Rahul Gandhi and the beer-'dhokla' game

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President-designate Rahul Gandhi on Thursday appealed to the voters in Gujarat to exercise their franchise in the second phase of polling that has begun. Today is Phase 2 of the Gujarat elections. I request all those voting today to vote in record numbers and enrich this festival of democracy Modi said in a tweet. The ushering in of a new Gujarat has already begun. Your one vote will strengthen and empower the foundations of democracy. I appeal to the people of the state to vote more and more for a bright tomorrow Gandhi tweeted. Voting began in 93 assembly constituencies across 14 districts in northern and central regions at 8 a.m. and will continue till 5 p.m. There are 851 candidates in the fray. Elections are being held in Banaskantha Patan Sabarkantha Mehsana Gandhinagar Ahmedabad Aravalli Mahisagar Panchmahal Dahod Kheda Anand Vadodara and Chhota Udepur districts in the northern and central regions. The first phase of polling for 89 seats in the 182-seat state assembly were held on December 9 with over 60 per cent voting registered. New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday used emails purportedly exchanged between the then Union minister Jayanthi Natarajan and Rahul Gandhi then Congress general secretary to allege that non-state players ran the government and held a right to overrule the then prime minister Manmohan Singh.At a press conference Union minister Piyush Goyal released the emails and accused the Congress of obstructing development in Gujarat on eve of the last phase of the state elections.The emails show Ms Natarajan the then environment minister informing Rahul Gandhi now Congress president-elect about a slew of projects and seeking his and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi s guidance he claimed.Mr Goyal alleged that Jayanthi tax a phrase coined by the BJP to refer to alleged corruption in her ministry was actually Rahul tax .Reading from the emails Mr Goyal alleged that Ms Natarajan was seeking instructions from the Gandhis and Rahul Gandhi had asked her to take certain position on different projects.He alleged that in one email she wrote to him about Dr Singh s direction to her to ensure that the ministry takes a stand in favour of field trials of GM crops and notes that she was opposed to it. These emails highlight a very worrisome nexus. How the work of the government was run by non-state players Mr Goyal claimed.In one email Rahul Gandhi asked her to follow guidelines given to her by the party president about a project. The prime minister had no role Mr Goyal claimed.He cited Rahul Gandhi s mail allegedly asking to ensure no dilution of environmental rules for clearance of a project in Gujarat and claimed it showed how the Congress obstructed developmental work in the state when Narendra Modi was its chief minister.The emails also carried messages exchanged between her and Rahul Gandhi s then private secretary.Mr Goyal claimed that not only the leader even his personal secretary was so powerful that the minister was seeking his convenience to meet him. The right to overrule the prime minister s decision lay elsewhere. I m sure even Manmohan Singh would want to know what was the decision-making process then he said.Ms Natarajan quit the Congress in 2015 after the BJP swept to power a year ago and had flayed Rahul Gandhi over a host issues. NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday used a series of email exchanges to accuse the Gandhi family of interfering in the work of the previous UPA government and reducing then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to just a titular head. We have accessed email in which Jayanti Natarajan when UPA minister was even willing to go home to meet personal secretary of Rahul Gandhi. This was how people not a part of government interfered in governance during UPA said Union minister Piyush Goyal at a press conference brandishing a series of emails that he said showed how projects were stalled and environment ministry was used in the UPA government. Email exchanges between Rahul Gandhi and Jayanthi Natarajan show that all decisions were directly taken by the family and PM Manmohan Singh was just a titular head he charged. Rahul Gandhi was giving guidance and instructions to Jayanthi Natarajan on Lavasa issue. High political interfere... https://t.co/QJyPhTRdja BJP (@BJP4India) 1513174491000 Goyal said that Rahul had disrespected Singh with his counter instructions to ministers and even overruled him. He said that the emails showed that Rahul had instructed Natarajan to not give environmental clearance to the Nirma project in Gujarat. Rahul Gandhi opposed Nirma and instructed Jayanthi Natarajan to not give environmental clearance. He was willing to kill jobs in Gujarat to undermine to hurt the developmental agenda of Narendra Modi he said. The BJP also accused him of giving then-environment minister guidance and instructions on the Lavasa issue. Knowledge of Rahul Gandhi was such that he did not know that there was no proposal on an Amethi- Rae Bareilly Highw... https://t.co/6c202mPt0g BJP (@BJP4India) 1513174539000 By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: December 13 2017 9:35 pm Piyush Goyal during the press conference on Wednesday (ANI) Related News Gujarat Assembly elections Live Updates: PAAS leader Hardik Patel casts vote in ViramgramIn Gujarat capital Rahul Gandhi fans upset about jobs education pricesRahul Gandhi focus