In competitive politics over national icons, Congress' reactive narrative doesnt help its cause

New Delhi: Competitive politics to claim the legacy of national icons Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru was on full display on their martyrdom day on Wednesday. 

The three were hanged to death by the British on March 23, 1931, in the Lahore conspiracy case. 

For the past many years now, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has sought to claim the legacy of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and made him the centrepiece of its politics not only in Punjab but outside too.

This visible shift from its early days when Mahatma Gandhi was the central theme came during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as Arvind Kejriwal’s party realised the revolutionary freedom fighter’s appeal among the youth of Punjab and other parts of the country. The AAP could afford to do so since it has no historical baggage and claimed to have laid its foundation in 2012-13 primarily to cleanse the Indian political system of corruption.

Among the AAP leaders, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann seeks to embrace Bhagat Singh’s legacy the most. He has made a yellow-coloured turban an essential part of his attire though there is no clear historical account of Bhagat Singh wearing a Basanti pagadi.

After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power at the Centre and Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, there has been an upward trend in the competitive politics over national icons.

Till now, both the BJP and the Congress slugged it out among themselves to claim the legacy of the national heroes but the AAP's entry in this arena has disturbed both parties.

Soon after coming to power, the BJP first appropriated Mahatma Gandhi and then turned to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. This prompted Congress to accuse the ruling party of appropriating its political icons for electoral mileage and also because it doesn’t have heroes of its own.

The grand old party has also often cited Patel’s communique of 1948 following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, banning the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the BJP, as its counter to BJP’s nationalism pitch.

In response, the BJP has maintained that it respected each and every freedom fighter, unlike the Congress that venerated only those belonging to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

That said, Congress appears to be on the defensive over promoting the national icons and usually adopts a reactive narrative when others do so.

One such example was seen on Wednesday when Congress leaders from Rahul Gandhi to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Randeep Singh Surjewala paid glowing tributes to Bhagat Singh.

In this case, even the BJP appeared to have lost the race to the AAP given that Mann not only took oath as Punjab’s 18th chief minister at Bhagat Singh’s Khatkar Kalan village in Nawanshahr district, but he also declared his martyrdom a state holiday. He also ordered that all government offices will have his and Dalit icon BR Ambedkar’s pictures only.

And not to be left behind, Delhi chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal announced that the armed forces preparatory school coming up at Jharoda Kalan will be named after the revolutionary freedom leader.

Undoubtedly, a tough competition for both the BJP and the Congress to match the nationalistic and patriotic positioning of the new entrant on the Indian political landscape.