Toxic Fantasies

The Congress party, once the standard-bearer of India’s pluralistic democracy, now appears increasingly content playing the arsonist in a flammable political landscape. Its latest incendiary salvo comes courtesy of Priyank Kharge, a Karnataka minister and son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who declared that the day the Congress comes to power, he would use every constitutional tool to dismantle the toxic, anti-national machinery of the RSS.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), whether one agrees with its worldview or not, is a legally operating, socio-cultural organisation with a legacy of volunteerism and selfless service, particularly in times of crisis. To repeatedly frame it as an anti-national cabal deserving of a ban is profoundly anti-democratic.

It appears that the Congress, under the guise of constitutionalism, has grown addicted to the authoritarian tools it once wielded under Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. Kharge’s threat to ‘dismantle’ the RSS expose the rank hypocrisy behind Rahul Gandhi’s oft-repeated mantra of ‘mohabbat ki dukaan’ (the shop of love) he claims to run in the BJP’s alleged ‘marketplace of hate.’ If love is what the Congress purports to sell, then Kharge Junior is smashing its storefront with a sledgehammer. The problem is not just one minister’s bluster; it is that this kind of extremism now flows freely from Rahul Gandhi’s inner circle. Whether it’s Digvijaya Singh peddling conspiracy theories or Priyank Kharge’s remarks, the Congress is sounding less like a responsible opposition and more like a bitter cult nursing old grievances.

It is telling that this attack comes in the wake of the RSS’s general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s call for a debate on the inclusion of the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ in the Constitution - both of which were inserted during the Emergency with no public consultation.

Of course, history has its ironies. Hours after Priyank Kharge issued his threat, the RSS released footage of his father, current Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, attending an RSS event in 2002. Mallikarjun Kharge, unlike his son, evidently understood that demonising the Sangh is neither moral nor strategic.

There is a deeper pathology at play too. In much of southern India, where caste-based and Dravidian parties reign supreme, the RSS is often the only organised force capable of mounting a cultural and political counterweight. That it does so through quiet, long-term grassroots work as opposed to electoral theatrics makes it all the more threatening to regional elites. That is why men like Priyank Kharge detest it. Their visceral dislike is not based on evidence but on fear that the ground is shifting beneath their dynastic feet.

The Sangh has survived bans before, by Nehru and by Indira Gandhi. It has endured character assassination, legal persecution and political ostracism and outlived all of its attackers. It is unlikely to be undone by a minister whose primary credential appears to be his surname.

If Rahul Gandhi is serious about rebuilding the Congress and reclaiming national relevance, he might start by shutting down the rhetoric mills in his own backyard.