The Congress appears to be continuing the projection of its 'soft Hindutva' plank ahead of the assembly election in Madhya Pradesh as the party seeks to regain power in a state where it was voted out in 2003.
Barely 10 days after the state unit of the Congress tweeted that it would build over 23,000 gaushalas in Madhya Pradesh if voted to power, the party is now projecting its chief, Rahul Gandhi, as a Shiv bhakt (devotee of lord Shiv) ahead of his roadshow in the state capital, Bhopal, on Monday afternoon.
Posters on the roadshow, which referred to Gandhi as a Shiv bhakt, were reported from various places in Bhopal, according to news agencies.
Not surprisingly, the ruling BJP in the state wasn't impressed by the Shiv bhakt tag for Gandhi, with Minister Vishwas Sarang criticising the Congress for allegedly denying the existence of lord Ram and for supporting the consumption of beef in Kerala.
During campaigning for the Gujarat elections last year, Gandhi had declared he and his family were Shiv bhakts after a controversy broke out over his name being entered in the register for non-Hindus at the Somnath Temple. Gandhi had also recently undertaken the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, which is much valued by devotees of Shiv. Not surprisingly, one of the posters in Bhopal that referred to Gandhi as a Shiv bhakt had an image of him doing a ritual on a Shivling.
Over the past year, Gandhi and the Congress have been perceived to be increasing the use of Hindu symbols to undermine the BJP's Hindutva plank. This was evident in campaigning for the Gujarat and Karnataka elections when Gandhi undertook visits to multiple temples, inviting criticism from the BJP.
Earlier this month, the Congress's state chief in Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath, had promised a gaushala in every panchayat in the state if voted to power. The party has vowed to develop the 'Ram Path', the route which lord Ram took during his 14-year exile, much of which is believed to have been spent in what is now Madhya Pradesh.
