RIGHT ANGLE – For Rahul, Modi’s 56-inch Chest Gone

Two news reports in today’s morning papers (September 12) have disturbed me so much that I am penning this piece in anguish. In my considered view, there is a clear linkage between the two news items, and this linkage, unless checked, will result in situations that are dangerous not only for the country’s democracy but also its very unity and integrity.

One news item talked of Congress President Malikarjun Kharge addressing an election rally at Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir. In his speech Kharge said that had their INDIA – Alliance got 20 more seats in the last general elections, all the BJP leaders “would have been in jail” and “they deserved to be there”.

In other words, if Kharge’s boss Rahul Gandhi were the Prime Minister today, then the likes of Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and J P Nadda would have been in Tihar jail.

Can any comment be more outlandish than this? In Kharge’s, or for that matter Congress’ outlook, opposition leaders’ place is jail, whether they have been convicted by the courts or not. In a sense, he is accusing the BJP and the Modi government of not knowing how to treat the opposition and its leaders! Kharge does not seem to be repentant of his party’s history during the Emergency (1975-77); in fact, he is telling the nation that when his boss becomes the Prime Minister, emergency will be repeated and opposition leaders will be sent to jails.

The other news item was about Kharge’s boss Rahul Gandhi, who happens to be the Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi is touring the United States, meeting various leaders there, including the most anti-India and pro-Pakistani and Islamist Congress-woman like Ilhan Omar, who openly advocates Kashmir’s “liberation”.

Some of the narratives of Rahul Gandhi are based on serious falsehoods. He gave the impression that in the last general elections that were held, it is he and his allies who were the victors, not Narendra Modi who continues as the Prime Minister. I am not going into his personal attacks on Modi, however detestable those may be, but his theory that with just 240 seats for the BJP, Modi lost the elections to him with 99 seats (of the Congress)! He is not impressed that Modi is also the leader of the NDA , a pre-electoral alliance that got 293 seats over all, 21 more than what someone needs to form a government in India.

Rahul Gandhi talked about the “great coalitions” that his Congress party had headed in between 2004 and 2014. But he avoided giving the number of seats his Congress party had in them – 145 in 2004 elections, just seven more than BJP’s 138; and 206 in 2009 elections, far below 240 of the BJP today!

Thus, the point is this – if Congress had people’s mandate in 2004 and 2009 to head the national government, how is Narendra Modi the loser and he the true victor in the 2024 elections?

Another “lesson” that Rahul Gandhi imparted to Americans is that the Indian constitution “respects” castes. I do not know what constriction he is talking about. Our constitution aims at annihilation or irrelevance of castes, but Rahul’s is for its perpetual continuation, and hence respect. Not only that. He favours population explosion, not control; for him, families with more children should get more national resources and facilities irrespective of their talents and competence, and families with one child or two should be prepared to sacrifice everything or leave the country, howsoever educated and talented they may be. He wants India’s doctors, engineers, scientists, judges, sportspersons, artists and actors to be chosen on the basis of their castes, not merits.

However, of all the things that Gandhi has said about India in the U.S., the most egregious was how he was fighting for the rights of the Sikhs in India. Reportedly, he questioned a Sikh in the audience about his name and then commented on the challenges faced by Sikhs in India regarding their religious symbols and practices.

Rahul Gandhi is reported to have said: “First of all, you have to understand what the fight is about. The fight is not about politics. It is superficial. What is your name? The fight is about whether he as a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear his turban in India. Or he as a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear a Kada in India. Or a Sikh is going to be able to go to Gurdwara. That’s what the fight is about and not just for him, for all religions.”

Could anything be more diabolical than this? The Leader of Opposition is saying on a foreign soil that Sikhs are not safe in India and they are not being allowed to have their religious practices? Though the anti-Sikh riots did happen following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rahul’s grandmother, and which was explained by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul’s father, inappropriately (“earth shakes when a big tree falls”), it has always been unimaginable to think of an India without Sikhs. A Sikh has been the Prime Minister of the country. And Modi’s present council of ministers has two Sikhs – Hardeep Singh Puri and Ravneet Singh Bittu.

Predictably, the absolute rubbish and the blatant lie by Rahul Gandhi has been capitalised the secessionist Khalistanis all over the world, particularly by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the U.S.-based pro-Khalistan attorney, who on behalf of the so called organisation called Sikhs for Justice(SFJ) has been carrying out a “ global Khalistan Referendum campaign”.

Thanking Rahul Gandhi for agreeing that “ Sikhs in India are facing an existential crisis” , Pannuan promptly issued a statement that said: “ While addressing the gathering in Washington D.C. where many pro Khalistan Sikhs were in attendance, Rahul Gandhi justified SFJ’s global Khalistan Referendum campaign when he stated: ‘Fight in India is whether a Sikh will be allowed to wear turban and kada, go to gurudwara….”, Rahul’s statement on existential threat to Sikhs in India is not only bold and pioneering but is also firmly grounded in the factual history of what Sikhs have been facing under successive regimes in India since 1947 and also corroborates SFI’s stance on the justification for Punjab Independence Referendum to establish Sikh homeland Khalistan.”

Incidentally, the SFJ is a banned organisation in India for terrorist activities in collaboration with the Pakistani ISI and its anti-India or secessionist designs. “SFJ is involved in anti-national and subversive activities in Punjab and elsewhere, intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. SFJ is in close touch with the militant outfits and activists, and its supporting violent form of extremism and … .carve out a sovereign Khalistan out of territory of India,” according to our Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notification.

And now realise what Rahul Gandhi has done. As Pannun himself has said, Rahul Gandhi addressed a meeting that was well-attended by SFJ followers. Rahul said things that pleased the ears of the Khalistanis immensely. He became their hero by propagating the falsehood that Sikhs face existential credentials in India.

In my considered view, what Rahul Gandhi has done or said in America goes beyond expressing legitimate political criticism of the Modi government (I am not entering here the debate on the desirability of Indian political leaders portraying India in poor light in foreign countries); it is nothing but indulging in sedition. He has provided oxygen to those elements who are hell bent on India’s disintegration.

If an ordinary mortal like you and me would have said what Rahul Gandhi has said, one would have been immediately imprisoned under Indian anti-sedition laws. Since we are told that in India everybody is equal in the eyes of the law, Rahul Gandhi should in fact be arrested and sent to Tihar jail upon his arrival in Delhi airport. But that is not going to happen, because of the increasing cowardice that the Modi government is displaying these days (explaining this will be a separate story).

That explains why while speaking to the Indian diaspora in Herndon, Virginia, Rahul Gandhi remarked, “Something has changed after the elections. “ Dar nahi lagta ab, dar nikal gaya ab…In Parliament, I see the Prime Minister right up front and I can tell you that the idea of Mr Modi, 56-inch chest, direct connection with God, that’s all gone now, it’s all history now…”

I agree with Rahul Gandhi on this point.