Hyderabad: I think the headline is enough to understand where I’m going with this piece. All of us expect and know what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindutva groups stand for in our political milieu. Anything that challenges their ideological boat is a threat. And as things stand, with the social fabric and harmony under stress today, we expected the Congress to take a strong and even defiant moral stand against Hindutva and hate in Telangana, a state with a dominant minority population in its capital of Hyderabad.
Alas, the Congress has not just been disappointing, but absolutely pitiful and useless in containing communal trouble ever since it came to power. And not just that, the party and its senior leaders are abnormally quiet when it comes to hate and communal incidents, both in Hyderabad and across Telangana.
Worst of all, its leaders are even welcoming hate mongers into their homes. This, I believe, shows us where its leaders in states stand ideologically.
Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, whom I have always held in high regard as a leader, earlier this month welcomed the notorious hate monger Dhrirendra Shastri, aka Bageshwar, into his home. The Hindutva godman’s anti-Muslim statements are all available online for anyone to see. So, I am wondering what message this sends to people who are secular, especially when your party’s face and the Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, is staunchly anti-Hindutva and bats for secularism.
Bipolar Congress in Telangana?
What is this bipolar behaviour? Moreover, this is also very funny in one way, because anytime a CM has to be chosen, or anything major has to be decided in a state, leaders love to parrot one line: “The high command will make a decision.” But when the high command is seemingly clear on its position about being secular and anti-hate or anti-BJP, state leaders clearly don’t care and seem to act on it.
If this is where the Congress is, then perhaps it is a matter of time before it empties into the BJP.
This story was originally published in siasat.com. Read the full story here.
