Congress plans think tank to aid ideological fight with BJP

The embattled Congress is considering setting up a think tank consisting of intellectuals who can help the party formulate a stand on ideological issues during crucial elections to fight the BJP.

This was a suggestion made at a marathon meeting party leaders had Monday.

According to sources, leaders expressed concern over the BJP using the Hindutva plank to garner support and win elections. It was also pointed out that the saffron party was effectively using identity politics to its advantage.

“Take for example the establishment of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat Development Corporation. What should be our stand on this? We can’t oppose it nor can we endorse it. The same thing happened with the Kadu Golla Development Board, which we couldn’t oppose,” one leader who attended the meeting told DH.

The BJP’s amplification of the ‘love jihad’ issue was also discussed. “Senior leaders such as Siddaramaiah and G Parameshwara suggested a think tank comprising writers, professors and other intellectuals to advise and guide the party on countering issues like love jihad,” a KPCC functionary said.

During the 2018 Assembly polls, the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi visited temples, which was seen as ‘soft Hindutva’ to counter the BJP’s ‘hardcore Hindutva’. However, the Congress lost as the BJP pressed hard on the Hindutva agenda.

Even during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP strategised to weave together a United Spectrum of Hindu Votes (USHV), a phrase coined by some pundits to refer to consolidation of votes across castes and social groups under the larger Hindutva umbrella.

KPCC president D K Shivakumar told reporters after the marathon meeting that the party would only extol the Hindutva propounded by Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda.

It was also decided to set up a core committee akin to the BJP. The idea of having a core committee came from some senior leaders who said it would help make quick decisions at crucial junctures.

“Earlier, we did have a team of 17-18 important leaders when Dinesh Gundu Rao was KPCC president. Now, decisions will be taken by a slightly smaller committee,” KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed said.