on women s Bill in first event as Congress president-electLaunching a fresh attack against Congress President-elect Rahul Gandhi BJP on Wednesday accused the Gandhi family of interfering with UPA s functioning during its rule and reducing the then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to just a titular head . Addressing a press conference Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said Manmohan Singh was just the face. The real power of the party was with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Releasing a series of alleged email exchanges between Rahul Gandhi and Jayanthi Natarajan the then-UPA Environment Minister Goyal accused the party of stalling projects in Gujarat . In UPA how projects were stalled and environment ministry was used is evident in the email. Rahul Gandhi opposed Nirma and instructed Jayanthi Natarajan to not give environmental clearance. Was willing to kill jobs in Gujarat to undermine to hurt developmental agenda of Narendra Modi he said. The matter pertains to land allotted to Nirma Ltd for a cement plant by the Gujarat government in 2008. However the UPA government objected to setting up of the plant since the area was an environmentally sensitive wetland that supported the local people in their agriculture. Goyal said that the email exchanges showed that Natarajan was even willing to visit the house of personal secretary of Rahul Gandhi. He also accused Gandhi of giving guidance and instructions to Natarajan over Lavasa issue. During the rule of UPA there was high political interference in matters of public policy. Purported e-mail exchanges between Rahul Gandhi and Jayanthi Natarajan released by the BJP on Wednesday. Purported e-mail exchanges between Rahul Gandhi and Jayanthi Natarajan released by the BJP on Wednesday. Asserting that Rahul Gandhi had limited political acumen Goyal also released an email where Gandhi allegedly asked Natarajan to clear the Amethi-Rae Bareily highway that was pending with the ministry for years. However Natrajan responded saying that there was no such proposal with the Ministry of Environment. Rahul Gandhi was disrespecting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh by giving counter instructions to ministers. Jayanthi Natarajan scuttled GM crops despite being personally told by Manmohan Singh to clear the matter. Manmohan Singh was just the face. Real power was with Sonia and Rahul. Natarajan quit the Congress party in 2015 after blaming Rahul Gandhi for interfering and sending her specific requests on green clearances for large projects that she duly stopped to accede to. She also added that she was vilified humiliated and sidelined by the party leadership. For all the latest Elections News download Indian Express App IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd More Related News Punjab civic polls: Allegations of political vendetta reach High Court Akali Dal question PIL Rahul Gandhi interview: Election Commission orders FIRs against TV channels Congress says attack on press Tags: BJP Congress Dr Manmohan Singh Rahul Gandhi Thiruvananthapuram: Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi will visit the fishing villages of Poonthura and Vizhinjam in Kerala tomorrow to have an on-the-spot assessment of the devastation caused by cyclone Ockhi. Congress sources said he will also visit Chinnathurai in Tamil Nadu s Kanyakumari district which was badly affected as well.Mr Gandhi will meet fisherfolk at Poonthura and Vizhinjam in Thiruvanathapuram district from where over 50 persons have died.He will then leave for the St Jude s college ground at Chinnathurai to meet the affected people there according to party sources here.After returning to Thiruvanathapuram by 3:45 pm Mr Gandhi will attend the birth centenary celebrations of late RSP leader Baby John and the party s valedictory rally of Padayorukkam led by opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala.Rahul Gandhi s earlier programme scheduled for December 1 in the city had been cancelled due to the cyclone. NEW DELHI: Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi today said in a TV interview that instead of talking about issues PM Narendra Modi is insulting Manmohan Singh . The BJP meanwhile filed three complaints with the Election Commission over the interview Rahul gave to Gujarat Samachar TV. The BJP s contention is that the interview constitutes poll campaigning which isn t allowed 48 hours before elections. The second and last phase of the Gujarat election are to be held tomorrow. In his interview Rahul criticised the BJP of course but specifically targeted PM Modi. I ve been talking about Gujarat s issues for three months. He s insulting Manmohan Singh. Not talking about issues evading issues of the people instead insulting Manmohan Singh said Rahul in the interview to Gujarat Samachar TV. The soon-to-be Congress president was referring to Modi s shock allegations against Congress leaders including former PM Singh that they are colluding with Pakistan to ensure the BJP s defeat in the Gujarat Assembly polls. When the Congress leader was asked if the BJP was perhaps afraid of a new Rahul he denied it. He s (Modi s) not afraid of me he s afraid of the people of Gujarat said Rahul while also denying he s had any makeover as some are suggesting. I haven t had a makeover people are finally able to see the real me. The truth about Rahul Gandhi has been distorted by money and BJP workers. Many people are employed to tarnish my image. It costs a lot of money (to do that) said Rahul. In his interview Rahul also took a dig at PM Modi hiring a seaplane yesterday in Ahmedabad. The BJP lacks a vision for Gujarat. That s why the PM is not talking about issues...just roaming around here and there instead. No talk about farmers issues nothing said Rahul. When he was asked whether he feels anger or hatred towards Modi who often insults his family members the Congress vice president said people may think I could hate him but I just feel love . In fact my biggest help is PM Modi said Rahul reiterating something he s said before. Rahul was asked what he feels like and what he will do for India now that he s going to be Congress president. My great-grandfaher my grandmother my papa my mother for me this country is bigger than us. A position (like party president) is meaningless if you don t feel the country is bigger than you he said. Rahul Gandhi now visits Hindu temples during election campaigning so frequently that it has become difficult to keep track of them.Congress party s vice president Rahul Gandhi holds a memento of Hindu Goddess Durga presented to him during an election campaign rally in Gandhinagar on Monday. PTIAccording to his party he has prayed in at least 25 temples this Gujarat election season. Rahul s discovery of temples for positioning before polls began in Uttar Pradesh early this year and has continued.Some describe it as Congress party doing soft Hindutva. Finance minister Arun Jaitley said in a press conference in Surat BJP has always been seen as a pro-Hindutva party so if an original is available why one would prefer a clone? Offering prayers and seeking blessings at temples is neither soft nor hard Hindutva. It is simply what Hindus do.Of course the purpose is political and electoral. Rahul is signalling to voters he s as Hindu as anyone else and inter alia that he and his party are not disrespectful of the Hindu faith.To describe this as soft Hindutva is incorrect. Soft Hindutva is when the Congress does mildly Hindutva things. The origin of the term soft Hindutva lies in Rajiv Gandhi ordering of the opening of the gates of the Ram Mandir inside the Babri Masjid in 1986 allowing a puja to take place inside. The political calculation was to appease rising Hindutva but we know what happened later. The move did not weaken Hindutva forces only strengthened them.Similarly Narasimha Rao s failure to stop the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992 led to the Congress being accused of soft Hindutva accelerating the shift of Muslim votes from Congress to regional parties in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.Worshipping in temples is not soft Hindutva or any kind of Hindutva. Labelling temple-going as Hindutva misunderstands what Hindutva is.The man who coined the term Hindutva Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was an atheist who didn t visit temples. Hindutva is a political ideology that seeks to unite Hindus politically and establish Hindu supremacy over Muslims and Christians if not the Indic faiths such as Sikhism Buddhism and Jainism as well.Some of the temples visited by Rahul were in the last visited by his grandmother Indira Gandhi. Nobody called it soft Hindutva then.Rahul s temple going is ironically infuriating Hindutvawaadis more than secular liberals. It is mostly those who belong to or supports the Hindutva ideology who are calling it soft Hindutva.By praying at Hindu temples secular Hindu politicians are calling Hindutva s bluff. The act highlights the difference between Hindu and Hindutva countering the BJP-RSS attempt to fuse the two in the name of cultural nationalism .Praying at a temple is what crores of ordinary Hindus do some daily some weekly some only on festivals. It is an act as religious as it is cultural. It may be a public or private act but doesn t have to be a political one.Even at its lowest the Congress party and indeed other secular parties get votes from crores of Hindus most of whom are religious enough to worship one god or another some day or the other.Mass politics requires establishing a connect with people and their lives. Like Lalu Yadav s Holi or Sushma Swaraj s Karva Chauth the observance of religio-cultural occasions is used in politics to endear mass leaders to voters.Given that most voters are Hindu it is important for Hindu politicians to participate in Hindu cultural life openly for the cameras. To succeed Rahul must go beyond visiting temples and doing so only during elections. He should be there playing Holi with family and friends for the cameras spending Diwali with his voters in Amethi to establish that Amethi is home producing visuals for the TV screen the newspaper front page and the content hungry WhatsApp groups.A voter who sees you celebrate Holi or visit his local temple is thus able to feel you are one of them and thus s/he can trust you to understand her life and problems.To not engage with religion is to give the image of a deracinated Westernised liberal who doesn t understand the common man.Not all use of religion in politics is negative just as not all practising Hindus believe Muslims should be forced to become Hindu with ghar wapsi or killed with false charges of consuming beef. Everything Hindu is not Hindutva.Rahul s temple visits have shown the power of cultural engagement. If he continues on this path he could call Hindutva s bluff. The more people see Rahul in temples the more likely they are to see through Hindutva realising that Hindutva is more about Muslims than Hindus.