Rahul Gandhi and abhaya mudra – a stance going back to 2017

The BJP had gone to EC to complain the first time the Congress leader talked of seeing the party symbol in gods of various religions. Rahul Gandhi has kept talking of it, in Bharat Jodo Yatra and now in Parliament

Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi speaks in the House on Monday. (PTI)

In his first address as Leader of Opposition in Parliament Monday, Rahul Gandhi spoke about a common thread running through all religions. He went on to mention ‘abhaya mudra’, the image of an open palm, and said this was common to depictions of Lord Shiva, the Guru Nanak and Jesus Christ, and figured also in Islam, Buddhism and Jainism.

“The first idea in this image that we defend is the idea of confronting our fear and never being sacred… For us, there is more than power, there is truth. For you (the BJP), there is only power, that is the only place you want to be… When we fought the BJP, we were not violent,” Rahul said, going on to draw a parallel between the abhaya mudra and the hand symbol of the Congress.

It is not the first time the Congress leader mentioned the abhaya mudra, nor the first time he drew a parallel with his party symbol and showed images of gods across religions to make his point.

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In January 2017, addressing a ‘Jan Vedna Sammelan’ or ‘People’s Plight Convention’, organised by the Congress, Rahul spoke about finding the party’s hand symbol in the images of Lord Shiva, Guru Nanak, Mahatma Buddha, Lord Mahavira and Hazrat Ali.

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The BJP had approached the Election Commission to complain, accusing Rahul of dragging religion into a political matter. Rahul also drew ridicule for talking about going to Google to find the meaning of his party’s hand symbol.

In his speech at the convention, Rahul said: “I was looking up the meaning of the Congress hand symbol. I saw the Congress party’s symbol in Shiv ji’s portrait. Then, I saw other photos. I saw Guru Nanak ji’s photo, there was the Congress’s sign. I saw Mahaveer ji, Buddha, Bhadrakaal… all had the Congress symbol… The symbol denotes that we should not get scared, be deterred by present circumstances. I looked at Congress policies. I saw Gandhiji’s and Nehruji’s correspondence too. They spoke about not being afraid of the British.”

Rahul went on to quote the Green Revolution, bank nationalization, MNREGA, and liberalisation, under Congress governments, saying the party had conveyed the message of not being afraid to the poor.

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Then, during the Bharat Jodo Yatra from September 2022 to January 2023, where he asserted a Hindu identity and framed it as an oppositional idea to the Hindutva as espoused by the BJP, he repeated the idea on several occasions.

Speaking in Kurukshetra, Haryana, in January 2023 as part of the yatra, Rahul said: “What does this symbol (palm) stand for? You have seen it in Lord Shiva’s photo. You may say it is aashirvad (blessing). No. This is abhaya mudra. This is the symbol of tapasya (penance). Do one’s job, tapasya, and don’t be scared. This is why it is the Congress’s symbol. You will see the same symbol in Guru Nanak’s photo, in Buddha’s and Mahavir’s… The freedom movement was a fight of tapasya but those people (the RSS) did puja of the British.”

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