‘Moditva is beyond Hindutva’

Congress MP and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor defended Rahul Gandhi’s visits to places of worship on his campaign tours, describing the Congress president as “one of the most thoughtful, best-read Indian politicians on issues of religion and spirituality”.“His whole notion of the division between the Shivcentred culture and Vishnucentred culture, and his ability to explain the differences between Buddhist vipassana and Hindu vipassana will blow your mind away,” Tharoor said.“People don’t realise that here is a guy who is quite serious about religion.”Attending the morning session of the Times Litfest Delhi, presented by Rajnigandha, on Sunday with his forehead smeared with a tilak — he came straight from a temple after paying obeisance with his mother, Lily, whose birthday it was — Tharoor also defended his praise of PM Modi when he had first assumed office in 2014. Attributing this to his respect of the mandate of the people who elected the PM to power, Tharoor said, “By acknowledging some of the positive things that the PM said, what I was doing was to lay clear what the par was against which he would be judged later… Modi came to power saying some of the most liberal things, but depending on some of the most illiberal elements — the RSS volunteers and their bigots — for political support.”Tharoor, whose remarks came during a talk on his book — The Paradoxical Prime Minister —also said even though Modi was a product of the Sangh, he sought to rise above it. “Moditva is beyond Hindutva because it is Hindutva plus Modi and the Modi element is this personality cult that has been built around him. Everything from Bal Narendra comic books to the 56-inch chest story is an attempt to go beyond the appeal of Hindutva to the larger appeal of an individual who is comfortable with high finance, with big corporations, and modern technology; somebody who can brandish a trishul in one hand, and click a mouse with the other.”Tharoor acknowledged RSS’s contributions in pre-Partition Pakistan, but ran it down for promoting hate and divisiveness. “The record of the RSS involves some very good actions but also actions of hate and bigotry that had a divisive effect on our country. A man like Sardar Patel would not ban the RSS for two years in 1948 without just cause. And in his analysis, he said RSS has been spreading hatred.”On Sabarimala“Congress stands for the equality of men and women absolutely unconditionally in every sphere,” Tharoor said. “But as I saw the reactions of my own people — those who I represent in Parliament — and I began to see the depth of feeling, particularly among the women in Kerala, I realised that perhaps we were framing the debate wrongly. When you see it from the outside, you see Sabarimala as an issue of equality and you frame it that way. From the point of view of the believers, the fact is that they don’t frame it as an issue of equality; they frame it as an issue of sanctity. I have women telling me they don’t feel their equality is threatened, but that the sanctity of the temple is going to be damaged if people who do not share their devotion force themselves into the sacred sanctum sanctorum… Ultimately it is about belief. In polls on Sabarimala, 90-95% public — not just Hindus— have said they are against this decision.”