After political opponents accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of engaging in ‘Soft Hindutva’, AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that he attends temples because he is a Hindu and that no one should object.
On November 1, Arvind Kejriwal proposed free pilgrimages to different religious sites, including the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, if his party was elected to power in Goa.
Kejriwal and several members of his party paid a visit to the Ram temple complex in Ayodhya last month and offered prayers.
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Arvind Kejriwal responded to the question about whether he was partaking in “Soft Hindutva” by visiting temples during his two-day tour to poll-bound Goa.
Arvind Kejriwal was cited by ANI as saying, “Do you not go to a temple? There is nothing wrong with visiting temples… I am a Hindu, I visit Ram temple, Hanuman temple… Why would anyone have a problem with it? … Why are they accusing me? Let people say.”
When asked about Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s assertion that the AAP was replicating his government’s policies such as supporting pilgrimages, Arvind Kejriwal responded that Sawant was copying the Aam Aadmi party in terms of providing free electricity and water, and providing 10,000 jobs as well.
The AAP has always been a populist centrist party, fighting against established parties on behalf of the forgotten “Aam Aadmi”. However, the AAP has swerved in numerous directions within that broad framework, attempting to widen its political space.
The initial stage of the expansion strategy is quite simple. The party is focusing on smaller states i.e. Uttarakhand, Goa, and Himachal Pradesh, where the Congress and the BJP are normally competing. Punjab is another high-growth state because it has the highest level of anti-political sentiment across all political parties, which seems like an ideal scenario for the AAP.
Over the last few years, a seemingly limitless stream of words has been showered on the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) infatuation with Hindu majoritarian iconography. In recent months, that flirtation has undoubtedly evolved into active co-option. Arvind Kejriwal led his Cabinet in Diwali prayers at a “state-of-the-art” facsimile of Ayodhya’s Ram Temple.
Arvind Kejriwal has clearly moved on from his Hanuman Chalisa era of public shows of religion. If Kejriwal had limited himself to that, he may have been forgiven for merely creating a creative blend of religion and politics that has long found validity throughout India’s political spectrum.
Mahatma Gandhi was well-known for expressing much of his politics in religious terms. Even under the stewardship of agnostic Jawahar Lal Nehru, the Congress party was not above employing Hindu iconography in its political messaging.
The famous Congress poster from the 1952 election featured a pair of sacred cows beside a portrait of Nehru, encouraging voters to “vote for a stable, secular, progressive state.”
Meanwhile, with Modi’s rise to power, religiosity parades have become an inescapable part of being a major political figure, much like having a Twitter account. From Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee to Akhilesh Yadav, everyone makes a point of visiting temples in front of the cameras. Nobody wants to be accused of being “anti-Hindu,” the ultimate slander in modern Indian politics.
Moreover, the AAP’s dramatic move to take political control of Ram Mandir from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is more than just defensive Hindu symbolism. Ram Mandir is a symbol of Hindu India’s ‘winning’ against both Muslims and a secular notion of India. It’s a well-thought-out element of Kejriwal’s larger drive to reorient his party’s beliefs.
If Mr Kejriwal’s intent behind this move is to mould his and his party’s image into a more established version of what the public is accustomed to, one might be inclined to say that he is going along a finely traversed road. However, if this is not a deliberate stance, one might well be surprised at worst and disappointed at best.
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