Rahul Gandhi’s US trip, American think tanks and idea of India

The Leader of the opposition Party Rahul Gandhi visited America recently, and engaged with people at Georgetown University and the University of Texas. He expressed and deliberated the idea of India with the students and faculties. According to him India is under siege of a particular ideological bandwagon which is stirred by RSS. There is no doubt that the role of the opposition leader in Lok Sabha is very vital in creating an image of India. In fact, the factors of foreign policy are also shaped by different bodies and personalities, the leader of opposition is one of them. Therefore, each word spoken in the foreign land matters a lot. This is disputable as to why did Rahul Gandhi chose America as his first visit. It might be his personal choice or political compulsion. He might be knowing it better. But the larger question is the anti-India sentiments.

The American think tanks have been saying the same which was being expressed by Rahul Gandhi. Rahul met the senator Ilhan Omar, the con­tro­ver­sial legis­lator from Min­nesota who has taken a staunchly crit­ical pos­i­tion of the Indian gov­ern­ment and been a sympathizer of Pakistan’s. Is it merely coincident or willful attempt to reach out to anti-India lobby in America? British Prime Minister Churchill called India in 1947 ‘rascals, rouges and freebooters’ according to him India is not a country, it is divided into caste and fragmented into religions, very soon it would get demolished like house of sands. America thought on the same line. But India survived and regained more cohesiveness in terms of a country, better understood as a ‘Rashtra’ The federal structure became healthier despite being a few challenges, female conditions improved speedily and social status of Dalits are much better.

Then question which was raised by Rahul ‘the idea of India’ is generated by American think tanks and propagated by certain political leaders of India. The Leader of Oppos­i­tion in Lok Sabha was address­ing a gath­er­ing of sev­eral hun­dred Indian Amer­ic­ans in Herndon, a Vir­ginia sub­urb of Wash­ing­ton DC. “First of all, you have to under­stand what the fight is about. The fight is not about polit­ics. That is super­fi­cial,” “The fight is about whether a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear his turban in India or not. Or he, as a Sikh, is going to be able to go to Gurd­wara. That’s what the fight is about. And not just for him, for all reli­gions,” said Rahul. After conflating communal divide, he jumped to challenge the federal spirit of India. Criticizing the RSS for their policies and vis­ion of India, he said, “What the RSS is basic­ally say­ing is that cer­tain states are inferior to other states. Cer­tain lan­guages are inferior to other lan­guages. Cer­tain reli­gions are inferior to other reli­gions. Cer­tain com­munit­ies are inferior to other com­munit­ies. This is what the fight is about.” “…that is the ideo­logy of the RSS. Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Manipuri. These are all inferior lan­guages.”

After understanding the context of Rahul Gandhi’s statement and direct linkages of American think tanks in creating anti-India hate wave. There are numerous examples of creating a narrative against India and then implanting it with accordingly. Take the example caste conflicts in India. Caste factor was very conveniently connected with race. The Dalits of India was put in the category blacks of Africa. How was it done? There was a mega project sanctioned by the government of America, facilitated by a think tank. The scholars were identified from India and very easily narratives was constructed and placed in syllabi of India universities. Thousands of PhD research were completed in Indian academia on the name of identity politics by showcasing India is not a cohesive nation-state, it pulled apart by different identities. The critical race theory or post-modernist approach prove time and again. The Oxfam reports or reports generated by different international organizations which have wide acceptability and credibility across the world, do the shabby jobs by targeting certain country. The people who undertake the projects and mandates which are being designed are highly biased.

Indian knowledge system is nothing but a black magic or sheer superstitious stories. The scores of fellowships are yearly awarded to selected Indian scholars over period of time, create a strong team for American narratives. The selected items like, secularism, federalism, women empowerment, Dalit card and Kashmir issues are the most important ones. They beautifully package with silver coating by bringing human right and democracy. The American credibility of democracy is on display. The world is watching it very carefully.

It should be properly understood that hate India became more focused since the BJP government under Modi came to power. The idea of India changed. Now India stirred to regain its age old status as a Vishw Guru. The American Think Tanks tools were dismantled or prohibited to proliferate into Indian Education System. The Indic perspectives of knowledge were given larger space. This change of mind challenged the American hegemony.

American scholars are very smart. They believe in empirical research. If the particular issue is raised by the people where they belong to, then it becomes the truth is coming out from horses’ mouth. Who could be a better person than the leader of opposition? That is how Rahul Gandhi’s intellectual stimulations come from American think tanks. He targets RSS. His understanding of ‘Idea of India’ there more ominous Hindu terror groups than Islamic terror groups. There is a solid proof. In con­tro­ver­sial com­ments, Rahul Gandhi has told US am­bas­sador to In­dia Ti­mothy Roemer that growth of “ rad­i­calised Hindu groups” posed a big­ger threat to the coun­try than mil­i­tant groups like LeT, ac­cord­ing to a leaked Amer­i­can diplo­matic cable. Rahul, dur­ing a con­ver­sa­tion with the en­voy at a lun­cheon hosted by Prime Min­is­ter Man­mo­han Singh at his res­i­dence in July 2009 in hon­our of vis­it­ing sec­re­tary of state Hil­lary Clin­ton, also re­ferred to the ten­sions cre­ated by some of the more po­lar­is­ing fig­ures in the BJP such as Gu­jarat chief min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi, the cable said. “ Re­spond­ing to the am­bas­sador’s query about Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s ac­tiv­i­ties in the re­gion and im­me­di­ate threat to In­dia, Mr Gandhi said there was ev­i­dence of some sup­port for the group among cer­tain el­e­ments in In­dia’s in­dige­nous Mus­lim com­mu­nity,” the cable notes. “How­ever, Gandhi warned, the big­ger threat may be the growth of radicalized Hindu groups, which cre­ate re­li­gious ten­sions and po­lit­i­cal con­fronta­tions with the Mus­lim com­mu­nity,”

Had Hindus been radical and fundamentalists, half of the world would have been Hindu nations. But it is not. Hinduism itself is plural. It nurtures diversity and accommodates everyone. Therefore, the leader of opposition must think twice before painting negative pictures of India. The political tussles and jockeying look interesting within the boundaries of Indian parliament, when it crosses the boundaries the same tone and textures sound toxic.