It seems Rahul Gandhi is not willing to learn from his past mistakes. In the runup to the Lok Sabha elections, he criticized Modi indiscriminately and campaigned without a proper plan. The result? Congress received one of its worst drubbings. The clear lesson of the Lok Sabha elections was that criticizing Modi is OK, but in the name of criticizing Modi, do not criticize Hindutwa for a majority of Indians are becoming assertive Hindus. The average citizen is taking pride in flaunting his Hindu identity. And he is in no mood to forgive minority appeasement anymore. He sees pro-minorities as any Hindu.
Clever strategist that Narendra Modi is, he managed to make the BJP and Hindutva synonymous. Without realizing this, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress went on criticizing both Modi and his brand of Hindu-leaning politics. One expected that Rahul Gandhi and Congress will change their strategy at least after the election results. But, Rahul seems to have learned nothing.
On a day when the Congress leader and former PM Manmohan Singh supported the removal of Article 370 and the proposal to give Bharat Ratna to Veer Savarkar, Rahul appeared stuck in the old mold and criticized Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's action of the writing of Oum symbol on the Rafael fighter jet. While receiving the Rafael jets, Rajnath wrote Oum on the fighter jet's body and performed Harathi. He also got lime fruits crushed by the wheels of the Jet. All these are traditional Hindu rituals. Rahul Gandhi tried to ridicule this practice as superstitious and went ballistic on it. The BJP and the RSS, which were waiting for Rahul to make this mistake, pounced on him saying, what else should be written if not Oum. Now Rahul has no answer to this. Nor does Congress have any answer as Shastra Puja is a time-tested tradition in Hindu society. Both find that they were increasingly seen as those who are totally disconnected from the traditions and culture of the country.
Clever strategist that Narendra Modi is, he managed to make the BJP and Hindutva synonymous. Without realizing this, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress went on criticizing both Modi and his brand of Hindu-leaning politics. One expected that Rahul Gandhi and Congress will change their strategy at least after the election results. But, Rahul seems to have learned nothing.
On a day when the Congress leader and former PM Manmohan Singh supported the removal of Article 370 and the proposal to give Bharat Ratna to Veer Savarkar, Rahul appeared stuck in the old mold and criticized Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's action of the writing of Oum symbol on the Rafael fighter jet. While receiving the Rafael jets, Rajnath wrote Oum on the fighter jet's body and performed Harathi. He also got lime fruits crushed by the wheels of the Jet. All these are traditional Hindu rituals. Rahul Gandhi tried to ridicule this practice as superstitious and went ballistic on it. The BJP and the RSS, which were waiting for Rahul to make this mistake, pounced on him saying, what else should be written if not Oum. Now Rahul has no answer to this. Nor does Congress have any answer as Shastra Puja is a time-tested tradition in Hindu society. Both find that they were increasingly seen as those who are totally disconnected from the traditions and culture of the country.