Cong's confused stance: Soft Hindutva betrays lack of faith in secularism

The Congress has chosen to resort to a dangerous combination of soft Hindutva and minority appeasement that is unlikely to enhance its credibility with the wider electorate

Over the past few years, the growing incidence of communal violence and social campaigns such as “love jihad” have challenged India’s secular fabric. The ballast for this has been the steady strengthening of political Hindutva, which has drawn considerable legitimacy from accusations of minority appeasement at the expense of the Hindu majority. The Congress party has been the principal target of these allegations. As the party that anchored independent India’s founding principles, the mature response of the party leadership to such charges should have been to occupy the higher ground and remain steadfastly committed to its original secular moorings.