The ‘loving’ ideology of the Congress is alive and vibrant, but has been overshadowed by the ‘hateful’ ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday, as he virtually addressed the launch of the party’s digital media campaign for its upcoming Jan Jagran Abhiyan, which will be launched across the country on November 14. “Today, whether we like it or not, the hateful ideology of the RSS and BJP has overshadowed the loving, affectionate and nationalistic ideology of the Congress party. Our ideology is alive, vibrant, but it has been overshadowed,” Gandhi, a vocal critic of the ruling BJP and its ideological mentor RSS, said, according to news agency.
The reason for this, he said, was the grand old party’s ‘failure’ at propagation of its ideology. “Our ideology has been overshadowed because we’ve not propagated it aggressively among our own people,” the former Congress president explained.
The Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad then sought to know if Hinduism and Hindutva could be the same. “If they’re the same thing, why don’t they have the same name? They’re obviously different. Is Hinduism about beating a Sikh or a Muslim? Hindutva of course is,” he said.
Gandhi’s comments come at a time when the opposition party and the ruling dispensation are already engaged in a war of words over senior Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid’s recent analogy of Hindutva and the ISIS. “Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints is being pushed aside by robust Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like the ISIS and Boko Haram and recent years,” Khurshid wrote in his book ‘Sunrise over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times,’ which was released on Wednesday.
Defending himself as a major row erupted, Khurshid said, “I have not called these guys terrorists. I have just said that they are similar in distorting religion. Hindutva has pushed aside Sanatan Dharma and Hinduism, and taken over a robust, aggressive position similar to Boko Haram and other such guys.”