By: S Vikramaditya

At the recently held India Today Conclave, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in a conversation with founder-publisher of India Today Arun Poorie, admitted that one of the biggest reasons of her party’s slump is the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party has managed to wrongly convince people that Congress is a ‘Muslim party’. As a result, large sections of Hindus shun the Congress and vote for the BJP en bloc.

The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka has granted separate religion status to Lingayats, who account for 17 percent of the state population More

Since Hindus are the majority community in India, their consolidation has helped the BJP sweep state-after-state in the last five years. The Congress has been brainstorming on how to tide over this grave problem. Recently, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka granted separate religion status to Lingayats, who account for 17 percent of the state population.

This decision created a stir across the state and clashes broke out between Lingayats and Veerashaivas (both follow 12th-century saint Basavanna) in Kalaburgi. The BJP has lambasted the Karnataka government for creating a caste divide ahead of the Karnataka assembly polls which are scheduled to take around May this year.

Although there have been demands by some sections of the Lingayat community for a separate religious identity beyond the ambit of Hinduism, the issue never gained much momentum. Siddaramaiah’s move is, thus, seen as dividing the Hindus and weaning the Lingayats away from the BJP.

Since the emergence of BS Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat leader, the community has remained the core vote bank of the BJP. Therefore, the idea behind granting them a separate identity is to try and make a major dent in Hindu votes and reap the political windfall. While the decision may have a few immediate benefits for the Congress, the social implications are potentially catastrophic.

While the Congress tried to shed the image of an ‘anti-Hindu party’ during the Gujarat elections with party president Rahul Gandhi visiting several temples, this recent decision by Siddaramaiah will only reinforce the perception of Congress being the minority-driven party with little regards for Hindus and their sentiments.

The Congress has also been guilty of weaning Dalits away from the Hinduism fold. While there’s no denying that there have been incidents of Dalits being thrashed by some right-wing hoodlums, Congress leaders and spokespersons have directed their ire at ‘Hindutva’, a political term coined by Veer Savarkar, than at the individuals indulging in violence.

Instead of condemning the individuals who have taken the law into their own hands, the Congress, with the active support of left-leaning media, sought to stereotype the entire community and its beliefs. Contrast it with the Dalit-Muslim unity which Congress and other secular parties feverishly pitch for. Despite many cases of Dalit-Muslim clashes, they’re not pitted against each other as implacable opponents and neither of the communities is vilified.

This doublespeak reeks of the abhorrent attempt to divide the Hindu community along the caste lines and efface the consolidated Hindu identity. These tactics were once practiced by the Communists, but of late are being actively emulated by the Congress which is staring at an existential crisis.

Dalit-Muslim unity is a noble idea, but pitting Dalits, Lingayats and other castes against Hindus and weaning them away from the Hinduism fold is downright vile. The need of the hour is to maintain unity among all castes and religions in pursuance of creating a harmonic and holistic society.

Individual miscreants indulging in vandalism and hooliganism must be strictly punished, irrespective of their religious/caste identity. But no religion or caste must be stereotyped or sullied. Only then India can become a truly inclusive and pluralistic democracy.