Seeking out the liberal Hindu vote

Sonia Gandhi is trying to distance herself from a pro-Christian image in order to become more acceptable to a Hindu dominant country. Soon after she took over as Congress President she had given importance to those Congresspersons who happened to be Christians. Soniais a Catholic.

Congressmen remember that she had gone to Bombay specially to receive the Pope when he visited India during Rajiv Gandhi8217;s time. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad8217;s campaign against conversions, no doubt with the idea of underscoring her Christianity and her foreignness, has put her on the defensive. The VHP has already alleged that conversions in India have increased since she took over as Congress chief.

Congressmen are now saying that in the Hindu dharma a wife automatically acquires the faith of her husband. There are reports that Sonia plans to visit Tirupati and the famous Vindhya Devi temple in UP which used to be frequented by Indira Gandhi. That Sonia often goes to the Ramakrishna Mission is known and it is from there she attacked the BJP for appropriating Swami Vivekananda.

The party8217;s soft Hindu line is a break from the stance the Congress has taken since 1992 when any public proclamation about Hinduism was considered anti-secular. Already Mulayam Singh Yadav8217;s party has attacked theCongress by saying that the CWC resolution makes the minorities insecure, as if talking about the catholicity of the Hindus is a crime. It is precisely this which has made the Hindus see red and given a fillup to the BJP.

Narasimha Rao8217;s line of non-confrontationism, of taking along the majority, talking to the sadhus8217; to defuse the situation building up on Ayodhya, would have attacked the very roots of the BJP. But the demolition of the Babri Masjid changed all that.

In the fifties, the Congress had succeeded in marginalising the Hindu Mahasabha and the Jan Sangh, not only because of Nehru8217;s firm advocacy of secularism but also because the Congress local leaders, particularly in North India, were seen to be quot;Hinduquot;, robbing the Jan Sangh of its raison d8217;etre.

The Hindus in free India constituted a bigger proportion of the country than in British India. The Partition,the inflow of refugees, the treatment of Hindus in Pakistan, gave a natural focus for anti-Muslim politics in the fifties. But that didnot happen.

Thanks to a competitive electoral politics and factors like the Sikhs8217; demand for Khalistan and later the militancy of the minorities around the Shah Bano case in the eighties, the Hindus began to feel vulnerable. Unhappy with the Muslims for deserting her in 1977, Indira Gandhi began to carve out a new constituency and the RSS covertly supported her in the 1980 elections and in the Jammu polls.

She targeted the constituency of Hindus through Operation Bluestar, the dismissal of Farooq Abdullah8217;s government, her constant refrain on the threat from the external enemy, and through her visits to temples all over the country, which increased in frequency after her son Sanjay8217;s death in 1980.

Rajiv Gandhi fell between two stools, trying to please both Hindus and Muslims with his decisions on the Muslim Women8217;s Bill first and then on the opening of the locks at Ramjanmabhoomi as a sop to the Hindus.

The Congress has always had a quot;Hinduquot; stream. The religious reform movements of the 19th century,the Brahma Samaj, Arya Samaj, Ramakr-ishna Mission, laid the foundation on which the political structure of the Congress came to be built. Gandhi with his Ram dhun, Tilak and a host of other leaders used religious symbols to create a nationalistic sentiment.

Even though both the Congress and the BJP have played the Hindu card at various times, there was a qualitative difference between the Hindutva of the BJP and the Hindu character of the Congress. BJP8217;s Hindu nationalism was built around an opposition to minorities and the perceived threat from them, while the stance of the Hindu traditionalists inside the Congress, be it Madan Mohan Malaviya, Lala Lajpat Rai, K.M. Munshi, or Sardar Patel, was for the promotion of the Hindu culture and the protection of Hindu interests which were projected as being coterminus with the interests of minorities. It was not anti-minority in character.

The CWC8217;s resolution is a first step by the party to rebuild the Congress as an umbrella which existed till the mid-sixties.Sonia8217;s task, to win back the lost liberal Hindu vote and at the same time bring back the minorities to the Congress fold, is not an easy one in a polity which has got sharply polarised during the last ten years.