Congress MP Manish Tewari on Wednesday targeted RahulGandhi and said the party leaders should not indulge in Hindutva debate, 'whichis miles away from the core ideology of the Congress'.
Tewari said, "Congress philosophically should notindulge in this debate which is miles away from its core ideology."
Tewari emphasised that the party should stick to its coreideology and should not deviate from it as the party leaders in the past triedto toe a 'soft-Hindutva' line to counter the BJP.
He said, "Those people who believe in 'Liberalismand Secularism' should be in the party, otherwise if you want religion to bepart of politics then you should be in the right wing parties not Congress,which believes in secularism."
Later in a tweet, Tewari said, "In Hinduism VSHindutva debate some people in Congress miss a fundamental point.If I were tobelieve that my religious identity should be basis of my politics then I shouldbe in A Majoritarian or Minoritarian Political Party.I am in Congress because Ibelieve in Nehruvian Ideal that Religion is a private space activity. Everyonehas the right to practice, profess and propagate their religion in theirprivate lives. In Public domain there should be a strict separation of theChurch & State.I am a Hindu,I worship my God but that is not mypolitics."
"In the global struggle between Right Wing Populismand Liberalism Proggressive parties can not ever win hearts and minds of peopleif they offer 'ersatz' ideologies predicated on religion & caste bereft ofcore convictions and pluralistic beliefs," he added in the tweet.
The whole debate started with Salman Khurshid's bookwhere he compared Hindutva with ISIS.
Later Rahul Gandhi while speaking in a party functionlast week said, "What is the difference between Hinduism, as we know it,and Hindutva? Are they the same thing? If they are the same thing, why don'tthey have the same description? Why do they have different names? Why do youuse the word Hinduism, why not just use Hindutva, if they are the same thing?They are obviously different things."
Tewari also said that it has to be accepted thatCongress' ideology has been overshadowed.
"Today, whether we like it or not, the divisive andhateful ideology of the RSS and BJP has overshadowed the loving, affectionateand nationalistic ideology of the Congress, and this is what we have toaccept," he said.
"But our ideology is alive, it is vibrant. We haveto propagate our ideology by training our own people and by involving them in aconversation about what it means to be a Congress person and how is thatdifferent from being a RSS person," Rahul Gandhi said.