Congress fears losing minority support
Rahul Gandhi meets minority leaders, assures party support.
New Delhi: Apparently at the crossroads, the Congress Party seems to be hit by a Hamletian dilemma on the issue of toeing a soft Hindutva line.
The party, which had been trying to toe the soft Hindutva line to counter the BJP, is now “scared” of losing its Muslim vote bank.
Concerned that its moves to woo the majority community might cost the Muslims support, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday met the party’s minority leaders.
Sources said the meeting was held to ally apprehensions that the Congress is “turning anti-minority” to woo the majority vote bank. Nearly 150 minority leaders, including Ahmed Patel and Shakil Ahmed, were present.
Playing the secular card, Mr Gandhi said: “Respects both Gita and Quran”. He tried to refute charges that the Congress Party is aping the saffronites by toeing the Hindutva line. “The Congress was accused of pandering to the minority community and now it is being accused of towing a soft Hindutva line,” Mr Gandhi said, asserting that for his party “all religion are equal.”
He maintained the Congress stands for the unprivileged people, cutting across caste, creed and religion.
Earlier, complaints were pouring in that the party’s minority cell was virtually defunct and that there had been no high level meeting in the past three years.
Sources said Mr Gandhi assured the minority leaders the Congress “will never desert them and continue to work for them”.
Despite the meeting, some party functionaries said the Congress is “falling into the BJP trap by promoting soft Hindutva”. A senior functionary said; “The Congress can’t compete with the BJP or RSS as far as Hindutva is concerned. It’s a right wing ideology. The Congress stands for secularism, we should stick to that.” Mr Gandhi, however, had recently said in Chennai that he was “reading Gita and Upanishad to take on the saffron party.”
“The Congress party seems to be toeing a dangerous line. At the end of it, the core Hindutva vote bank will never switch to the Congress but we will surely lose the Muslims support.”