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One of the most striking features of contemporary Indian politics is not merely the consolidation of Narendra Modi’s power and the Hindutva project, but the persistent inability of a significant section of India’s liberals and intellectuals to recognise who has consistently stood against it.

Even as the Modi government has steadily eroded democratic institutions, weakened constitutional safeguards, normalised majoritarian politics and undermined India’s secular foundations, many among the country’s self-proclaimed liberal intelligentsia continue to direct their sharpest criticism not at the architects of this transformation but at Rahul Gandhi.

This peculiar obsession says less about Rahul Gandhi and more about the intellectual and political contradictions of India’s liberal class.

For over a decade, Rahul Gandhi has been one of the very few national political leaders willing to challenge the ideological foundations of Hindutva. He has repeatedly spoken about constitutional values, minority rights, social justice, caste inequalities, institutional independence and democratic accountability. He has endured relentless media vilification, state harassment, legal persecution and personal attacks while continuing to articulate a political vision rooted in pluralism and constitutional democracy.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra and the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra were not merely political campaigns. They were perhaps the most sustained attempts by any Indian politician in recent decades to reconnect democratic politics with the concerns of ordinary citizens while directly confronting the politics of hate and polarisation.

Yet many liberals and intellectuals continue to portray him as the principal obstacle to defeating Modi. Why?

The answer lies partly in history. Since the 1970s, being anti-Congress has become almost a cultural marker within large sections of India’s intellectual circles. Opposition to the Congress was once associated with resistance to the Emergency and centralised power. Over time, however, anti-Congressism evolved........

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