Veteran Cong leader slams party’s Hindutva measures in MP as ‘shameful’, reflects unease within

A former governor of Uttar Pradesh, the 82-year-old is an ex-MP and former Madhya Pradesh minister. He was addressing a gathering of Congress Muslim leaders at Vidisha, to mark the birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The Madhya Pradesh Congress has not shied away from playing the soft Hindutva card to negate the BJP’s advantage, and to shield itself from the accusation of being an “anti-Hindu party”.

The lurch to the right has been steered by state Congress committee president Kamal Nath, who has portrayed himself as a Hanuman bhakt (devotee) by holding religious events centred around Hanuman, setting up a massive Hanuman idol at Chhindwara and has even welcomed the merger of the right-wing Bajrang Sena, which espouses the cause of the far right, into the Congress.

He also played host recently to the controversial chief priest of Bageshwar Dham, Dhirender Shastri, at his pocket borough in Chhindwara. In fact, on Shastri’s demands for a Hindu Rashtra, Nath said, “If 82% of the country is made up of Hindus, then what nation is this?”

Former CM Digvijaya Singh, who often made news in the past for taking the fight to the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal, has also toned down his rhetoric of late. He recently said the Congress would not ban the Bajrang Dal – the youth wing of the VHP – a poll promise made by the party in the Karnataka elections.

Talking about Congress leaders flirting with Hindutva on August 20, Qureshi said, “They are chanting ‘Jai Ganga Maiyya’, ‘Jai Narmada Maiyya’, ‘Garv se kaho, hum Hindu hain’, taking out religious yatras and installing idols at the Madhya Pradesh Congress office. This is shameful. I’m not afraid of being ousted from the party.”

Qureshi added: “All parties, including the Congress, should understand that Muslims are not slaves or bonded labourers who will act as per their orders. Why should they vote for you, when there are no jobs for them in the police, defence forces and banks? Why should they vote for you when they are not guaranteed bank loans?… Their shops, places of worship and houses are being burnt, their children are becoming orphans, and they will tolerate it to an extent.”

Qureshi went on to warn that there could be violence if Muslims were pushed to the limit.

During his stint as Governor, Qureshi came into the limelight for taking the Modi government to the Supreme Court over the transfers of Governors appointed by the previous UPA government.

He has also been in the spotlight over his sharp comments against BJP state governments, and one of his remarks in September 2021 against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath earned him a sedition case. He has also opposed the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

While few have come out in the open about it, there is a section within the Congress who are uneasy over the Grand Old Party’s embrace of the Hindutva agenda of late.

After Kamal Nath’s statement on Hindu Rashtra, Congress MLA Arjun Singh Kakodiya said: “This is our country. We will not permit it to become Hindu Raj.” The Congress later said the MLA’s statement had been taken out of context by the BJP for political gains.

A Congress leader said, “Most of the leaders who are feeling uneasy are senior politicians who have seen a different kind of politics, or those who belong to the minority community. But the party is largely behind this strategy, as they desperately want to win elections and not give the BJP the advantage of painting us as anti-Hindu.”

Another leader said, “There is no issue with organising religious programmes. We must celebrate all festivals, we are a secular party. But hosting Dhirendra Shastri is too much. We must not play on the BJP’s pitch. It will only benefit them in the long run.”

The BJP has latched on to Qureshi’s statements and said that the Congress strategy has been exposed by its own party members. The BJP has been countering the Congress’s Hindutva card by stating that the latter’s leaders are “electoral Hindus”.

Said a BJP leader, “The Congress has realised that it can’t win elections without espousing the Hindu cause. But the voters know that we are the real supporters of the Hindu religion. We have achieved all the core objectives, like Ram Mandir, while the Congress thinks it can reap the benefits of our hard work.”

Calling Qureshi’s statement “hate speech”, BJP spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said, “He has exposed their Mohabbat ki dukaan (shop of love – a tagline that emerged from Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra). He has exposed that the appeasement policy is alive. Rahul Gandhi and Kamal Nath become electoral Hindus when elections are near. Qureshi has made a statement against those who worship Narmada Mayya. This is a direct attack on Kamal Nath since he is the one who is at the forefront of Narmada worship in his party.”

Distancing the party from Qureshi’s remarks, state Congress spokesperson K K Mishra said, “Appeasement and soft Hindutva are concepts we don’t follow. These words are issued by the BJP. We are a secular party. Former governor Qureshi’s statements are his personal opinion. He is a senior Congress leader, and should not say things that can give the communal BJP any advantage.”