‘Manusmriti’ and Savarkar question: Where Rahul scored in Constitution debate

Marshalling “concepts” from Hindu scriptures and ancient Indian traditions to counter the BJP and, in the process, assert his credentials of a “good Hindu” seeking to reclaim Hinduism from the Sangh Parivar’s divisive Hindutva has been a repetitive theme in Rahul Gandhi’s parliamentary interventions since he assumed the role of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha in June.

On this score, Rahul’s 26-minute speech during the discussion in Lok Sabha on the “glorious journey of 75 years” of India’s Constitution was no different. If his interventions in the 18th Lok Sabha, during its inaugural and Budget sessions, weaponised the Hindu iconography of the Abhay Mudra and the Chakravyuh, respectively, to critique the ruling BJP’s political praxis and policies, Rahul’s submissions during the “Constitution debate” on Saturday (December 14) invoked the legend of Eklavya from the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

Eklavya analogy

Notwithstanding the gaffes and inconsistencies in Rahul’s narration of the story of the “low-born” Eklavya, an archer as accomplished as the Pandava prince Arjuna, who was tricked by Pandava guru Dronacharya into offering him his thumb as “guru-dakshina”, the LoP used the tale to craft a stinging political attack at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.

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“Like Eklavya’s thumb was cut off, you are cutting the thumbs of India’s youth; when you give Dharavi to Adani, you chop off the thumbs of the entrepreneurs and the small and medium businesses in Dharavi; when you give India’s ports, airports and defence industry to Adani, you slice the thumbs of all fair-play businesses in India; when you allow lateral entry (in the bureaucracy), you cut the thumbs of the youth, backward castes and the poor,” Rahul said.

The LoP went on to use the Eklavya analogy for all those adversely affected by the Modi regime’s policies — from Agniveers to farmers and students affected by repeated instances of examination paper leaks.

Risks and benefits

Rahul’s repeated reliance on Hindu mythology and iconography to take on the BJP may presumably irk the sizeable chunk of citizens who had voted in large numbers for the Congress in this year’s Lok Sabha elections in the hope of a return to secular polity. It may even strengthen the charge of pandering to soft Hindutva that the Congress is often accused of in Modi’s India.

However, it can also not be denied that in a country that has been overdosing on the opium of religion for the past decade, the Eklavya analogy to explain all that the Congress believes is wrong with the Modi government’s politics and policies — communal polarisation, crony capitalism, anti-poor legislation, et al — is a powerful but simple articulation of Rahul’s political rhetoric.

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Covered everything in 26 minutes

Rahul may not have outshone his sister and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi, who had opened the “Constitution debate” from the Opposition side a day earlier, on either style or substance. Where he did score over Priyanka, though, was in his belligerence against an equally aggressive BJP. Rahul’s intervention made it abundantly clear that he won’t dial down his attacks at the BJP that has, for the past few days, sought to paint Rahul, the Gandhi family, and the entire Congress party as a band of “anti-nationals” working to “destabilise India” in cahoots with foreign entities, including the controversial philanthropist George Soros.

Though brief, Rahul’s speech touched upon every element of the Congress’s diatribe against the Modi regime: the Modi-Adani partnership, the recent killing of five Muslim youth in UP’s Sambhal in police action and the all-pervasive atmosphere of communal hate and divisiveness, harassment of kin of the Hathras gangrape and murder victim, and the wider issue of oppression of backward and Dalit communities, institutional capture by the RSS, decimating Dr BR Ambedkar’s tenets of political equality (level playing field for all), social equality and economic equality and, of course, his continued push for a caste census and breaking the 50 per cent ceiling on reservations.

Constitution vs Manusmriti

That Rahul was able to touch upon this expansive list within 26 minutes, despite grossly lacking oratorical flourish, and merged all these strands with the BJP’s alleged efforts at undermining the Constitution deserves credit.

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However, if there was one moment of Rahul’s speech that stood out as the most powerful image from the entire duration of the nearly 17-hour-long debate, it was that of the LoP brandishing a copy of the Constitution in one hand and the Manusmriti in the other. In a masterful display of adroit politics, something he is rarely ever lauded for, Rahul quoted VD Savarkar’s assertion that the “worst thing about the Constitution of India is that there is nothing Indian about it” and that the “the book India is run by (the Constitution) should be superseded” by the Manusmriti.

No answer to “Savarkar question”

He went on to pointedly ask the BJP, “Do you stand by your leader’s (Savarkar, who Rahul described earlier as the Supreme Leader of the modern interpreter of the ideas of the RSS) words?... Because when you speak in Parliament about protecting the Constitution, you are ridiculing Savarkar, you are abusing Savarkar, you are defaming Savarkar”.

That the BJP had no counter-strike to this unexpected articulation was evident from the raucous protests Rahul’s question triggered instantly from the Treasury Benches. Later in the day, when Modi delivered his nearly two-hour-long soliloquy in the Lower House, predictably slamming the Congress and the Gandhi family with a mix of half-truths and misrepresentations while applauding himself for all that India has achieved, he too maintained a deafening silence on the Rahul’s “Savarkar question”.