Painting an ominous picture in Rajasthan, addressing fawning admirers, the prime minister intoned – “This ‘urban Naxal’ mindset, mothers and sisters, they will not even leave your mangalsutra. They can go to that level… The Congress manifesto says they will calculate the gold with mothers and sisters, get information about it and then distribute that property. They will distribute it to whom – Manmohan Singh’s government said Muslims have the first right on the country’s assets.”
The outpouring, shorn of political correctness, has caused India’s Left to have an apoplectic fit. The Congress, which the prime minister equated with displaying an “urban Naxal” mindset, has in the meantime pounded on the Election Commission’s door calling upon it to book him for “hate speech” and for spewing “inflammatory fake news”.
While the Congress can build a case to accuse the prime minister of highly polarising rhetoric, it may find it hard to prove, in principle, its charge that Narendra Modi and the BJP are spreading “fake news”.
The Congress manifesto is implicit in its commitment to undertake some nature of wealth or income redistribution. Consider what the vision document says – “Congress will conduct a nationwide socio-economic and caste census to enumerate the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions. Based on the data, we will strengthen the agenda for affirmative action.”
It doesn’t take rocket science to know that determining socio-economic status requires obtaining information on what income and assets entities, including individuals, own. Then, a day after the Congress manifesto was released, Rahul Gandhi in Hyderabad elaborated on the idea. Here is the Congress scion in his own words – “We will conduct a financial and institutional survey to find out who holds the country’s wealth, what section holds it, and then we will undertake revolutionary work. Whatever your right, we will work on giving you the same.”
There you go, bingo, Rahul Gandhi is clearly talking about wealth redistribution. About playing virtuous Robinhood – securing from the rich to give to the poor. Now that the Congress wealth redistribution ploy has been established beyond reasonable doubt, we must ask why it is suddenly distancing itself from the well-articulated manifesto promise?
The answer lies in what Prime Minister Modi somewhat injudiciously warned Hindus about. Remember, the Congress historically views Muslims as the most disadvantaged sections of the population. Former PM Manmohan Singh had himself said so, very clearly, in 2006. Sample his exact quote – “I believe our collective priorities are clear: programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children. The component plans for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes will need to be revitalised. We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources.”
Now applying Singh’s logic to the Congress party’s prospective “wealth redistribution” policy, any future Congress administration will naturally prioritise Muslims in wealth redistribution. With the PM taking this element of the Congress policy to the voter, the grand old party has suddenly realised that it could potentially alienate the majority community.
Quite obviously, it is now backpedalling furiously.
Of course, it isn’t just about Muslims being the first in line to benefit from prospective Congress wealth redistribution plans. Their deemed indigence could also exempt their assets and incomes from being assessed and surveyed under any putative Congress-led government.
To elaborate, if an “institutional” survey is to be conducted, as Gandhi has declared, religious institutions will also be included.
Hindu temples hold massive assets in the form of land and gold. The Waqf Board also administers huge tracts of land and mosques with valuable assets. But, since the Congress regards Muslims as disadvantaged, will Waqf properties be exclusively exempt from the survey?
If this is the case, then only Hindu religious institutions will be made to part with their wealth. This, as you know, is not without precedent. The state has enacted laws that presently allow it to administer Hindu religious bodies exclusively. The same law also allows the state to tax the income of these Hindu institutions.
As wise legal minds never tire of pointing out – ‘If there is a precedent there is a way.’
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