Are you a Hindu, Mr Rahul Gandhi? – An Open Letter

Dear Rahul Gandhi,

Namaste,

I hope your election campaigns are going fine and you’re dedicatedly making people happy with your consequential jokes. However, my concern unlike most of your ‘well-wishers’ is not that you’re reduced to a ‘laughing stock’. It is more serious than you can comprehend. Let me take give you a brief tour in the past.

In 1991, your father, Late Rajiv Gandhi gave an interview to The National Herald. Yes, the same newspaper which made you see a courtroom like a commoner. Your father was campaigning for General Elections, something which you have done quite frantically in the past, but always to lose. Rajiv Gandhi on being asked, “How do you intend to promote the issue of secularism?” quickly submitted, “By fighting the BJP—the source of the communal venom.” The interviewer from The National Herald persisted, “Who is your main enemy?” and this time your father was quicker in admitting, “Very clearly, the BJP.”

Now, come back in 2018. Rahul-jii, please flip through the pages of your political script. Your mutation from a Socialist, kurta clad, bearded and clean-shaved, padyatri, and secular politician to a janeudhari Brahmin Shiv bhakt was too much acidic to be digested by many political observers. But, we suppose, they dig up the history of the concept ‘soft Hindutva’ and let your stunt get a free pass.

However, the recently published Vachan Patra- the election manifesto- amidst Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, 2018, is too much to deal with! What one is going to do about it?

Mr Gandhi, Let’s turn straight to ‘Dharmik Nyas and Dharmasva’ section in your party’s manifesto. Look! What have you promised? Concerned with your factual amnesia, let me recount the promises you’ve made. Your party contemplates the establishment of ‘Maa Narmada Trust’, a new ‘Religion and Spiritual Department’, promotion of Sanskrit, retrieval and rejuvenation of all the rivers mentioned in Sastras, salary increment to pujaris, and extension of Sri Ram Van Path Gaman from Chitrakoot to the border of the State.

O, Rahul Baba! What’s wrong with you? Did you plagiarise some old BJP election manifesto? Or is this your new found love for Hindutva? Hey wait, I completely forgot to mention plans to begin commercial production of cow urine and cow dung in gaushalas. Gau Raksha, seriously? Will Congress party now act and work as cow vigilantes?

Had all that been done with a clean conscious, trust me, Mr Gandhi, the Hindu heartland in this perennial Sanatani civilisation would have adored you never like before. But Hindus are not fools, unlike those who draft a series of half-truths in their election manifesto.

All the agendas which you put forth to show your Hindu-ness are truly not yours. They belong to a socio-cultural organisation called Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which you know nothing about. Had you been pursuing those agendas truly, you may have been in an RSS Shakha with millions of Swayamsevaks working collectively to transform this nation for good.

However, Mr Gandhi, your party chooses to loathe RSS and BJP. Congress’ declaration in Madhya Pradesh that Government officials will be barred from participating in RSS programmes and no ‘shaakhaas’ will be allowed on Government premises if the party comes to power appears to have shown your real intentions.

But even if you have been pursuing the Hindu cause without RSS, or by even banning it, Sangh may not had a problem with it. However, you Mr Gandhi and your party have double-crossed Hindus as well. Madhya Pradesh State Congress president Kamal Nath whose image shines at the same Vachan Patra with you while addressing a meeting of Muslims said, “They (RSS) will instigate you. We will deal with them later. But till the day of elections, you will have to tolerate them.”

What does it suggest? What Kamal Nath did behind the doors, and what you’ve been doing at the podium exposes your hypocrisy. Mr Rahul Gandhi, you’re not a Hindu! You have disguised yourself as one to garner votes, and secretly telling Muslims to endure with the same. It is disgusting. One can only hope that someday you understand the real meaning of being a Hindu. It is acceptance, love and compassion. The day you will start accepting the Sangh, your Bharat Bodh will awake, and with your party, you will transcend the partisans of secularism and divisiveness of majority and minorities.

Wishing you luck for a warm election campaign, and may Shiv-jii bless you,

Yours sincerely,

Shaan Kashyap