The Indian freedom struggle led by the Congress, was no better than some sort of political negotiation only. Outwardly, millions of Indians (mainly Hindus) were mobilized by Gandhi for doing procession and shouting on the roads. But except for Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab, no frontline Congress leader had undergone any pain for participating in the freedom struggle or given life for the country’s independence. Even Nehru, after a few days of uncomfortable stay in Nabha Jail (Punjab), shamelessly got released by signing a bond. On the other hand, and away from Congress connection, tens of thousands of other Indian freedom fighters, including the soldiers of Azad Hind Fauz, were killed, hanged, brutalized, fired upon or sent to the inhuman prison-life in Cellular Jail of Andaman.
However, in post-independent India, Congress had cunningly monopolized all the credit as the pole bearer of the freedom struggle of India. Gandhi, the wily politician in a poor man’s guise, was accorded the position of highest leader of India’s freedom struggle. It is interesting to note that dozens of other British colonies in Asia and Africa got independence within 1966 without any Gandhi. In the 1950s, a fierce propaganda was initiated in India by the Congress in the form of Bharat Maata Ki Do Hi Lal, Gandhi Aur Jawaharlal. That endeavor was intended to legitimize the greatness of Gandhi and the political monopoly of Jawaharlal Nehru in the Congress ruled India.
Congress lost all its morality as a democratic party even before 15 August 1947, when it undemocratically selected Jawaharlal Nehru as Congress President in 1946. It was known that whosoever became the Congress President then, would be the first Prime Minister of India. In those days, only Provincial Congress Committees (PCCs) were authorized to recommend the name of new Congress President. On the last day of 29 April 1946, out of fifteen, twelve PCCs recommended the name of Sardar Patel and three abstained. None recommended the name of Nehru. But as Nehru was unwilling to take the second position, Gandhi manipulated the situation and made Nehru the Congress President. The shameless Congress has the audacity to talk of democratic values of India even today.
In the case of India, there was no independence or freedom on 15 august 1947. It was a transfer of power only through an Act of the British Parliament. Congress never demanded independence in 1946-47. It accepted the formalities of transfer of power at the behest of Britain. Congress never tried to compel Britain, unlike Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, to leave India. It rather allowed the British to transfer its self-assumed colonial authority to Congress and sailed out for the Home with a stiff upper lip. In 2021, the British government paid a Court penalty of $ 800000 for refusing to make public the diaries of Lord and Lady Mountbatten for the years 1947 and 1948. It is believed that those diaries might contain their personal views on Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah and if made public might jeopardize the relation between Britain, India and Pakistan.
Nehru’s swearing-in ceremony in the name of the British Crown, as the first Prime Minister of British dominion of India on 15 August 1947, was presided over by Lord Mountbatten, whom Congress made the first Governor General of India for no good reason. Nehru’s much-publicized “Tryst With Destiny” speech of 15 August 1947 was a fraud, as up to 26 January 1950, India remained a British Dominion and, on that day, truly became an independent country.
The Indian Constitution was also framed in its Constituent Assembly by means of many deceptions. The Muslim League members of India, who fought for Islamic Pakistan but did not migrate to Pakistan, were kept as the members of India’s Constituent Assembly. In other words, Gandhi-Nehru led Congress allowed the Muslim oriented separatist politics to continue and flourish among the Indian Muslim community even after partition of the country and creation of Islamic Pakistan. The Constitution of India failed to put checks and balances in the Constitution, so that in future no more hydra of Islam-oriented politics could raise its head in the country.
On the contrary, Indian Constitution and Congress government, in the name of protecting the Muslim minority, kept on granting them Muslim Personal Laws, Waqf Board, awarding of ‘Minority Institution’ status to AMU and Jamia Millia Islamia. Islamic organizations like Tablighi Jamaat and Deoband etc., were allowed to prosper. Government financial support for Islamic education in Madrasas and Hajj subsidy were accorded. Islamic shrines were also allowed to keep 100 percent of donations collected. But all Hindu versions of such facilities, practices and institutions were categorically denied to the majority Hindu community.
Places of Worship Act-1991 specifically stopped any chance of reversal of the destruction and illegal conversion of thousands of Hindu temples in India during one thousand years of Muslim invasions and rule. India has Constitutional provisions for reservations of SC and ST community in educational institutions, jobs and promotions. These provisions were made to undo the injustice done to them in the past. But in the case of destroyed Hindu temples, injustice was allowed to continue. The Congress government and Indian Constitution also remained oblivious of the interest of the majority Hindu community in India and minority Hindu community in Pakistan and Bangladesh. As late as in December 2006, Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh even said that Muslims must have the first claim on India’s resources.
Mughals and Congress were systematically promoted in post-1947 India in an unduly and strange manner and at the expense of Hindu Indian history and other non-Congress freedom fighters. Hindu scriptures, culture and heritage were mostly excluded from public and educational domains and discourses. Muslim monsters like Tipu Sultan and Aurangzeb were glorified in Indian history.
