New Delhi: While the Dussehra celebrations might have ended a fortnight ago with Raavan effigies burning across India, the Congress is now making forays into “Ramayan politics”.
The party posted a minute-long video on its official YouTube channel Friday, attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comparing him to Raavan.
The video starts with the line Iss desh ki politics ko tumhari zaroorat hai (‘This country’s politics needs you’) and a smiling Rahul Gandhi leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra. As the video progresses and Modi enters the frame, the narration goes: Kalyug mein chaadar safed odhe jab jab Raavan aayega (‘during Kalyug, when a Raavan comes pretending to be a good man’).
Attempting to draw a contrast between Rahul and Modi, the video projects the former as the need of the hour in Indian politics, and shows him playing with children, walking with women and meeting the public.
By posting a series of videos and tweets on social media, the Congress has been trying to rebrand the former party president through the Bharat Jodo Yatra, and counter the criticisms often made by his detractors — that he is a privileged dynast and inaccessible.
But this isn’t the first time in the past few days that the Ramayan has figured in political discourse.
On Monday, Congress leader and Rajasthan minister Parsadi Lal Meena likened Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra to Lord Ram’s journey from Ayodhya to Lanka. “Rahul Gandhi’s padayatra will be historic. Lord Ram, too, had gone from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka on foot. Rahul Gandhi is walking even more than that, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir,” Meena said.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole backed Meena in comparing the journeys, but said that it is “a coincidence that both Lord Ram and Rahul Gandhi’s names begin with R”. He added that Lord Ram and Rahul could not be compared. “God is God and Rahul Gandhi is a human being.”
A political row broke out after Patole’s remarks, with BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia taking a shot at the Congress on Twitter, saying, “Raavan also starts with R”.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
Also Read: How to set up & dismantle a city every day — ‘logistical nightmare’ behind Congress’ Bharat Jodo