Fight is between Indian nationalists and pseudo nationalists: Congress at Chintan Shivir

At its latest edition of Chintan Shivir which began on Friday in Rajasthan, the Congress party reiterated the party’s national narrative, saying “Indian nationalism is at the core of Congress.”

Ahead of the opening session of Chintan Shivir at Udaipur, senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Ajay Maken and Guarav Gogoi projected the party's objective to be that of a fight between “Indian nationalists” and “pseudo nationalists”.

“Our commitment to the Indian Nation is founded upon years of determined fight against British Rule. When Bharatiya Janata Party’s forebears and the Muslim League were forming joint governments in Sindh and West Bengal as puppets of British, it is the Congress party that was waging a battle for India’s freedom. The RSS didn’t even fly the National Flag for 52 years,” the Congress said, reviving its attack on the saffron party over its role in the freedom struggle.

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Congress, over the past few years, has repeatedly faced BJP’s criticism for alleged “pseudo secularism”. The Congress vouchsafed for “nationalism and love for India” while it called the nationalism of BJP-RSS as “fake nationalism” at its three-day mega brainstorming conclave.

Battling BJP’s aggressive nationalism pitch on the electoral front, the Congress has repeatedly fallen back on its pre-independence freedom fighter icons. This was evident even in Udaipur, when the party asserted that the history of Independent India had been written with the blood and sacrifice of Congressmen and other historical party leaders for protecting the territorial integrity of India.

Claiming that it was Congress that has shown leadership during tough challenges, at the brainstorming conclave, the party cited former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s leadership during the war with Pakistan in 1965, Indira Gandhi’s "heroic" role in liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 and Rajiv Gandhi’s "firm handling" of the border issue with China during the Sumdorong Chu standoff and claimed their party has a stellar track record of firmly dealing with national security issues.

The mood on the first day of the Chintan Shivir was bringing up the idea of “Indian nationalists versus pseudo-nationalists.” The Congress party members were of the opinion that the principles of the Indian National Congress represented the Indian way of life—of rejecting all extremes, which is the true Indian path and has been sustained by civilization in the region for 3,0000 years.