The Silence of Congress

THE REFUSAL OF Congress to distance itself from DMK, its Tamil Nadu ally, even as its leaders equate Sanatana Dharma with AIDS and malaria, underlines the party’s abject dependence on the Dravidian party for a couple of Lok Sabha seats in the coming election. So unsure is the Congress leadership of its prospects in the north and west, it is afraid of alienating the Tamil Nadu ruling party for fear it may cost the few seats it may be reasonably certain of winning in alliance with the Dravidian party.

Yet, in the rest of the country, the silence of Congress even as its ally in Tamil Nadu openly blasphemes Hinduism is turning more and more people against it. Never mind, even without the anti-Hindu fulminations of Udhayanidhi Stalin, minister in his father MK Stalin’s government, and A Raja of the 2G scam, Congress is in a hopeless state ahead of the parliamentary polls.

Regardless of the supine Congress, the surprise is that neither the courts nor the so-called champions of civil society have shown dispatch in dissuading Stalin, Raja, and others from traducing the faith of over 80 crore Indians so blatantly. In a secular country where a word said edgeways against the religion of the minorities raises the hackles of the secularist-liberal cabal, and even the higher courts very often are quick to react adversely, it seems Hindus alone are defenceless in the face of the most vicious assault on the sanctity of their belief system.

Again, such is the partisanship of the so-called group of intellectuals, including former diplomats and civil servants, normally quick to pounce on the Modi government for real or assumed excesses against the secular order, that they are tightlipped at the frontal assault on the religious faith of tens of millions by an ally of Congress. Such cravenness is the reason why no one takes them seriously.

Also, it is beyond comprehension why, despite the most flagrant miscarriage of justice—which saw the bribe-giver still doing time in jail while the bribe-takers, among them, most notably, A Raja, walked away unscathed—the appeal against the CBI court acquitting the bribe-takers was not pursued vigorously. Last heard, it was pending in the Delhi High Court for sanction to challenge the CBI court’s peculiar judgment. Hopefully, if the sanction is given, Raja will not blame the Modi government for seeking to overturn the strange, to say the least, 2G acquittal due to his vendetta against Sanatana Dharma.

Meanwhile, as some observers of the Tamil Nadu scene believe, one likely reason for DMK declaring open season on Sanatana Dharma could well be the rising graph of the hitherto somnolent BJP in the state. The saffron party under its energetic and articulate state president K Annamalai, a retired IPS officer-turned-politician, has for the first time found traction in the state. With or without allies, BJP is certain to increase its vote share, though it has zeroed in on a few key Dravidian leaders with pockets of influence who are keen to ally with it.

Regardless of the electoral outcome, the way Stalin and Raja have taken to abusing Hinduism reminds one of the not-so-long-ago incident in which a panelist on a TV debate made a controversial reference to the founder of Islam, attracting the untrammeled wrath of the ummah. Also, recall the unprovoked harsh tongue-lashing from the highest court while the matter before it was limited to clubbing together all the cases filed against her in multiple jurisdictions across the country. Contrast this with the apex court hearing on a plea by Stalin for clubbing together multiple cases filed against him following his anti-Sanatana Dharma diatribe. Some people are more equal than others.

POSTSCRIPT

The following conversation was heard in a Delhi government-run higher secondary school classroom.

Teacher to student: “Why didn’t you again do your homework?”

Habitually delinquent student: “Sir, Modiji kaam nahin karney deta. (Sir, Modi doesn’t let me work.)”

About The Author

Virendra Kapoor

Virendra Kapoor is a political commentator based in Delhi