Rajasthan Congress passes Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Hindutvavadi test’

New Delhi: The three-day training camp, which was held for the Congress workers— at Bara Padampura near Jaipur from December 26 to 28— at one point of time turned out to be a class to make the party functionaries understand the difference between ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hindutvavadi’ that Rahul Gandhi recently referred to in his speech. The Rajasthan Congress somehow managed to satisfy the Gandhi scion when he asked the workers and leaders several questions regarding these two concepts during the camp.
Participating in the camp virtually, Rahul not only explained the difference between ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hindutvavadi’ but also put up several questions expecting satisfactory answers from the attendees. His questions were also about Jawahar Lal Nehru and Savarkar. Rajasthan PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasra somehow came up with answers that could satisfy Rahul.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot addressed the concluding session, explaining what ‘Hindutvavadi’ meant, and termed the politics of religion a dangerous practice. It was during the Congress mega rally against inflation that Rahul had spoken about Hindu and Hindutvavadi. Rahul had said that Hindus did not practice politics of hate, whereas Hindutvavadis always resorted to politics of hate and intimidation for power.
Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP of doing the Hindutvavadi politics. After this rally, the state units were asked to hold camps to brief the workers on these terms. Rahul is said to be keen to spread Congress’ ideology of ‘brotherhood and harmony’ among people.
In the camp, Rahul wanted to know whether the workers could understand all this or not. Addressing the workers, Rahul reiterated that for ‘Hindutvavadis’ religion is a weapon to grab power. “This is something that the Hindu religion does not do,” he said, while indirectly taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It appears that Congress wants to use its theory of Hindutvavadi to counter BJP’s “politics of religion”. Ironically, Congress is not touching upon this issue in the five poll-bound states.
After Jaipur, Rahul left for abroad, with many raising questions as to why the Gandhi scion chose to proceed on a vacation amid election-related activities.