Ahead of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections 2023, senior Congress leader and former Governor Aziz Qureshi lamented the party's push for a pro-Hindutva stand – and said that "Muslims are not slaves who will act as per their orders."
"Every political party, including the Congress, must understand that Muslims are not slaves and aren't obligated to follow their orders," said Qureshi while addressing a gathering in Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha district on the eve of the birth anniversary of former PM Rajiv Gandhi.
Qureshi further lashed out at the Congress and said that the party was chanting "'Jai Ganga Maiyya', 'Jai Narmada Maiyya', 'Garva se kaho Hindu hain', taking out religious yatras and installing idols at the Madhya Pradesh Congress office. "This is shameful," he added.
Although the Congress tried to downplay Qureshi's remarks, terming them as his personal opinion, the ruling BJP was quick to react.
"The Congress party believes in the politics of minority appeasement. Its leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Kamal Nath, turn to Hindus only during elections," said BJP spokesperson Narendra Saluja, who switched to the party from Congress in November last year.
The Madhya Pradesh Congress unit, under the leadership of former CM Kamal Nath, has allegedly been moving from soft Hindutva to hardline Hindutva in the run-up to the state Assembly polls that are slated for later this year.
Several incidents such as the party's state unit befriending right-wing Hindutva outfit Bajrang Sena, Kamal Nath's meeting with self-styled godman Dhirendra Shastri, the party hosting events like pujari sammelan, indicates that Congress' flirtation with Hindutva is turning into a more serious relationship.
Madhya Pradesh Congress has taken a 180-degree turn in its stance on Hindutva recently, despite promising to ban Hindutva outfit Bajrang Dal during the Karnataka elections earlier this year.
The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is the parent body of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
With a robust organisational footprint in MP, Bajrang Dal has frequently been accused of either propagating or endorsing violence against minority groups. However, law enforcement authorities have struggled to definitively establish these connections.
Political experts opine that the Congress is retracing its steps ahead of the Madhya Pradesh elections to ensure that it doesn't lose the majority Hindu votes and is able to counter the BJP's allegations of minority appeasement politics.
"We will not ban the Bajrang Dal because the organisation may also have some good people. However, the goonda elements who create riots will not be spared," he had said on 16 August.
Congress' Flirtation With Hindutva, a Necessary Evil?
Singh's remark highlights Congress' shifting stance on Hindutva, as the party had equated the Bajrang Dal with banned organisation (Popular Front of India) during the Karnataka elections.
A senior journalist, requesting not to be named, said that the Congress is going soft on Hindutva ever since the BJP started gaining momentum in Madhya Pradesh, even though early trends have indicated victory to the Congress.
"Initially the Congress looked to win comfortably in MP but that has changed in the last two months after central leadership of the BJP took over election campaigning," the journalist said.
"Now, Congress can't afford to be called out on Hindutva or allow BJP to make it look like it is anti-Hindu and does minority appeasement politics. That's why we are witnessing this change in stand. From Kamal Nath to Digvijaya Singh, all have changed their tune," they said.
Interestingly, when Singh was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, he wrote a letter to the then-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee during 2001-02, recommending a ban on Bajrang Dal and Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
However, the Vajpayee-led NDA government only banned SIMI.
Congress leader Kamal Nath, who is also the face of the party for the MP elections, has been seen with priests and hosting self-styled godmen like Dhirendra Krishna Shastri.
During his visit to Jhabua recently, Kamal Nath was questioned about his endorsement of Dhirendra Shastri's proposition for a Hindu Rashtra, to which he responded: "What is there to debate? We are already a nation with 82 percent Hindus. If a country has such a large Hindu population, then it is. What is there to claim that we are a Hindu Rashtra? The statistics themselves make the point.."
The BJP didn't waste time in hitting out at the Congress over Singh's remark. CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that both Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath have nothing to do with Hindutva. They make comments when they think the time is appropriate to harvest votes, the chief minister added.
"Neither Digvijaya nor Kamal Nath have anything to do with Hindutva or nation or society. To harvest votes, they keep giving statements which they think appropriate from time to time," Chouhan said.
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