Tamil Nadu Congress Chief Says 'Destruction Of Sanatana Dharma' Is Agenda Of Party's Alliance, And No One Is Surprised

A video of Tamil Nadu Congress president K S Alagiri recently did the rounds on social media. In the video, he claims that "the destruction of Sanatana Dharma" is a part of the political programme of the party's alliance in Tamil Nadu (currently in power).

The clip was picked up, translated and shared by the Uttarakhand Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) Twitter handle. Uttarakhand is weeks away from an assembly election and Congress is brandishing its Hindu credentials in the campaign there.

But beyond politics, one needs to understand how things reached such a pass that a president of a state unit of the Congress is openly declaring destruction of Sanatana Dharma to be an agenda of the party.

To begin with, we can make a reasonable assumption that Alagiri was only reflecting the views of the party high command. Many changes in the Congress party appear to point in that direction.

Colonialism, the radical left and Dravidianism — all three of these political discourses converge when it comes to negative stereotyping and contempt for Hinduism. Their objective seems to be to essentialise Hinduism with all the social evils, real and perceived and fabricated, about India. The Congress party has been constantly embracing this discourse.

But an obstruction and pushback to such an ideology comes from Hindutva.

So we have Shashi Tharoor asking his readers to shun Hindutva, which he juxtaposes against Hinduism.

We have Rahul Gandhi comparing Hinduism and Hindutva and declaring the followers of the latter to be murderers and cheats. (He even showed how Hindutva-wadis stab a person in the back).

The transition of the Congress party is a lesson for students of politics. With the takeover of Indira Gandhi, Congress ceased to be the party that fought for freedom. The party that energised its cadre with 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' ceased to exist and became subservient only to Indira Gandhi.

The Congress' shift from Hindu sentiments continued under Rajiv Gandhi.

With P V Narasimha Rao, the fall ceased and for a moment it almost seemed that the Congress would do an about turn. However, when Sonia Gandhi became the Congress president, and especially when the United Progressive Alliance assumed power in 2004, the Hindumisia agenda didn't take long to reveal itself. Left radical elements with animosity for Hindu Dharma were part of the Congress ecosystem, close to the dynasty, and were awarded with perks of power. This was a major success for forces that wanted to 'destroy' Sanatana Dharma.

Rahul Gandhi's flight from Amethi and his new-found comfort zone in the bastion of the Muslim League, Wayanad; the butchering of a calf by Congress party cadre in Kerala; Congress' alliance with Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF; the harping on alleged differences between Hinduism and Hindutva, and now the latest declaration from Tamil Nadu party chief of the political decision to destroy Sanatana Dharma, all these point to an unavoidable fact.

All leaders whose efforts made the Congress into a mass movement were Sanatani Hindus. Lokmanya Tilak, Sri Aurobindo, Gopala Krishna Gokhale, Subramanya Bharati, Satyamurthi in whose name Tamil Nadu Congress Office is named, Rajaji and Mahatma Gandhi — they differed a lot in their political and even social views but all of them proudly declared themselves as the children of Sanatana Dharma and Mother India. Today's Congress is the antithesis of the Congress of Mahatama Gandhi and Lokmanya Tilak. It is the antithesis of the Congress of Mahakavi Bharati and Satyamurthi.

The Congress today is what it can be termed a 'Breaking India force'. K S Alagiri reminded us of that. And the Uttarakhand BJP reminded us of this statement of Alagiri.

What a vote for the Congress means in such a scenario should be obvious to any discerning reader.