Why it’s time to call out Congress double-speak over secularism

A few weeks ago when Rahul Gandhi gave a “good character” certificate to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) glibly declaring it as a secular party, he inadvertently triggered a debate about its own secular credentials.  The Bharatiya Janata Party’s reaction was predictable. But it is revealing that his claim has raised eyebrows even among Congress’ traditional allies–the Left and secular Muslims. They have questioned not only his claim about IUML but its own secularism. By the way, Rahul Gandhi’s enthusiastic endorsement of IUML came during a media interaction at the National Press Club in Washington. Questioned about his party’s alliance with the IUML in Kerala while talking about secularism, he claimed: “Muslim League is a completely secular party. There is nothing non-secular about the Muslim League.” After the BJP, the Communist Party of India (CPI) was first to question his assertion. Its Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam told the media that though his party did not consider the IUML a communal political party in the way Popular Front of India was, it had frequently flirted with communalism.  He warned the CPI (M)-led United Democratic Front (UDF), of which the CPI is a part, against aligning with IUML. The UDF has since ruled out any alliance with IUML. Many prominent Muslim leaders such as Shahid Siddiqui, once closely associated with the Congress, have accused the party of using Muslims for votes in the name of secularism — and then betraying them in their hour of need.  A widely cited example of the party’s double-speak on secularism is Priyanka Gandhi’s ostentatious public embrace of Hindu rituals while launching the Congress poll campaign in Madhya Pradesh barely days after viciously attacking the BJP for using Hindu symbols and rituals at the opening of the new Parliament building. Not surprisingly, the BJP was quick to accuse it of “hypocrisy”. The problem is that much of Indian politics is still stuck in the old binary secularism versus communalism debate. A phoney debate started by the Congress and the Left way back in another era to distinguish their liberal inclusive politics from the RSS and Jana Sangh’s Hindu-centred agenda. The Left remains largely inclusive, but the Congress claim to secularism has taken a massive beating after years of flirting with regressive elements in both communities. Its ambiguous role in the Ayodhya movement — attempt to run with the hare while hunting with the hounds — left both sides fuming. One accusing it of Muslim appeasement, the other of betrayal. Muslims were so disgusted that they abandoned it in droves. Liberal Hindus had already dumped it over the Shah Bano case when under pressure from Muslim hardliners it got Parliament to overturn the Supreme Court judgement awarding maintenance to an old divorcee —a victim of triple talaq. I have always maintained, including in these columns, that there was no such thing as a Muslim “golden age” under the Congress rule. It is now endorsed in a new book, Another India: The Making of the World’s Largest Muslim Minority, 1947-77 by Oxford University historian Pratinav Anil. Hailed as “an eye-opener” by reviewers, it contends that many of the problems Muslims face today — institutional discrimination, under-representation in government services and parliament — are a Congress legacy as catalogued by the Sachar Committee report on the status of Indian Muslims published in 2006. Among other things, it claims that Muslim marginalisation actually began in Jawaharlal Nehru’s own life-time. Fast forward to the present and nothing illustrates its slender grasp of “new India’s” political reality more starkly than its attempt at framing the Karnataka verdict as a decisive rejection of Hindutva agenda — and therefore a triumph of secularism. Indeed, it claims that the Karnataka outcome marks the beginning of the end of the era of BJP brand of politics. A notion that goes against conventional wisdom that what happened in Karnataka was nothing more than a protest vote against the incumbent BJP-led government of Basavaraj Bommai following accusations of poor governance and institutional corruption.  The Congress’ own election campaign focused on local issues. It brought up the issue of communalism almost as an afterthought. But, giddy with success, it has started to believe its own spin and is talking about “replicating” the Karnataka “model” in other states. The country, it is claimed, is ready for change and all that is needed to trigger it is a semblance of Opposition unity. A fantasy given its own state and the odds against credible Opposition unity. The fact, as Prof Hilal Ahmed of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies pointed out in a recent article (“Does Opposition Understand the Muslim vote?”) non-BJP parties “still do not have any counter -narrative to challenge BJP’s Hindutva-driven nationalism. Consequently, they also follow what political observers call ‘soft Hindutva’”.  Given the continuing popularity of Narendra Modi despite all the criticism, the Congress and its Opposition allies can be forgiven for believing that their survival lies in imitating the BJP to win over Hindu voters. But it is unlikely to work as people are bound to ask why should they settle for an imitation when they are happy with the original? Not surprisingly, non-BJP parties find themselves in a blind alley. What they need is a more credible strategy than constantly invoking outdated ideological labels to fight their political opponents. Recently, the French President Emmanuel Macron chided his cabinet colleagues for their excessive focus on fascist past of Marine Le Pen’s Far Right “National Rally” party than its policies. “You will not be able to make millions of French people who voted for the far right believe that they are fascists,” he said urging them instead on her policies and warning that “words from the 1990s which no longer work”. It is time that the Congress realised this and instead of continuing to flog its sham secularism it should concentrate on real bread-and-butter issues. People don’t care anymore about the ideological colour of the cat so long as it catches the mice. The writer is an independent columnist and the author of Unmasking Indian Secularism: Why We Need A New Hindu-Muslim Deal_. Views are personal._ Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.