Much is made about former Congress Union Minister and the former President of India Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to RSS Head Quarters (HQ) in Nagpur to address a function yesterday. Even as the news of the visit was announced, the Congress began to question the visit as ill-advised and absolutely wrong. How can a Secular leader and now a common citizen compromise the ‘sacred’ principles of Secularism and thus indulge in camaraderie with a Communal Hindu organisation like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)? The Communists too were not far behind in criticising Pranab Mukherjee for his decision. The opinion of these parties and the Leftist thinkers is that ‘if you are not with us, you are against us.’ Was Pranab Mukherjee against the principles of the Congress on the question of Secularism? Was the RSS Communal, a word used as an antinomy to Secularism? These two politically charged words — Secular and Communal — are the creation of the Indian Leftists and the Congress, which too is under the threat of giving-in to the BJP, an offshoot of RSS. In other words, what Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is to Congress, RSS is to BJP. I have been wondering at the steady decline and fall of Congress Party in today’s electoral politics because this was the party that ruled India for decades after Independence in 1947 mesmerising the educated and uneducated voters with the sentiments of ‘Unity in Diversity’ at home and ‘non-alignment’ in foreign policy. Sadly, it was the Congress Party that exploited the diversity in religion, caste, language, economic status, even culture and history of regions to win elections. Its appeasement policy of Muslim and Christian minority religions became famous as “Congress Vote Bank” till it was breached by Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh. Muslims too realised the Congress was ‘playing politics’ with Muslim rights under the Constitution. And smart-fanatical Muslim bodies too began asking, “Sir some more please” from a Congress too willing to oblige. So you have a Shah Bano case, for example. In Mumbai, it was Shiv Sena under Bal Thackeray that exposed Congress and its secrets of winning elections by dividing Hindus on caste-lines and by building minority vote banks. One example is how Shiv Sena exposed Congress’ political hypocrisy. The Muslims in South Bombay, on a particular busy road were allowed to offer Friday prayers on the road as the local Mosque was not able to accommodate all the faithfuls. During this prayer time at noon, the road used to be closed to facilitate Muslim brethren. Shiv Sena objected but the Congress government said no. Before Congress Government would know what would Shiv Sena do, the busy Prabhadevi road where the rich and famous lived and where the famous Siddivinayaka Temple is located, was flooded with thousands of women and men holding Mahaarati trays in hand offering puja on a Saturday and every Saturday. The road was blocked for hours. It was Shiv Sena’s answer to Congress government’s ‘no’ to its objection. It was only then the Muslim organisations came up with the statement that it had sought permission to construct multi-storey buildings on the existing Mosque but the Congress government refused. However, after the arati protest, permission was granted. Well, this could have been done when the request was made. But, no. Congress, probably, wanted the Muslims to know how helpful Congress was — going to the extent of closing the public road to help the Muslims to pray! So much for working towards ‘Unity in Diversity.’
