In yet another bizzare comment, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi credited the Ramayana author sage Valmiki for giving India the ‘idea of Constitution’. He made the comment while addressing a rally on Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti.
Insinuating Maharishi Valmiki to be a Dalit leader, while flagging off a ‘Shobha Yatra’ in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi said, “People of India used in the constitution the ideology that was propagated by Valmiki ji. Today we see attacks on his ideology & on poor Dalit brothers & sisters.”
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1450737088798748677?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwIn what seemed like replacing ‘Idea of India’ with ‘Idea of Valmikiji’, the Congress leader was heard saying, “Valmiki ji showed a path to the nation. His message was about love & brotherhood. Today when we see India, we see his message being attacked. Our constitution is a constitution of Valmiki ji’s ideology.”
He further added that the Indian constitution is not new, but it is old. As the things said by Valmiki have been incorporated into the constitution by the people of India. He then added that thoughts of Valmiki in the constitution and the Dalit community in the country are being attacked.
https://twitter.com/INCIndia/status/1450736417496305664?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwPromising to protect the Dalits from this ‘attack’, Gandhi added, “I would like to give a message to the Dalit brothers and sisters that Congress party will stop these attacks. The more they break the country, the more we will connect the country. The more they spread hatred, the more we will speak of love & brotherhood.”
Interestingly, with several state assembly elections in sight, the Congress party has decided to launch its ‘Shobha Yatra’ on the birth anniversary of a sage who authored the epic on Hindu god they once disbelieved in.
Congress and the ‘myth’ of Ramayana
“The Ramayana may have moved millions since civilisation took root, but for the Centre, Valmiki’s tale of Lord Ram lacks scientific and historical veracity,” Congress-led UPA government had told the Supreme Congress in 2007.
Supporting the Sethusamudram project that would have destroyed the Adam’s Bridge or Ram Setu, the Manmohan Singh government in an affidavit to Supreme Court had said, “Valmiki Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature, but these cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters and occurrences of events depicted therein.”
Fourteen years later, the leader of the Congress party has thanked the same sage for giving the ‘ideology for Indian constitution.’
Netizens react
Social media users were quick to educate the Congress leader and helped him differentiate between Maharishi Valmiki- the author of Hindu epic Ramayana and BR Ambedkar- a prominent architect of the Indian Constitution.
“Wow, did not know Ambedkar was a ghost writer for Valmiki’s constitution,” wrote a user.
https://twitter.com/ChellamSir/status/1450735263282450439?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwTaking a dig at the Congress leader, another user Tweeted, “He just has one template and keeps changing the variables of it. Today’s variable is Valmiki.”
https://twitter.com/ShodhkartaRahul/status/1450738650715590663?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“Ok then make Ramayana as National Rule book. Full support,” demanded another user.
https://twitter.com/trulyindian_111/status/1450744523894624258?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw