The Congress party’s hypocrisy has once again been laid bare for the people of India to see. For the people of Kerala particularly, the Congress’ flip-flops, from being a ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ party until 2017 to now being one which stands by Hindu traditions at all costs is well known. With the Kerala Assembly Polls approaching fast, the Indian National Congress is hoping to salvage its electoral fortunes by winning at least one of the four states which go to polls soon. For the same, it is now promising to work tirelessly to uphold the sanctity and age-old traditions of the Sabarimala Temple.
On Saturday, the Kerala Congress promised to bring a law to make any violation of traditions at the shrine “a cognisable offence”, if voted to power, of course.
Senior Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who released the draft of the party’s planned Sabarimala legislation Saturday, said, “The Congress wants a legislation to protect the age-old traditions at the temple. Violation of the traditions or any act challenging the traditions, as per the proposed legislation, would be reckoned as a cognizable offence. It would be known as the Sabarimala Ayyappa Devotees (Protection of Religious Rights, Customs and Usages) Act, 2021. Both the Centre and the state have rights to make legislation on the issue and if voted to power, the Congress in Kerala will introduce a law to protect the customs at the temple.” The Congress said that this new Act would entail a punishment of up to two years in case of a violation, the Indian Express reported.
Now while the Congress of 2021 is willing to make any violation of the traditions of Sabarimala a cognisable offence, as recently as 2017, youth Congress workers in the state were hosting “beef parties” publicly and also distributing the meals to bystanders. This was in response to the Modi government banning the purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter, a move which was falsely spun as a “beef ban” in India.
Rahul Gandhi, the then Vice President of Congress had woken up to the travesty only after being scolded by a Hindu leader, Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, who said that cow slaughter was against the tenets of Indian culture, and had conveyed the same to the Congress’ top leadership. Only after such scolding did Rahul Gandhi condemn the incident and suspend the youth workers involved in the beef fests.
From having beef parties organised four years ago, to now claiming to stand with the Hindus of Kerala and being the defender of the Sabarimala tradition – the hypocrisy of the Congress is gut-turning.