A picture can say a million words and a missing one — even more. So when several newspapers carried Congress’ advertisement of the Raipur plenary session, the absence of Maulana Azad from the ads stoked a controversy.
The Congress was accused of disrespecting freedom movement icons and undermining the legacy of the struggle. Some alleged that this was a deliberate attempt to push a ‘Hindutva’ image.
Former Congressman Ghulam Nabi Azad said with the advertisement, the “BJP-isation of the Congress was complete”. Party MP Manish Tewari too raised a red flag, saying, “Someone wants to airbrush their contribution from annals of history”.
The BJP was very strong in hitting back and said the incident exposed the Congress’ ‘chunaavi’ (poll) agenda where it compromised on its ideals for a few votes. Apart from this, criticism also flowed in from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Under siege, the Congress apologised, saying it was a mistake and action would be taken against the guilty. The damage, however, has been done, giving ammo to political opponents.
In 2019, the Congress got into a huddle, wondering why the party had again fallen before the 100-seats mark. The overwhelming input was that it was being seen as a party working for Muslim appeasement while the BJP, with its Hindutva image, had captured the narrative.
The hit for the Congress was maximum in North India where the Hindutva agenda is the winning card for the BJP. And hence came the turnaround moment for the Grand Old Party.
Congress decided to project itself as a Hindutva party. More than that, under Rahul Gandhi, it claimed to be the real true party that understood what Hinduism is all about. “We are not election Hindus. We don’t breed division like the BJP does. Hinduism doesn’t teach this,” Gandhi said.
However, the Congress situation has become like ‘Maya Mili Na Ram’. The party has ended up angering Muslims, many of whom feel they have been used and dumped. With others like TMC, Owaisi, and SP wooing this vote bank, the Congress has been hit here too. In fact, party leader Shashi Tharoor did make the point at the plenary session when he said silence on some issues like Bilkis Bano to project a Hindutva image made Congress play into the BJP’s hands.
With BJP now pushing for progress among Muslims as its agenda, the Congress has found that in state polls like UP, many Muslims — especially women — ended up voting for the BJP. As for the Hindutva vote, BJP remains the ‘original one’ and Congress will always be seen as the wannabe.
The missing picture may have been reinstated on the stage at the plenary session but the Congress Confusion stood exposed.
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