New Delhi: During the Delhi leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Monday morning visited the Sadaiv Atal, the memorial of former prime minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) icon Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The quick stop at the late PM’s samadhi received mixed responses from within the party — some had opposed the idea, while some praised it, saying it remains true to Rahul’s vision for Bharat Jodo Yatra. The BJP, dismissed it as a mere photo-op, while a political analyst ThePrint spoke to said that the visit won’t make much of a difference.
To drive home his point of peace and unity, Rahul not only stopped at Vajpayee’s samadhi in the capital, but also visited memorials of other important leaders — including family members Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and of Mahatma Gandhi and former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri — to differentiate the Congress from the BJP, a party which is only seen paying homage to its own leaders.
Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti at the New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), told ThePrint, “Rahul Gandhi wants to send a message through his gesture that he is uniting India beyond small political gains. He wants to raise the point that PM Modi and the government is only paying homage to their own leaders. The PM (Modi) has not visited Nehru or Indira (Gandhi’s) samadhis. It shows (Modi’s) partisan politics. Gandhi is visiting all leaders, rising above narrow political gains.”
This is not the first time that Rahul has used Vajpayee to attack the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On 12 June, 2018, Rahul had mocked PM Modi for “humiliating” veteran BJP leaders Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh, and criticised him for not visiting Vajpayee at AIIMS hospital where he was admitted at the time.
He had tweeted, “Eklavya cut off his right thumb because his guru demanded it. In the BJP, they cut down their own gurus…. Humiliating Vajpayee ji, Advani ji, Jaswant Singh ji and their families is the Prime Minister’s way of protecting Indian culture.”
The same day, while addressing a rally of Congress workers in Mumbai, he said the “Congress party fought against the Vajpayee government, but when he was sick, it was us who first visited him. This is the ideology of the Congress party. We respect our opponents.”
Vajpayee died on 16 August, 2018.
According to former Congress leader Ashwini Kumar, Rahul deserves praise. “Earlier, politics was not about hatred. Even I wrote about Atal ji’s fine human touch and his great heart and statesmanship. It is good that he is visiting all leaders who have contributed to the making of the nation. It’s a new beginning of the politics of love and reconciliation. Politics of hatred should end.”
The BJP believes that this should be seen by Rahul Gandhi as an opportunity to learn from Atal Bihari Vajpayee and not just as a media exercise.
Speaking to ThePrint, BJP spokesperson K.K. Sharma told the print, “It is good he (Rahul) is visiting Vajpayee ji’s samadhi. Before Bharat Jodo, the Congress has done much work for ‘Bharat todo’ (break India). They have aligned with the tukde-tukde gang too. Rahul is visiting the samadhi to wash the former sins committed by the Congress party. But he should remember that Atal ji was a swayamsevak first. His ideology was ‘rashtradharm’ (religion of nation building), Rahul Gandhi should learn something from Atal ji and not only use this as a photo opportunity.”
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Past slights
Widely respected even by his rivals, Vajpayee was called the “Ajatashatru” (one with no enemies) of Indian politics, but had found himself on the receiving end of criticism by Sonia Gandhi on several occasions.
In 1998, the Vajpayee government had performed five nuclear tests in Pokhran, Rajasthan. And while the country had rejoiced, praising the PM’s leadership, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi kept silent for 10 days. When she finally reacted to what was being seen as a historic moment for India, she said, “Real strength lies in restraint, not in display of Shakti.”
Next year, in 1999, at a rally in Ujjain, she had purportedly disrespected Vajpayee, referring to him as a “gaddaar” (traitor), prompting the BJP to demand an apology for her remark.
Then, in 2002, she had said Vajpayee had “lost his mental balance”.
While making a speech in Parliament on a no-confidence motion in 2003, Sonia had called the Vajpayee government “inept, insensitive and corrupt”. It was reported that even Vajpayee had lost his cool after this and, in response, said that it seemed that the Congress leader had taken all the words available in the dictionary and used them in one paragraph. “It is how the Opposition leader shows their regard for the Prime Minister. It is not because of the Opposition that I am prime minister, but because of the people’s mandate. But the Congress party doesn’t even want to respect the people’s mandate,” he had said.
Moreover, when the UPA was in power, it did not celebrate Kargil Vijay Diwas — commemorated every 26 July to observe India’s victory over Pakistan in the Kargil War of 1999 — between 2004 and 2009. Congress’ Rashid Alvi had reportedly said, “Kargil isn’t a thing to be celebrated…. It’s only the NDA which may celebrate.”
It was only after a Parliamentary question on why the UPA government did not celebrate the Kargil Vijay Diwas, that A.K. Antony, then defence minister, assured that it will be observed going forward.
Speaking to ThePrint, author and political activist Sudheendra Kulkarni, who had once worked with Vajpayee and was recently seen with Rahul on the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said, “It is a welcome step that Rahul is visiting Atal ji’s samadhi. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is a yatra to unite all ideologies and bring harmony despite differences. Even (Jawaharlal) Nehru and Vajpayee had differences on many issues, but Vajpayee held great respect for Nehru. It is up to the Modi-led BJP to now reciprocate that respect towards Nehru. Rahul Gandhi is coming with an open heart; it should be welcomed.”
However, according to a political analyst, who wished to not be named, Rahul’s show of love towards Vajpayee and Advani is just a “social media narrative”.
“The Congress party, too, has humiliated its own leaders like P.V. Narasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesri and Sharad Pawar in the past. So, honouring elders and respecting Vajpayee will not travel very far to create the narrative they want. Sonia (Gandhi) humiliated Vajpayee several times despite his large heart. It only adds to the social media narrative, there is nothing beyond that,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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