Recalling Tandon, Munshi in his Lok Sabha speech, PM evokes ghosts of Congress past

The late former Congress president Purushottam Das Tandon and the late member of the Nehru Cabinet K.M. Munshi are identified with what the BJP terms the now defunct ‘conservative Hindu strain’ within the Congress

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in response to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the journey of the Indian Constitution was full of references to the past, some of them spoken of before, and some, including references to the late Congress president Purushottam Das Tandon and the late former Minister in the Nehru government K.M. Munshi, packed with political narrative-building.

Mr. Modi quoted Tandon’s views with regard to India’s glorious past and its past experiences with democracy predating the British. He also quoted Munshi’s advocacy of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) over a religion-based personal law for modernity and progressivism. The UCC is one of the core issues for the BJP and Mr. Modi repeated his government’s intention to bring in what he terms a “Secular Civil Code” along with the removal of religion-based personal laws.

Munshi parted ways with the Congress in the 1950s and formed the Swatantra Party with C. Rajagopalachari, and was later one of the founders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. A well-known writer in Gujarati, Hindi and English, he founded the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan institutions, and is identified with what the BJP terms the now defunct ‘conservative Hindu strain’ within the Congress that existed before and a few years after Independence.

“Prime Minister Modi raised the issue of Purushottam Das Tandon to build and strengthen two narratives — how Nehru was anti-democratic and turned Congress into the fiefdom of one particular family; and second, Nehru was opposed to ‘pro-Hindu’ leaders right from the beginning. Tandon was known for being a ‘pro-Hindu’ nationalist leader within the Congress, and was opposed to Nehru’s policy of ‘Muslim appeasement’. Tandon defeated Nehru’s candidate in the election for Congress president. But Nehru made Tandon resign in 1951, threatening to walk out of Congress Working Committee,” Arun Anand, author of two books on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), including The Saffron Surge: Untold Story of RSS Leadership, told The Hindu.

It was also, BJP leaders said, a comment on what they say is the situation within the Congress, with the sidelining of the “G23” group of leaders who attempted to lead an eventually unsuccessful banner of revolt within the Congress a few years ago.

“The Congress is on a particular path, [and] due to the leadership of the Gandhis, it appears irreversible. The recollection of what happened to leaders like Munshi and Tandon shows that Congress had all manner of opinion within its fold, including of Hindu consciousness, generally espoused by leaders who were not part of the dynasty. Under the one-family rule, those strains of opinions have been weeded out,” a senior office-bearer of the BJP said.

Published - December 15, 2024 06:58 pm IST