Rahul should wish PM Merry Christmas

If religion holds the key in a nation of believers, the Congress president can balance his tilak, turban and Siva-bhakt talk by also visiting mosques and churches

With Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Jagran Manch activists on the rampage, it’s all the more necessary this Christmas Eve not to allow fanaticism to disrupt a festival that Indians celebrate with gusto. The answer lies in enforcing the law of the land even if the culprits reflect what K M Munshi, a Congressman who became one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s spiritual ancestors, called India’s “Collective Subconscious”. Jawaharlal Nehru deplored it as “Hindu revivalism”.

Their exchange was over rebuilding the Somnath temple. Ignoring Nehru’s disapproval (and defying Mahatma Gandhi’s wishes), Dr Rajendra Prasad and the orthodox faction of the Congress party turned the reconstruction into an ostentatious state function. As a lead player in that event, Munshi was quite open about playing up to the majority. “The restoration of the idol would be a point of honour and sentiment with the Hindu public,” he wrote. Vallabhbhai Patel’s religious fervour was laced with even more explicit political calculation. Somnath is in Junagadh state whose Muslim nawab had opted for Pakistan. Junagadh’s merger with India hadn’t been quite impeccable. A grand new temple would be Hinduism’s symbolic triumph not only over the vandalism of Mahmud of Ghazni, Alauddin Khalji, Aurangzeb and others but also over centuries of Muslim rule.

Not holding with this revivalism, Nehru was worried how the spectacle of Indian diplomats collecting a pinch of soil, a few drops of water and twigs from the countries to which they were accredited, as part of the ritual for installing a jyotirlinga, would affect India’s image as a rational, secular nation. At least one diplomat, K M Panikkar, shared his misgivings.

Somnath wasn’t the only setback for Nehruvian secularism. Indian newspapers and periodicals revel in publishing astrological forecasts despite his fear, reflected in the exhortations of successive press commissions, that such predictions would hamper the “scientific temper” he was anxious to promote. The decision to introduce astrology and Vedic mathematics in universities predated Narendra Modi’s novel views on plastic surgery and genetic science. Contemporary reports indicated that Nehru’s known impatience with Hindu ritual did not prevent those around him from organising elaborate havans as he lay dying.

So it probably isn’t too surprising that Nehru’s great-grandson should pray at the reconstructed Somnath temple, claim to be a Siva worshipper and be photographed clutching an image of the goddess Durga at an election rally in Gandhinagar. If these gestures have set the cat among the pigeons, it’s partly because secular intellectuals are worried Rahul Gandhi might be betraying the Congress’s inclusive and enlightened legacy for a mess of political pottage and partly because an alarmed BJP fears its saffron clothes are being stolen.

Clearly, Rahul wouldn’t have incurred this special wrath if his Gujarat campaign hadn’t suggested he is more in touch with the likes and dislikes of the multitude — India’s “Collective Subconscious” — than his great-grandfather was. Perhaps, he cares more for what others think. Perhaps, not enjoying anything like Nehru’s commanding presence and authority, he has to be more accommodating. Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew once said the huge crowds at Nehru’s rallies probably didn’t understand a word he said. They didn’t have to either — just to be in his presence was to be blest. Given that stature, Nehru had no need to go against his personal inclinations and pander to voters who would have found his agnosticism baffling. But it was clear even in his lifetime that the majority of Indians didn’t share his beliefs.

Vikas possibly helped to mobilise 49.1 per cent of the Gujarat vote behind Mr Modi even if they translated into only 99 seats. Vikas may have prevented an even more drastic fall in the BJP’s share of seats. But the winning formula is the appeal to the famous “Collective Subconscious” Munshi mentioned. Nehru would have hated the very notion of Congress abandoning the moral high ground of secularism he had set to imitate the BJP’s successful populism. But if religion holds the key in a nation of believers, Rahul can balance his tilak, turban and Siva-bhakt talk by also visiting mosques and churches.

Cannily aware of national discontent and protest rumblings in Christian-majority Nagaland and Meghalaya which will hold elections next year, Uttar Pradesh’s ultra-Hindu chief minister has ordered his police to ensure that Christmas celebrations are not disrupted. Rahul can do no less. He has no police to command as yet. But as prime minister-in-waiting and leader of India’s oldest political party, he can start by wishing Mr Modi a Merry Christmas.