Opinion: Opinion | Telangana A Lab For Congress's Minority Policy

One of the that catapulted Revanth Reddy to the Chief Minister's chair in Telangana is his aggression. He does not believe in keeping it subtle when he wants to drive a point home. When he spoke about "sacrifices" by Sonia Gandhi that have enabled Christians to celebrate Christmas in Telangana, it was not so much about sycophancy as a well-thought-out political strategy.

As expected, it caught everyone's attention and sent the political mercury soaring. The BJP has called it "Olympic-level sycophancy and boot-licking" and said this was an insult to Jesus Christ and the Christian community, and mockingly suggested that the Congress may next claim the Sun rises because of the Gandhi family.

The BRS called it political theatrics and recirculated videos from when Revanth Reddy was in the Telugu Desam Party and had reportedly referred to Sonia Gandhi as "Bali Devatha" (Deity of Sacrifice), blaming her for the death of young people during the movement for a separate state.  

Examine the statement: "If people are celebrating Christmas in Telangana today, it is because of Sonia Gandhi's sacrifice." 

This was a sequel to Reddy's explosive comment just a month ago, in the run-up to a high-decibel by-poll in Jubilee Hills, when he told the Muslim electorate: "Hum hain tho aap hain" (You exist because we exist and you are nothing without the Congress). He even suggested that they were able to celebrate Islamic festivals because of the Congress government. 

Revanth Reddy did not make a random statement to appease the minority community or flatter his political boss. It is a calculated piece of a much larger, sharper game plan to break the hold of the BRS, or even the AIMIM, over the minority vote. 

By linking religious festivities and even minority "existence" with the Congress party, Reddy is moving away from the BRS model of secularism, focusing on welfare schemes like Shaadi Mubarak, and instead moving the narrative to protectionism. Under KCR, the BRS treated minorities as "beneficiaries" of welfare. It was a top-down model of financial doles. It was a patronage model.

Revanth Reddy is framing the Congress not just as a choice among `secular' parties, but as a survival shield against a rising BJP, raising the bogey that under the BJP, even the right to exist and celebrate their festivals is under threat.

Revanth Reddy is pivoting the Congress as an "aggressive protector". 
By invoking Sonia Gandhi's "sacrifice" for statehood, he is trying to communicate to the minority community that they owe some kind of a gratitude that goes beyond a payout from the treasury, positioning the Congress as the party that will ensure protection of their rights and that it is an architect of their freedom.

For years, the AIMIM has been seen as the voice of the Muslims, and undeniably held the monopoly on Muslim representation, in what can be seen as a ghetto model. With not enough strength of numbers to lead the state on its own, it often acted as a tactical ally to the BRS. Revanth Reddy is directly challenging this "outsourcing" of minority leadership. 

By bringing the Telangana model of caste census into the mix, the Congress is telling the so-called Pasmanda or backward Muslims and Christians, that they can be mainstreamed to get a share of power the "Mandal" way rather than through religious representation, which is the "Majlis" way. That was a move by then Congress Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy that was struck down by the Supreme Court.

Revanth Reddy is also moving beyond mere rhetoric. He is promising a law that will act as an anti-hate shield. 

Reddy has said this is modelled after a similar move in Karnataka, suggesting that it is the Congress that is building a legal fortress to ensure that when there are rogue comments, the state would become your bouncer, your protector.

While the BRS often avoided direct confrontation on communal issues to maintain a "neutral" image, Reddy is taking a side. He is legislating against "insults to faith", effectively making the BRS and AIMIM's rhetoric look passive in comparison.

Revanth Reddy's reference to a "Miracle Month", linking the birthday of Jesus, the birthdate of Sonia Gandhi and Telangana's birth is meant to strike an emotional chord about the political stakes the Congress had been willing to risk because it took a "principled" stance on statehood. The message is that the Congress knew it would lose out in Andhra Pradesh because of "giving" Telangana and yet it kept its promise. Similarly, it would act on behalf of minorities, without looking at political expediency.

What Revanth Reddy is betting on is that, in the coming years, to counter an aggressive Hindutva political force like the BJP, minority voters won't be satisfied merely with the "secular" credentials of any party. They would want a "warrior" party that can mainstream them. Telangana is a lab for the Congress to amplify in the rest of the country.

(Uma Sudhir is Executive Editor, NDTV)

(Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author)

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