“We imagine there are two varieties of individuals on this world, those that imagine in God, and those that don’t…we belong to the previous class.”
Drowned out by the political noise generated by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s demand for photos of Hindu deities Lakshmi and Ganesha on foreign money notes have been these remarks by senior AAP chief Atishi on Wednesday.
“There are atheists and believers. Atheists don’t imagine in God, God’s blessings, accord no place to God of their lives. However there are believers who imagine in God. They imagine within the blessings of God, who occupies an necessary house of their lives. Hum to aastik log hain (We’re believers),” stated Atishi.
On Wednesday, maybe no higher assertion may seize the AAP’s gradual transition from a celebration which steadfastly shunned ideological labels in its preliminary years, adopting an virtually apolitical and corporate-like method, to 1 that wears religiosity on its sleeves.
The celebration has lengthy been conscious that because it grew, it may now not take a indifferent view on points like caste and faith. And swiftly shifting in to fill the vacuum left by a faltering Congress, it has been reworking, one piety mission at a time.
Atishi herself dropped her surname Marlena derived from Marx and Lenin within the run as much as the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Her assertion Wednesday was a response to the BJP’s criticism that Kejriwal was making an attempt to counter AAP’s “anti-Hindu credentials” by elevating the demand concerning the foreign money notes.
Within the brief time period, AAP hopes that the transfer will assist reverse the potential losses in poll-bound Gujarat within the wake of the conversion row involving Delhi minister Rajendra Pal Gautam. After banners got here up throughout Gujarat displaying Kejriwal in a cranium cap following the occasion, Gautam resigned.
“The genius in Kejriwal’s demand is the truth that no celebration can both endorse or oppose it,” stated an AAP functionary. The leaders of the BJP and the Congress acknowledged in non-public that tackling the demand was difficult.
“The BJP, as an alternative of diverting from the subject, ought to merely reply whether or not it’s in favour or in opposition to the attraction made by Kejriwal,” AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh stated, in search of to nook the BJP by demanding a solution in binaries.
Nevertheless, Kejriwal’s transfer, and Atishi’s enunciation of the celebration’s stand on faith, additionally mark an escalation in AAP’s efforts to reorient itself consistent with the perceived well-liked sentiments below an ascendent BJP and the RSS.
Lately, Kejriwal has organised State-funded Lakshmi Puja, introduced pilgrimage schemes to non secular websites, together with Ayodhya, visited and provided worship on the Ram Temple, declared that he was born on “Krishna Janmashtami” and kind of claimed that God had despatched him to conquer evil.
Parallely, AAP has chosen silence on points associated to the rights and problems with minorities, with its leaders admitting this was to protect in opposition to antagonising the Hindus. Whereas this has been clear for the reason that 2020 Delhi riots, and the anti-CAA protests which it sought to view from the lens of the setback to the economic system, that is much more pronounced because it seeks to emerge because the BJP’s foremost challenger in Gujarat. AAP has not raised the 2002 Gujarat riots challenge and never made any touch upon the discharge of the convicted rapists of Bilkis Bano.
On Wednesday, one of many factors raised by AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj was: “Has one Muslim chief opposed Kejriwal’s announcement?” Howsoever the others learn this bluster, AAP’s perception is that the Muslims gained’t drift away from the celebration as “the group understands that the celebration is defeating the BJP at its personal sport”. Plus, the truth that they’ve few options.
Kejriwal, whereas fielding questions after making the attraction for photos of Ganesha and Lakshmi on foreign money notes, answered that Indonesia, a Muslim-majority nation, additionally has foreign money notes emblazoned with the image of Lord Ganesha. “If Indonesia can do that, why not us? Nobody ought to have any objection, I really feel. That is about prosperity for all and the nation’s affluence. Goddess Lakshmi symbolises prosperity and wealth,” the AAP chief justified.
He added that he was not perturbed by statements that AAP was practising Hindutva politics. “Let allegations be levelled. However I’ve spoken to many individuals and everybody feels it is a good thought. Complete nation will likely be blessed if the foreign money notes have the pictures of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi,” stated Kejriwal.
If Atishi’s remarks summed up AAP of right now, Kejriwal’s feedback would have reminded those that have tracked the AAP chief’s journey from an RTI activist to anti-corruption crusader to true blue politician, of one other assertion of his. Describing himself after successful the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2006, Kejriwal had stated, he was “neither a believer nor an atheist”.