In electoral politics, caste cards were liberally played by Congress to keep the Hindus divided. Refusal of the Congress government to control family size in India allowed population explosion among Muslim community of the country during the last seven decades. Proportion of Muslim population in India rose from 9.8 percent in 1951 to about 18.0 percent in 2022.
After 1947, Nehru established the culture of throwing government funded lavish Iftar Parties during Ramzan which was subsequently adopted by the President of India, other prominent Central ministers and so-called regional secular party leaders. But no Hindu religious festival was ever celebrated likewise. Prime Minister Nehru’s official dress was also Islamic (tight pajama and achkan). Nehru’s strong opposition to the restoration of Somnath Temple, after independence, is well documented. He consciously developed a government-sponsored system of negating and opposing Hinduism at every step in post-independent India. The tradition of presenting replica of Taj Mahal to foreign VVIPs visiting Rashtrapati Bhawan was also started during early Congress rule. It was not clear how Taj Mahal, a grave tomb constructed by the sweat, blood and money of common Indians, could represent Indian civilization and glory?
In independent India, Congress encouraged the creation of thousands of Islam-i-stan (popularly known as Muslim area or locality or mini-Pakistan) across the country as a reminder of past Islamic hegemony of 600 years of Muslim rule in India and a sign of refusal to integrate with Hindu-majority India. In those Muslim localities even the Police Force cannot dare to enter without the permission of local Muslim leader(s). While the number of Madrasas in India increased hundreds of times after independence because of encouragement and direct financial support from the Congress government, number of Vedic Gurukul decreased substantially during the same period due discouragement and denial of financial support by the Congress government. The policy of Congress to suppress and obliterate the heritage of Indic civilizational and Vedic studies has been appalling.
Fundamentally the anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim attribute of Congress is very deep-rooted. During the pre-partition riots in Punjab Gandhi said, “Hindus should not harbour anger in their hearts against Muslims even if the latter wanted to destroy them. Even if the Muslims want to kill us all we should face death bravely. If they establish their rule after killing Hindus, we would be ushering in a new world by sacrificing our lives“. Nobody knew what new world Hindus could usher in through extinction in the hands of Muslims. If independent India had the foundation of such grossly Islamic ideology, then Hindus of India did not deserve to be independent. Gandhi was the most wrong leader for Hindus in the rightest time. The famous Indian author Nirod C. Choudhury said that M K Gandhi was the most successful fraud in human history.
Congress has been an anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim party since the 1920s, though it projected itself as a secular party. But till the partition of British India and creation of Pakistan in 1947, Indian Muslims called it a Hindu Party. After 15 August 1947, Congress stooped before the knees of remaining Indian Muslims, who fought for but did not migrate to Pakistan, to get the label of Secular Party from them.
On 7 November 1966, Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government opened fire on Hindu Sadhus and killed hundreds of them in Delhi, who were demanding criminalizing cow slaughter in India as per the Directive Principle of Indian Constitution. Again between 2010 and 2014, Congress led UPA
government, in the Supreme Court, fought bitterly against the Hindus and in favor of Muslims in Ram Janambhumi Case of Ayodhya. Between 2014 and 2019, lawyers of Congress party continued to oppose Ram Janambhumi Case in the Supreme Court when the party was out of power.
Very recently (8 January 2023), Rahul Gandhi in his Bharat Jodo Yatra has thundered from Haryana that India is a country of Tapasvi and not of Pujaris. His demeaning of Hindu Pujaris was coming from the anti-Hindu slant of Congress Party. The Prince of Congress Family did not know that, as per the Constitution of India, Pujaris are the guardians (custodians) of Idols of Hindu temples. And during one thousand years of Muslim invasions and rule in India, thousands of Hindu Pujaris gave their lives to protect Hindu Idols from destruction in the hands of cruel and violent Muslim Jihadis. In modern time, Guru of Swami Vivekananda was also a Pujari. But because of the Congress policies, anti-Hindu rhetoric comes very naturally to Rahul Gandhi.
As far as Hindu Muslim tension in India is concerned, the country is square back to the 1923 situation and Congress (along with most of the regional political parties) has been playing the role of Muslim League with all sincerity and determination. Congress’s insistence to make the majority Hindu community of India secular has been like carrying coal to Newcastle. And its continued reluctance to infuse secularism among the Indian Muslim community remains deplorable. Meanwhile in 2014, Hindu nationalist party BJP has come to power in India and also won a second term election in 2019 with massive margin. Things are changing now slowly but steadily to recreate Hindu civilization-based India.
About the author: Jadabeswar Bhattacharjee served in the Government of India and retired as Higher Administrative Grade Officer after 35 years of service. After retirement from the service, he developed interest in writing on contentious issues and topics. His published books are:
(1) Politically incorrect Point of View,
(2) Politics, Bong and Faith,
(3) The Alternative Narrative,
(4) The West Bengal Saga and
(5) Political Islam and India.
