The politics of soft Hindutva by non-BJP parties has not been successful so far. It was first tried by the Congress in the 2007 Gujarat Assembly elections. At that time, all the stalwarts of the Congress were of the opinion that this strategy would be effective against the BJP. Since then, it has been tried in different ways by the Congress as well as its other allied parties, but no one has achieved success. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also visited many temples, but it did not yield any benefits. Even a party like Shiv Sena could not sustain itself in the arena of Hindutva politics. In Hindutva politics, only those who are with the BJP have been successful. That is why the politics being practiced by Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections is surprising. Akhilesh is practicing the politics of soft Hindutva. Along with this, he is also distancing himself from the party’s Muslim faces so that the BJP cannot accuse him of Muslim appeasement during the elections.
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A recent example of this is Kamal Akhtar. There was a dispute between Moradabad MLA Kamal Akhtar and the MP of his constituency, Ruchi Veera. This dispute had been going on for a while, but after the latest incident, Kamal Akhtar resigned from the post of the party’s chief whip in the Legislative Assembly. There is news that a Dalit leader is likely to be made the chief whip in his place. Before this, Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam have already distanced themselves from the SP. The Ansari brothers are away from the SP, and Atiq Ahmed is dead. As Muslim faces, the SP has new people like Iqra Hasan and Zia Ur Rehman Barq. It seems that Akhilesh Yadav wants to project Hindu leaders instead of Muslim faces. It is also being said that the SP might reduce the number of Muslim candidates in the next Assembly elections. Anyway, the Muslims, at least in Uttar Pradesh, currently have no party more reliable than the SP, nor can any other party compete with the BJP. Therefore, they will stay with the SP.
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Recently, Akhilesh Yadav went to meet Jyotirmath Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati. He sat at the feet of the Shankaracharya and sought his blessings. Akhilesh was the first to raise the issue of theft of offerings at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He and his party are constantly making it an issue and demanding a judicial inquiry. The matter has not ended with the resignation of Champat Rai, the General Secretary of the trust managing the Ram Temple. Akhilesh is demanding the dissolution of the entire trust. In this matter, the BJP has been on the back foot. On the other hand, Akhilesh is continuously raising issues related to Hindutva. When asked to visit the Ram Temple, he stated that he is building a grand Hanuman temple in Saifai, and after the completion of that temple, he will go to Ayodhya to have the darshan of Ram Lalla. It is not known how much this card will work, but Akhilesh is trying it. On one hand, he is playing the soft Hindutva card, while on the other, he is also trying to increase the caste division within Hindu society. That is why he is focusing more on the backward and Dalit communities.
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