What is shocking is the behaviour and utterances of Congress leaders like Karti Chidambaram and Priyank Kharge, who de facto supported the lunacy of the DMK leaders.
(Note: The authors would usually not use a pejorative like gaumutra in the headline of a column. But since an elected Member of Parliament has used the term inside the House, the authors decided to record the bigotry for the readers.)
Indian folklore comprises rich tales of myriad misadventures and gaffes. One of them is about Kalidasa who had a peculiar habit of cutting the same tree branch on which he sat. Folklore also has it that when his wife, a princess, humiliated him for being a fool, Kalidasa eventually acquired wisdom and became a successful scholar cum poet. Looking at the manner in which some DMK leaders continue to abuse Sanatana Dharma (Read Hinduism) and mock North Indians and the manner in which the Congress top leadership stays stoically silent, the incredible tale of Kalidasa comes to mind. The Hindi heartland voter has humiliated the Congress. Sadly, unlike Kalidasa, it seems incapable of acquiring wisdom, at least not in time for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
It is simply astonishing the way DMK leaders are behaving. As also many vocal and hyperactive on social media supporters of the Congress after the party lost Assembly elections in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan; three states which the Congress had snatched away from the BJP in 2018. Absurd, childish and bizarre invocations of a north-south are being made, citing recent Congress victories in Karnataka and Telangana. It is almost as if these so-called Congress supporters are telling voters in western and northern India: we hate you and we don’t need your gaumutra laced vote. As for the DMK leaders, one hack recently joked that the BJP brass is generously sharing a part of the funds collected through electoral funds with the DMK so that its leaders keep abusing Hinduism till the 2024 elections. Sure, it is a joke, but anyone with an iota of common sense knows that such abuses are severely sabotaging the electoral prospects of I.N.D.I.A partners like Congress, RJD, Shiv Sena (UT), TMC and SP in western, eastern, central and northern India.
What should trouble and give nightmares to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi is the manner in which DMK leaders stubbornly refuse to tone down their abusive and blatantly racist remarks. When Udhayanidhi Stalin and A. Raja compared Sanatana Dharma with dengue, leprosy, AIDS and more, the behaviour was shocking enough. The authors are not even talking of decency in public discourse. From Periyar down, “Dravidians” have excelled in the art of deliberately and gratuitously mocking, offending and abusing Hindu faith, rituals and traditions. So there are no big surprises on that account. It is shocking because the DMK leaders are seasoned politicians and would be aware of the electoral damage it would cause elsewhere. Even more shocking has been the behaviour and utterances of Congress leaders like Karti Chidambaram and Priyank Kharge, who de facto supported the lunacy of the DMK leaders. One thought wisdom will dawn after the manner in which Hindi Heartland voters delivered a stinging slap to the Congress on 3 December. It is impossible to estimate the exact number of voters who decided not to vote for the Congress over this issue. But common sense suggests there has been an impact. This is the age of social media and tens of thousands of WhatsApp groups have been sharing the DMK remarks with subtitles tens of million times for months. The Congress CM aspirant in Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath even cancelled a joint rally of I.N.D.I.A in Bhopal some weeks ago because DMK leaders would have shared the stage with him and he didn’t want Hindu voters in Madhya Pradesh to get even more incensed. Yet, far from accepting common sense and backing down, DMK MP from Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu, Senthil Kumar has used the floor of the Parliament to publicly mock and abuse voters of north India with gaumutra jibes. A party and a leadership not determined to behave like Kalidasa would have come out swiftly and loudly publicly condemning Senthil Kumar and demanding an apology. After all, Jairam Ramesh and the IT Cell of the Congress are lightning fast when it comes to savaging Narendra Modi. It’s their job to do it. But isn’t it their job also to shield their party from the wrath of North Indian voters? Does the Congress leadership seriously think that I.N.D.I.A will win a majority in 2024 by insulting Hindu voters?
Look at the data and numbers. The DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu already has 38 of 39 seats. The erstwhile UPA already has 19 of 20 seats in Kerala. At best, this kind of virulent abuse of Hinduism might work in these two states, though the authors think people even in these states (bar the hate filled bigots) would be horrified. In any case, the BJP didn’t win a single seat in either Kerala or Tamil Nadu in 2019. But it did win 25 out of 28 in the “southern” state of Karnataka. It has been electorally strong there for decades and has cultivated a “Hindu” vote bank. Guess how the Karnataka voters will react. Telangana and Andhra are two more states where there is not too much at stake for the BJP. But wait, that leaves out religiously inclined voters in Maharashtra (48 seats), Rajasthan (25 seats), Haryana (10 seats), Himachal, Delhi & Uttarakhand (16 seats), Uttar Pradesh (80 seats), Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh (40 seats), Bihar & Jharkhand (54 seats), Odisha (21 seats) and West Bengal (42 seats). The Congress had won less than 10 out of these 336 seats. Any sane leader would have figured out that it may even be worthwhile to junk the DMK because while the Congress may win a handful of seats in Tamil Nadu despite the abhorrent rhetoric of DMK leaders, it “will” be punished by voters in moe than 300 other seats.
It is during moments like this that the authors wonder who really is crafting the 2024 campaign strategy of the Congress and on what basis. This needless abuse of Hinduism and North Indians is as good as committing political and electoral suicide. From Narendra Modi down to the booth level BJP worker and Sangh Parivar associates, every opportunity and every platform will be used to showcase how disdainfully Rahul Gandhi and fellow travellers are treating Hindu faith. Who cares if poor Rahul Gandhi hasn’t insulted Hinduism? In public perception, there is something called guilt by association. It is not as if Rahul Gandhi and other top leaders of the Congress are not aware of the perils of being perceived as anti-Hindu. In 2014, a 44-year-old Rahul had led the Congress to a “record” 44 seats in Lok Sabha. A committee headed by senior Congress leader A.K. Anthony to do a postmortem had identified public perception of being anti-Hindu as a major reason behind the 2014 electoral debacle. Since then, sporadic efforts have been made to indulge in temple runs and publicly sport markers of Hindu identity. But all that is going down the drain thanks to DMK leaders and the sheer inability of the Congress to call out the bigotry for what it is.
Kalidasa eventually acquired wisdom. When will the Congress?
Yashwant Deshmukh is Founder & Editor in Chief of CVoter Foundation and Sutanu Guru is Executive Director.