Mahabharatha is not just one of India’s oldest epics but it is also a treasure trove of life lessons that apply to this day and perhaps forever. Running along the main theme it has countless stories and stories within stories. 

One interesting incident in the great war between Pandavas and Kauravas is that of Duryodhana going to battle wearing his guru Dronacharya’s body armour (kavacha). Rajaji considered it so important, he devoted a small chapter to it in his Tamil translation of the great epic. His work is a classic for all times, as much as the original itself is. It’s also available in English.

In fact, one lesson that comes out repeatedly in Mahabharata is having a healthy respect for your rival. Never underestimate him. Krishna profusely praises many Kaurava warriors, including Duryodhana for their valour, even as he condemns their actions. He warns Arjuna too that day. Anyway, with that borrowed shield, Arjuna’s arrows initially have no impact and Krishna himself is flummoxed. But Arjuna soon realizes the truth. He tells Krishna: “This man is wearing someone else’s body armour like a cattle carrying the load”. And knowing the secrets of that shield, he soon finds a way to send Duryodhana packing.

Looking at Rahul Gandhi’s silly attacks on Hindutva raises a question – is he fighting on borrowed armour?

Left pogrom on Hindu faith

Left clearly sees our belief in Sanatana dharma as a key stumbling block. If you look at world history, they have managed to come to power in Christian, Buddhist and surprisingly even Islamic countries (Afghanistan was one) and hold on to that power through their usual violence for decades. But they have failed big time in India – both via bullets and ballots. Reason? Inherently democratic and highly resilient Hindu faith that abhors ideology of mass murderers. Even if much of communism’s violent history has been kept out of our history books by its eminent historian cabal. 

Poorly camouflaged left attacks on Hinduism, passed off in various ways as scientific thought, pro-subaltern etc., has by now been completely unmasked. Slowly it is becoming obvious even to non-BJP Hindus that nothing short of a full-fledged Pol Potist pogrom is being waged against the Hindu faith. If rapist savagery and mass murders are favoured weapons of left learned from their great gurus like Mao, Stalin, Kim and others, this battle is waged equally in the civil space. Fake intellectuals, pseudo-historians and the so-called “civil” society are warriors in this “throw everything including the kitchen sink” attack. This requires an entirely different response – something pro-Hindu forces are learning only now, that too slowly. I have more to say on that in a future article.

As mentioned earlier, one key weapon has been the co-option of the dynasty. It brought power, cash flow and access to state funds as well as control of key institutions to use in this war. But this came with a big caveat. Indira Gandhi and even MMS were too clever to be manipulated. Rajiv never needed them in his brief reign. In fact, Mrs Gandhi ended up using the left whenever it suited her agenda and courted RSS when that was more useful. Dr Singh, even as he praised the left’s “patriotism” (perhaps a “father not hiding in the barn” type remark) knew when to tell them to take a hike as he did after the nuke deal. He saw to it that UPA2 needed them a lot less.

In Rahul Gandhi though, the left sees a once in a lifetime opportunity. I have not heard of anyone credible accusing Rahulji of being too clever. You don’t need forwarded Whatsapp jokes to realise that. But he is ideal for the left. They should feel a lot safer dealing with him.

So clearly, via Kanhaiya and other JNU fringe left now in Congress employ (or is it deputation?), Rahul Gandhi is being told, at the pain of losing the support of the ecosystem and Gurugram style outsourced shared services centres, to attack Hindutva on daily basis. Left’s global linkages with the Hindu phobic “woke” crowd and the media muscle that it brings add a powerful force multiplier that Rahul can ill afford to lose. While there are some family serfs in academia and media that are not leftist by conviction, they too depend on the left ecosystem for career progression and hence won’t openly challenge the party line.

And he is trying. He has not much choice – he is not in the class of Akhilesh or Tejaswi Yadav who can get their hands dirty and jump into the fray as well as think up homegrown strategies. 

Duryodhana’s borrowed kavacha

The problem is Rahul Gandhi is not just a gaffe-prone poor communicator, with poor command of Hindi. He likely simply doesn’t care much for the message itself. All he wants is the PM chair that he and his Momma think belongs to him as a birthright and has been usurped illegally by rank outsider Modi. His sister Priyanka is probably even less convinced. She has what it takes – her grandma’s face – as family courtiers in media aka “speaking truth to power journalists” tell us. You see, that was more than enough when the “Idea of India” was ruling supreme. Damaad-ji has not signed any lucrative land deals in years despite his well-earned reputation for finding such deals during the UPA era. Does anything else matter?

That will probably explain his Hindu vs Hindutva attacks as well as his frequent trips to temples and other confusing steps. Confusing because even political experts don’t know what to read from it! Shiv Sena, not willing to surrender Hindutva votes to its ex-ally, thought he was referring to “Hindu rule” and welcomed it, whereas Owaisi saheb came to the same conclusion and opposed it! The left ecosystem was delighted, assumed he was taking on BJP on their home turf and welcomed it with Wire promptly coming out with OpEd singing his praise! Rahul has talked about Hindutva and its icons in other situations too. His “my name is not Savarkar” remark is another example. Of course, his great gramps Motilalji signed a letter of obedience to release his son Jawaharlal from a very comfy jail, that too after hardly a few days. But no eminent historian is going to point that out not if they don’t want their Wiki pages vandalised.

So here is our Prince like Duryodhana going around in someone else’s armour hoping to use that to defeat Modi. 

The other possibility

Of course, the entire premise of this article could be wrong – Rahul is not flying on a false flag but is a leftist fully sold on the JNU/Alimuddin agendas. That only makes it much worse for India and its future but vacates the centrist space that is now free for anyone, including our beloved Yugpurush or even BJP to occupy. I wish, for India’s sake, they do. But it also makes it even more important for voters to recognize and reject Rahul and what he stands for.

Either way, it is up to Modi and BJP to make sure the lesson he learns will resonate loudly not just for him but for all future dynasts tempted by the left’s goodie bags – that anti-Hindu politics, however well disguised, or covered up in faux intellectual verbiage, will not fetch you the chair. On the contrary, it will turn off Hindus who have nothing against Muslims or Christians but have become fully “woke” to the left’s anti-Hindu pogrom.

Let us watch the space!