First fumble, then grumble

At a conference titled, 'Securing Nehru's legacy and India's future' organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi asserted that secularism was in the DNA of the Congress. However, his party colleagues were left fumbling when intellectuals and liberals questioned the "defensive politics" practised by the party and urged it to shed its "defensive attitude on secularism". Shabnam Hashmi, sister of slain activist Safdar Hashmi and founder of Sahmat, said, "It has become a habit to play defensive politics - why be defensive?" Political scientist Zoya Hasan said the social and political space that the Hindu right had "seized" upon was created by the "retreat of secularism during the Congress rule". Caught on the wrong foot, Gandhi said, "Congress is forced to deal with the equation of power and that changes many many things."