The family which has sought to convert India into a no man’s land; the family which had adopted the wherewithal to break the backbone of Hindus by orchestrating all the devious means to re-write the history to show Hindus in poor light; the family which had left no stone unturned to maliciously convert a Hindu majority nation into a bogus and preposterous ‘ secularism’ to strengthen its stranglehold over the polity; the family which, for the sake of vote bank politics, mischievously sought to upend the apex court verdict in Shah Bano case to appease the fundamentalists; the family where the Indian version of Marie Antoinette had sought to elevate herself as the nation’s super prime minister by foisting a de jure prime minister for almost a decade, putting to shreds the gravity of Indian constitution; in fact, the family which did everything to keep the nation subservient to its whims and fancy, in an ironical exhibition of another farce, the scion of its family is embarking on his way to spearhead the campaign of bringing back the family yet again as the raison d’etre and summum bonum of Bharatvarsha.
Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi: Indeed Rahul Gandhi is on his way to enacting another farce: his ongoing ‘ Bharat Jodo’ campaign, whereunder he is seeking to awaken the national consciousness towards the glory of erstwhile Bharatvarsha, which, the scion of the family–the man who, hitherto, carried a tag of being Pappu of Indian politics–is hell bent on sheding the tag which has come to be inextricably linked with him, ever since he became active in Indian politics. Apparently, Rahul Gandhi has embarked on a mission to cover a distance of 3570 k.m. covering 12 states. He had kick- started his Yatra on 7th September, 2022 from Kanyakumari, the sanctified place where Swami Vivekananda had sat in meditation for seeking the approval of Ramkrishna Paramhansa, his venerable guru, for going to participate in the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, in Chicago, USA. Significantly, Swami Vivekananda’s conscience pricked, for he sincerely felt that he seldom could afford the luxury of going to USA when his brothers back in India were virtually starving. It is said that Ramkrishna Paramhansa appeared in his vision to direct him to go to USA.
In contrast to Swami Vivekananda’s burning feelings of nationalism, Rahul Gandhi, the scion of Gandhi family, has earned the reputation of being a part time politician who, at the mere drop of hat, preferred to visit abroad for cooling his heels, especially when scorching summer would torment Indians, the prince of dynasty would invariably seek refuge in colder climes. But then, with the sagging image of his own, along with much vaunted image of his sister, Priyanka Vadra, finding no traction with voters; Congress party reaching nadir during the last decade, ever since Narendra Modi reached Delhi Durbar, the family which basked in the glory of being inextricably linked with the nation, risked its marginalization with Modi proving no Vajpayee, the family was almost gasping for its breath in ICU. Worse still, the barrage of criticisms directed against its stranglehold over the party, ever since independence, and its recent failure to deliver, had engendered the rebellion within the party, as twenty three leaders, popularly known as G23 revolted against the family leadership. Hence, the water had almost reached neck-deep where the family had to desperately do something to give an impression of its viability as well as its being essence to the existence of Congress party.
With the benefits of hindsight, and the family’s growing chances of irrelevance, the family had to strike, which it did to the best of its capacity: it moved fast to anoint a proxy, Malikarjun Kharge, a family loyalist, as the President of the Congress Party, refusing to back Shashi Tharoor, a man with intellectual bent of mind, who might not always be pliant to family’s diktat. Besides, Rahul, who more often than not, appeared as a joker whose comment was never taken seriously by anyone, because of his sense of perfunctory attitude; a sense of tentativeness attached to his personality. Moreover, the meteoric rise of Narendra Modi as the global phenomenon, trumping the pantheon of family icons, caused a serious disquiet in the family which risked its extinction, if Modi returned to power in 2024, which, barring any extraordinary situation, is destined to happen, was left with no option but to do something to show the existence of the family for the nation.
Ironically, the Gandhi- Nehru family which had destroyed the very idea of Bharat as best as it could, is seeking to unite Bharat from the growing Hindu consciousness which is in ascendancy after decades of hibernating. Is this Bharat Joro campaign targeted yet again to divide Hindus, the community which, with the passage of decades, have begun showing some sort of semblance of realisation that this Punya Bhoomie which they have been sharing with others, legitimately belongs to them. The spirit of accommodation which Hindus have been showing, ever since independence, in the wake of partition of Pakistan, and the latter’s creation as an Islamic nation, has been misconstrued by the other religious stakeholders as the typical pusillanimity of Hindus, who have no guts to claim India as their own. Regrettably, Jawaharlal Nehru’s diabolical attempts to remove the last vestiges of Hindu legacy–how the paintings of Sri Ram, Sri Krishna and Adi Shankara and others were so treacherously removed from Indian constitution by Jawaharlal –is the vindication of Himalayan injustice done to Hindus by India’s formidable curse–Gandhi- Nehru family. Significantly, when Hindus have come to realise the humongous fraud done to them by Nehru- Gandhi family, how Rahul Gandhi believes that all his political charades and shenanigans will enable Hindus to hook themselves yet again on to the Congress bandwagon? Moreover, whereas Rahul was rejected by Hindus lock, stock and barrel in Amethi, he chose to get elected from Muslim dominated constituency, Wayanad, in Kerala. Worse still, the people who are coming increasingly in support of him, during his padyatra, like the mother of Gauri Lankesh, Puja Bhat, are well known Hindu saboteurs. Little wonder then, this another attempt of the family to hoodwink Hindus into believing in his Islamist agenda, is like treating Hindus with the utmost sense of disdain; believing Hindus to be eternally naive and gullible. Also, this wanton Padyatra taken when Arvind Kejriwal is all set to replace Congress in Gujarat, is the vindication of the fact that, how Nero is fiddling when his own house is burning. All said and done, this so called ‘Bharat Joro’, whereas it may have the Congress workers cheering from the sidelines, the net result of Bharat Jodo is a big zero; it is bound to end in cul-de- sac, with Hindus communicating in black and white to Rahul Gandhi, ‘ No more circus, please! We know now who are you? Do not take us as gullible any more, for all your sinister attempts to alienate us from our beloved Bharat is bound to end in cul-de-sac. We are no more going to fall in your trap’.
Vivekanand Jha, an Author, Academician and a Public Intellectual. He is the Convener of Education pe Charcha.
