Congress may rake up Pandit Malaviya issue to counter Modi

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi garlanding Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya’s statue before submitting his nomination papers has started a fresh debate.

The Congress blamed Modi of continuing to usurp the legacy of the Congress and its leaders on one hand, and on the other proclaiming that his ambition is a “Congress-mukt Bharat.”

Activists of Samajwadi Party and the Congress’s student outfit, the National Students Union of India, washed Malaviaya’s statue on the Benares Hindu University campus, a day after Modi garlanded it. Malaviya’s grandson, Justice Giridhar Malaviya, favoured Modi in Varanasi. The name of Pandit Madan Mohan Malavia, a leading figure of the Independence movement and four-time President of the Indian National Congress, is still revered in Varanasi.

The Congress had also frowned on the use of the name of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel by the BJP against the Nehru family.

Malaviya’s teachings, literature and quotes are likely to be used against Modi by the Congress during the campaign for the elections to be held on May 12. One such quote will be this: “The Congress represents our desire to be free and opposing it means we are opposing our desire to be independent and hurting it. So, it’s the duty of every Indian to support the Congress.”

Views do not match A senior Congress leader, quoting from a biography of Malaviya authored by Madhukar Upadhyay and published by the All-India Congress Committee, said the views of Modi and Malaviya will not match at any point.

Malaviya had also termed the Congress as his mother. “How can I oppose the Congress? It is like a mother to me and I run after it like a child,” Malaviya had said when he was asked about the differences he had with the party’s leadership during the national movement.

The Congress has also picked some statements of Malaviya on Hindu-Muslim unity. One such quote reads like this: “India is not a country of the Hindus only. It is a country of the Muslims, the Christians and the Parsees, too. Those who disrupt this unity are enemies of their community and their country alike.”

“One should have staunch faith in his religion but not censure other religions; must be indifferent to difference of opinions and bear friendship with all living beings,” is another quote by Malaviya, likely to be used by the Congress during the campaign.