If Cong thinks it can defeat BJP by soft Hindutva tactics, it is mistaken: CPI(M)

The CPI (M) has warned the Congress that it will fail to defeat the BJP in the upcoming general elections if it continues to peddle "soft Hindutva".

In an editorial in the latest edition of its mouthpiece, People's Democracy, the CPI (M) has referred to Congress president Rahul Gandhi's "flurry" of temple visits in the poll-bound states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and said that it was a "pale echo of the Hindutva platforms."

"The attempt to prove that the Congress was genuinely more Hindu than the BJP witnessed a flurry of temple visits by Rahul Gandhi in the three states... If the Congress thinks it can defeat the BJP by such soft Hindutva tactics, it is mistaken," the editorial said.

 

Highlighting what the CPI (M) considered as Congress' "soft Hindutva", the editorial picked on the party's manifestos in the three states.

It said while in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress talked of 'gaushalas' (cow shelters) in every panchayat, commercial sale of 'gaumutra' (cow urine) and building a Ram Van Gaman Path Yatra, in Rajasthan, they promised the setting up of an education board to propagate vedic values.

"In the campaign, there was a palpable reluctance to speak out against the lynchings of Muslims like the killing of Pehlu Khan," it alleged.

However, the editorial pointed out that the BJP will face electoral reverses in these three states "because the people have voted on issues such as jobs, farmers' distress, lack of basic amenities and corruption".

It said various mass struggles offering a secular and democratic alternative "alone can counter the BJP-RSS game plan and effectively foil it".

"The mobilisation of the working people ... and the numerous struggles and movements taking place around the country stand in stark contrast to the communal mobilisation being undertaken on the Ram temple issue at Ayodhya," it said.

The editorial also stated that people's protests have forced the BJP to fall back on its communal rhetoric and efforts to smear the opposition as anti-national.

"The anti-Muslim rhetoric and the Ram temple chorus is not going to help the BJP to stave off the people's anger against their misrule in the three states, nor, will it help gain any new voters in Telangana," it said.

The editorial pointed out that the peasant mobilisation is going to be followed by the two-day general strike of the working class of the country called by the Central Trade Unions on January 8 and 9, 2019.

"All these streams of struggle are demanding a secular and democratic alternative, which alone can counter the BJP-RSS game plan and effectively foil it," it said.