New Delhi: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi visited former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s memorial Monday and paid tribute to the former stalwart of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Gandhi’s visit to the former PM’s memorial came a day after Vajpayee’s 98th birth anniversary Sunday.
Gandhi offered rose petals at the memorial, named ‘Sadaiv Atal’, and joined hands in tribute, becoming the first person from the Gandhi family to visit the memorial since the former Prime Minister passed away in 2018.
Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the memorial was full of symbolism. On a 150-day Bharat Jodo Yatra against what the Congress leader has termed “the politics of hate and fear”, Gandhi chose to visit Vajpayee’s memorial in Delhi in what was perceived as an attempt to draw a distinction between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Though both leaders have an RSS background, Modi is seen by many as a hardcore Hindutva face, while Vajpayee was perceived to be the more moderate and liberal face of the BJP and the RSS.
Though the Congress was very critical of the then Prime Minister when he was in office, the party has since been softening it’s stance on Vajpayee, choosing to train its guns at who it considers Hindutva hardliners — a list which includes former deputy PM L.K. Advani and PM Modi.
Gandhi’s visit to the Vajpayee memorial has, however, been dismissed by the BJP as a “photo op”.
“It’s good he is going to pay homage to Atal ji but he should also learn something from Atal ji, like rashtravaad (nationalism). He (Vajpayee) was a Swayemsevek all through his life. Rahul always abuses RSS. He should learn from Atal ji’s ideology and not go for a photo op only,” BJP spokesperson K.K. Sharma had told ThePrint.
On Monday, Rahul also visited the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri.
While the former Congress president was initially scheduled to visit all the memorials Saturday, while concluding the Delhi leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the visit was later postponed to Sunday, as the “evening padyatra in New Delhi was prolonged and took more time because of the surging crowd” according to the Congress.
The visit was then further postponed by a day, and finally took place Monday.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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