prasad1
Active member
Disclaimer:
I am not a Rahul Gandhi fan.
Rahul Gandhi's self-discovery as a practising Hindu and an 'uchch koti' (upper tier) Brahmin has confounded his ideological adversaries and outraged his likely friends. He's got tough love from both. We are arguing here that he has made a most audacious and smart political move at this juncture.
The BJP was so irritated that it first wanted to know his gotra as evidence of his claim to being a janeu-dhari (sacred thread-wearing) Brahmin. It unsettled them even more when the gotra was disclosed.
They fielded their science and technology minister to raise profound 'technical' points on how Brahmin gotra travels down the generations.
See what political chutzpah by the top leader of the Congress, India's largest claimant of the secular space, has achieved.
Until not long ago, the debate was on whether Rahul is a Hindu at all or a closet Christian. Then, it moved to whether he is a Brahmin. Now it is about whether he can claim to be a Kashmiri Kaul Brahmin from the Dattatreya gotra.
Since religion, caste and gotra has now been made so central to national politics, this is progress.
A move up the value chain. Definitely for Rahul and his party.
We don't know yet if Rahul did this to a plan or is it just that he went to a couple of temples during the Gujarat elections and then the law of unintended consequences took over.
If you are a Rahul/Congress supporter, you can use that expression 'political masterstroke' usually copyrighted by Modi-Shah supporters.
If you are from the BJP, you might say he's recklessly walking into an unprotected political place. He will not get the Hindu vote and lose the secular vote, particularly the Muslim.
As they'd put it in heartland Hindi: Duvidha mein dono gaye, maya milee na Ram (I lost both in my confusion: Worldly pleasures and God).
I'd prefer a different description.
https://www.rediff.com/news/column/rahuls-temple-run-is-smart-politics/20181214.htm
I am not a Rahul Gandhi fan.
Rahul Gandhi's self-discovery as a practising Hindu and an 'uchch koti' (upper tier) Brahmin has confounded his ideological adversaries and outraged his likely friends. He's got tough love from both. We are arguing here that he has made a most audacious and smart political move at this juncture.
The BJP was so irritated that it first wanted to know his gotra as evidence of his claim to being a janeu-dhari (sacred thread-wearing) Brahmin. It unsettled them even more when the gotra was disclosed.
They fielded their science and technology minister to raise profound 'technical' points on how Brahmin gotra travels down the generations.
See what political chutzpah by the top leader of the Congress, India's largest claimant of the secular space, has achieved.
Until not long ago, the debate was on whether Rahul is a Hindu at all or a closet Christian. Then, it moved to whether he is a Brahmin. Now it is about whether he can claim to be a Kashmiri Kaul Brahmin from the Dattatreya gotra.
Since religion, caste and gotra has now been made so central to national politics, this is progress.
A move up the value chain. Definitely for Rahul and his party.
We don't know yet if Rahul did this to a plan or is it just that he went to a couple of temples during the Gujarat elections and then the law of unintended consequences took over.
If you are a Rahul/Congress supporter, you can use that expression 'political masterstroke' usually copyrighted by Modi-Shah supporters.
If you are from the BJP, you might say he's recklessly walking into an unprotected political place. He will not get the Hindu vote and lose the secular vote, particularly the Muslim.
As they'd put it in heartland Hindi: Duvidha mein dono gaye, maya milee na Ram (I lost both in my confusion: Worldly pleasures and God).
I'd prefer a different description.
https://www.rediff.com/news/column/rahuls-temple-run-is-smart-politics/20181214.htm