Hollow virtue-signaling: How AAP's approach towards Hindu interests is contradictory and dubious

If there was any nagging curiosity about the claim that the Aam Aadmi Party’s Hindu ideals are hollow virtue-signaling, the Aam Aadmi Party leader, Rajendra Pal Gautam, dispelled it on the auspicious day of Vijayadashami.

In what—seemingly and outwardly—appears to be a state-sponsored mass proselytisation program organized under the aegis of the Buddhist Society of India, an organization presided over by Rajratna Ambedkar, great-grandnephew of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Rajendra Pal Gautam, a minister in Arvind Kejriwal’s Delhi cabinet with portfolios including social justice and empowerment, culture, and tourism, graced the dais of a “proselytisation” program at Ambedkar Bhawan on Rani Jhansi Road in Karol Bagh, where thousands of people were officiated to Buddhism and took an oath of not worshiping Hindu gods and goddesses.

Happenings of ‘proselytisation’ event 

During the event, a man asked the crowd to take an oath: “I shall have no faith in Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwara, nor shall I worship them. I shall have no faith in Rama and Krishna, who are believed to be the incarnations of God, nor shall I worship them. I do not and shall not believe that Lord Buddha was the incarnation of Vishnu. I believe this to be sheer madness and false propaganda. I renounce Hinduism which is harmful to humanity and impedes the advancement and development of humanity because it is based on inequality, and adopt Buddhism as my religion,” the man asked the crowd to take the oath in unison, projecting the horde’s perceptible scorn for the Hindu community.

The Delhi government Minister’s open presence in the event was bound to cause political ripples, inviting flak from all quarters.

Gujarat factor and flirtations with Hindu sentiments

Ahead of the Gujarat polls, scheduled to be held in around two months, the new entrant, the Aam Aadmi Party, is attempting to leverage the predominant Hindu sentiments to its advantage.

Put simply, under the smokescreen of camping in the temples of Gujarat, Arvind Kejriwal attempts to flirt with soft Hindutva and set the tone for his campaign for the Gujarat elections.

Hanuman- framed as arsonist

However, the Aam Aadmi Party’s recent religious devotion is in stark contrast to their earlier reported public remarks. In 2016, Arvind Kejriwal shared a meme cartoon which depicted Bhagwan Hanuman with a flaming tail, saying, “Done Sir. All attention is on JNU”. He was shown reporting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The crude attempt at humour was to prove how the nation is being diverted from the country’s crucial issues.

The cartoon grimly compares Lord Hanuman to an arsonist. Taking a U-turn in 2021, Kejriwal, in the Delhi assembly, said, “I’m a devotee of Bhagwan Hanuman, who was a devotee of Bhagwan Ram. So I’m a devotee of both. Sri Ram was the king of Ayodhya. It is said that everything was good during his rule. There was no sorrow. There was every facility. It was called ‘Ram Rajya,’ which is a concept.”

Brag and somersault approach

In 2018, Manish Sisodia, Kejriwal’s closest lieutenant, was entirely on board with the brigade that suggested forfeiting the construction of the historic Ram Mandir and building a university at the same site. As Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s Education Minister, noted, “Ram Rajya will not come by building a Ram Mandir but only through education.”

Moreover, for a party that runs breathless campaigns about its ‘yeoman’ efforts in improving Delhi’s education, Arvind Kejriwal was left red-faced when confronted by BJP leader and NDMC member Kuljeet Singh Chahal.

On being confronted over the unutilised MLA funds earmarked for improving the condition of schools in his constituency, the visibly embarrassed Kejriwal failed to answer and walked out of the meeting.

However, post-winning the Ram Mandir verdict and ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls, the astute politician made the greatest somersault, and later offered prayers at the Ram Lalla and the Hanuman Garhi shrines.

Arvind Kejriwal, the de facto leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, opposed the construction of the Holy Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. While addressing a rally in Kanpur in 2014, Kejriwal expressed, “Mera Ram kisi ki masjid todkar banaye Mandir mein nahi bas sakta (My Rama can’t live in a temple built after demolishing a mosque).”

Later in 2021, after Arvind Kejriwal visited the various temples in Ayodhya, the muffler-clad politician pitched the idea of a free pilgrimage plan to Ayodhya as an electoral promise in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Recently, Kejriwal attacked the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying, “Like Lord Krishna was sent to destroy evil, God has sent AAP to end corruption, inflation, and unemployment, as well as to safeguard the Constitution and the country from ills.” At best, this is virtue-signalling; at worst, it’s chicanery of the worst kind; that is emotional exploitation.

Last year, Gopal Italia, the Aam Aadmi Party Gujarat President, displayed his flagrant anti-Hindu bigotry while publicly insulting Hindu rituals and Bhagwan Shri Krishna. Insulting the Hindu rituals, Gopal said, “People are spending a lot of money and time on non-scientific and unnecessary things like Satyanarayan Katha, Bhagwad Katha, and other useless things. They still don’t know what they’ll gain out of this. They waste other people’s time as well. If we spend even 5 paisa on such useless things, we do not have a right to live like humans. "

“I am ashamed of such people. It angers me. If you don’t like what I said, block me. We don’t need those who clap like hijras in the name of rituals and culture. Some Sadhu will speak nonsense from the stage and we have to clap like hijras(eunuchs),” he said.

Italia’s own Mahabharata

At another gathering in Gujarat’s Dwarka, the state unit chief of AAP, drawing an armchair equivalence, ludicrously compared Shri Krishna to “rakshas” (demons) and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to “Arjun,” who would get rid of the demons.

Italia jibed, “Now to relieve everyone from Bhagwan Shri Krishna and these demons of the BJP, Arvind Kejriwal has come as Arjun…” While this appears to be a slip of the tongue, apparently, neither Italia nor Arvind Kejriwal has apologised for comparing Shri Krishna to demons.

Politics of minority appeasement and discernible Hindus hatred 

The Kejriwal government has not provided even an electricity connection to the Pakistani Hindu refugees living in a camp here, but it has ensured proper accommodation, food, and all other facilities for the Rohingyas, alleged Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta.

Speaking to reporters, Union minister Anurag Thakur said that for political benefits, “CM Kejriwal is giving free water, electricity, and rations to the Rohingyas. And the Delhi government is now planning to give them flats”.

In a bid to woo Christians, Arvind Kejriwal announced a government scheme to include a free trip to Velankanni church. And his fondness for Khalistani separatists and belligerents is well-documented!

All the while, Kejriwal’s composed reluctance and hushed silence on any of the aforementioned disturbing incidents of Hindu hatred is harrowing and dubious because it exposes the party’s tawdry nature, the hollow shenanigans of its secular credentials, and the contrived, untiring efforts to project itself as a party sympathetic to Hindu sentiments.

The double dealing

The double dealing of the Aam Aadmi Party has been exposed several times, and yet, the greatest of holy sermons to the natives of this land come from those politicians who, unremittingly and time and again, never fail to express their innate and inveterate scorn for Hindus until the election wave threatens to put those platitudes into practice.

Dog whistling and virtue-signalling of the AAP can’t coexist simultaneously. It is like running with a hare and hunting with a hound!

Yuvraj Pokharna is an independent journalist and columnist. He tweets with @pokharnaprince.

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