victory.
In light of these developments, with IUML’s shady past and questionable loyalties; advocating religious identity above national identity, Amit Shah’s statement is not out of the blue. For a party that claims to be secular, it is quite ironic that Congress is continuing to inculcate a culture of communal politics, even when their façade has clearly worn off.
