By Sushil Kutty

The “dominant religion” in the Congress is not ‘Hinduism’. Cannot be Islam either. That leaves Christianity. And there are no symbols of that Abrahamic religion in the Congress. If at all the Congress is ‘cross’, it’s with those who beat their 56” Hindutva chest and could in 2019, if they win the general elections one more time, turn India into a “Hindu Pakistan.”

Hindu Pakistan! It is a warning. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor pulled it out from his farrago of warnings in Thiruvananthapuram, his parliamentary constituency. Tharoor cannot be faulted. He sees what we all see: a farrago of strange happenings, from cow vigilante being felicitated by a Union minister to signs that the BJP could notch up another Lok Sabha win by consolidating the Hindu vote, which would be a disaster for India, where the dominant religion is not ‘Hindu’ but ‘None of the Above’ in the “Religion” column.

Tharoor’s stark warning sounds ominous: “If they (BJP) win a repeat of their current strength in the Lok Sabha, our democratic Constitution as we understand it will not survive as they will have all the elements they need to tear apart the constitution of India and write a new one.”

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The suave MP, who rattled once with “airlines have a cattle-class” clientele, is bothered that the BJP might notch enough numbers to get a majority in the Rajya Sabha and that will be Kaput! Lead to the formation of a ‘Hindu Pakistan’. Pave the way for a nation much like Pakistan, “where minorities are not respected.”

Shashi Tharoor’s warning is being attributed to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who, it’s being said, after trying “soft Hindutva” and failing to make a dent on the Hindutva vote-bank of the BJP, is now back to “pleasing the Congress base of secular and Muslim voters”, and nobody in the realm can accuse the vast majority of Muslims of being secular!

How folks in Thiruvananthapuram must have taken Tharoor’s warning is debatable. Till a couple of decades ago, Kerala’s capital, as opposed to Kerala’s commercial hub Kochi, would go dark by 8pm and those on the streets would be the drunk and some of those worried about the drunk.

Could be because Kerala is closer to the Equator than, say, Delhi and UP. Thiruvananthapuram is also relatively more conservative and Tharoor is a born-again liberal who has spent the better part of his adult life in the liberal corridors of the United Nations. He probably agrees with the Jordanian, who heads the United Nation’s human rights body, that the Indian Army under Modi is “massacring Kashmiris”.

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“The new one (constitution) will be the one which enshrines principles of Hindu Rashtra, that will remove equality for minorities, that’ll create a Hindu Pakistan and that isn’t what Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of freedom struggle fought for,” Tharoor said Wednesday.

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Thursday he doubled down with a Facebook post after his Wednesday comments went viral on Twitter. “I say it again…,” he wrote on Mark Zuckerberg’s contribution to Social Media. Now, Facebook is all agog. And Twitter thought it ruled!

Tharoor’s comments have roiled the BJP base, and the BJP has with alacrity grabbed the unasked for opportunity to press home the advantage given to it on a platter. The “Hindu nationalist party” has picked up Tharoor’s gems to pick on the “Congress’s inbred contempt for the Hindu”. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra has not stopped talking since 3pm Wednesday, and he must have uttered the words “Hindu Pakistan” at least 3,000 times!

“Stop this fear-mongering Rahul Gandhi, stop this Muslim appeasement Rahul Gandhi; stop denigrating the Hindu, Mr Rahul Gandhi, stop you diatribe against India, Mr Rahul Gandhi. Every time a Congress leader denigrates India and Hindus, the Congress says ‘it is his personal view’. So, what is the Congress view on ‘Hindu Pakistan’, Mr Rahul Gandhi?” Patra said Thursday.

“Congress Hates Hindus” is the new BJP election slogan and from the sound of it, compared to Modi’s 2014 “Acche Din Aayenge”, it is definitely far more potent. (IPA Service)

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