New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday shifted the party’s ideological narrative from avowed secularism to religion by openly professing from a public platform in Jaipur that he was a Hindu and everyone in the gathering was a Hindu too.
He, however, sought to construct his identity as one of a “truth-seeking Hindu like Mahatma Gandhi” as against “power-seeking Hindutvadi like Nathuram Godse”.
“The contest today is between Hindutvadis who follow the path of ‘Sattagraha’ and Hindus who follow the path of Satyagraha,” said Rahul while addressing “Mehangai Hatao” rally in Jaipur with his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi.
Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), Charanjit Singh Channi (Punjab) and Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) were also present.
Attacking the BJP-led government for price rise, farmers’ woes and crony capitalism, the Congress leader urged people to wake up to the truth of Hindutvadis who, he said, had been helming India since 2014, “dismantling small businesses through note ban and GST and helping a few capitalists”.
“The Indian politics is witnessing a clash of two words — Hindu and Hindutvadi. I am a Hindu and not a Hindutvadi. Everyone in the gathering is a Hindu and not a Hindutvadi. Mahatma Gandhi was a Hindu and Godse a Hindutvadi,”said Rahul.
Seeking to explain his construct, Rahul said while a Hindu, come what may, would pursue the path of truth like Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindutvadi cared only for power.
“Mahatma Gandhi wrote ‘My Experiments with Truth’ and spent his life searching for truth. In the end, a Hindutvadi pumped three bullets into his chest,” Rahul said, adding that a Hindutvadi would spend his life yearning for power.