A Diwali greeting by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has triggered a fresh political confrontation, after the Bharatiya Janata Party accused the opposition party of appeasement politics and called it "anti-Sanatan" over his description of the festival as an "Eid of happiness".
Mr Kharge made the remark while speaking to reporters on the occasion of Diwali on Sunday. Extending his greetings, he described Diwali as one of India's biggest festivals, saying it brings people together and gives families an opportunity to meet their loved ones. "Diwali is a festival of happiness. Diwali, khushiyon ka Eid hai," he said, adding that it was a festival celebrated over several days.
The use of the word "Eid" to describe the Hindu festival of lights drew a sharp response from the ruling party within hours. Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari took to the social media platform X to accuse the Congress of indulging in appeasement politics even during a Hindu festival. "Congress President calls Diwali 'Khushiyon Ka Eid'! Even on Diwali, Congress thinks of appeasement & vote bank! Yesterday Sonia Gandhi cried for Babri, today Mr Kharge appeases in his Diwali message! Congress is Anti-Sanatan!"
Mr Bhandari wrote.
The BJP's attack linked Mr Kharge's greeting to separate remarks by Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, made in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian ahead of the release of her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love. In that interview, Mrs Gandhi said she had cried after watching the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on television on December 6, 1992.
The BJP spokesperson presented the two statements together as evidence of what the party alleges is the Congress's approach towards religious communities, and BJP Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi also targeted the Congress leadership over Mrs Gandhi's remarks.
Mr Bhandari accused the Congress leader of indulging in appeasement politics, calling him "anti-Sanatan", a phrase that quickly became the centre of the controversy. The BJP's argument, as put by its spokesperson and other party leaders, was that the Congress had deliberately linked a Hindu festival with an Islamic one, and that the choice of words in a festive greeting was itself an act of vote-bank politics aimed at particular voter groups.
The criticism did not come only from the BJP. Vadodara MP and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha national president Hemang Joshi also took a swipe at Mr Kharge, questioning the political message behind the comparison. "Kharge-ji, you said that Diwali is an 'Eid of joy', so is Rahul Gandhi the Mir Jafar of 'New India'?" he asked, in a jibe that drew on a historical reference to the 18th-century figure whose name has become a byword for betrayal in Indian political rhetoric.
In an unusual turn, the remark also drew criticism from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a party that positions itself as a voice of Muslim interests. Its national spokesperson, Waris Pathan, said Diwali was a major festival celebrated enthusiastically by Hindus and Eid was equally important to Muslims, adding that equating the two in this manner amounted to a political stunt.
"Statements equating the two festivals are nothing more than a political stunt to appease a specific voting community," he said, arguing that the comparison served electoral ends rather than genuine harmony.
The row went viral on social media through Sunday evening, with the BJP's framing of the remark and the Congress president's original words both widely shared. The controversy added to a Diwali that had already been politically charged, with the Prime Minister celebrating the festival with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district and the opposition using the occasion to press its own arguments.
For the Congress, the episode revived an old vulnerability. The party has repeatedly faced accusations from the BJP that it practises appeasement politics, and its leaders' remarks on religious occasions are routinely scrutinised for evidence to support that charge.
Mr Kharge's greeting, intended as a warm and inclusive message on one of India's most widely celebrated festivals, was read by his critics as the opposite: a deliberate blurring of religious identities for political gain. The Congress has not publicly elaborated on the remark beyond the greeting itself, and the party's response to the BJP's attack will be watched closely.
The BJP, meanwhile, used the episode to press a broader argument about the Congress's relationship with Hindu identity, an argument it has made repeatedly in recent years. The party's spokespeople connected Mr Kharge's words to Mrs Gandhi's recollection of the Babri Masjid demolition, presenting the two as parts of a single pattern.
That linkage, and the invocation of a 34-year-old event in the context of a Diwali greeting, showed how quickly a festive remark can be absorbed into the larger and older arguments of Indian politics.
The controversy also recalled earlier Diwali flashpoints involving the Congress. In October 2024, the Congress government in Karnataka, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, restricted firecracker use to a two-hour window between 8 pm and 10 pm and directed that only green crackers be permitted during the festival.
That decision too had drawn criticism from the BJP and from those who saw it as an interference with the celebration of the festival, and it was cited in commentary on the latest row as part of a pattern of the party's unease with the festival's traditions.
The immediate trigger, however, was a single sentence in a routine greeting. Mr Kharge's words — that Diwali is a festival of happiness, an Eid of joy — were, in his own framing, an attempt to describe a festival that is celebrated across communities in India. Diwali is observed by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, and its celebration has long been presented as a shared national occasion.
The Congress president's supporters would argue that his use of "Eid", a word associated in common usage with celebration and festivity, was in that spirit.
His critics, including leaders of parties across the spectrum, took a different view. For the BJP, the remark was evidence of a party that thinks in terms of vote banks even while extending festival greetings. For the AIMIM, it was a political stunt that diminished both festivals by treating them as interchangeable.
The convergence of criticism from both the ruling party and a party that speaks for Muslim interests made the row unusual, and it ensured that the remark would not pass as a routine greeting.
As the festival weekend drew to a close, the political argument showed no sign of subsiding. The BJP's spokespeople continued to press the attack on social media, and the episode looked set to feed into the wider debate about the Congress's positioning on questions of faith, identity and community. Mr Kharge's greeting had been intended to mark a festival of light and togetherness.
Instead, it became the latest entry in a long-running argument about who speaks for India's festivals, and in what language.
(Reporting based on Deccan Herald and News18.)