During Gujarat assembly election campaign BJP had challenged the religious identity of Rahul Gandhi. It had sought clarification whether Rajiv Gandhi is Hindu or not. Rahul Gandhi and Congress party should have replied to that in the light of constitution but he did not do so. Instead, he visited as many temples as visited by Modi. Earlier also questions were raised about the religious identity of Gandhi family. In 1990 the then key Congress leader Sharad Pawar and his followers left the party and formed a new party named NCP saying that the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi was a Christian.
Rahul Gandhi’s temple visit during Gujarat election campaign trying to compete with Modi and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor writing a book ‘Why I am a Hindu?’ all these were the efforts to prove that BJP is not the only Hindu representative party.
All these incidents show that religion is used for political gains. This is widely publicised that only Hindus are nationalists. Those who are not Hindus are anti-nationals. Non-Hindus should live as the second-class citizen. When the elections arrive, Congress also takes soft-Hindutva stand.
Has Congress lost faith in secularism? Some think that being secularist means to be anti-religious. The true meaning of secularism is giving equal opportunity to every religion.